Meet Bev Olson

I spent a few hours with my new quilt friend Bev Olson, touring her studio and poking into her wonderful collections.

Bev showing her heirloom and vintage linens

Her latest creation is a wood applique and embellished tree of life. She made the 'pennies' and embroidered them.

And then she embroidered and embellished the tree with animals and other details.

Bev is also an amazing crazy quilter. That is, she is not a crazy quilter (although that can be argued), but she is an amazing crazy quilt artist!

Bev uses all kinds of found objects, like this piece of shell

Bev's studio is the showcase for her many collectibles.

 

Knowing I love vintage linens she shared her family heirlooms featuring lots of embroidery and hand tatting.

 These cats are so cute!

 The smaller hens are egg warmers.

 I loved this 1950s handkerchief. I know I had Disney themed hankies as a girl.

Upstairs were more treasures. Including a quilt made with vintage heirloom blocks.

Bev had a set of three suitcases very like the set I received as a high school graduation gift!

 Then she opened the chest her father had made from apple crates.

 K-rations from WWII and lots of war mementos were inside.

Including flags that had been draped over family caskets. One had embroidered stars, the other appliqued stars.

There were Sweetheart pillowcases.

And a wonderful WWI souvenir silk handkerchief featuring President Wilson and vignettes with President Washington, General Lafayette, and the Statue of Liberty from 1919.

I'll end with another of Bev's sweet wool applique quilts featuring amazing vintage buttons.

I'll write another post about Bev's family photos including a set from the end of WWI.

Vintage Rose for Mothers Day and a Memory Quilt for Mom

I am just finishing up a quilt I called Vintage Rose. It incorporates a vintage embroidered doily (which was a giveaway from my weekly quilters group; read about it here) appliquéd on a vintage linen napkin, vintage cutter quilt rose blocks bought on eBay, a vintage glove, and vintage tatting, buttons, and other linens.

 Worn rose-shaped buttons frame "Rose" in her heart-shaped doily.

The rose appliqués were in bad shape. I covered them with sheer tulle, machine sewed it along the appliqué, then trimmed it. The tatted roses are trimmed from doilies I bought a while back.

A few months ago when I bought out a dealers linen stash there were a dozen gloves included (read about it here). This one is satin with a pretty crystal button.

On my bed I put the second quilt I ever made, made in 1991. I used Mom's painting shirts, all red plaids. I found the block pattern in a magazine, just the block, no instructions. I pretty much made up my own instructions. I had no idea what I was doing at the time. In the middle of appliquéing the hearts I met Holly Perry who taught me the appliqué and quilt stitches. We joined the quilt group at the church, which is still going on 24 years later with many of the same ladies.

Mom was an oil painter. She took her first classes in adult education back when I was a tyke. Later in life she took private lessons.

One of Mom's paintings

Mom died of cancer in 1990. She was 57 years old.

Mom about 38 years old at the time of my graduation from high school

Mom in 'the project' in her Jitterbug Queen days

Read About Songs My Mother Sang Me found at
http://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2014/04/songs-my-mother-sang-me-1940s-novelty.html

"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

Play Time in the Quilt Room

This weekend I wanted to 'play'. I had all those new vintage linen pieces and I wanted to see what I could do with them. I pulled out different linens and coordinated them with fabrics and embellishments. This was my first one completed.

The lacy white circular 'linen' was my starting point. I wanted something in the center and decided on a counted cross stitch butterfly made by my mother-in-law.

 I pulled out the yellow fabric with orange butterflies, and then found the orange for an outer border.

 I had been given a stash of cut-out pieces of embroidered linen pieces by a dealer and decided to use these little florals. Two of the five pieces were stained, so I arranged the three good ones.

I had machine stitched the central butterfly motif and covered the edges with green beads.

I had fun making this little quilt. I can't wait to get back into my sewing room and play some more!