antique quilts – Amherst Quilters Guild

March 3, 2016

a grand old gal

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. This video came on my Facebook feed yesterday. It’s about an 88 year old quilter, still going strong. She lives in Indiana, not too far from where I once lived as a youngster. I hope I’ll be as spry as she is when I reach her age. Does she remind you of anyone in your life? Look at the quilts all over her house. I think I might be approaching her collection’s size, but not there yet! Click here to see the video.

February 11, 2016

cleaning up

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I took the opportunity today to throw a few quilts in the wash. I have some scrappy quilts, certainly not heirlooms, that I usually have on my couches to protect them from my dog. He likes to get comfortable wherever the sun in pouring in on his back. The quilts collect dirty paw prints and lots of hair (maybe I should join the weaver’s guild to learn how to spin his very prolific hair into a usable yarn? No, I don’t think so. That’s just a little too weird, although I have read about it on the internet. A very reliable information source…Not!) When I wash those couch quilts I just toss them in with towels, cool water, regular detergent and away we go. They go into the dryer along with the towels. In the summertime I take them out after a few minutes and […]

January 28, 2016

your grandmother’s quilts

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Do you get tired of the cliche that only grandmothers quilt? That your quilt is “not your grandmother’s quilt? That when a non-quilter comes upon a quilt of yours one of the first things apt to be said is “my grandmother used to quilt”? Don’t get me wrong-I have quilts made by my “foremothers” and I treasure them. But…my quilts are not like the ones they used to make. I admire their needle skills but I don’t want to imitate their quilting style. Apparently I’m not the only one. A recent entry in the blog of Quilters Newsletter Magazine shares the author’s view on this whole “conversation”. Click here. See what you think about it all and share a comment, why don’t ya?!

March 10, 2015

Getting to know you…

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I hope that most of you know our guild has decided to offer our fall seminars in alternate years, instead of annually as had been the tradition for 40+ years. Costs of sponsoring a national teacher continue to climb, and it seems interest from our members continues to decline. To give us some breathing space to raise some funds to offset cost increases and to work with our membership to reformat seminar to better fit current wants and schedules, we’ve decided to hold seminar in the same years as our quilt show. We’ll use the show as a publicity opportunity to both our own members and non-member visitors to the show. That all said, I want to start making you aware of all that our next national teacher, Nancy Mahoney, is doing in the quilting world. Nancy has two quilts in the March/April 2015 issue […]

January 22, 2015

Signing your work

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Do you label or sign your quilts when you finish them? I generally do except for table runners and toppers. I’m finding more and more when I change the “quilts” for the seasons or holidays that I like to look on the back to check when I made the piece. I’m often surprised-sometimes by how old the piece is and sometimes the reverse, by how recently I made it. I’m just checking for dates. I do hope that all of my pieces will find good homes after I’m gone. What would those owners want to know when enjoying my quilted art works? Maybe I should be including more information. Isn’t it fun when examining an antique quilt to find the quilters name and date somewhere-even more fun if it tells where and why it was made? We should be adding those little surprises to our […]

October 10, 2014

Eye on Elegance

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I come from a family of folks who spend their days immersed in math and science. Except for one. I have a niece who loves history, in all of its forms. She is currently living in the Washington D.C. area, discovered this exhibit at the DAR museum, and sent me the link. Eye on Elegance is an exhibit of quilts from the Maryland and Virginia area. This “show” online is wonderful for those of us who will not be in Washington soon. There are video clips from the curator, and many photos of the quilts which you can explore. You are able to zoom in and look at the details of the quilts. If you are interested in the history of our art form, I think you’ll find this very interesting. So much to learn about the beginnings of quilting here in the US, and […]

August 3, 2014

back again

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. The demo night at guild last month was a success as always. My only wish is that there would be a way for those who are demonstrating could visit the other tables and see what other fun things are being shared. As Roxie announced, I will be sharing more Christmas ideas here on the blog to continue with the Christmas in July theme. Can you believe that on some of the radio stations they are already doing a countdown of the shopping days left?!! No wonder the holiday has become so commercialized. This first link I’m sharing is one of my go-to’s for free Christmas patterns of all kinds. There are ideas for quilting, sewing, crocheting, knitting, cooking… If you like the idea, you can sign up to get e-mail notifications from them, but that is not a requirement at all. Try them out here. […]

May 27, 2014

a milestone

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. This post is a milestone-my 250th post at this blog. I talk a lot I guess. If you read all the way to then end, I’ll tell you how to enter to win a prize from me to celebrate this “achievement”. One thing you might know if you’ve read these posts for a while is what some of my favorite blocks are. Take a minute, can you name of few of my faves? … Drunkard’s paths should be in the list. Here’s a link (click here) to a modern looking drunkard’s path. I think this one would be great for a fat quarter collection of some of those gorgeous, somewhat solid, fabrics that are now appearing in the shops. How about Grunge from Basic Grey? Love it! Another favorite of mine … hexagon quilts, not grandmother’s flower gardens–bigger hexagons! I tried the English paper piecing […]

May 2, 2014

Maybe one of these…

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. In my last post I wrote about a quilt I’d never make. In this one I’ll share some I might make. If you are a reader of the Fons and Porter magazine Love of Quilting you are familiar with the Pilgrim/Roy collection of quilts. There is an article each month about a quilt or two from that collection. If you’ll be in Boston this summer, you might want to make a stop at the exhibition described in the post at the link I’m including. It might even be worth a trip to Boston specifically to see these. click here If you know of places that quilters would enjoy visiting while vacationing this summer, please share! A road trip is always fun.

March 11, 2014

Sneak preview and true confession

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. You all know that Bonnie Hunter is coming to our seminar this fall. (You do know that, don’t you?) She has a brand new book about to be released and is showing sneak previews of the quilts in it over at her blog. If you leave a comment over there, you have a chance to win a signed copy from Bonnie. click here Now for a true confession. A few posts back I put out a challenge to join in Bonnie’s challenge quilt for this year, called Lozenges. I had said I had a plan to use up my stash of 2 1/2″ strips. Well that was before I thought it all the way through to needing to cut a whole bunch of 1 1/2″ squares to use as the flippy corners. I fess up that the cutting of all those triangles is not a […]