The power of the quilt - a contest

December 8, 2014

The Contest

Today is the day after our winter choir concert! Fellow quilters Mary, Jane, Holly and Linda will relate. We were all there. Between the dress rehearsal and the the performance, the choir (Muskoka Rock Choir,) has to stand for upwards of four hours singing our lungs out.  It can be quite exhausting, especially on one leg, but it is also exhilarating.

I had a great email yesterday from an old quilting buddy who has since moved to Fonthill, Ontario.  I haven't seen her or talked to her (she isn't on FB) in a long stretch, so it was great to catch up by email.   She was an early mentor. Already a skilled quilter when I began, Jennifer helped and encouarged me and many friends to become better at the craft.  She is always willing to share her tricks of the trade.  It made me think about the bonds that quilting helps us form. From her I met her dear sisters, also skilled sewers. Makes me think that those women who presided over the old time quilting bees knew all about this.  Better than any social media, quilting brings us together, face to face, in artistic productive pursuits that allow us to bond and grow.  Singing does the same thing, but it is more inviting to men than sewing is, although I am not sure why.  My son-in-law is a skilled wood worker and he once commented that sewing and woodworking had many similarities.

So I am hoping that people will share some of the bonds they have formed over quilting/sewing in the comments section.   Some people have mentioned that they have had trouble using the comment option.  I think if you open the comments section at the bottom of this post  (click on no comments)and when you go to share, scroll all the way to the bottom and share as "anonymous" the comment should first come to me for moderation and then I can allow it to post.  Alternately, you can email me (tghowell54@gmail.com) and I can post your bonding story in a blog post or put it into the comments myself.  Put the word contest in the subject line of your email. If you want to use your name, just add your first name to the end of your comment.  Post as often as you want.  More posts, more chances to win.

As an added incentive, I have a landscape quilt that I will give to one lucky person who posts and signs (first names only are fine). You have until Dec. 25 to post a story.  I will put the name of everyone who posts in a hat and draw one lucky winner on Boxing Day. 

When I start to think about the power of the quilt to bring us together, I have many stories.  It is so hard to narrow it down to just one, but here goes.  My grandma Jessie, used to live with my family in a Toronto subdivision in the winters when I was growing up.  There was always a quilt on a frame in the family room or the living room.  In the long winter afternoons, my mom and grandma would take time out to thread a needle and quilt one of the lovely tops that grandma had made over the summer in her home in Teeswater.  I remember one year my mom thought it would be fun to have grandma teach the neighbourhood woman how to quilt (those were the days of stay at home moms).  There may have been a method in her madness because this meant that many hands would be available to help and the quilt would be finished much faster.  It ended up that many woman began to join the quilting afternoons including immigrant woman.  Many days when I came home from school it was a league of nations in our home.  The tea and coffee were on the sideboard and many accents were heard.  The quilt introduced some of these women to Canada, to the English language and to friendship.

So what's your story - simple, short, long, involved....it doesn't matter.  Post for a chance to win!  And visit the blog often to read what others post.  Every quilt tells a story and you can too!

The Provenance

December 5 2014.

Time is flying and the holiday season will be upon us sooner than we can imagine.  Despite the fact that our initial November dump of snow took a beating in the rain that followed, we have another foot of the fresh white stuff that fell on Wednesday.  The world is freshened up once again. Today was a busy day as I continued to nurse my broken ankle, but put that sitting time to a good use by sewing the provenance on each of my landscapes.

Google defines a provenance as follows :

prov·e·nance

noun

1. the place of origin or earliest known history of something.

   "an orange rug of Iranian provenance"

   synonyms:

   origin, source, place of origin; More

   • the beginning of something's existence; something's origin.

     "they try to understand the whole universe, its provenance and fate"
   • a record of ownership of a work of art or an antique, used as a guide to authenticity or quality.

     plural noun: provenances

     "the manuscript has a distinguished provenance

Quilt made by grandma or her mother,
 probably in the 1940s

All of us probably have an old quilt around our house that was made by a grandparent or a relative. Antique stores often have beautiful, soft, old quilts made by the loving hands of someone. Unfortunately, most of these timeless beauties do not have a provenance on them and as they get passed from generation to generation no one really remembers where they came from or who made them. Fortunately, there are quilt collectors out there who can usually date the quilts based on the fabrics and batting used, but that doesn't help us determine  who the maker was.  What a shame that all those talented, hard working artist women go unknown and not named.  In the old days quilting was utilitarian. Quilts were for warmth.  There worth as works of art was certainly secondary.  I hope woman are changing that notion in the 2000's as we continue to craft incredible works of quilted art.



I have a great quilt that my grandmother made me when I was in my early twenties.  Grandma was among the last of the quilt makers who preferred (more out of financial necessity) old clothes or bed sheets for fabric.  She cut all the pieces with scissors, not rotary cutters, and many times sewed the pieces together by hand. All the quilting was done on large wood quilting frames, surrounded by chairs for would be quilters, over the winter in her living room or ours. She once told me that I was among the worst hand sewers she had ever met ( I hated hand sewing).  I didn't take any offense because it was impossible to duplicate her beautiful even stitches or take her laughing comments very seriously.  As a legacy to her, may I say that Jessie C. McTavish-Howell was one of the great quilters of her time but apart from her family, completely unknown.  I like to look at quilts in antique stores and wonder if any were hers.  Unfortunately, no one will ever know.

Grandma's provenance

The provenance on this quilt that she made for me, as you can see from the picture, has only my name and the year the quilt was made,1977. There is no mention of the quilt maker. Grandma was well into her 80's when she made this one.  I really wish she had signed it as a lasting legacy to the quilt making skills she had honed over years growing up on a farm near Teeswater, Ontario. I knew of only one other quilt that she put a similar provenance on and that was one she made for my brother.  She made many quilts over her 86 years but whoever has them now, will likely have no idea they were made by her hands. 


The fact is that all quilts are art and they are the artistic expression of someone. The patterns, fabrics, size, materials used for the batting (old clothes were once used),  colour choices and even the style of the quilting, whether by hand or machine, forms a historical record of the time the quilt was made. Each quilt tells a story about the quilt maker. A provenance is a record of who made the quilt.  It is a historical record and it  is really important that you include one on every quilt you make (although I am guilty of being so happy to be finished a quilt that I skipped that last step of naming and signing it....too bad).

So here is my advice to you:
1) give all of your quilts a name
2) include your own name
3) include the year and place the quilt was made
6) if it is for someone special, include their name and relationship to you (i.e. For my daughter, Heather) 
7) if it is a gift celebrating a special occasion, like a wedding, birthday, graduation or anniversary be sure to include that too

 It is great fun to think of a name for your work and it usually ties the quilt to the story behind it. Sometimes I have a name for my piece before I have a plan for  how the quilt will look.  Included with the name should be where and when the quilt was made.  I usually write, Muskoka 2014 (or whatever the year is).  I sign the provenance in my own script.  

 Nancy's Choice is the name of a lap quilt I made with my cousin Nancy.  She is the person responsible for getting me into quilting.  Diagnosed with a lethal cancer in her mid 40s, she thought quilting would be a way to tie family and friends together with an activity that we could do together during her treatments and times when she needed recovery and bed rest. We all agreed, some of us reluctantly!  During one of her times free of chemo and radiation,  a group of us took a quilting course in Muskoka.  I didn't finish the quilt until Nancy was quite sick.  It seemed appropriate to name it after her.  Quilting was her choice and in fact, she selected all the fabrics for this quilt as well.  I named the people who took the course with us on the provenance.  The quilt forever tells the story. It reminds me that she once lived and laughed with me.  It reminds me of the bond of friendship we all shared at that time. 

My grandmother used embroidery, directly onto the quilt for the provenance she put on mine.  Some people use ink jet printers to make labels on contrasting or coordinating fabric. Some people prefer free motion quilting or embroidery.  The important thing is that the provenance will stand the test of time.  I prefer to use a permanent fabric pen on a piece of fabric and hand stitch it to the back of the landscape, lap or bed quilt.  I press it to set it.  Art quilts won't likely be washed and so fabric pens and hand stitching work very well.

On a happy note my skier landscape is complete.  The provenance for it is to the left.  I called it Solitary Skier.  It is from a memory of skiing towards an island on Skeleton Lake but it could be a combination of many memories of skiing frozen Muskoka lakes or Georgian Bay, always with a dog at my side.  I love this landscape.  It incorporates the use of white paint to show a bit of snow falling against the land in the distance.  It also uses some sheer fabric on top of the snow to soften the snow a bit.  Winter skies can be so cool and often a blueish grey.  I tried to get that cold feeling but also to  balance it with the warmth a skier feels when he or she is moving or when the sun makes a peek out.  It is going to be hard to sell this one; to give it up.  It tells quite a story.

Solitary Ski

First sale, homemade gifts and framing fun!

December 1, 2014.

December is the month of giving and there is nothing better to give than a beautiful, thoughtful handmade item.  My husband is busy working on driftwood and stumps making beautiful coat racks and end tables.  Last year I took several gorgeous old wool sweaters that my mom had knit way back in the 70's and made my daughters mittens out of them.  Various family members also felted pictures, made cozy flannelette pillow cases, wooden candle holders, mason jar lanterns and chalkboards from old frames. My older daughter made a family set of prayer flags. None of these ideas are particularly original.  Pinterest and Etsy provide tons of inspiration.  There is something so wonderful as giving and receiving something homemade .Quilting opens up a world of opportunity.

I am happy to report my first two sales of my quilted landscapes.  I sold my "Secret Lake" on Etsy with great excitement. It was shipped yesterday.  Another one was sold to a friend for a wedding gift.

Ready to be shipped.

  The thing with designing and making quilts from your own memories is that selling or giving them away is almost like giving away a pet, because there are so many wonderful thoughts and memories wrapped up in them.  And of course, there is always the anxiety that the person who purchases it won't love it the same way you did!  It does however, feel very good that someone appreciates and likes your art and creativity.  Thank you dear customers.

 The real secret lake, which remains small and nameless on maps, does exist and  is mostly unknown to all but a few of us.  My family and I hike there from our home one or two times a year.  My favourite time to go is at Thanksgiving.  We love to lie on the warm rocks in the moss and gaze up at the sky and across the lake.  The rotten remains of an old cabin, add mystery to the lake.  Who used it?  How long ago? Thinking about someone in that small space in the dead of winter allows the imagination to go wild.  Stumps of trees all around the cabin indicate there was someone there at sometime in the cold. Judging from the height of the stumps, there was significant snow on the ground.  This cabin is far from the main road.  Rusted remains of an old wood stove are still evident in the rubble.   I think I will have to make another secret lake landscape from a different perspective.  It is, of course, impossible to ever make the same quilted landscape twice.  Winter may offer a very different view as would spring, when the ice melts and the lake comes alive again. Ideas are brewing.

Secret Lake

 My Etsy store is called Piecefullandscapes.  I hope you have visited or will visit soon.

I am just finishing the quilting on my latest landscape, Starry Night.  My husband saw it and  had a brilliant idea.  He brought home some very old windows from a job site he was working on. Starry Night fits in the biggest part of the window but there are also all those tiny windows to fill.  I am working on an idea to do small quilted landscapes in the teeny windows that all tie in together with Starry Night.  Suggestions gratefully accepted.

Stay tuned to see this finished product.  Meanwhile, I am just doing the hand sewing on my skier landscape and it will be posted on Etsy when completed.