It’s that time again when the guild begins to look forward to another fun year of activities and friendships. If you haven’t received your renewal form at a meeting, you can download a new form HERE. We ask that all members, current or new, complete a 2023 form so we can be sure to have all your current information.
We have attempted to contact several people who expressed interest in joining as a result of attending our Open House and/or a recent meeting. Unfortunately, the emails came back undeliverable or some other error. If you might be one of those people and have not received a membership form in the mail, you can download one from the link above. We’d love to welcome you to our group!
If you’re new to the area and are just looking to meet with people of like interests, we’d love to see you! We are an easy going friendly group. We’re doing our best to make sure everyone can participate and at this time we are able to offer meetings in-person and via Zoom. We’re doing our best to make sure everyone can participate and at this time we are able to offer meetings simultaneously in-person and via Zoom.
Michelle Banton, LittlePupDesigns.com, was the guest speaker at our October meeting. Michelle is an authorized teacher for the Dresden Neighborhood pattern designed by Kim Lapacek, and has been teaching the design since it was first released in 2015. Michelle also instructed a class for interested Guild members on the Dresden Neighborhood the following day. Unfortunately, since this writer was in the class . . . I forgot to take pictures. Hopefully, we’ll be able to have a reveal at one of our future meetings and I can capture everyone’s projects at that time.
Michelle started off her presentation with some of the history of the Dresden plate pattern. The name Dresden originates from the city that lies in the northeast area of Germany. Nearby Meissen was know for it’s porcelain and it is thought that the beautiful painted porcelain plates that were created there became the inspiration for the quilt pattern we know today.
A pattern can be considered a Dresden if the designed is created in a circle, half circle, or even a quarter circle. They can have rounded ends, pointed ends, or pretty much anything in between, as in the Dresden Neighborhood designs.
She explained that the Dresden has also been referred to as Grandmother’s Sunburst, Friendship Ring, Aster, Dahlia and Sunflower but Dresden is the most recognizable and used name. The pattern really started to become popular at the end of WWI and gained speed around the time of the Great Depression in late 1929. Since money was very tight, industrious farming wives began to make clothing and quilts utilizing the fabric sacks, which feed, flour, and sugar came in. Michelle relayed a story that her grandmother passed down to her. She would send her grandfather to the store with directions on what pattern/color sacks to buy, since one sack wouldn’t be enough to make a dress or quilt. In the 1930s Sears and Montgomery Ward companies began selling “cheater panels” printed with Dresdens.
Into the 1930s, younger women considered the Dresden a “fad pattern” and began creating them in bright colors. Women began home machine quilting businesses to supplement income. By 1934, over 400 newspapers were including quilt patterns into their publications but unfortunately, the patterns were created by writers and not quilters so very often they didn’t work.
As part of the Century of Progress theme for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, Sears, Roebuck. & Co. decided to sponsor a national quilt contest and put up $7,500 in prize money. That’s nearly $140,000 today. Margaret Caden was announced the winner but it wasn’t without controversy. Read what happened HERE.
Below are some of the samples Michelle brought along. You can see how varied the Dresden Neighborhood can be; from color wheels to themes of all types, even sizes of the spokes. The pattern calls for using an 18 degree template, which makes 20 spokes. However, by changing the degree of the template you can increase or decrease the number of spokes while also changing their width. The only limit is your imagination.
We want to thank Michelle for her time and patience and would welcome her back to our neighborhood any day!
If you follow our blog at all, you may have seen a post on August 19 regarding Joey Santangelo, son of Holly, a Crazy Quilters member. Joey qualified to enter his amazing Asian inspired jacket, titled Goldfish, into the Pacific International Quilt Festival, which ran from October 13-16 in Santa Clara, CA. This is a juried and judged competition. Juried means your art piece will first be reviewed and evaluated for it to be included in the event. Judged means approved works for exhibit will be evaluated to determine which pieces will win and at what level, ie. first, second, etc. So basically, you have to first qualify before your artwork is even accepted. This creates a highly competitive standard and showing of works of the highest quality.
We have just learned that Joey has won 1st Place in the Wearable Art Competition in the Vest, Jacket or Coat category. This does not surprise us and as we said in our first post, we are all so proud of him as if he were our own son or grandson! The link to the winners gives little information other than the category and name of the quilt. I have searched for the artist’s statement describing his jacket but to no avail.
I would try to see if Joey could provide us with more details but he is busy again in London working as a costume designer. I’m sure he referred to many of the skills he’s learned designing costumes for the theatrical shows he’s been involved in and yes, from his experience working as part of the costume team on the production of Bridgeton – seasons 1 and 3 for the character Daphne. Use this LINK to look back on some of Daphne’s season 1 costumes. Joey had a hand in making 7 of Daphne’s 100 costumes worn. Here’s another LINK with a follow-up article from his former college with a little more of Joey’s history regarding how he got involved working for the Bridgeton team.
UPDATE –JACKET CONSTRUCTIONS FROM JOEY SANTANGELO: It’s a quilted doublet made from a self-drafted pattern. Although it’s not period accurate, I think it definitely evokes the correct period.
The fabric was made by me by cutting strips of red fabric and then arranging them in an ombre pattern from the bottom to the top. The red scraps were arranged and held in place by a few little dots of tacky glue. It’s on a base layer of muslin. I placed red tulle over the piece. Together with a layer of batting and cotton as the base I quilted through the layers with gold thread. Where the gold thread quilting lines crossed, I stitched a gold seed bead.
The fish were created using the collage style quilting where you cut scraps of fabric and then arrange them into the shapes you want. It was a lot like painting. After the fish were made, they also got a layer of tulle over them and different lines of machine quilting were added to create the intricate features of the fish.
Finished with gold buttons embellished with Swarovski crystals and gold aglets at the end of the shoulder ties.
Again, we wish Mr. Santangelo (Joey to his quilting “moms”) all the best in his future endeavors and will look forward to many more beautiful works of art whether they are on stage, the screen, or in another competition.
Our 2022 Open House/Quilt Show is in the bag and it was a huge success! Lots of happy visitors and great feedback.
The winner of the 2022 Raffle Quilt was a very shocked Ginger Rabesa.
Unfortunately, I’m unable to post the walkthrough video of the show but if you go over to our Facebook page, Crazy Quilters of Cape Cod, you’ll find it there.
We’ve been hard at work cutting, sewing, creating, and hanging quilts and we’re ready for you to come and visit us today, October 8, at our Open House/Quilt Show at the Gus Canty Community Center, 790 Main Street, Falmouth from 10:00-4:00.
This is the largest number of quilts we’ve ever had on display and quite a few are for sale so come take a look. We also have our Raffle Quilt and will be selling tickets for the last time today as the drawing will take place at the close of the show, so don’t miss your chance to win this beautiful quilt.
RAFFLE QUILT – $1 for 1 Ticket / $5 for 6 Tickets
Thank you to everyone who worked really hard to hang the quilts and price and set up the Boutique Table. Your hard work is really appreciated and we’re going to have a great show!!
Crazy Quilters of Cape Cod 