Measuring 280 cm X 280 cm and using 15 embroidery thread colors, a superlative embroidered quilt was created within 14 years.
Why am I featuring a quilt on my blog, which mainly focuses on Schwalm whitework?
I’m doing this to pay tribute to an outstanding achievement and to share my enthusiasm for beautiful handicrafts with others.
It wasn’t only in the Schwalm region that it was once common to richly decorate textiles with embroidery. However, particularly magnificent and elaborate examples were created there, as can easily be seen when visiting the museums in Ziegenhain and Holzburg.
Bed coverings, for example, were status symbols. A great deal of time and effort was invested in their lavish and exquisitely detailed embroidery. These pieces were used for decades, and subsequent generations also enjoyed these luxurious treasures.
Schwalm Bed Covering dated 1876
Today, such elaborately handcrafted pieces are rarely produced anymore. Times are too fast-paced, and fashion tastes change too quickly.
Therefore, I have not often been able to report on contemporary voluminous embroideries made by a single embroiderer.
There is the imposing, fabulous sampler by Rosemarie Landsiedel-Eicken.
There is the extraordinary bedspread by Gertrude Vorwerk.
There is the dreamy round Schwalm tablecloth by brubi
There is my large sampler, which was originally intended as a bedspread and now serves as a wall hanging.
There is the hand-stitched boutis by Heather Harteneck.
And there is the hand-embroidered and hand-quilted bed covering for a child’s bed by Waltraud Kater from Wagga Wagga in Australia.
When I presented this quilt in 2017, I was also able to show a picture of her large bedspread that was in progress.
Now her dream of a quilt as a bedspread for the double bed has come true – the masterpiece is finished and we are allowed to take a look at it!
She started it in 2011. She made a rough sketch outlining how the dream project should be put together.
Since Waltraud had no prior experience in embroidery, she first took a course to learn the necessary basics. There she embroidered her first square measuring 30 cm X 30 cm.
Block 1
Eight more squares of this size should follow.
Block 2
She continued her education and independently acquired further stitches and filling patterns through literature.
Block 3
The designs for her quilt were taken from many books and magazines, from photos and also Persian carpets.
Block 4
Block 5
Block 6
Block 7
Block 8
The first pictures reached me in 2012. At that time, she had just finished the center section of the bedspread. She had used a pattern from one of my books. The fabric had warped under the pattern. Looking for a solution, she slit the fabric open at that point from the back and lined it.
Block 9
This made the (burgundy) petals stand out in three dimensions. She repeatedly and effectively used this technique, which was actually born out of necessity, in prominent locations.
Waltraud put a tremendous amount of effort into creating the patterns and shapes. She consulted many books and other sources. The following books helped her in her search for interesting stitch combinations and fillings:
Mountmellick Embroidery – Yette Stanton & Prue Scott
Crewel Jacobean Embroidery – Hazel Blomkamp
A Fine Tradition – Margaret Light
Early Schwalm Whitework – Luzine Happel
The outlines of decorative fabrics and oriental carpets also served as inspiration.
She gathered a wealth of inspiration and then developed all the blocks, triangles, and borders one after the other. To do this, she copied the patterns from the various sources onto tracing paper with a pencil and, if necessary, enlarged them to the desired size using a scanner and computer. These templates were then glued together to create a 1:1 model of the bed covering.
Afterwards, tracing paper or tissue paper and the fabric for the individual parts of the quilt were cut and given final boundary lines (edges) so that the fabric pieces could be aligned precisely later.
All the outlines were accurately traced onto the paper cutouts from the templates. Then she sketched her idea of the filling patterns into the outlines.
The following example shows a part of the block stitched above – block 9.
This is also how the 3-meter-long borders were created; that is, the templates were cut in one piece, measuring 3 meters long and 50 centimeters wide. As the penultimate step, the template was placed on the light box, and the cut fabric was placed on top. The final step was then “simply” tracing the patterns onto the fabric with a Pilot Frixion Ball, because the resulting lines can later be removed with heat (with iron or hairdryer).
The nine squares of the central section are joined by narrow, dusty rose-colored stripes, giving the rhombus a side length of 110 cm.
The central rhombus is surrounded by four triangles. Each pair of triangles displays the same pattern in mirror image.
The triangles are connected to the rhombus by slightly wider strips.
In the end, the bottom triangles look like this
and the top triangles like this:
A few detailed images reveal specifics and show the variety of stitches used. (Clicking on the images will enlarge them.)
The story continues in the next post.
