Gallery

Pieceful Nights is a sampler quilt by Lori Smith of From My Heart to Your Hands.  It was the first Thursday Block of the Month Club's project for 2009-10.  This group of veteran quilters was captivated with "What if(s)?" and "Wow(s)" and "If you color it this way, you can see the star."  Pieceful Nights became a fascinating study in color, value and design.  The pattern has Y seams, miters, 15/16th" cutting and piecing that needs concentration.  The eighteen finished quilts were accepted as a special exhibit at the Quilt Expo in Madison, WI in September and again at the St. John's Piecemakers Quilt Show in Waunakee in October of 2010.  Thanks, Lori, for designing a pattern that gave us such a fun year.

Click on the Pieceful Nights title to see the samplers.

Take a tour of our store.  These photos give a little idea of what Mill House Quilts has to offer, but come and see for yourself.

Click on title above to take the tour.

Mill House Quilts Scrap Club hosted the second annual UglyFabric Quilt Show on June 11, 2011.  Club members chose an ugly or challenging fabric from their stash and used their creativity to turn that fabric into a beautiful quilt--lemonade out of lemons.  See what creativity can do!

Click on the above Ugly fabric Quilt Show title to see the quilts.

One of the oldest surviving examples of European quilts dates from about 1395 A.D. and is in The Victoria & Albert Museum in London. It is one of three trapunto quilts made by a group of artisans in a Sicilian workshop. The quilt depicts 14 scenes from the battle of Tristan. It may have been a wedding gift to Laodomia Acciaiuoli and Piero di Luigi Guicciardini. See the quilt at: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O98183/bed-cover-the-tristan-quilt/

Although quilting was common in Europe during the colonial times, quilting as we know it was quite uncommon in America. Many European women may have learned the art of applique, and even brought their quilted materials with them to America. But America was different. There was a shortage of fabric in America. During the 1600's, the Navigational Acts restricted the growing of cotton or production of wool. Fabric had to be imported, and as a result, was very expensive. Only wealthy women could afford to quilt. Much of the quilting was whole-cloth quilting— quilting elaborate and beautiful patterns on single pieces of cloth. The oldest remaining example of American quilting is a linen counterpane, quilted by Eve van Cortlandt; Bronx County, NY, and initialed and dated 1760. Eve was born to wealthy New York landowners in 1736. She quilted the counterpane for her dowry chest and married Henry White, a member of the King's Council, in 1761. Henry remained loyal to the King, and after the Revolution, moved his family to England. After Henry's death, Eve moved back to America, living to the age of 100.  See the quilt online at: http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&objkey=7196

The oldest known quilted objects are thought to be quilted fragments of silk from the time of  the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, from the tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zeng (433 B.C.)  Perhaps the best preserved examples of quilted materials from this time are from a woman's tomb at Mashan in Jiangling from about 300 B.C.  The coffin was covered with an embroidered silk quilt and she was wearing quilted silk outer garments, trousers and shoes.  Go online and look at these exquisitely quilted objects (Figures 23-26) from the book Chinese Silk: A Cultural History by S. J. Vainker.  See the photo at: http://books.google.com/books?id=Xy3Mb4KrEOIC&pg=PA37&dq=EASTERN+ZHOU+QUILT#PPA38,M1

The Mill House Quilts Staff Challenge was a fun event.  Each staff member was to use a pattern and fabric from the store to make anything they wished.  The variety of projects was really exciting.  You, the customers, were able to participate by voting on the different projects to decide the "winner", and those that voted for the winning project were eligible for a special prize drawing.  What a deal!  This years prize winner was Mary Joy, and the top vote getter was Cut Up.  Thanks to our staff for their terrific creations, and a special thanks to all our customers for joining us in this event.