Doll Quilts

"Sewing was an essential task for women in the 19th Century. Little girls were taught their first sewing skills at the age of three, and many of the initial sewing projects were doll quilts. The child was able to choose her fabrics from the scrap bag, measure and cut the pieces for a simple quilt block, and hand sew with small and regular stitches. This "practice" was made more enjoyable by the prospect of having a cover for a beloved doll.

During the pioneer era, quilting was popular due to the expanding textile industry and the availability of inexpensive fabric. Quilts were needed for the westward journey and would adorn beds once the pioneers were settled. Young girls brought their treasured dolls for the journey while the women packed quilts made by friends and family as going away gifts."

http://www.quiltingboard.com/resources/article-15.html

Under this above link you'll find more interesting information on Doll Quilts, the article is called "The History of Doll Quilts in America" and is one of the rare really nicely written articles upon Doll Quilts… rare, because we all think it's clear what that is… and essentially it is true, yes, but there is more to say on this subject because Doll Quilts reveal so much about the role of a child in a household over the centuries, and also about the history of quilts in general.

I love Doll Quilts, very much so. I think they give a cozy bright light to a room, when they are seen with the eyes of an adult, and a cozy warm feeling to your family of teddies and dolls, when they are seen with the eyes of a child.

I started to make a few, some I keep here, some I offer on Etsy:
hhtp://etsy.com/shop/lupinequilts

Put variety in white.

Charles Hawthorne

www.art-quotes.com

Etsy

This is the symbol of my newly opened shop at Etsy.

I started with some bookmarks,

and added some Folk-Art-Miniquilts.

You are very welcome to browse!

http://etsy.com/shop/lupinequilts

As is described under "Philosophy of My Work" at the right hand side here, all other quilts or quilted objects shown on this blog, which are not on Etsy, are made and given away (if available) against a donation to worthy persons or organizations.

How much I love my work!! :-)

Center Point

Every beloved object is the center point of a paradise.

Novalis

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/center.html

This is a painting I once made. 

Maybe someday I will make a quilt after it!

Looking Upward

I try to avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward.

Charlotte Bronte

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/upward.html

Ginkgo: A Tree That Time Forgot

… something I did recently.

"Ginkgo is now the most widely recognised of all botanical “living fossils”: a tree that time forgot and an increasingly familiar living link to landscapes of the distant past."

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/21ffa6f0-b1b6-11e2-9315-00144feabdc0.html

a Malva and a pattern called "Sunburst"

Broken and Reassembled

"zerbrochen und neu zusammen gesetzt",

"Broken and Reassembled",

wallhanging,

79 x 49 cm, 

31"x 19",

sewn by hand and machine,

hand quilted

I can only say that I could never have planned it to come out that way, it just so happened that I had to follow several turnings and yes, the whole process of doing that involved a lot of measuring and assembling tiny pieces over long hours of work, and then, most importantly, something I never did before, 

finally cutting a nearly finished handmade top into several pieces again, which was a spontaneous decision and done in minutes.

In order to sew these strips together in a new way then I had to use the machine quickly or all my handmade seams would have come loose and the pieces would have been scattered around on table and floor.

It was quite an adventure and I feel the outcome is not a smooth but an interesting one, and it somehow looks right to me now.

Funny Houses

I guess when you turn off the main road, you have to be prepared to see some 

funny houses.

Steven King

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/houses.html

well, these "funny houses" can be used as bookmarks, that's what I do, but they can also be hung up, and they can hold little items like notes, too, because they each have a small pocket at the back…

The book shown here is a very lovely one:

"Forgotten Bookmarks-

A Bookseller's Collection of Odd Things Lost between the Pages"

by Michael Popek

Home

Recently I came across a very nice article in the New York Times.

It was written by Walter Mosley, the title was:

"Patter and Patois".

He writes about the "Literary Landscape" of Louisiana, where his family comes from.

What I like most:

I found in his lines a definition of the idea of "home",

and these are my own words but I used some of his:

A home holds my history, waits for my return, remembers my stories and there is a road that brings me back again and again.

Here is the article in full:  

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/books/review/walter-mosley-on-louisiana-literature.html

(Not) Forgotten Bookmarks

Bookmarks - how much I like them, in all variations, I love to make them and I like to use them and I like to find one in a rare or used book…

and here is something very lovely:

a site on which a used and rare bookseller shows us all the "personal, funny, heartbreaking and weird things" he finds in all the books he deals with!!

What a collection of findings!!

Yes, there are "real" bookmarks, but also receipts, letters, photographs, inscriptions and tags and the list 

goes on and on! 

Very very touching.

There are so many stories woven around one single book!!

Even more so if it is a rare and used book!

There is even a book about these findings,

and his site is here:

http://www.forgottenbookmarks.com

This is my complete set of bookmarks I've done so far, 

I keep on doing those in all kinds of variations 

because I like so much the combination of a book and an individual item 

that accompanies the reader on his or her journey through the story.

Macarons

Macarons! Hmmm! A French sweet confection:

two almond meringue discs with a lovely filling (jam, buttercream, spices…),

and they come in all kinds of nice colors…

well, and there are Macaron purses!

They have just this circular form, are small, 

and have nice innards, too…

They can be used as key tags, they can hold coins, 

they also keep sweet little somethings like rings or a bracelet or whatever small item one wishes to hold dear: the zipper keeps it safe.

There is a very helpful tutorial on how to make a Macaron purse here:

http://gkkreativ.blogspot.de/2014/07/macaron-taeschchen.html

Mine are made a bit differently:

My tops on both sides are little round quilts, with three layers, the batting being a fluffy piece of fleece, with quilting stitches for decoration and stabilizing.

The inner pieces are made with plain pieces of fabric, 

and are also filled with the same fleece.

I love to use these lovely traditional quilt patterns for the tops, thus there are endless possibilities to create different, individual purses which carry all the charm quilts naturally have.

Also, the two sides of one purse show the same pattern, but I arrange the pieces in a slightly different way.

My Macaron purses are 6 cm  (2 3/8") in diameter, 

and handmade.

With the attached hanging loop, 

a Macaron purse can be hung up also.

Summer Days

We are in for a couple of really hot days here - perfect time for washing a few quilts! I love to dry them outside then, in the shade, since protection from sunlight is a good idea in order to keep the colors from fading. 
Since mine are all handmade I wash them very carefully, and they take it very well. I love how they smell when I collect them in the evening!
I talk about how I wash my quilts in detail in a column at the right hand side here: "How To Take Care Of A Quilt (storing / airing / washing)"

Happy Summer!

"In summer, the song sings itself."

William Carlos Williams

http://www.quotegarden.com/summer.html

Miss Patchwork, Miss Scraps Patches, Scraps

That's what "The Patchwork Girl of Oz" is called by her companions and friends. FINALLY I received a copy of this lovely book, written by L.Frank Baum in 1913. L. Frank Baum is also the author of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", which is a lot more famous and a gorgeous story. But I LOVE "The Patchwork Girl of Oz" even better, not only because it has to do with a patchwork quilt, which became alive because the Crooked Magician sprinkled some Powder of Life over a doll, which was made of this quilt, and the Munchkin boy Ojo the Unlucky gave her lots of brain grains, so she is very clever and amiable and courageous and has a love for poetry and she is a great friend for Ojo, who sets out on a journey to find some very rare ingredients to make a concoction, so that his Uncle and the Magician's wife (who wanted to make a slave and servant out of Scraps) can be released as they had been turned into marble statues by accident… ah, what a colorful story! I don't think it's a story just for kids alone, as there are so wonderful conversations in this book which reveal so much wisdom that also adults not only have lots of fun on their journey through this land of Oz, but will receive many a nice lesson on the way. For example I love these sentences: 

The Shaggy Man says to Scraps:

"You're a regular comforter and as sweet as patchwork can be. All you lack is dignity."

"I hate dignity," cried Scraps, kicking a pebble high in the air and then trying to catch it as it fell. "Half of the fools and all the wise folks are dignified, and I'm neither the one nor the other."

"She's just crazy," explained the Glass Cat.

The Shaggy Man laughed.

"She's delightful, in her way," he said.

…

"I hope your friends are not dignified," observed Scraps.

"Some are, and some are not," he answered; "but I never criticise my friends. If they are really true friends, they may be anything they like, for all of me."

"There's some sense in that," said Scraps, nodding her queer head in approval.

So I thought it was time to make someone, who is just a bit like Scraps in this story, not dignified but delightful, a true friend, cheerful, someone who secretly wants to be put into shape by Ojo, when she meets the very attractive Scarecrow…  

… Scraps turned to Ojo and whispered: "Roll me out, please; I've sagged down dreadfully from walking so much and men like to see a stately figure."

She then fell upon the ground and the boy rolled her back and forth like a rolling-pin, until the cotton had filled all the spaces in her patchwork covering and the body had lengthened to its fullest extent.

… and who says:

"…But I'm glad - I'm awfully glad!- that I'm just what I am, and nothing else."

She is entirely made by hand, stuffed with cotton fabrics and woolen patches, from head to toe she stands 58 cm/ 23" high, and with her outstretched arms she is 43 cm/17" wide. Her dress is knitted by hand, her hair is made with woolen yarn, and some leather bands indicate that there are some scrappy shoes.

Ah, and what then?

What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed? And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven and plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awoke, 

you had the flower in your hand? 

Ah, and what then?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

http://www.quotes.net/serp.php?st=flower+pot&p=5

(the picture shows a wallhanging, all cotton, three thin layers, 

appliquéd / pieced / quilted by hand, 

28 x 36 cm, 11" x 14", 

the text is written on a piece of cotton and fixed at the back)

"Oma's Quilt"

… this is just everything that can be said about a quilt which is made by dear persons:
it brightens up your room and helps you to feel "at home", no matter where you are. 
"Oma's Quilt" is a very lovely story, showing the very essence of quilting and quilts, enjoy!

http://www.nfb.ca/film/omas_quilt/#temp-share-panel

It's been proven by quite a few studies that plants are good for psychological development. If you green an area, the rate of crime goes down. Torture victims begin to recover when they spend time outside in a garden with flowers. So we need them, in some deep psychological sense, which I don't suppose anybody really understands yet.

Jane Goodall  

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/garden.html

Building..

… "Building Bridges" was the lovely motto of the European Song Contest yesterday. It was quite something, I especially liked the opening video "Building Bridges", made by people like you and me from all over the world, VERY nice:

http://songcontest.orf.at/videos/stories/2712576/

… and if anyone is interested: the song from Italy was my absolute favourite, that is really as much ITALY as anyone can imagine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TOMqZV2jA8

And I - by chance - started to sew something yesterday which shows something like …bridges!? :-) (…it's a Double Wedding Ring pattern, with a slight variation)

Log Cabin and Virginia Reel Bookmarks Added

Since I'm really fond of traditional quilt patterns (and books, and reading), I added two more types of bookmarks to my set of various quilted hand sewn bookmarks which I had made and given away over the last eleven years now.

One new type is made with the Log Cabin pattern, which - some say - is around 200 years old. It's a pattern for a square originally, and I tried to make a variation so that it could be used for a slender rectangle bookmark form. I especially like the idea to use a bright red or yellow piece for the center to suggest that there is a light on in the log cabin, which - even from far away-  always shows you the way home…Lovely idea.

Here is a very interesting read:

http://www.womenfolk.com/quilt_pattern_history/logcabin.htm

The other one is an adaptation of a pattern called "Virginia Reel", which is named after an old Scottish Folk Dance from the 17th century (which then became an English and Irish and American Folk Dance, too). This quilt pattern is not that old, however, most sources say it's from about 1935 or so, and it's also called "Snail's Trail" or "Monkey Wrench". I like "Virginia Reel" best though, you can really imagine a dance going on here with two partners, and then others are joining in, going round and round… 

I like that.

Here is a short explanation of how to use this pattern:

http://www.quilt-around-the-world.com/en/content/virginia-reel

The book shown here is: The Quilter's Apprentice, by Jennifer Chiaverini, 1999, a very lovely book.

… and this is my collection of bookmark types right now: