Quilts are the biggest pieces of art most people can put in their homes. They can be bright and bold, soft and subtle, traditional, or avant-garde. In any event, the first reaction to a well designed quilt is WOW!
What’s more well designed, hand-made quilts are amazing bargains. Today, quilters in Pennsylvania earn less $2.00 per hour for their work. Hopefully, with the demand for such good quilts increasing, their earnings and the price of their quilts will rise.
Quilting is centuries old, and involves simply running stitches to anchor a soft filler between two layers of fabric. These stitches traditionally follow a systematic pattern to create a subtle textured fabric surface. The quilting pattern alone is, typically, the only source of decoration on the back-side of an Amish or Mennonite style quilt. The top fabric layer of an Amish or Mennonite style quilt is normally a patchwork, and may include appliqués. Part of the challenge of designing a quilt is the melding of the design of the patchwork (and/or appliqués) with the pattern of quilting stitches.
The traditional quilting block patterns (Log Cabin, Lone Star, Bear’s Paw, etc.) are used alone or in combination to make Amish or Mennonite style quilts.