Saturday, November 13, 2010

Vintage Quilts from Houston

There are so many great vendors of antique quilts at the International Quilt Association Festival in Houston. And they let you take pictures, too!

I love the graphic quality of these humble old crazy quilts...

Isn't this so great?

That black diamond shape looks a little familiar...this got me thinking about finishing up that Vintage CQ of mine.

But how about this for a cool shaped block?

I'd really like to make this one day.

A quilt like this next one inspired a modern quiltmaker you may have heard of...

Love it, love it, love it!

Here's a detail. Look how the quiltmaker buttonholed the edge of the quilt, too...

This is a detail from one of Kaffe Fassett's quilts that was part of his special exhibit in Houston this year. It looks like he simplified the piecing quite a bit from the antique one. In fact, I think these are strips made of diamond and triangle shapes, with those little black fans appliqued on after the fact. So there really aren't any "Y" seams here, it just looks like it.
But this is just a guess...or at least how I might do it.

Can't get enough of these fans...

There are never enough variations on a fan!

And never enough ways to stitch on a quilt, either.

This quiltmaker sure loved embroidery.

Pretty darn nice....

Ms. H. E. Merrill--there's her name!--snuck in some velvet applique while she was at it, too.

With lots of quilting of course.

These quilts are so inspiring....it was a treat to get to see them.




12 comments :

flavia said...

bello quello con i "diamonds" e l'interpretazione di Kaffe Fasset!!! originale e insolito blocco!!! grazie per averlo pubblicato

Elizabeth said...

Amazing work!! That blocks and fan quilt is to die for!!!!!Thank you so much for sharing with us!!!!

Gerry Krueger said...

Makes you proud to be a woman and what a heritage to live up to....Gerry K.

Debra Dixon said...

and Kudos to the gal holding up the quilts so you could take all these fine pictures! *wink*

Let's do a fan in the diamonds challenge!

allie aller said...

Yes, Debra, I couldn't have done it without you, and it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun, either!

Suzanne said...

Great quilts...thank you for sharing with us!

Possibilities, Etc. said...

FABULOUS!! Thanks again for sharing. I love the vintange fans. Kaffe Fasset is amazing - He started with knitting, then needlepoint, and now the quilts.

shirley said...

The amount of hours spent stitching these wonderful creations is mindboggling. The work in these quilts is stunning what a wonderful heritage to preserve.

Susan Elliott said...

ooooohhhh~~

love those circles too! Actually, it's great to get a view of all of them. Thanks Allie!

Barbara C said...

How gorgeous! Each quilt is so beautiful and unique. I can't decide which I like the most.

Shelina said...

I've enjoyed all your posts about the show. Such gorgeous quilts. Thank you for sharing them.

FredaB said...

I noticed that Kaffe Fasset did no embroidery on his fans - at least not that I could see.

How much prettier with just a touch of featherstitching or some other light embroidery.

thanks for the pics Allie.

The original blocks and fan quilt is just gorgeous. Would love to see what you and Debra would come up with.

Hugs

FredaB