Amish

 

WAY back in September 2015 I tried to recreate my all time favorite quilt. The inspiration quilt is in the foreground, and my attempt is on the design wall at the top. Sharp-eyed viewers will notice I got the proportions wrong.

I was poking around in my studio the other evening and found the bin of this top, the fabric and the four variations I later made. (More about those later.)

Anyway, as often happens, I couldn’t see what was wrong in real life when I made it,  but I saw it right away in the camera. While it looks like the red center square is too small, what it really is is the teal around it is too fat. I figured out if I took it all apart I could trim down the teal and put it all back together and it wouldn’t bug me so much.

So I got out my seam ripper and got started.

Stay tuned.

Backing for Four Amish Daughters

Of the six Amish flimsies I made, I only plan to have two quilted, my interpretation of the original in solids, and the Four Amish Daughters, shown below.

Last night I pulled the leftover fabrics from each version and put together the backing for this one.

I chose the big print in the middle because I didn't want to use the red in the center of the back. I wanted something that would relate to the front, but not be an exact copy. That center fabric will be a big surprise to anybody who turns the quilt all the way over.

The Four Amish Daughters

All Four of my Amish versions in one quilt.

I was talking to my pal Julie the other night about these Amish quilts and I said that I should fold all the flimsies next to each other so I could see how they looked like next to each other. Then I said that I could always just MAKE a quarter of each quilt and put them all together in one.

I thought it was a good idea, so what the heck.  I stayed up late (REALLY late) and got half of it done. The only reason I couldn't finish the second half was I needed to buy more of the green for two of the quarters.

You may wonder why the darker greens are on the left. It's because two of the quilts share the same inner Red, and I couldn't put those two sections next to each other.

The wrong side of the flimsy. Yes, all my quilts are this neat on the back, although I don't usually press the seams open.

If anything, these four serve as notice as to why it's a BAD IDEA to use all blenders, or all batiks or all prints of the same scale in one quilt. You need variations of scale to make any quilt a success.

The Amish Flimsies Complete

I have finished all the flimsy variations of the Amish quilt. Here they are, starting with the original that I love so much, and my interpretation of it.

The original. Maker unknown, Lancaster County Pennsylvania, circa 1900.

My version in solids. (Yeah, I know my center red square is too small.)

My version number Two, in blenders.

My version number Three, in Batiks. (Mostly, the center red square is not a Batik)

My version number Four, in prints.

My version number Five, which has prints and a Batik.

I sure do hope some poor lady in Pennsylvania isn't spinning in her grave.

The original, with its vibrant colors, simple geometry, and utter abstractness of design absolutely defines what it is I love about quiltmaking. It doesn't need one extra thing. So I am sure some of you are wondering WHY I felt the need to push the idea around and make four additional variations. Let me attempt to explain.

First of all it was a, "why not?" With a simple pattern that works, and using the same four colors, I was curious to see how different types of fabrics would affect the design. Actually I had a pretty good idea, but sometimes things happen in real life that you can't imagine in your head.

From my experience as a painter, I can tell you that you cannot make any color more intense than it comes out of the tube. Think of the color (and the fruit) Orange. In oil paint, you buy the color Cadmium Orange. Any time you add any other paint to that Cad Orange, you reduce its intensity. Translation: it becomes duller. It may also be lighter or darker, but it will NEVER be as intensely bright as it came out of the tube. So if you want it absolutely BRILLIANT, you try to leave it alone.

The original Amish quilt, and my variation, play on this concept. The colors are pure and intense, and the red alongside the cool teal is a complementary as well as a strong hot/cold contrast. The red center is also a complement of the green outer border. An important color lesson you should know is if you want to make a color APPEAR more intense, place it next to its complement. So if you want RED to look even more RED, then put it next to GREEN (the complement of Red is Green.)

The blender version is pretty close to the original, but because blenders are subtle patterns, they can't capture the brilliant intensity of the version with the solids. Like I said, they're close.

Every other version, the batiks, and both versions with prints, continue to degrade the intensity of the original colors, so the design doesn't have that same impact the original has, but the patterns in the batiks and the prints add different elements to make the quilts interesting.

And that's what it's all about. Taking something tried and true, so common you don't even notice it any more, and shake it up and make it look NEW. That's an experiment that's always worth doing.

So Lynne, you say.  Is there any way you can show me all four of those variations next to each other so I can really see how they are the same and how they are different?

Mais bien sur! (But of course!)

Check back tomorrow.




For those of you who want to see these fabrics in more detail, you can visit this blog post. You can also click each photo then double click for more detail.

Amish Variations

When I decided to recreate my favorite Amish quilt, I didn't think I do more with it, but once I got the fabrics home I couldn't help but compare the solids I had selected to the existing fabrics in my stash.

I thought, "Gee, wouldn't it be fun to push that idea around. How far could I go?"  Making a version with blenders would be one idea. Here is part of it. Actually, I think it's a snoozefest (translation: boring.) I don't have enough of the green fabric on the bottom to go all the way around. If I decide to finish it, I'd have to go fabric shopping.

Here's a batik version. I haven't sewn this up together yet. I decided to make these all the same size because, what the heck, I had the fabric and it was easier than recreating a new set of dimensions. I don't really consider this version particularly successful - the batiks are all too busy. In the real world I would use fabrics of different scales of pattern. Still though, it's a fun variation on the original.

I almost didn't make this one, but I'm really glad I did because I like it a lot. I'm not thrilled with the green here, but I was trying to find something that was a value match to the original. It's a tough green to find, and I wanted something with a largish scale. Still though, I count this as a success.

There's one other version in the works. It came about when I saw fabrics in my stash I thought might work. I'm really pleased I tried it, because I think it works. I'll have to go shopping for the green, but oh gee darn, how tough is that? This one just goes to show that sometimes the stuff out of left field is a lot more interesting than anything obvious. (Which is sort of obvious, really, because the obvious is usually dull as dishwater.)


*All these photos will enlarge when clicked, and then supersize when clicked again.