So this is my second quilt book, it's a sampler again, this time showing some examples of appliqué techniques with different cultural and historical backgrounds.
My first quilt book was a small collection of some patchwork examples from different areas and eras.
The general idea behind these books is basically to "talk about" and thereby to celebrate and to bring together different traditions, coming from very different sources, and to create a feeling of belonging to them all, as we somehow are a part of them, regardless of the time or the place where we find ourselves right now.
Like all quilts do, these books ultimately talk about
The first page shows a flower appliqué, done with hidden stitches, which is reminiscent of the lovely motifs of the "Baltimore Album" quilts, popular in North-America during the 1840s/1850s.
The second page shows a Folk Art motif.
"Folk Art Quilts -
As Americans moved westward, women used the medium of the quilt to make pictures of the world around them or the world they left behind."
(The Quilt Encyclopedia Illustrated, by Carter Houck, Museum of American Folk Art, 1991)
Here I used hidden stitches as well as the blanket stitch and added some embroidery.
I found the pattern here:
Better Homes and Gardens: 501 Quilt Blocks
This fish on the third page is done with the multiple reverse appliqué technique used by the Indians of Panama; such a piece of work is called "Mola" and shows some additional embroidery also.
On the fourth page I tried to capture the lovely geometrical symmetries the Vietnamese Hmong people use in their typical way to make reverse appliqués in bright colors, and, as you can see, I hadn't been able to be perfectly exact here. (I made peace with the fact that I never am able to work perfectly exact, and very often I don't even try it. I think there is some charm in the unevenness of things, but here… some more symmetry would have been just fine.)
Ahh, I so much love how the Hawaiians do their quilts, this is just a modest attempt to go in that direction. A top layer is cut into one symmetrical form and then sewn onto the background fabric by way of needle turn appliqué. Then the quilting stitches go in waves around the appliquéd form.
And the back cover of my book is a combination of patchwork and appliqué:
the flower is pieced together first, after a traditional clamshell pattern, and it's complete in itself, batting, backing and quilting stitches included. Then this flower-form is appliquéd with hidden stitches and some quilting is added.
In both books the pages are batted with quite a thick cotton fleece, so that the books can stand upright on a shelf:
If you are interested, here is more information
- on my first book about patchwork techniques, showing also five examples:
It is also mentioned in the magazine "Patchwork Professional" (German), 02/2015, on pages 52 and 53.
- on Baltimore Album quilts:
- on Folk Art Quilts:
- something I've written earlier here about Molas:
- on Hmong applique:
- something I've written earlier about Hawaiian appliqué:
