In Praise of Jane Austen: An Album Quilt

Nearly a year ago, this stunning quilt made its journey from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Baltimore, Maryland. Mildred Tahara, who placed every stitch into this quilt, generously donated the quilt to the Baltimore Appliqué Society (BAS), with one request: that it be used as a model for teaching. The quilt, In Praise of Jane Austen, tells quite a story. I (Teri) asked Mildred if I could share the story of her quilt with you. Her narrative follows, in italics:

I began to think of a Jane Austen quilt around the years I was following Downton Abbey seasons on Masterpiece theater on PBS. Pat Bauer of California, a hand quilter in Elly Sienkiewicz’s Empty Spools class at Asilomar, in Pacific Grove, California, was very fond of the Jane Austen novels. Chatting with her in the evening while appliquéing and reviewing what was taught in Elly’s class, we would discuss Jane Austen’s novels. I ended up taking several years of Elly’s week-long classes with Pat, during which time I read the delightful and thought-provoking Austen novels, set in England during a period of horse-drawn carriages and charming country houses. In my mind, I contrasted the Downton Abbey years—the first quarter of the 20th century of WWI, trains, the earliest automobiles, silent films—that was being recreated on TV—with the years a hundred years earlier of horse-drawn carriages and relatively quiet domestic life, described in the Austen novels. My Downton Abbey quilt was completed a few years later.

I was deeply interested in Crazy Quilts, having read that these quilts were inspired in part by the Japanese art works on display at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. I asked Elly how I could use Crazy Quilting in Baltimores. One suggestion she made was for me to consider using them as cornerstones when I worked on wide borders. What a perfect solution! I was absolutely thrilled. I could embellish and embroider to my heart’s content while working on these colorful squares. I have used Crazy Quilt cornerstones in several of my large Baltimore quilts. You see them in the Jane Austen quilt, and the suggestion was first made by Elly, a truly inspiring and encouraging instructor. I also began to embellish the appliqué in my album blocks with embroidery, ribbon flowers, and beads. All this was at once challenging and great fun!

I think that most of us who work with our hands in fashioning an album block or in planning a quilt find our minds wandering while we ply our needle. I came to quilting around the time I turned 60. Much of my thoughts go back through all the years I’ve lived, the books and poetry I’ve read, the music I so enjoy listening to, memorable movies I have seen, the magnificent works of art I’ve enjoyed in art museums, etc.

While working on the Jane Austen quilt, I reviewed the Austen novels, thought of the memorable scenes in movie versions of the novels, and decided that all I needed in six blocks were the names of the two, who after many trials and tribulations, marry at the end of a long, complicated courtship. If you had read and enjoyed Persuasion as I did, you would recall the pain Anne Elliott experienced throughout the novel before Captain Wentworth finally proposes to her. Remembered are scenes taking place in Lyme and Bath.

Persuasion (1817)— Anne Elliott to marry Wentworth

I could have selected just one Jane Austen novel instead and have in the album blocks inscriptions about favorite scenes and episodes in a single novel. I chose instead to cover all six complete novels by Jane Austen.

Sense and Sensibility (1811)—Elinor Dashwood to marry Edward Ferrars

Pride and Prejudice (1813)—Lizzie Bennet to marry Mr. Darcy (Fitzwilliam Darcy)

Mansfield Park (1814)—Fanny Price to marry Edmund Bertram 

Emma (1815)—Emma Woodhouse to marry Mr. Knightley

Northanger Abbey (1817)—Catherine Morland to marry Henry Tilney

Only Yesterday, by Mildred Machiko Tahara of Honolulu, Hawaii; a Baltimore Album Quilt inspired by the characters and memorable scenes in "Downton Abbey," set in North England during the first quarter of the twentieth century. The hand appliqué in the nine blocks is lavishly embellished with embroidery and beadwork.  

Mildred sent the photo above of her "Downton Abbey" quilt, Only Yesterday. As she mentioned, she worked on these quilts at about the same time and reflected on the two time periods, a hundred years apart. If you are interested to learn more about the world during the time Austen wrote her books, click here to read Pride and Prejudice and the Regency World. You might also be interesting in seeing a quilt thought to have been made by the Austen women, in Barbara Brackman's post, The Austen Quilt.

The BAS is honored to receive this lovely gift from Mildred. In fact, in June, we held a tea to celebrate her beautiful work and learn more about her and her quilt. I loved studying Mildred's  embellishment techniques in her quilt, and I am privileged to teach the workshops sponsored by the BAS on these ribbon and embroidery skills. The first workshop will be held this month, when we will begin to stitch the Flower Basket, the center medallion In Praise of Jane Austen. Elly Sienkiewicz has kindly given us permission to use her patterns for the workshops, inspiring us as she inspired Mildred. 

Velvet leaves, ribbon-stitched stems, folded rosebuds, ultrasuede acorns and calyxes

Ribbon ferns, beaded ribbon trumpet flowers

Gathered wired-ribbon flowers with beaded centers

I have been working diligently to finish my version of the block, which I will share when I've finished. You may have seen glimpses of parts of it on our Instagram or Facebook pages. It will be exciting to see our Flower Baskets come to life!

Many thanks to Mildred Tahara, both for sharing her gifts of lavish stitchery through donating her quilt to BAS as a teaching tool, and for telling us the story behind her quilts. I love how she was thinking about the history and cultures of each era as she stitched. Stitching can be such a calming time for thoughtful reflection.

What about you? What do you think about when you are stitching?

BOM Block 3: Fly Agaric

Thank you for your interest in our Flora and Fauna blocks! They are no longer free but will be part of a future quilt pattern.

Welcome to Block 3 of our free Block of the Month Stitch-Along! This month's block is the Amanita muscara or the fly agaric. It is definitely one of the most iconic mushroom varieties out there; it even has it's own emoji!🍄  I really wanted to see one of these on our walks so that I could take a picture of it and turn it into a block for the Stitch-Along. One parameter that I set for this series was that each block would always be designed based on something I had seen here in Germany on my walks with the dogs. Having a real picture side by side with the block was part of the plan for each blog post. 

I see a lot of different mushrooms and toadstools on my meanderings with the furry beasts, but I had not come across this particular one on our local trails. My eyes were always scanning the woods for a sighting, but to no avail. On one of my walks, I did spot this cute little guy, but he wasn't the classic red and white spotted mushroom of storybooks.

This mushroom was almost hidden by the moss.

At my local guild meeting, I was sharing my mushroom issues and received all sorts of advice as to where to find them—most of those places were quite a distance away. I despaired of seeing any this year, as many told me it was late in the season for them, but one of the ladies from the guild heard my plea and took this lovely picture for me. 

What good eyes to have seen this one!

Hooray! I may not have taken the picture but the point was to use a picture of the mushroom taken here in Germany. I was thrilled to be able to offer this as our next block, but before I prepared the design, my husband and I took a trip to the Black Forest. We took the pups with us on our hike, and then planned to have a slice of Black Forest cake as our reward for our exercise. While we were walking, I looked down...and there were the mushrooms I had been seeking! Right there in all their red and white glory. The dogs didn't understand my excitement, but my husband did, since for the last month, I had been talking about finding them. On to designing the block, with plenty of pictures now for inspiration.

In the bright sun, these almost looked metallic!

Cotton Block

Finding just the right fabric for the cotton block was going to be a bit of a challenge, or so I thought. I selected three good possibilities, but I thought there was just enough of a red section in the sunset fabric to fit the pattern, so I decided to go with it.

Doesn't seem like it would work?

All good options.

Another challenge I faced was how to get the cream colored stem to stand out on a light background. I chose a piece of ombré cream ribbon for the stem as it had a different sheen than cotton, however it still blended in a bit too much. Thinking it needed a some more shading, I got out my oil pastels, and with a piece of muslin, lightly shaded one side of the ribbon.

I gently wiped the cloth onto the ribbon until I had just enough.

Did the sunset fabric piece work? It sure did, and I was really pleased with the way the colors gave the mushroom top some depth. Even with the pastels, the stem needed to stand out a bit more, so I used one strand of light tan floss to stem stitch around the stem (no pun intended!)

The sunset fabric was perfect for this!

Then it was time for the copious amount of French knots. I used The Gentle Art Simply Shaker Wool, in Toasted Marshmallow, for the knots. The white spots from the real mushroom are scattered haphazardly and vary in size, so I tried to do the same. Some of the knots have two wraps and some have three, and I also varied the tension of the wraps to change the shape up a bit.

So many knots!

A little greenery using three rows of stem stitches

The finished mushroom.

Stitches and Threads used (cotton block)

Cream wool, The Gentle Art Simply Shaker Toasted Marshmallow for French knots on mushroom cap

Tan floss, 1 strand Weeks Driftwood for stem stitch around stem

Green #12 pearl, Valdani O560

Wool Block

On to the wool block we go! I really only had one choice of wool in my stash for the cap, so that made choosing a color easy. My freezer paper didn't make the move so I finally restored my supply, as it is my go-to method for cutting out wool appliqué patterns. I like to glue my pattern pieces to freezer paper, cut them out, and iron them onto my wool for cutting out the appliqué pieces. I could probably run the freezer paper through my printer but I save some paper this way as I can use scraps.

Ironed onto the wool.

Pattern pieces ready to cut out.

Cut out and ready to be placed on the background.

The cream wool for the stem showed up a little better on the linen background, but I wanted it to give it a little more depth. A little shading, again with the pastel, did the trick.

Just a little color on the edge helps.

Padding the cap with a little batting, cut slightly smaller than the wool, added some dimension.

I cut the batting the same size as the wool, and then trimmed it smaller.

I stapled the pieces down and proceeded to sew around them using one strand of Weeks Parchment for the stem and one strand of Weeks Red Rocks for the cap. Matching sewing thread would work as well.

The stem sewn in place

And once again it was knot time. For the knots on the wool, I decided to use floss instead of wool thread to add another texture, so I used two strands of the Weeks Parchment for knots. Again, I varied the size of each knot by tension and wraps; sometimes two wraps, sometimes three. As I finished each knot, I made sure not to yank too tightly as I brought my thread to the back, in order not to compress the batting with all those knots.

The finished wool block

Again, I used a light, tan thread (Weeks Driftwood)
around the stem to highlight it. 

Stitches and Threads used (wool block)

Tan floss, 1 strand Weeks Driftwood for stem stitch around stem

Cream floss, 2 strands Weeks Parchment for French knots on mushroom cap.

Green #12 pearl, Valdani O560

This block will definitely be one of my favorites since finding the mushrooms to take their picture was such a challenge. A friend of mine mentioned that I might be obsessing over a mushroom that isn't even edible, but it was worth the hunt. Hopefully, you will enjoy stitching this woodland gem that led me on such a chase. If you have made either of the two previous blocks we'd love to see pictures!

Introducing "In the Garden," A BOM Series: Cornflowers

For some time now, Kara and I (Teri) have wanted to design a Block of the Month series. We discussed a number of different themes, but we finally settled on a garden. Before Kara left for Germany, we mapped out our plan, and worked with Kathy Makers of Primitive Homespuns Wool & Needleworks to select our palette of wools for the project. We love to mix different materials, so we will be combining wool, a variety of threads, ribbon, and even some beads. The blocks will vary in size, and ultimately, we plan to create a quilt out of the blocks. But you might wish to used the blocks independently in some other way—your creativity should know no bounds!

I will be introducing a new pattern each month in a class I'll teach at Kathy's shop in Frederick, Maryland. After the class, I will blog about it, and the pattern will be released on our website, needleseyestories.com. Any ribbon needed to complete the block will be included with the pattern. Of course, if you want to source your own ribbon, you can simply purchase the digital version of the pattern. If you are interested in purchasing wool and thread kits, you can do so through the Primitive Homespuns website, linked above.

The first block: Cornflowers (or Bachelor Buttons)

The Cornflowers class was held this past Sunday. Our first step was to appliqué down the wool unit for the leaves. Most of us did the leaves as one whole unit and used the embroidery to delineate the separate leaves. A couple people cut the leaves into separate units and appliquéd them down. Either method worked just fine. We worked on outlining the leaves with a stem stitch using Valdani pearl cotton, stitching fairly densely.

We all enjoyed making the bias silk cornflower blooms. The flowers are made with 1.5-inch Hanah bias silk ribbon, which is frayed, folded and gathered. 

Here is a brief tutorial for how to make these flowers. You will need to make two flowers.

Cut a 9-inch piece of ribbon. Fray the edges of both sides
of the ribbon with your thumbnail and index finger.

Fold the ribbon in half lengthwise. We didn't press it,
but a few ladies in class said that they would, because the silk is slippery.

Bring the two ends together. Starting at the fringy edge, backstitch
the two ends of the ribbon together with matching or neutral thread.
You should now have a loop.

Open the loop and take running stitches along the folded edge until you
get back to where you started. Your stitches need not be tiny;
ours were anywhere between an eighth and a quarter inch. 

Don't knot off the thread yet!

Pull the thread gently to gather and take two small backstitches
in the folds to secure the gathers.

The budding bloom on the right of the block is made the same way, with two exceptions. You start with a 4.5-inch piece of ribbon, and rather than opening the loop, you just stitch straight across through all the layers on the fold and gather. We started the class with a fun technique—what is more fun than the magic of turning a piece of ribbon into a beautiful flower? We set our blooms aside to create stems.

Our next task was to tackle the Hungarian Braided Chain stitch, used for the stems. I love this stitch, but it can take a while to feel comfortable with it. Some of us were wishing we had saved the ribbon fraying for after this stitch, so we could fray our stress out! We all agreed that we would master that stitch, but maybe not in one day. ☺

When I do this stitch, I am reminded of French braiding my daughter's hair. I would get the parts of the braid in place and then tug to secure it. As I stitch, I can almost hear her squealing. (Believe it or not, my adult daughter loves braiding her hair now; she might be gentler on herself than I was.) 

Here are a few photos of my method to help you out. For a really wonderful tutorial, check out Mary Corbet's video by clicking here. (And please don't compare my method with hers!)

1)  Start by making a lazy daisy stitch. Bring your needle up to the front a stitch-length away from the bottom of the lazy daisy.  Carefully take the needle through the tack stitch on the opposite side of the stitch.

2)  Pull the thread through the tack stitch, but do not pull tightly, yet. Take the needle to the back of the work precisely where the thread came to the front. Bring the needle back to the front a stitch-length below.

3)  Using the eye of the needle, so you won't pierce other threads, take your working thread under the stitch in the
middle of the loose stitch.  So your needle is over the outside stitch and under the previous stitch in the middle.
Keep the needle in place for the time being.

4)  This is where I give the working thread beneath a little tug. (Imagine a squealing little girl.)
Pull the needle through, eye first, but don't pull the thread tautly yet.
Repeat steps 2 through 4 until you have created the length of stem you desire. 

Because I was using size 12 pearl, I decided that the taller stems were too skinny for the big flowers, so I stitched another row right next to the first. It gave the stems a cool texture. But of course, you could always swap out a size 5 or 8 pearl if you wished. Or, as always, you might just want to sub in a totally different stitch! And that's okay.

To create the buds, I first appliquéd a piece of green wool in the shape of my bud. This gives the bud dimension, and it insures that if any color shines through the stitches, it is not the cream of my background. I used a periwinkle satin stitch to cover the point, and then I created random, overlapping fly stitches, shaped like a V, pointing to the tip of the bud—first in purple, and then green at the bottom. 

Now we just need to place our flowers and work the centers. To stitch the blooms in place, take some tack stitches into the folds of the blooms. I only stitched in the center, so that the petals would still move freely—like they're blowin' in the wind. In the center, I stitched French knots, using periwinkle floss with three wraps. I surrounded the center with a circle of purple French knots. Finally, I used black floss to make pistil stitches, radiating from the center, adding a bead to the knot. The beads, of course,  are optional. 

We are having a great time designing this quilt, and would love to have you join us! We have twelve garden-themed blocks coming, and ultimately, a border and plan for assembling them. Won't it be fun to garden all year long? We would love to have you join us—In the Garden!