amish quilts Archive

Originally posted 2008-08-11 18:51:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter I finally got around to getting this project in gear. I cut the canvas this morning. Based on Barbara’s block size, it’s about 9″ square on 18 mesh and a little over 11″ square on 14 mesh. I’m using 18 mesh. I was going to use Silk & Ivory, but decided on using Gloriana’s Lorikeet,a simply stunning wool, because it’s hand-dyed, so has a lovely variation in color. Because it has nine strands in a bundle, it’s versatile as well. I want this to work with our beach glass + coral color palette for the new house, so I went with aqua for colors 1 & 2 (they will also be 7 & 8). I picked corals for colors 3-5 and a very dark gray for the neutral. The colors are: 1 & 7: Jewel Turquoise Pastel (020W1) 2 & 8:

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Originally posted 2008-08-10 14:44:11. Republished by Blog Post PromoterThe first three blocks for this project have been posted (I have to get cracking here). Block 1 – Framed Star Block 2 – Mosaic Stripe Block 3 – Scotch-Cashmere Stitch

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Originally posted 2008-08-31 07:30:58. Republished by Blog Post Promoter This Twinchy Challenge was so much fun. The Twinchy pictured above is a block called “Black Beauty” It’s stitched in two shades of Watercolours, the dark one for the border and the lighter one for the main blocks. The center block is a coordinating metallic, and the background is a pastel thread (Watercolours in this case). The chart shows the whole block except the center. You can make that any stitch you like, I used Leviathan. A smaller version of this block will be available in my new eBook, 50 Quilt Blocks for Needlepoint or Cross Stitch, out in September. Jan Fitzpatrick often stitches small quilt blocks for ring boxes. I Just love this version of Bear’s Paw. I love the way the four paws come together in the center to make a star. Jocelyn also had another three wonderful Twinchies,

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Combined with this simple Bargello swag, these bright colors make a lovely quilt. Bargello patterns when used for quilts are easy to adapt to needlepoint. I’ve done all the hard work and now you can just sit back and stitch this delightful free design. The swag pattern is adapted by looking at the relative lengths of the patches. This translated to the pattern here. A more difficult task is the color adaptation. The quilt has a sequence of 13 colors. That’s fine for something large but won’t work well on a small mini-sock. I cut down the number of colors to 9, with dark gray, coral, red, lavender, violet, medium and medium-dark green, medium light blue, and blue. I also liked the wide border so I added a cuff in navy with a medium light blue border. The threads I used were Silk & Ivory, except for the navy, which

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Originally posted 2009-06-14 06:03:55. Republished by Blog Post Promoter You may be stuck at home, in front of the computer. It may be rainy or cold. Or you may have worked hard on the yard or house all day and are in need of a little vacation. Whatever the reason, I’m here to help with a little tour of a completely charming (and growing) idea in the American Midwest. Farmers have huge quilts painted on their barns, just like the one you see above. Painting on barns is not something new. In Pennsylvania, where I grew up, hex signs are often painted on barns. Another common item is barn advertising, like the Mail Pouch tobacco signs. What started as a tribute to a woman’s quilting mother, has now grown to include over 900 barns throughout the Midwest. The idea is to take a quilt or quilt block and paint it

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Originally posted 2008-08-08 12:12:30. Republished by Blog Post PromoterBarbara has posted several steps to get up started on our project. Here’s a list: Step 2A – Sets up the pattern, and compares it to an actual quilt. There will be eight colors, including one neutral. Step 2B – helps you pick your colors for your needlepoint. It describes the kind of color you will need for each section. Once I get back from lunch I’m going to pull my colors and will update with a blog post later today. Step 3 – label your threads. This post shows you how to label your threads. Having done many pieces like this with lots of threads, I know how important this can be. I’m probably going to put my 8 threads on thread drops to keep them straight

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Originally posted 2008-08-16 06:38:32. Republished by Blog Post Promoter I’ve been working hard on my Stitch your Stash around the World Sampler, which has been posted on Create Needlepoint, Barbara Bergston’s wonderful blog. The picture above has Blocks 1 & 2 complete, Block 3 mostly complete and a start on Block 4. I’m having great fun working on it. Block 4 is one of my favorite stitches, Byzantine. Block 5 is another favorite, Milanese. I like both these stitches so much in my second Chinese Letters book (for Raymond Crawford’s great canvases), I have four variations of each of them. I can’t wait to get back to stitching, maybe tomorrow night (We’re going to a wedding today)

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Originally posted 2006-07-10 06:26:53. Republished by Blog Post PromoterIt’s been about a month since I last wrote on the progress of my Amish Diamonds pillow. I am now almost done with the colored diamonds, having less than 10 to do. Then it’s onto the background. You can see from the picture above how dramatically the black background changes the look of the pillow. The colors pop against the dark background and the whole thing looks more finished. The bigger the mesh size of the canvas, the greater the difference is between stitched and unstitched. If this was 18 mesh instead of 13, it wouldn’t be as apparent. This is a good thing to remember when you are thinking a canvas looks a bit dull. The space between the threads dilute the colors painted. Stitch a few more areas and see if it is improved before giving up

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Originally posted 2008-10-29 04:44:53. Republished by Blog Post Promoter I’m working on a little eProject book of six tiny Amish quilts which you self-finish and then use on various items like this bookmark. You can get this as a free project, including finishing instructions, on Whip Up, a delightful craft blog. The cool thing about the eProject book is that it will include not only the charts and instructions for the six little quilts, but complete instructions for six different projects. On Sunday I had a ton of fun at Michael’s buying goodies to try. The list includes, gift tags, cards, notebooks for Post-its, boxes, and lots more. I’m stitching the last quilt, and I’ll be doing the finished next week, so look for the book in about a week’s time, I’l post a notice when it’s ready

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Originally posted 2006-06-12 07:25:45. Republished by Blog Post PromoterYesterday was Sunday and I was low on energy so I spent most of the day working on my interpretation of this Susan Roberts quilt design. As I’ve said in the past, I see the design in Amish colors, so the diamonds which are left are going to be stitched in the Amish spectrum, which doesn’t include oranges, yellows, or white. I’ve used Felicity’s Garden, Spring II and heather ribbon floss for most of the diamonds. Now I’m adding in diamonds using threads from my scrap bag. This livens up the design overall and adds some intersting textures. Most of these threads are knitting yarns which provides it’s own kind of fun, since many need to be plied or are rather thick or textury for needlepoint canvas. I have to say working on it is like eating peanuts, you can’t stop at

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Originally posted 2008-09-14 05:35:10. Republished by Blog Post PromoterBarbara has posted the eighth block on this sampler. It’s Interlocking Gobelin, one of my favorite stitches. If you want to see the entire series of posts together, check here. I’m also happy to report that even though I didn’t cut my canvas big enough to do her entire plan (it’s pictured in this post). With some fudging, I’m only going to be one set of blocks short, so this is good. A second post, has information about when you can use these stitches in your own needlepoint

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This little quilt, done on interlock canvas, is one of my favorite pieces of needlepoint ever. It is a patchwork design called Roman Stripe and is done in a classic color palette for Amish quilts. The solid black rectangles set off the bright stripes and make them sparkle like jewels. The classic Amish palette steers away from white and yellow, which are colors traditionally used in mourning. They also don’t use orange, although sometimes you can find a brilliant orange-red. I’ve loved Amish quilts for ages and have lots of books on them and own two traditional Amish quilts. While this rule for colors isn’t universal, picking colors in this range will make your needlepoint look Amish. The design is stitched entirely in floss. Solid colors are best for this project, but very subtle hand-dyes, such as The Gentle Arts will also work. The design is very small on 18

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My friend, Barbara Bergsten has just posted the start of a wonderful Scrap Bag Needlepoint project. The idea will be to use your stash threads to make a needlepoint Trip around the World quilt. I’m so excited about this, and not just because my stash is big. This is also one of my favorite quilt patterns. I’m going to pull the threads (probably in the color palette I’m thinking of for my new house) tomorrow. I can’t wait to get started!

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