Our quilt group meets the first Tuesday of the month. I’m the newby and haven’t been to see everybody’s work and sewing room yet….so was bowled over today when we met at Ethelwyne’s house in the country. She had the welcome sign out for us on her porch…
and we saw her sewing room…
with interesting bits and pieces of old quilts…Ethelwyne’s great grandmother, grandmother and mother were all quilters. Here’s the only section of a quilt of her grandmother’s that she could save…and with the left over bits she made a flower basket hanging…
we grabbed a coffee and she said she just had a few things to show us (here was the pile, obscuring the big chair) at the end of the show and tell…
Ethelwyne is an amazing and fearless quilter who uses tradition, but also embraces anything from the modern quilt world and has produced a body of work that is beautiful, meticulous and fascinating. I can’t tell you all the wonderful stories…one or two per quilt…but I can show you a few images…she went to Illinois to find the Amish quilters and found a woman selling fabric in a small cabin with no light of electricity…a small cabin FULL of solid color fabrics. Ethelwyne asked the woman to choose two colors and her favorite pattern, she bought them and went on her way…later producing this beautiful Irish chain quilt…all meticulously hand quilted. As the narrative unfolded this morning it became very clear that Ethelwyne’s skill and confidence allowed her to tackle any project, and always she was in it for “the total experience.” What fun.
here’s a quilt she made with her daughter’s old dresses and then quilted each house differently…by hand…
She took a class from Kaafe Fasset and decided to go for “the total experience” so she had him shop with her, then she made a quilt…but there was so much fabric leftover she made a bunch of quilts…
This quilt is made of African fabric…three different pieces she traded and bartered for…
And here’s the label…
then the little quilts…
a piece made from her grandpa’s work pants…
from a class with Freddy Moran…
and then she got out a few of the heirlooms…this beautiful and amazing piece of embroidery that was her mother’s…
another piece of her grandmothers she hand quilted…
and backed with feed sacks…
…and this quilt of her mother’s she was given “once I was a grown-up”…though she isn’t entirely sure of the origin the signature blocks include one freom her great grandmother, one from her grandmother, and one from her grandfather…
and absolutely inspirational morning…
On The Way 
Holy smoley!!! What quilts!!!! Today I had a quilter friend over and showed her the last On the Way. Now she must come back to see this! Is that a Singer Featherweight or something like that? Do you have ANY idea where I might get one? It might possible be the only machine I could make friends with (according to my quilter friend).
Next time you’re down, I must show you my grandmother’s/great-grandmother’s quilts……….Iowa farm women…
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beyond amazing!
lovely work. lovely stories, lovely photos. lovely ladies.
What a luscious post! You almost have me convinced to take up quilting!
Sara, it IS a featherweight…EBAY, garage sales, there are lots of them around. Simple machines that you can repair yourself…(unless you are me)…it’s so much like any other art activity…the making of cloth from cloth…color, composition..Ruth it’s like painting. A walk through any museum is a different trip with quilter’s eyes…EVERYthing relates…and then the imposing of pattern on top of pattern (the quilting part)…and then Sloy and Shirley there are the narratives sewn into every quilt. And no quilt has to look like your grandmother’s attic, unless of course you miss your grandma and WANT it to. I’m imagine a quilt group with Srar, Sloy, Shirley, Ruth and how wild an imaginative that would be!!!!
It is so wonderful to meet new friends and discover the treasures they possess!