Apple Crumble

No quilting yet... Collecting apples for pies and crumbles. But what a poor crop this year! As we don't treat our trees, hoping nothing bad would happen, we found most of the apples from our unique apple tree, fallen on the ground and eaten by insects! Still the ones we saved were very sweet and did marvelous crumbles. I serve them with vanilla ice cream and freshly ground pistachio.

Antique Doll Quilts

Hi Again! Further to the previous post, I have compiled a selection of 6 antique doll quilts this time.

You can find each of them through a Quilting Stories post:

1. Brown and Pink
2. Lone Star Antique Gold Rush Doll Quilt
3. Antique Doll quilt  
4. Nine Patch 2
5. Four Patch

Vintage Toys on Antique Doll Quilt

Another passion of mine is for vintage toys, memories of my youth. My sister and me were very spoilt little girls with too many toys, but unfortunately our mother was "decluttering" obsessed and therefore was giving away all our stuff when not needed anymore. Not a single toy was saved!

Those boyish sweet toys belong to my friend Michele from our quilting group. I borrowed them to take pictures to share with you such little treasures... of course displayed on an antique doll quilt!

Antique Gold Rush Doll Quilt

This little doll quilt was part of this batch I received last year from USA. It is the most precious one to me because of the very special fabrics in it. Some of them represent scenes from the Far-West, including gold fabrics used often to recall the California Gold Rush! Although antique, the colors remained very fresh... such a sweet little quilt!

The size is 22" x 16". It is hand quilted.

Antique Doll quilt

Another antique doll quilt from this batch. This one is more faded than the others, however very charming, with its very interesting prints... Always source of inspiration.

Size 22" x 19"

Hand quilted

Amish Doll and Amish Doll Quilt

When I entered a quilting group in Athens twenty years ago, together with finding a passion for quilting, another passion was revealed to me : the Amish art and way of life. I was absolutely fascinated by this community and its history. Needless to talk about their quilting art... I discovered the incomparable beauty of their quilts. Their patterns and colors reminded me of modern art such as Vasarely's paintings. I learnt later that this painter was probably inspired by the Amish quilts.

A dream of mine was to visit an Amish community, but I thought this would happen in another life... when six years ago my eldest son moved to Chicago for his job. I went then to visit him and he had prepared a surprise for me : a road trip to Indiana where an Amish village called Shipshewana is located. We spent few days there and I thought I was in paradise, but my son was feeling rather  like being in purgatory! Anyway, we both enjoyed this wonderful area. I enjoyed the extraordinary quilt shops. I will remember this trip as one of the most beautiful I ever did and will always be grateful to my adorable son for this gift!

Before this, when I discovered the Amish art, I bought from an American book shop in Paris (there was not internet and Amazon at that time) all sorts of books, patterns... relative to the Amish way of life and quilting art.

This doll I did about twenty years ago is adapted from a 19th century pattern by a doll maker called
 Lizzie Lap.
The lack of facial features is due to Old Testament commandment against graven images.

After I finished my doll, I thought of sewing her a little quilt, and I chose the Rail Fence pattern, and
fabrics matching her clothes. It is machine pieced an hand quilted. The size is 18.50"x14". The finished blocks measure 2.125"x2.125".

Antique Doll Star Quilt

Another antique doll quilt from THIS BATCH.

As I am a "basket collector" I store most of my stuff in baskets, and here are my little antique doll quilts in this lovely Greek basket.

Cherries are my favorite fruits! I eat a lot of them during the season, and also I make marmelades, syrups and cakes. Today I will make a sour cherry cake, and write the traditional french recipe in my next post.

Nothing nicer than those small stitches!

Enjoy your Sunday!

Christine

Antique Doll Quilts

In the batch of doll quilts that I purchased last April, shown Here, were those two little quilts that look rather like table mats than like doll quilts, and that's how I use them (with care). Together, I wish to show you a pie

just out of the oven. I often cook these kinds of tarts, easy to do and always appreciated. I put zucchinis, feta cheese, emmenthal, fresh cream and two eggs. Then half an hour in the very warm stove. It is very good served with a tomato salad, or a green salad.

Enjoy your day!

Christine

Antique Doll Quilt and Bunny

Detail

Today I will show you the second antique doll quilt from the batch, previously shown in this post,
that I received in London last month.

I think that brown, beige and pink are perfectly matching colors, one of my favorite antique fabrics blends.

Nice white and blue calicot and nice hand quilting.

Books

I am a great fan of Beatrix Potter art, and those little books are remains from my childhood.

Books

For those who may be interested in Beatrix Potter art and life, I recommend this excellent film : Miss Potter, with Renee Zellweger in the role of Beatrix Potter. I was so delighted when I first saw this film, that I watched it again and again... This is one of my best films ever!

Peter Rabbit

My little porcelain bunny.

Have a beautiful creative day!
Christine