Darwin D. Bearley Antique Ohio Amish Quilts

Antique Ohio Amish Quilts from the Darwin D. Bearley Collection is the new exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles.  There's a beautiful book from 2006 which I've had for a couple years that documents the collection.  I was so fortunate to see this amazing exhibit presenting 'Quilts as Art'!

Ocean Waves, cotton, 35" x 41"
c. 1890 - 1900, Holmes County

Broken Star, cotton, 79" x 79", c. 1925-30, Holmes County, made by Mother of Mrs. Henry Raber

 

Courthouse Steps, wool, 76" x 81", c. 1880 - 90, Holmes County
Log Cabin, Straight Furrow, wool, 67" x 82", 1914, Holmes County, made by Mariann Yoder
Log Cabin, Light & Dark Variation, wool, 66" x 82", c. 1880-90, Holmes County
Nine Patch Variation "Winter Quilt", heavy wool, 67" x 88", initialed R.T. 1884, Knox County

Sampler, cotton, 64" x 87", c. 1890-1900, Holmes County
Diagonal 16-Patch, cotton, 76" x 77", c. 1880-90, Mt. Hope, Holmes County
Zig Zag Nine Patch Variation, cotton, 79" x 81", c. 1890-1930, Geauga County

Chinese Coins, cotton, 79" x 90", c. 1930-40, Plain City, OH
Tumbling Blocks, wool, 70" x 87", c. 1900-1910, Holmes County, made by Anna K. Yoder

 Twinkle Stars, cotton, 72" x 89", dated 1895, made by Dena Miller, Holmes County

Bear Paw, wool, 77" x 92", c. 1900-1915, Holmes County

Quilt Encounters

Jan and I attended the Shipshewana Quilt Festival in June.  Our visit included a lecture/trunk show by Rebecca Haarer on Amish quilts and a stop at the Goshen College Good Library antique quilt exhibit, Quilts from the Permanent Collection.  The gallery is tucked away in the library basement - we had the exhibit to ourselves. 








The trip included an overnight stay, so I brought along some of my Amish quilt books.  I kept returning to the crib quilt on pg 92 from Amish Crib Quilts from he Midwest: The Sara Miller Collection.  I looked for the perfect tomato red solid at Yoder's, but couldn't find the right color.  That's because the fabric match was in my stash!  The perfect border fabric was also in stash, but not enough yardage - will have to keep shopping - darn!

Update:  This morning was my first opportunity to surf the net in a few weeks.  It was the start to my belated birthday.  Serendipity - followed breadcrumbs to Quilts and Pieces blog and found a few posts about an antique quilt exhibit featuring cheddar - today was the last day for the exhibit.  It was worth the drive!  Quilts and Pieces has great pictures, so check out the exhibit on her blog - post one, post two, post three.

Indianapolis Amish/Design Wall

Only two quilts to share today, but lots of detail shots because these photos came out so well. You can really see the luschious, deep saturated color.

An Amish star quilt...

Oh, I loved this one!

I had a notion to make a new quilt for my back porch. Most of the 3 inch 9 patchs were already made, so this is going fairly quickly. The sashing will probably be a gray - a secondary mourning type. Initially the plan was for black, but the blocks keep telling me "no!".

Some of the blues began life as bricks for the Texas Braid quilt. The leftovers from that will be around for years!

I'm not sure if I'll use half blocks around the edges, or introduce another fabric for triangles to finish the design. If it ends up being half blocks, I may just make full blocks and chop them off. This is supposed to be easy-breezey, so we'll see if I have the nerve to do it!

Chicago Show - Log Cabins

Many bloggers have been posting pics from the recent show in Chicago. I didn't see some of these posted, so I thought they may be of interest. This first one was one of my very favorites. Just a simple barnraising, but so wonderful.

And the quilting! The strips are fairly wide, and only two rounds, but this quilt just does it for me!

An Amish log cabin. Almost electric, wouldn't you say?

This one is a modern example. I think the strips finish to one-half inch.

Check out these fabrics! Don't most of them look like calicoes from the seventies and eighties? Those VIP and Peter Pan prints that were the earliest "repro" type available? I think this quilt proves Bonnie Hunter's theories of quilting beautifully. It's the color, not the print that matters; and if it's still ugly, you just didn't cut it small enough!

An antique silk light and dark setting. The blocks just glow!

Greetings

I thought that I would share my Railroad Crossing quilt today. It hangs on this walnut hymnal rack in my kitchen. The smaller, crib sized quilts are alternated here from time to time. The rack, actually, is upside down from how it was originally used on the back of a pew. This creates a shelf on the top, and I have some of my vintage photos displayed here. I'm always on the lookout for photos of people reading, or with books. Photos of women, or girls are best. Also, I seek out any photo with a quilt in it. These are harder to find.

The Railroad Crossing is a traditional Amish design which I interpreted in patterned fabrics. I liked this idea so much that I reproduced a published Amish crib quilt in the same manner.When it came time to quilt this, I chose typical Amish quilting designs. You can still see the chalk lines, as this hasn't been washed. By today's standards, it is a no-no to not remove the markings. It certainly doesn't bother me. If this were an antique quilt, the markings would be a bonus to show how little, if any, use the quilt received. Why the change?

I'm having trouble getting my pictures where I want them. Still learning!