Wednesday, June 04, 2008

German Fabric

My friend Will collects gorgeous antique fabric and textiles, some of which she puts into her quilts and others into everyday use. She has a pair of pillowcases that I was ready to take a seam ripper to - put something else on the back of the pillowcase and you'd end up with a beautiful pillow (just don't turn it over!) AND wonderful fabric.

When I first saw Will's collection of antique German plaids I swooned. I love the differences in scale, pattern, color. Awesome.

Will said she'd give me a bit of the fabric if I knew what project I was going to use them for. Well I finally figured it out and hoped she'd give me some 4" squares. Instead she generously gave me a whole roll of these gorgeous beauties. I almost cried then and I'm about in tears now. Thank you, Will, I will do my best to make you proud.

Now I'm almost overwhelmed - I have more choices of what to make now. I have some red, white, and blue plaids (and combinations thereof) that may play well with these, plus I'll throw in some solids. Then I'll think on it. Any pattern would have to be really low key - the star of this quilt will be these fabrics. Actually, I suspect there are two or three quilts here. Woohoo!

Remember a few months ago when I showed you one of the my cherished wovens that I believed was Dutch. Several of ya'all suspected they were German instead. I believe it - I definitely have an affinity for this kind of fabric (be it Dutch or German. There is just not enough plaid fabric being made today. Although maybe plaid isn't necessarily the right word. Wovens...

This textile trove wasn't the only gift in store for me yesterday. The mail service kindly delivered my Netflix discs and last but not least, Hedgehog Jen sent me a sweet mini quilt. That's mine at 11 o'clock. What a completely unexpected, wonderful thing to do. Thank you.

Yesterday was wonderful for other reasons as well. I got to talk Will's ear off about quilts, see some of her work in progress, revisit a favorite quilt, and borrow several magazines and books. Woohoo!

16 comments:

Candace said...

The fabric is beautiful, before I even started reading my mind was going 'wow' in awe. I love plaids, and they are beautiful. Your little mini quilt is very cute, too.

Kristin L said...

Love those fabrics! The variety is amazing. One of my friends is making a hexagon quilt from plaids (each hex is made of six matching plaid triangles. It's going to be awesome. I'm curious as to what you'll do with your plaids!

Bonnie K. Hunter said...

These ARE awesome!! I feel the same way about all the plaids I picked up in the netherlands....YUMMY!!!!

Bonnie

Joyce said...

I'll be interested to see what you do with these fabrics. I haven't worked much with plaids but these may inspire me to try some.

Julie said...

The plaids are beautiful! I enjoy your blog.

Diane said...

I had no idea Germany produced such beautiful plaids. Guess that shows how geocentric we Americans are. I know you'll do something wonderful with them.

jovaliquilts said...

Wow, those are *vibrant* plaids! Have fun with them. I'm interested to see how you use them -- I truly don't know where to begin with plaids.

margaret said...

Lovely, lovely fabrics - I know you'll do something wonderful with them!

Clare said...

You sound all choked up. They are gorgeous gorgeous. Funnily enough at the Brantome brocante the year before last I found some old plaid - 4 Euro for about 2 metres! I wonder if it's German cos it definitely isn't French.

Hedgehog said...

Love those German fabrics!!

Lynda said...

Plaids usually come in folksey colours, but these are so fresh and clean, they will make a very pretty and delicate quilt.

*karendianne. said...

Lynda (above) is right! I couldn't have said it better myself (so I didn't).

I followed the link to and noted POKEY SLEEPING SO CUTE in that older post...I had to comment.

What a treat for me. ;)

Suprised by Kitty Love, *karendianne.

Nancy said...

Ooooh yes, there are beautiful plaids made in Germany. I looked for them in flea markets, and was happy when I found pieces. Many of the plaid fabrics were made for bed linens, but gorgeous plaids are also in German fabric stores among what is called Dirndlstoff (dirndl fabric). Dirndlstoff is very high quality 100% cotton; it was really expensive, even before the Euro. Nonetheless, it is great when you can find it, especially if it's on sale.
Nancy

YankeeQuilter said...

Those are some wonderful reds! Will sounds like a great lady.

jmb_craftypickle said...

those plaids are so wonderful...I just want to touch them. I haven't found any sturdy plaids lately...they are all so light.

Lucy said...

lots of these fabrics are dutch too Tonya :-)