Depression Era Dresden Plate Quilt Top

I found a Depression Era Dresden Plate quilt top at the Royal Oak Flea Market. The seller said,
"Today only, $20." I happened to have $20. So it came home with me!

The 84" x 83" top is hand appliquéd and hand embroidered. The Dresden Plate fabrics look pristine; they were bought new and show no fading or wear. They may be machine pieced as I can not see any hand stitching. The muslin has some yellowing, but it is a good weight and not thin and the thread count is good. The corners of the plate blocks have a lavender appliquéd piece that makes an interesting secondary design.

I discovered that my friend Theresa was also at the flea market and bought a Hexie quilt!

Next door to where I bought my quilt top a lady had two kit quilts on display. She said she had lost the paper with who made the floral bouquet quilt but believed it was dated to 1949.

She had this crib kit quilt which I have seen before. It was for sale for $95. She thought it was from the 1950s.

Quilts were being used as table toppers.

 I liked this two color star quilt because I rarely see a brown and white quilt.

A Hexie Workshop with Mary Clark

Mary Clark's Class Sample

This past weekend I took a workshop with Mary Clark on a new way to make Hexies. Mary spoke to the CAMEO quilt guild last week. Her quilts are amazing! This past year she was a guest teacher at the Sauder Farm Quilt Show. Her first appliqué quilt won best of show at Sauder Farm! Mary's quilts have appeared in books and she has taught in the Toledo/Michigan area for many years. She was a wonderful teacher. She was methodical and precise in her descriptions and demos. Not every great quilter is a great teacher. Mary is both!

Mary's samples of hexagon quilts and the Superior Under Thread 

Mary had several secrets to making Hexagons. First she used Superior Bottom Line Thread, a very fine thread that really does not show. For templates Mary uses a water soluble fusible precut hexagon templates from Hugs N Kisses.

She fuses the template to the wrong side of the fabric, cuts the hexagon leaving a quarter inch seam allowance, and then uses a glue pen to iron the seam allowances to the back of the hexagon.

Mary also had a new way of knotting the thread that allowed continual sewing. A gal made a video of Mary's instructions so we wouldn't forget! I hope the insertion of the video works.

My work in progress in class. The print fabric is my new kitchen curtain fabric. I wanted to make a teapot hotpad.

My finished project

The class also learned how to make the folded Bow Ties seen in on the table

Sorry for the lousy photos but here are several of Mary's quilts from her presentation.

Lots of half square triangles make this quilt spectacular

Rework embroidery, piecing, and that lovely house

This was made for Anita Shakelsford's publication Coxcomb Variations

Mary loves dimensional appliqué'

I used up all the my Fons & Porter glue pen on this project. But I was able to compete the entire project in 24 hours.

"Recycling" Vintage Hexie Quilts

Recycled Hexie Quilts: Using Vintage Hexagon Quilts in Today's Quilts  ins't the most gripping title but once you see Mary W. Kerr's quilts you will be hooked. I was prowling eBay looking for Hexie quilts within the hour. I have a sudden need to accumulate cutter quilts, particularly those based on hexagons!

Kerr first presents vintage quilts using Hexagon patterns, including Grandmother's Flower Garden variations, Seven Sisters Hexagon, flower baskets, floral wreathes, stars, lozenge, and mosaic diamonds. Scrappy and planned patterns are included.

Then we see 52 new quilts made with 'recycled' Hexie quilts. I already love using vintage textiles in quilts. I have, after all, 800 handkerchiefs, four drawers of old laces and trims and ribbons, a big drawer of embroidered linens, and who knows what else squirreled away.

Kerr demonstrates how to use Hexies as sashing, blocks, or borders combined with vintage embroidered linens, embroidered quilt blocks, and applique blocks. They are just wonderful!

I loved her use of cutter hexie tops as wide sashing and borders around vintage embroidered linens. A modern looking quilt can be made by floating hexie 'blocks' on a solid background fabric. She also has examples of some non-hexie recycled tops. Her examples range from pillows to bed sized quilts.

A chapter on how to work with vintage Hexie textiles can be applied to other pieced tops. Labels, quilting, and using fusibles also merit chapters. A nice step-by-step tutorial on applying crocheted doilies to a quilt is given.

The book has 148 full color photographs of inspirational quilts and is beautifully laid out.

This is not a pattern book, but you will get tips and inspiration to create your own recycled Hexie quilt project. This is a great book for the quilt guild library, too.

Mary W. Kerr is a quilt appraiser with the American Quilt Society and has published several books, teaches about vintage textiles, and restores quilts.

I received a free ebook for a fair and unbiased review.

Recycled Hexie Quilts
Mary W. Kerr
Schiffer Publishing
ISBN13: 9780764348204
$19.95 soft cover
Publication Date: April 28, 2015