| WHAT'S NEW? | | |
Candlelight Fabric packs
We have new Fabric Packs just in time for your holiday sewing projects. Click here.
Halloween & Zebras We introduced you to our two new patterns last month. As a reminder, or if you missed the September newsletter, here they are again.
 | | Halloween |
 | | Zebras |
Buy now.
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| READER QUESTION | | |
I have heard that batiks are not a good choice of fabric for applique. What do you think?
While batiks have a higher thread count, so seem more tightly woven, they make beautiful applique quilts. Many fabrics are woven with a high thread count and stitch with no problem at all. What really makes some batiks more difficult to stitch is the resist that is applied to the fabric to create the images on the fabric during the dying process. If the resist is not completely removed it can be a little more difficult to needle. Here is our number one tip when using batiks:
Wash and dry batik fabric three times, using hot water. The first time use Synthrapol or Orvus to remove excess dyes. Then wash two more times with your other laundry. The added agitation and heat helps to remove all the resist.
For any tightly woven, or high thread count fabrics, use a size 11 straw, or milliners, needle. The thinner needle slips through the threads of the fabric more easily.
With these few tips, there is no need to avoid this whole class of beautiful fabrics for your applique. |
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| I HAVE A NOTION | | |
Introducing you to the notions Nancy and Janice use.
Synthrapol
This product is used to remove excess dye from hand-dyed fabrics, including batiks. It suspends the excess dye molecules in the wash water, and rinses them away. The dye does not re-attach to other fabrics, preventing bleeding.
Janice uses this as a rinse for all her hand-dyed fabrics. We have also had success with removing colors that have bled onto neighboring fabrics on finished quilts. (No guarantee that it will work for you, but it has worked for us in some cases.)
$3.00 for a 4 ounce bottle. Use just 1-2 teaspoons for a load of fabric.
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| CURRENT INTERNET SPECIAL | |
Butterflies 
This pattern makes a quilt 24" x 36". The instructions provide you the steps for needleturn applique, fusible/machine applique, and raw-edge applique.
Regular price: $12.00 for a limited time purchase this pattern for just $10.00
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| Aloha!
Thanks to the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum and The Applique Society, quilters in Washington and from neighboring British Columbia were treated to an exquisite display of applique quilts earlier this month. Nancy shared the history, traditions and superstitions of Hawaiian quilts at the Thursday evening reception, then taught three days of applique classes to students eager to learn or expand their applique skills.
If you have never seen an "all applique" quilt show, then we hope you will make a special effort to join us in Tampa, Florida, November 12 & 13, for the Feather Princesses quilt show. Typically an "all applique" show means that at least 60% of every quilt has been appliqued. We notice that a higher percentage of these quilts are also hand quilted, truly making these heirloom-quality quilts that take your breath away.
Nancy takes off on Monday to begin her next teaching trip to the Big Island of Hawaii (with a stop on Oahu to see her 2-year-old grandson!) Then the first weekend in November Nancy will be the Featured Artist at the Block Party Quilters show in Issaquah, Washington. She will have many of her applique quilts on display for your viewing pleasure, and Janice will have our booth open for your shopping pleasure. Finally, we are on to Tampa, Florida, for the Feather Princesses Show, and several classes around central Florida. Please do plan to visit us at one, or more, of these events. Of course, our Calendar has the details.
Nancy & Janice
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| HAWAIIAN QUILTING | | Mysterious Origins
The evolution of Hawaiian quilts is a bit obscure. There are few facts, much conjecture, and a wealth of stories. One well-known fact is that in 1820, when missionary wives arrived in Hawaii, they brought with them their pieced and patchwork (now known as applique) quilts from the eastern seaboard of the United States. They also brought an insistence that natives be clothed. The hasty construction of a muumuu left few scraps for piecing a quilt. Since Hawaiian women had been making kapa cloth for clothing and bedding for hundreds of years, they were used to working with large pieces of fabric, or kapa. So, to them, it made little sense to cut a large piece of fabric into pieces, just to sew the pieces back together again to make a quilt. A more logical approach was to work with a whole piece of cloth.
 | | Kapa |
Conjecture takes over at this point. We believe the organic shapes of leaves and flowers used in applique quilts appealed to Hawaiians more than the geometric shapes of squares and triangles. It seems that it did not take very long for the small applique paper-cut blocks to merge with the large pieces of cloth to produce the one-piece, bed-sized applique quilts that soon become known as Hawaiian quilts.
One story tells of a woman drying sheets on her lawn near a breadfruit tree. The shadow cast on her sheets by the tree caught her attention, and inspired her to cut the first Hawaiian quilt from her sheet using the breadfruit as her design.
Here are the five components that, when used together, produce a typical Hawaiian quilt:
1. Two contrasting colors
2. Applique, cut from one piece of fabric
3. Symmetrical design
4. Echo-style quilting
5. Design inspired by nature, or a meaningful life-event.
 | | Na Ulu: Breadfruit |
These five characteristics are not rules or absolutes, just general trends that have developed through the years; trends that historians have recognized and recorded. There are plenty of examples of quilts that are considered to be Hawaiian that do not display one or more of these typical characteristics.
It is our belief that the underlying, often unspoken, characteristic that binds all Hawaiian quilters together is their creativity. Creative use of the limited materials available to them at any given time, on their tiny islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean; creative adaptations to newly learned skills; and a creative spirit in touch with their natural surroundings.
But, what if... |
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ALOHA ALBUM | | |
Just wondering, what if?
We know in the mid-1800's, when missionary wives were bringing their quilts and quilting to Hawaii, that applique and album quilts were popular on the eastern seaboard of the United States. Often when a young bride was leaving with her husband for a far-off missionary post, among their few possessions would be a prized quilt. Often these quilts were album quilts. So it is very likely that more than one album quilt found its way to Hawaii in the trunks of missionary families.
Now, what if, instead of enlarging the scherenschnitte-inspired, paper-cut blocks from an album quilt, the Hawaiian women had begun making album quilts of their own? What might those quilts have looked like?
Janice was thinking about this, and the mysterious origins of Hawaiian quilts when she was vacationing on Oahu in 1998. She had a thought, so she called her sister, Nancy, with her idea. "Nancy, I have an idea for a quilt YOU can make! What if Hawaiians had adopted all the elements of album quilts in their quilting, instead of just enlarging the paper-cut blocks? Don't you think they would have replaced acorns, oak leaves, and currants (things they had never seen) with plumeria, kukui nuts, and breadfruit?" Nancy agreed, and took on the challenge. The result is Aloha Album, our version of a typical album quilt filled with the fruit, flowers and meaningful symbols familiar to a quilter in Hawaii.Wreath blocks turned into lei blocks with orchid, lokelani, pikake and maile. The basket block was filled with fragrant plumeria blossoms. The tree of life block became an Angel's Trumpet tree. The traditional cornucopia block became a lauhala picnic mat with an abundance of tropical fruit. And the local courthouse block was replaced with the Hawaii coat of arms. Anchoring each corner of the quilt is a scherenschnitte-style (paper-cut) block of taro, breadfruit, lauae fern, and sea turtles. Maile and lilikoi swags frame the center vases filled with all manner of tropical plants - ti, anthurium, heliconia and bird of paradise.
TIP: Make one block a month and have your quilt top finished in 17 months. OK, allow 3 months for the center vases, and have the quilt top finished in 19 months (May 2012). The sooner you start, the sooner you have a chance of finishing it!
This quilt also provides the opportunity to try additional skills: fabric painting, embroidery, weaving of fabric strips, and a little machine piecing.
Aloha Album, 88 " x 106" pattern, $45.00. Buy it now.
This quilt was inspired by Janice, designed by Nancy, made using many of Janice's hand-dyed fabrics, stitched by Nancy and several of her applique students and friends, then hand quilted by Shirley Taylor and Lou Ann White.
Take a close-up look at several of these blocks and quilts made by others in our Student Gallery 2.
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Overwhelmed with the thought of choosing fabrics to make this quilt? Don't be. You can make your Aloha Album quilt using Janice's hand-dyed fabrics! Click here for a fabric pack that includes all the fabric you need for the applique on this quilt. You supply the background fabric of your choice. Save $5 when you purchase the pattern and fabric pack together.
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| BUTTERFLIES | | |
Flutter by
Get a head start on a new quilt for next Spring with this 2 Fabric Applique Quilt. Purchase this pattern now at our Internet Special price, then save it until after the holidays. Bring it out to make when the temperatures are cold, and the snow is threatening. It will lift your spirits and remind you that Spring is not all that far away. Colors are wide open when it comes to this beauty. Butterflies are so colorful, anything you choose will look great. Here are just two examples to get you thinking about your options. Did you know there are two butterflies native to Hawaii? The more colorful is the Kamehameha butterfly, also known as pulelehua, or "the insect that floats from one lehua blossom to the next." The Kamehameha butterfly was named the Hawaii state insect in 2009. Nancy included a Kamehameha butterfly in the "Aloha" block of Aloha Album, too. Did you notice?  TIP: Embroider the butterflies' antennae, if that makes you more comfortable.
Butterflies, 24" x 36" pattern, normally $12.00, but for this month, for you, just $10.00. Buy it now. __________
Choose from a variety of Fabric Packs to make this and other 2 Fabric Applique Quilts. |
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COMING EVENTS | | Nancy's Whereabouts:
Quilt Shows While you are making your plans for fall travel, be sure to include a stop at one of these quilt shows to meet Nancy and Janice, and do a little shopping.
- November 5-7, Block Party Quilters, Issaquah, WA. Nancy is the Featured Quilter at this show.
- November 12 & 13, Feather Princesses Quilt Show, Tampa, FL. An "all applique" show, not to be missed!
Classes - Presentations - Events
- October 26 - 28, three different classes at Quilt Passions in Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii.
- November 14 at The Applique Society Retreat in lovely Parrish, Florida. Take Nancy's mystery applique class "Summer Solstice", along with classes from other applique teachers, and so much more! The full retreat runs from Nov 12-19, 2010, and includes a bus trip to the Feather Princesses Quilt Show in Tampa on Nov 13. Sign-up Soon! Yes, the link is on our Calendar.
- November 15, Clearwater, Florida
- November 16, The Villages, Florida
- November 17 - 18, Leesburg, Florida
- November 19, Belleview, Florida
Register early for classes, they can fill quickly, or be cancelled if not enough people register in advance.
Nancy is booking events in 2011, 2012 and beyond. Remember to let your local quilt shop and guild know that you would like to take an applique class from Nancy Chong. Give them our website, or print Nancy's brochure and give it to them. Be sure to circle the classes you are interested in! Nancy will travel anywhere she is invited to teach.
"No tests. No grades. No pressure. New classes open every weekend from January until the end of October. Students receive a password to an online classroom with a teacher-led Discussion Forum and Student Gallery. A typical class consists of three or four lessons. Lessons open on Friday evening."
Nancy's 2011 QuiltUniversity.com classes begin:
Jan 7: Stressfree Celtic Tablerunner
Jan 28: Hawaiian Quilting 101 Feb 18: 2 Fabric Applique Mar 11: Baltimore Basics April 8: Make Your Own Hawaiian Quilt May 13: Hand Quilting Janice's 2011 QuiltUniversity.com class begins: April 8: Photographing Your Quilts
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Thank you for spending a little of your precious time with us, we really appreciate it. As always, we welcome your suggestions, comments or questions.
A hui hou,
Until next time,
Nancy & Janice |
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