My New Hobby

Uh-oh. I've got a new addiction and it isn't pretty. Well it is pretty literally, but figuratively???

I've always wondered at those people who could make quilts out of one pattern piece. Dullsville.

But as I say: "Uh-Oh."

I started to make a pincushion. Download the free pattern here:
http://www.unitednotions.com/fp_prairie-flower-pincushion.pdf



I had a charm pack of my reproduction prints from The Morris Workshop from Moda. Each 5" square was cut into quarters so I had four squares of each print 2-1/2" x 2-1/2".

I didn't use their machine method but used a glue stick to lightly glue a template behind each square. Then I folded the edges over to make a hexagon and whip-stitched them together by hand.

When I got the first ring done I was hooked.

I wondered how many rings I could get out of a charm pack.

Very soon I forgot about the Prairie Flower pincushion and started thinking medallion.

Center of an early 19th century medallion quilt from the Winterthur Museum

Reproduction of a 19th-century medallion by Bertha Stenge 1945

A soldier's quilt of wools

I needed one more light print so I got one from the first Morris reproduction line A Morris Garden.

Now I have to go out in the sleet/snow wintery mix and get more hexagon paper templates.
 
Once you get an outside row stitched you can take out the templates in the inside row. I can reuse them 2 or 3 times but now I need more. Way more.
 
Stay tuned. It could get bad.
 
 

Albert Small's hexagon mosaic quilt with the most pieces in the world, 1945

See more about Albert Small and his hexagon addiction by clicking here:

http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/behind/htmls/cr_bas_smhist.html  

And find more inspiration by clicking to see these museum quilts:

Metropolitan Museum of Art:

http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/european_sculpture_and_decorative_arts/quilt/objectview.aspx?OID=120047631&collID=12&dd1=12  

International Quilt Study Center and Museum
http://www.quiltstudy.org/includes/photos/quilt_database/large/2006_035_0001.jpg

Morris Workshop Designers

8143- Peony- Kate Faulkner-1877

The Morris Workshop reproduction collection for Moda reproduces prints designed by three artists who worked in the Morris workshops in 19th-century London. The major designer was William Morris, the leader of the Arts and Crafts movement. One print is from the hand of Kate Faulkner who began designing for the firm in its first incarnation as Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company. The Faulkner in the title was her brother Charles, the bookkeeper.

Two were by Morris's major design partner John Henry Dearle (1860-1932), who began as an assistant when he was a boy and took over the firm's art direction after Morris's death in 1896. I had originally intended for the designer's name, the design name and date to be printed on the selvage of each piece but we ran out of room. Here are photos of the two in the collection that Dearle designed.

8146 Iris –John Henry Dearle - 1887

8148 Cherwell – John Henry Dearle – 1887

Dearle did many tapestries and carpets. To see one of his collaborations with Morris in the Victoria and Albert Museum click here:
http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1312_artsandcrafts/explore/object_search/object.php?objectid=1

Below is a design for the pattern that Moda University is selling for The Morris Workshop. Ask your shopowner for the project sheet. Moda artist Susan Stiff designed this variation on an offset Log Cabin design with the blue colorway of Dearle's Cherwell for the border.

The border inspired me to do a little digital cutting and pasting and I came up with a minimalist quilt using lots of Cherwell in a square-in-a-square block. I may get around to making it. It wouldn't take long.