Medallion Quilts at the NEQM, and life

 Another month has flown by.  I don't check blogs as much as I used to... maybe on Instagram more now I guess.  

I never posted anything last month about seeing the AQSG Medallion Quilts at the New England Quilt Museum.  The truth is, I got my times mixed up and it turned out David and I had to just fly through the exhibit before the museum closed.  Still, what a treat to see this traveling exhibit! 

Here are a few - and Lori of Humble Quilts has just posted more on her blog here with really great photos and details.  Please check it out!  

Made by Wendy Caton Reed: 

Made by Blair W. Mahan: 

Made by Sandra Starley: 

Made by Jennifer Perkins: 

In other news, I am just busy with Christmas preparations, really looking forward to having all the kids here.  

I am also processing the news that Kaela and family will be moving to San Francisco after the holidays... for a new great job... and taking my three grand babies with them, as they must, lol.  They say they will be back to North Carolina after a few years.  Here's hoping! 

So we have been relishing every moment with them.  Charlotte loves our riotous collection of hashioki  (chopstick rests) - 

And anything related to cookies - 

I still feel new in my local quilt guild but I've told myself to "give it a year" in the hopes of finding quilting kindred spirits.  Tonight is a holiday potluck I am prepared with all of my homework - hospital pillowcases; donation blocks for QOV quilts; BOM blocks; Yankee Swap gift...  

and fresh sour dough bread (butter on the side) for the potluck... which I will slice up at the last minute.  

I hope that if you are reading this, you are doing well in spirit and that you will be spending time with loved ones in the coming weeks.  The holidays can be fraught, I know.  

Still, Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, and Happy New Year all around.   

xo

Cynthia 

200 Years of Solid Color Quilts: A Quilt Study - it's available! and curry

I participated in this project - and the book has been published, hurray!  The proceeds benefit the American Quilt Study Group.  Get your copy on Amazon!  So many wonderful quilts by quilters much more sophisticated than I will ever be!  Ya, I was blown away to see mine on the cover;). 

I just got my book and can't wait to read every page.  At first glance, my thought is WOW.  Wendy and Barb have stunning quilts in it.   It's really fun to read all the essays too.

Meanwhile here in Tokyo..... I'm going gangbusters on David's indigo Log Cabin quilt.  I need 80 blocks and I have just tipped the scales, with 44 finished.  I'm in a good rhythm making four blocks a day.

Today I walked to the post office and grocery store.  On a mission to make "Kare Raisu" (curry rice) tonight.  It is the ultimate comfort food - cheap, filling, the best.  Massive curry section: 

The brand we like is called "Vermont Curry".  Trying #3 medium, tonight. 

If you happen to subscribe to New York Times Cooking, you will have seen this amazing feature about making homemade Japanese curry bricks from Sonoko Sakai.  Ironically, here in Tokyo I absolutely do not have room for so many bottles of spices, a spice grinder, etc.  We will stick with Vermont curry for now!;).

Saute chicken, onion, add in some apple.  Meanwhile in a separate pot simmer carrots and potatoes in some dashi (broth).  Combine all together, and add in a few curry bricks.  Stir, stir, stir, and voila, you have a thick savory-sweet Japanese curry.  Serve over Japanese rice, so good!

xo
Cynthia

19th Century Basket Quilts at NEQM

Here's my Ethel's Treasure Baskets quilt hanging behind its beautiful inspiration at the New England Quilt Museum.

Ya, I'm pretty thrilled and honored to see it hanging there and I sure wish I could visit the exhibit and see all the quilts!  Feeling waaayyyy too far away in Japan.  If you are near Lowell MA and love quilts, the NEQM is a must!  (While you are in Lowell, visit the Boott Cotton Mills too!)

And there is a Brown Bag lunch on August 1st at 12:30 with a talk by Laura Lane, Collections Manager at the museum:
Join the NEQM Collections Manager, Laura Lane, for an in-depth look at our Genre Gallery exhibition, 19th Century Basket Quilts, on loan from the American Quilt Study Group (AQSG). Members of the AQSG were challenged to study a basket quilt from the 19th century and create a new quilt of their own that was inspired by the original. The new quilt could be a reproduction or simply reflect the original in a way that spoke to the maker. Among the inspiration quilts are three from the NEQM permanent collection, which will be on view in the Museum’s Donahue Gallery.

Laura was so helpful to me, providing time and space at the Museum for me to study that wonderful old basket quilt.  Here's my post about making my study quilt.   It was such a fun challenge. 

You can see all of the 2016 study quilts here!

And a little plug for the book, available on Amazon.  Proceeds support the work of the American Quilt Study Group. 

xo
Cynthia

2018 AQSG Quilt Study- Jazzy Yellow Checkerboard

Every two years the American Quilt Study Group hosts a "quilt study" based on a particular theme.  the 2018 theme was SOLIDS.  I'd remembered seeing this remarkably "modern" quilt at NEQM, so I decided to study it.  They are so generous at the museum.  They brought it out into their classroom and let me spend hours with the quilt.  It is called White House Steps/Checkerboard Variation, maker unknown, circa 1930's.

I mean I was just blown away by this quilt!  It was worked in cotton sateen, and the colors really did change based on the lighting in the room, and the position of the viewer.

Such a clash - in an interesting way - of yellows:

Very simple quilting.

I brought a lot of solids to the museum to try to color match as best I could:

Checking that my dark was dark enough:

My palette:

A very improv process and I can't believe I didn't take process photos, or even a final photo!  I texted my sister in law photos along the way but those texts are long gone now. 

Basting it:

And that's all I have.  I called it Jazzy Yellow Checkboard.  It was chosen to travel with some of the quilts, to various quilt museums and venues over the next few years.  I can't wait for the book to come out so I can see everyone's!  Until the quilts are all shown at the yearly Seminar, we are asked to not post any photos or hints on social media, so that the judging can be completely impartial.

As part of the project we write an essay, with a word limit.  It's like being back in college with homework, but fun:).  Here is the essay I submitted back in May:

I thoroughly enjoyed studying this circa 1930’s log cabin variation at the New England Quilt Museum.  What a palette!  The addition of lemon yellow to the dominant peachy yellow creates an irresistible, jazzy dissonance.  The use of cotton sateen lends a dynamic sheen — are those blues, or purples?  It truly depends on the lighting in the room and position of the viewer.  The warm yellows and pinks are tempered by muddy khakis and taupes. 

Our frugal quilter pieced many of her logs, and used narrow coping strips liberally to get her blocks close enough to measuring fifteen inches square.  Blocks are pieced in horizontal rows; the vertical rows are offset by up to an inch in some places.  This quilt was not created on a foundation.  A casual approach to pressing, and a generous approach to “easing in” resulted in some folds and puckers within the top.  Quilting is in (or near) the ditch, with three or four stitches per inch, and the border is quilted in subtly curved lines, an inch apart.

I chose to make nine eight-inch blocks.  I matched colors as best I could, and used some shot cottons as a nod to that beautiful sateen lustre.  At first, I tried to exactly replicate the piecing of particular blocks, but that plan fell apart as I quickly realized I wanted to experience the attitude of the original quilter - casual, “make do”, and confident.  I quickly got into the fun rhythm of improvising.  To me, the original quilt is a soulful combination of humble and strong, frugal and free; and I imagine the maker herself embodied those qualities, transitioning from the Jazz Age to the Great Depression. 

Baskets! A Study of Nineteenth-Century Basket Quilts

Baskets! A Study of Nineteenth-Century Basket Quilts is now available at Amazon.   It is simply terrific - fifty small quilts inspired by old quilts -



Mine is on page 74... and I blogged about it here.  It was a labor of love for sure.   (If you order a copy, and I hope you will, because you won't be disappointed, you can use Amazon Smile at smile.amazon.com/ch/47-0813103 so that AQSG will get a percentage of the sale!). 




I am thoroughly enjoying all the quilts, and all the essays!  I hope to meet many of my fellow Study Group quilters at the AQSG Seminar in October!

Meanwhile.... the purging and packing continues.  Most of my quilting and sewing stuff still really does "spark joy" - my new sewing room will be quite small, but that's OK.  I'm good with small kitchens and small sewing rooms - ;)


x
Cynthia

Cynthia Nanto on Instagram

Basket Study Quilt - Ethel's Treasure Baskets

Ta-da!  I can finally share my basket study quilt.   I participated in the AQSG (American Quilt Study Group) Study Quilt project this year.  The theme was Basket Quilts, and fifty quilters each chose an antique quilt (from a museum, or collection, or wherever) to study and reproduce/represent as a small wall hanging.   The quilts were displayed at the annual seminar in Tempe this past weekend.  I am new to AQSG and have never been to a seminar, but next year it is local!

Anyway, for the study, I went straight for the collections at the NEQM (New England Quilt Museum) and chose to study this 19th century scrappy "Baskets and 1000's of Triangle" (maker unknown).  I just loved the scrappiness of it! Pink and brown overall but not matchy matchy - plenty of interest.




I sat with the quilt for a long time, taking notes and photos.



This one roque blue block intrigued me and I knew right away I would use one of David's old shirts to represent the blue:



The only clue to provenance was this label:



Somehow or another, this quilt must have been treasured by Ethel.  So I called my study quilt "Ethel's Treasure Baskets."

I gathered fabric and searched high and low for a good sashing fabric to represent (if not replicate) the original.  Finally had to call good enough good enough, just dig in and start.  I drafted a pattern, and decided to applique the bases, to retain the soft angle of the original.







I'm sure there are better ways to piece it but this worked for me:

Trying this and that...






We were each required to write a short essay to accompany our study quilt.  That in and of itself was a fun challenge.  All fifty will be published in a book and what a thrill that will be!   To my surprise, "Ethel's Treasure Baskets" was among the twenty five quilts chosen to go "on tour" - so I won't see it back home for a long while!  I really feel honored.





Next year's "Seminar" is in New Hampshire.  If you are local and have an interest in quilt history, consider joining AQSG and let me know if you do!

xo
Cynthia