Sewing Machine Still Running

It has been some time since new projects were posted on here, but I can assure you that my sewing machine is still active, although not quite as active as in previous years.

About a year ago I finished my last commissioned piece, and decided not to take on any more commissions in the future, but to only sew according to my own whims.

The first thing I needed to do, was to let the machine run freely, – to just happily sew along without too much planning. That is what Log Cabin is for, in my opinion: Cut lots of strips in happy colours, light and dark, and just sew along. This was at the end of winter, and the Covid19 pandemic had just sent us all indoors, – so I craved some bright, sunny colours to work with.

I had planned and cut fabric for a large quilt for a double bed, but decided I did not need such a large quilt after all, and went for a single bed quilt instead. Then I suddenly had a lot of leftover blocks, so I could also make a throw.

And would you know, there were still lots of fabric strips left, so I could throw some solid black into the mix and make a Roman Stripes quilt. This one can go on a single bed too.

As we all know, scraps tend to multiply, so I had still lots of leftovers. This time around they will go into some scrappy blocks. By now I have enough for another throw, if I set them with sashings in between.

The finished quilts have all been quilted by Sølvi Quiltestudio. At the same time I also sent her a very old top, started some time in the early nineties. It is log cabin blocks sewn on a foundation, and I had planned to hand quilt it (silly me).  It was all basted and I had quilted perhaps a fifth of the surface before it was put away. I have long since realized that I would never finish the hand quilting, so I ripped it all out, and sent it to be longarmed along with the others.

Now it is finished, and I am very satisfied with that.

🙂

Eldrid

 

Advertisement

New Old Patterns

Time flies, new things come, and the old ones go. Among the last ones are my printers. Not gone yet, though, but are about to.

Since I no longer can guarantee that I will be able to reprint my patterns, and since they are still in some demand, I have been working on converting them to pdf-files for download.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two have recently been uploaded.

The pattern files can be found here.

🙂

Eldrid

Winter Sewing

In between travelling, family obligations, and other stuff, some sewing is still happening in this house. These past months have been dedicated to finishing some UFOs (UnFinished Objects).

I had finally sent off three “leaders and enders” tops to be long arm quilted by Sølvis Quiltestudio, but when they arrived back this autumn, they went into a pile, waiting for me to tackle the bindings.

I finally got on top of the task this January. Sewing the first seam by machine does not take long once I get started, and putting the binding on three quilts at once was very effective, – it was done in almost no time at all.

However, sewing the binding to the back by hand is a much longer process. I enjoy doing this, but have to do it in short intervals because of shoulder pain. The quilt sits right beside my comfy chair so I can pick it up and do a few stitches whenever I feel like it.

I was so lucky as to get this retro combined pincushion and spool holder as a Christmas gift from a delightful young neighbour girl. I had been looking forward to using it, and it was perfect to sit on the table for such long term on-and-off sewing.

Finally, all three quilts are finished.

In between, I have also been making some tote bags. Like many quilters, I have aquired lots of fabric over the years, so there is no shortage of material for such projects. It feels good to put it to some use.

Most of the bags have been given away to charities and as gifts, but I kept a couple to use for shopping instead of the usual plastic bags.

🙂

Eldrid

Autumn Bargello

This quilt was part of an online class I taught a few years ago about how to make Bargello quilts. After the classes stopped, there has been some demand for a pattern for this quilt, and now I have finally taken the time to edit the class so it fit into a pdf-document.

It is available for purchase through my website.

 

🙂

Eldrid

Quilts in Suzdal

At the International Quilt Festival in Suzdal there were many different exhibitions located in different venues around town.  There were both quilts for the Festival’s different competitions, and also special exhibitions of interesting and outstanding works. Most venues had a combination of the two.

The quilts in this post were exhibited in the small church (winter church) to the left, behind the market square trading arcades.

The first glimpse through the door looked promising, and we were surprised to find not only quilts in the entrance room, but also some interesting ceramic sculptures, and a large egg covered in mosaics.

The medieveal themed quilts were made by Anna Veksler from St.Petersburg, and we were told that the ceramic sculptures were made by someone called Popov. I am not sure about the egg, except that it was beautiful, – that I know.

 

The main room was all painted white and with light coming in through low windows.  The building is not in use as a church any more, – not for the time being, anyway.

The exhibition in here was also a mix of quilts and ceramics.

 

In the room were a few benches to rest on, and they were also works of art. We were persuaded that it was ok to sit on them, though. They were very solid.

 

One of the competition categories was called “Made by Men”, and those quilts hung in this room. They were all made by male quilters, of course. A versatile collection with some nontraditional construction techniques.

 

There was also a collection of quilts from Japan, made by Yuriko Moriyama.

 

I also liked this work by Olga Bernikova.

 

The front end of the room was occupied by some of Galla Grotto‘s quilts, who also taught some classes at the show. She is an artist with an impressive body of works, – and not only textiles. I heartily recommend a visit to her website.

 

Alevtina Shevaldina made this quilt in the rug making technique. She had one in another exhibition too.

There were also several rugs in a special exhibition of old Russian quilts, which I will show in a later post.

 

Also, Japanese Keiko Nakamura was inspired by Alevtina Shevaldina’s quilts to make her entry for the Quilted Field.

 

And there were more ceramic sculptures, – in every corner, – and more quilts.

 

I’ll stop with these photos of Nelly Saveljeva’s quilt.

More to come.

🙂

Eldrid

 

Lagre

Skarvsöm in Sweden and Yakutia

When visiting quilty events in foreign places, especially abroad, I hope, and expect, to see something different, – something we do not have at home, something new and exciting, – even exotic perhaps. But I also notice things that are familiar and similar to things I have seen before. Some times I know right away what the object reminds me of, and at other times it is just a feeling that I have seen it before, but cannot quite pinpoint what, where or when.

When walking the Quilted Field in Suzdal I came across a couple of quilts made in a technique I thought looked familiar. When studying the photos after I got home, I recognized the sewing technique as “Skarvsöm”.

I remembered reading about this technique many years ago in “Norsk Quilteblad”, the newsletter of the Norwegian Quilter’s Association. It was then described as a traditional patchwork technique in Sweden, well documented as far back as the 1700s, and mainly used for ceremonial cushions for weddings.

“Skarvsöm” is made with woolen fabric which is felted so it will not unravel. It is often traditional patterns formed with squares, rectangles and triangles, but in between each and every patch or design element, a narrow strip, most often in a contrasting colour, is inserted, like a passepoil or piping. When the seam is finished, the strip is cut even with the surface on the right side of the work.

Here and here are examples of how it is made, and in Sweden’s Digital Museum you can see many examples of old items made in this technique, so it  is well documented. Here is a blog post with a short article on the history of this kind of quilting in Sweden.

Åsa Wettre also dedicated a whole chapter to this technique in her book “Old Swedish Quilts”.

————

Since I could see no names on the quilts above, I wondered at first if someone from Sweden had entered their work in the Quilted Field project, but dismissed this idea as I thought our Swedish travel companion, Anita Fors, would have mentioned it if this was the case. My curiosity aroused, I messaged the organizers and asked about the names of the quilt makers, and if this was a traditional quilting technique throughout Russia. Within a few hours I got to know that this is a traditional technique from Yakutia, and the two makers are Anna Zverova and Vera Vorfolomeeva.

The latter also made these two quilts hanging in the special exhibition of Best Quilts from Previous Quilt Shows:

I noticed she had used not only one, but three strips of fabric in the seams between the patches, all throughout the red/yellow/black quilt, and in a few places on the other quilt too.

Further study of my and my husband’s photos revealed that this technique was also used in some of the clothing and other gear presented at the Yakut wedding demonstration, like on this coat:

…. the mittens:

 

… and the saddle bags/carpets:

 

It has been interesting to observe and learn about all this, and as often happens, new information creates new questions and more curiosity, – in this case as to what could be the connection between the Swedish and Yakut traditions.

Given that the two geographical areas are almost half a world apart, it is probably pure coincidence, – but I cannot help but wonder.

After studying all this, and also having long online conversations about the subject with our travel companion Anita, I got a sudden urge to try my hand at “skarvsöm”.

Just take a look at the beauty here.

 

Edited:

This kind of sewing is called “kybyty” in Russia. Here is a You-tube-video where Vera Vorfolomeeva shows how to do it.

Here is also a stunning picture of the StBasil cathedral in Moscow that she has made in this technique.

 

🙂

Eldrid

 

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

The Quilted Field in Suzdal

Sunday 14th August was the day the quilted field was to be laid out.  The weather forecast said rain, so we were not sure if we were going to be able see it or not, but luckily it let up during the morning hours, – and so we were greeted by this gorgeousness once we entered the grounds of the Museum of Wooden Architecture.

The quilts are 1 x 1 meters and have strings attached to all four corners so they can be tied together. This was a good thing as the gusts of wind occasionally blowing across the field, could easily have created some disarray.

 

 

The Quilted Field is an ongoing project. Every year the 10 best quilts from the new entrants are chosen to be a permanent part of the project. At the moment they are aiming at having a large amount of very fine quilts to display at the event of Suzdal’s millennium anniversary, which will be in 2024.

 

The best and most interesting quilts are exhibited for the rest of the week on the inside walls of the Eufemius Monastery.

 

Kay Donges, USA

From what we saw, they will have no problem of filling up the fields with exquisite quilts in 2024. There was a lot of creativity, skill, beautiful colours and design displayed at our feet while walking the field. The entries come from all parts of Russia and also from other countries. All entries are accepted, – none is turned away.

 

There were so many quilts, and hardly enough time to study each one in detail as there was so much going on the whole day. (See my previous post) . However, some of them made me stop a bit longer to study details I found interesting.

 

 

The theme of this years Quilted Field was Wooden Architecture and Calico Wedding. Keiko Nakamura from Japan made this one, inspired by the wooden church standing in the grounds of the Suzdal Kremlin:

As you can see, a lot of different techniques have been used making the quilts. Keiko also used the same quilting in the border as she had used for an obi belt for her daughter-in-law’s kimono:

 

The participants of the Quilted Field do not get their own quilts back. At the end of the show, all quilts that are not permanent parts of the project, are packed in paper bags, and the entrants can choose a random paper bag with an unseen quilt to take back home.

All the quilts have name tags on the back, with the full address, so you have the chance of making friends with the maker of the quilt you get, and the one that get yours.

You can also choose to donate your quilt to the project and not get that unknown quilt in a paper bag.

Since the quilts lay backs down and were tied together, there was no way we could see the name tags, so I have no idea who made most of these quilts, and can therefore not give credit to the makers. However, if you see your quilt here, feel free to comment below.

There was also a special exhibition of wedding quilts hung in different places around the field. This was a separate competition.

There was also a quilted car.

The organizers have lots more photos on their website.

🙂

Eldrid

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

The International Quilt Festival of Suzdal, Russia

This August I travelled to the International Quilt Festival in Suzdal, Russia. It was a 10 day trip, with 8 of them spent at the Quilt Festival and in the immediate neighbourhood of Suzdal, a small town about 2 hours east of Moscow.

I have been wanting to visit a Russian quilt event for a while, as I know there are several, and when I saw pictures similar to this one posted on the internet last year, I decided that this was where I wanted to go.

Suzdal is a very old town. It was founded nearly 1000 years ago, and for a while it was the capital of a principality while Moscow was still merely a small outpost.

The Suzdal Kremlin (photo above) is way older than the more famous one in Moscow, and is on Unesco’s world heritage list, along with one of the monasteries in Suzdal.

The capital was moved, but over the centuries,  Suzdal became a religious centre with several monasteries and lots of churches. During the Soviet time, industrialization passed Suzdal by, and much of the old architechture was preserved. When the people realized what a gem they were sitting on, laws were passed to prevent highrise buildings in or near the town centre. More than 300 buildings in town are now listed or protected, including 5 monasteries and more than 30 churches. Suzdal is now a major tourist attraction on the so called Golden Ring, and more than a million tourists visit every year.

This also means that the place is well equipped with reasonably good hotels and restaurants, so the town, with a little less than 10 000 inhabitants, is capable of hosting quite large events.

The travel agency connected with the quilt festival, which organized the tour, had put together a varied and interesting program, which, in addition to the quilt festival events, also included a trip to a local farm and several guided tours of the town and area.

Since there were so many interesting things to do, and to look at, that were not necessarily quilt related, I brought along two family members who are not quilters, and we all enjoyed ourselves very much.

 

The quilty events like exhibitions and classes were spread out on 8-10 locations throughout the town; – in hotels, churches, culture house, library, and even inside one of the monasteries. Exhibitions were open every day for more than a week.

The quilt shops were located in one of the hotels on the outskirts of town, along with the show administration and most of the classes. Our hotel was in the very centre of town, right next to the town square where much of the entertainment was going on, and with short walks to most of the exhibitions and attractions, and to a variety of good restaurants.

 

Some events were one day dos, like the Quilted Field event held in the grounds of the Museum of Wooden Architecture.

People sew quilts of the same size, 1 x 1 meters with ribbons attached to all four corners. The quilts are then laid out on the grass in a checkerboard pattern, and tied together at the corners.

The audience can then walk, run, dance, or skip in between the quilts, all across the Quilted Field, enjoying all the different colours and motifs, and of course take lots of photos. People love to pose with their quilt, or with their family and friends, and photograph each other in the field.

In addition to the quilted field, there were also quilts hung on clothes lines and on the walls of the old houses around the area.

 

There were also lots of stalls selling food and various crafts.

In addition to all this, the organizers also put on a more than 4 hour long show with lots of song and dance, traditional wedding processions and games, in which both young and old took part.

The theme of this years quilt festival was “Love”, and on this day the focus was on courtship and weddings. There was a special competition category of wedding quilts, and these quilts were hung around the area, and the winners were announced at the end of the day.

People had dressed up in traditional wedding dress, and a procession of wedding guests following the couple marked the start of the show program.  Later the guests mingled with the audience, and it was interesting to study the various costumes they were wearing.

Quilters also wore their home made dresses, and we recognized a few of them from the fashion show in the town square on the previous day, – more on that in a later post.

On stage a folk dance group sang and danced to traditional folk tunes. They were very good, and wore a variety of wonderful costumes, – the sort quilters would love to take a closer look at.

I think they performed for more than an hour, and still I was sorry to see them go.

 

The audience were invited to learn traditional wedding dances in front of the stage. One couple led the dance, one lady had a microphone and explained the moves over the loudspeakers. Of course, we did not understand the words, which were in Russian, but we understood the moves and steps that were shown. They started out with the polonaise, which we also did at our daughter’s wedding 10 years ago, so it was really very similar to our customs at home.

Wait for me..!

DH to the right, – he is a good sport.

Hurry up Grandma, – let’s go dancing!

A small play was performed, again all words in Russian, but you could guess a lot from the mimics and tone of voice. My guess is that this was about a young girl who wanted to be a fine lady in town, and turned up her nose at the simpler farm girl who wished to stay put. However, the farm girl got the eligible young man in the end, but luckily an officer also came to the rescue of the “fine” girl, so all was well in the end.

I loved their costumes.

 

The whole thing was very informal. You could sit and watch all the time, or get up and walk around looking at the quilts, participate in the dancing and games, go have a snack at one of the stalls, or sit on the grass enjoying your packed lunch. There were not only quilters present, but families out for a Sunday afternoon walk, officially invited guests, and also busloads of tourists visiting the museum as part of their tours. Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves very much.

 

This is already getting too long. I will have to make several new posts to show you more of the quilts, and of other (hopefully) interesting stuff.

🙂

Eldrid

 

 

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Silversea

It is time for the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival again. Since I am working on commissions which can not be published yet, I will enter an older quilt into the festival this time.

This wall hanging was made in 2004, and is one of a series of quilts I made using old photos taken on and around the island where I live.

The photo I used here, was taken sometime in the 1920ies during the cod fishing season, which is usually in February till April. It is probably early in the season since there is still snow.

The photo is taken on the fjord, which we have a good view of from our house. As you can see, there are lots of small boats on the fjord, each one hoping to get their share of the valuables still swimming deep down underneath, – hence the title I assigned to this piece: “Our Share of the Silver”.

Some women owned their own boats and gear, and traditionally they occupied the innermost part of the fjord, which was then called “Kjerringhavet”, – meaning “The Women’s Sea”

I manipulated the photo so that there are a lot more boats with women in them.

Then I designed some blocks, which would look like a swirling school of fish when put together, and placed the photo in the middle. I also turned the photo blue to better blend in with the fabrics I planned to use.

I thought it was a bit tame with only the blue colours, so I added some sunshine, – which I am also sure these women had in their lives from time to time.

The photo was printed onto cotton fabric, and the rest of the quilt has both cotton and silk fabrics in it. The quilting lines follow the movement in the blocks surrounding the photo.

The quilt was eventually bought by an organization who then donated it to the old people’s home in our neighbouring village Kalvåg, where it now hangs.

This is entered in the Art quilt category of the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival. Be sure to go over there and have a look at all the beautiful works that have been posted, and also make sure you visit the other categories while you are at it. You can also vote for your favourite of each category from May 21st to May 29th.

This is my 13th time participating in the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival. My previous entries can be found here:

Spring 2009

Autumn 2009

Spring 2010

Autumn 2010

Spring 2011

Autumn 2011

Spring 2012

Autumn 2012

Spring 2013

Autumn 2013

Spring 2014

Autumn 2014

 

🙂

Eldrid

 

Festival of Quilts V – Russian Gallery

As I happen to look back into my computer’s photo albums, I find that there are more treasures I would like to share. In this post, the quilts are from the Russian Gallery at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham earlier this year.

This time the Russian gallery was a one person show by the artist Elena Folomyeva.

She had hung an impressive body of work, with all of the quilts having a nature theme.

Here is a closer look on the quilt that is behind her in the portrait photo. It is called “Tales of the Forest”.

“At the Fountain” was the first one that caught my eye. I liked the mixture of patchwork, applique and “line drawings” in the quilt.

I also especially loved the “Chameleon”, and the technique that was used to picture this elusive animal.

“Portrait of a Woodpecker” and the Owl quilt (sorry, did not get the full title of the last one), both capture their motifs in a more “painterly” manner. Love the small details.

The many layers in “Goose” appealed to me, – both the pictorial rendition and the flying geese borders. Also love the background details.

The study of this Birch tree trunk is very well done.  The diagonal shifts in quilting patterns and sewing technique add interest without disturbing the serenity of the motif, I think.

I really loved the humour in this one: “Breakfast on the Grass”. I had to smile at the very appropriate holes.

This one is called “He Who Woke up the Sun”. Solar energy really shows in the background quilting.

Here are more gorgeous quilts with plants in them, – each one very different from the other, yet somehow similar.

This one is my favourite, I think. It is called “November”.

The two quilts above were a bit different from the others in that they were in black and grey tones, but the theme is still nature. They are called “Cool Lace” and “The Night Garden”.

Above is the artist’s statement that was hung with the quilts. Here are the links to the artist’s website, and her blog. Enjoy!

 

🙂

Eldrid