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I had some fascinating responses to last week’s post about quilts in other countries. There was one in particular I want to share – with pictures, but before I do, I have a few items to share related to the post I did about quilting and Star Wars a few weeks ago (click here to read that post).

In that post I shared pictures of my grandson Willy with the “Flillow” I made him from Star Wars fleece. I made his sister a “flillow” too and, since I didn’t want her to feel left out, I asked Hanna to take a selfie with hers. She wears glasses and so do all the animals on the fleece in her flillow.

Hanna’s favorite craft is to make purses, etc. from decorative duct tape. Here’s the wallet she made for me. I use it to keep my coupons organized in my purse. It even has a Velcro™ closure. The theme of the tape seemed appropriate to include here  🙂 .

and then  I had the opportunity to take a picture of a Star Wars top Karen had just finished for her grandson in my Open Lab this week.

All of the large blocks are Star Wars fabrics, and she chose a setting pattern with colorful pinwheels – what fun! Great job Karen!

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Now for the “quilting in other countries” response:

Iris is a very talented quilter whom I’ve met a number of times. I knew she wasn’t a native Wisconsinite by her accent, but was pleasantly surprised when she sent me this message (it’s a bit long, but worth the read):

“I was born in Estonia and moved here after I met my wonderful husband many, many moons ago.

Here is the answer about quilts and Estonia: Estonia is rich in fabric and fiber arts (as I am sure you experienced on your trip) and every woman knows how to knit a sock or stitch a flower. We grew up with – I assume you would describe as – frontier spirit meaning you didn’t go to store to buy stuff but made them yourself. My grandma use to sew all her own dresses, blankets and knit for the whole village. However, there is not an exact tradition of quilting in Estonia (as known in America … as in get fabric – cut apart – sew back together), BUT it is coming and I have even seen some quilt (as we understand in America) shows (online pictures) and know people who practice it.

The reason for not having quilting (as known here in American) tradition is simple. Fabric was expensive and it was used only for things that you really needed like clothing etc. and quilts (except whole cloth or wool quilt) with all the cutting was considered wasteful especially when you needed to dress your whole family on a small salary and required sewing machine that many could not afford. You can however find wool quilts with stitches that didn’t require sewing machine necessarily and used wool, which was way cheaper or even free due to everyone (at least who lived outside city) raising sheep. Hence you have amazing stitched blankets with most beautiful motifs and flowers. They do look like quilts (some are even assembled from blocks) but are not traditional quilts (as we think of quilts here). they are stitched and in some ways they are way more beautiful than quilts here can ever be as with thread/yarn you can paint way more deeper colors for the perfect flowers you are stitching (does  that make sense?) vs fabric appliqué where you are stuck with whatever fabric you.

In Estonia we didn’t learn to knit or sew as in America where you have weird short version of text telling you what to do and only if you speak the “knitting/crochet/etc language” can you translate what it means. In Estonia we learned by charts for everything with universal understanding of what it means (see pic called knitting).

Your answer was wonderful as there is no such thing as traditional quilt blocks (like log cabin) in Estonian quilting (though they are coming, learnt and taught now) and I am not surprised that your friend didn’t find any shops as most shops are dedicated to fiber arts rather than quilting. Hence the only way to really do “Estonian way quilts” would be to copy/interpret flower patterns to fabric appliqué or knitting patterns into pieced quilts (as you suggested). I included a link to a book that is full of such patterns called MUHU TIKAND and can be ordered online (see below) or if you have access to such older magazines like EESTI NAINE (Estonian woman) which always carried such patterns.

https://www.apollo.ee/e-raamat-muhu-tikand.html

A really good resource is also Debroah Kendall (hope I spelled her name right) who has lot of tapestry quilts where one can get ideas for how to quilt flowers. See below link to one of her books.

http://www.connectingthreads.com/books/Euphoria_Tapestry_Quilts__D46402.html

anyway, hope it helps or gives ideas.”

I have seen some of Iris’ original designs so, when I wrote to thank her for her response and ask permission to share her email, I also asked if I could share pictures of her quilts. She was very gracious – and I know you’ll be impressed. The first one is based on Estonian embroidered designs.

This one has a similar feel and coloration.

I love the way she mixes piecing and appliqué.

And her delightful sense of humor is evident in these last two entitled the Cowboy

and Will You Marry Me:

Thank you Iris, for adding great insight into my post and for sharing your wonderful work!

This past Friday I received an email from a woman named Krystyna. Here’s what she wrote:

“Hello, I am half Estonian, born in the US and would love to connect to my heritage through quilting. I have been trying to locate a traditional Estonian quilt and hopefully one that isn’t embroidered. My searching brought me to your lovely site and I am wondering if you would have any idea of where I might find a pattern(s) for said traditional quilt(s). Or does this even exist, I can’t imagine that it wouldn’t.”

Krystyna’s request got me to thinking about all of the times Wendy and I have been preparing for one of our Sew We Go adventures, hopeful to find quilt shops and groups in the places we’ll visit, only to find – nothing.

When Wendy and I visited Tallinn, Estonia while cruising the Baltic Sea, we discovered a city with friendly people and a huge love for history, culture and art. It was our favorite port of call on that trip. We even were able to take classes from artists in the art district of the city. To read about it please go to: https://chrisquilts.net/?s=Tallinn. We found “fiber art”, but no quilts.

In composing an answer to Krystyna, I got to thinking about a woman I know who is a missionary in Tallinn. I decided to write to her and her response was not only interesting, but she had suggestions that are applicable to quilters trying to find quilting patterns from other countries. I hope you will enjoy Denise’s response:

“Hi Chris, Wow, what an interesting question. 
As hard as it is to believe, there is no tradition of quilting here. That’s the short answer!

I have been to all the handicraft and agricultural fairs here in
Estonia over the past 12 years and have never even seen a quilt, nor
have I met or heard of any women who do it, and I have looked, believe
me. Perhaps it’s a result of being shut off from the rest of Europe
for centuries, but they use textiles they can grow: flax (linen) and
wool, neither which lend themselves to quilting. The indigenous
handicrafts being actively preserved today are Estonian embroidery,
weaving, felting, knitting and crocheting, and a kind of tatting.
Neighbors just bought angora rabbits to start harvesting their own fur
to make their winter hats, scarves and mittens. She will be hard
pressed trying to connect to Estonian culture through something that
doesn’t exist. That’s the long answer.

My recommendation is to adapt the colors and patterns of Estonian
woven tapestries and interpret them into a quilt, to combine her
passion for quilting with Estonian cultural references. It is very
Estonian to create something “new” and be inventive.

Each region in Estonia is represented in dress by it’s own distinct
colorful pattern of woven woolens, which could be easily adapted to a
quilt pattern of her own design. Most are three to five colors, and in
stripes. A couple of regions vary from that norm, but in all regions
the women make skirts and belts out of “their” local textile, which
they wear on national holidays and for special events. You know
exactly where a group of women is from by the stripe of their skirt.
The following link shows some of those patterns (the first word in
each pattern is the name of the county). There are more, I just can’t
find a repository that shows them all on one page:

https://isetehtu.ee/category/triibukangas-ja-seelikud/

This link shows a gathering of people celebrating in national dress:
http://folkart.ee/en/photo-gallery/airing-of-the-folk-costumespicnic-2016/

Hope this helps. Have a great day! In His Service, Denise”

I loved the idea of taking a traditional handicraft design and making it into a quilting pattern. The links Denise provided were very nice. I also found a few pictures while surfing the web that I think are inspiring. The first two were from: https://fancytigercrafts.com/search?q=Estonia (please visit their site. The pictures and stories were great).

The following woven designs could easily be converted into pieced patterns:

And this one would be lovely in appliqué:

I hope you can see the possibilities, no matter what country you’re interested in.

Thanks so much for your question, Krystyna, and for the in-depth response from Denise.

Have you ever made a quilt pattern inspired by a traditional handcraft from another country? I’d love to know more. Please send me pictures at: .

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On the road again – from Paducah back home to Wisconsin. The weather isn’t nearly as nice. Here’s a picture as we cross the “flying geese” bridge heading north.

But oh, what a wonderful trip we had!

We really enjoyed the quilt shop and Amish dry goods stores in Arthur, IL, and we did our best to support them. I found myself saying “pace yourselves” to my new roommates, who were stocking up on a bit of beautiful fabric before we even reached Quilt City, USA! After a delicious lunch at Yoder’s we were back on our way. We made it to our B&B in time to attend the National Quilt Museum reception. It was such a privilege and a joy to see my quilt, Silly Goose, hanging with all the other amazing “Flying Goose” challenge pieces.

I’ll be doing a post on the National Quilt Museum soon, because it is a real treasure for the quilt world.

That night my sweet roommates battled their exhaustion to help hang a display of quilts in the front windows of Tribeca restaurant (one floor below where we stay). The exhibit consisted of a collection of quilts from my book “Where do I Start With Fiber Art”, along with an African themed piece made by my dear friend Laura Krasinski.

The next day we helped to hang the quilts in the AQS show. Inspiration abounded. What fun to see them up close and personal. We then were asked to hang an exhibit of European quilts from the Studio Art Quilt Alliance (SAQA) at the Paducah School of Art an Design. It was a perfect venue for a group of fascinating quilts.

After that we were finally able to set up our kitchen studio  😀 !

The remaining days were filled with great classes, lectures, vendors, food and fun. Laura joined me for my traditional “bubble tea” at Etcetera.

We met up with the Fiberistas and, aside from our second annual mexican dinner together on Saturday night, we had to do the kitschy AQS Paducah backdrop thing for our 2017 picture.

Other than our trip home, the weather was beautiful. We so enjoyed the lower town area, the murals on the flood wall, and all the wonderful quilts.

It was such a total escape from reality and a chance to recharge our batteries – and it was a lot of fun! Looking forward to Quilt Week 2018!

Were you in Paducah this year? Any pictures you’d like to share? Please email them to me at: