Contrary to popular belief, most Amish quilts are not quilted at a community quilting bee. Instead they are often single family projects where a quilt is put in the quilting frame during winter and worked on every day for several weeks until it's finished.
Every once in a while especially if the quilt is a community project, such as the families want to give the teacher a quilt as a token of their appreciation, all the mothers pitch in to help get it quilted by having a quilting bee or two.
A lot of women and older single girls often supplement income by quilting quilts for local Amish quilt shops. At fifty cents a yard you can often earn between $150 to $300 quilting a quilt. Quilts at these shops as you can guess have not been quilted at a quilting bee.
This quilt, I quilted the first winter after we were married. It took me almost a month to get it done.
Just a month!! Would have taken me forever!! :-)
ReplyDeleteWorking on it all day every day with out distractions from children or any technology made that possible.
DeleteI made my first quilt last year at 71 - a simple baby quilt. My goal is to finish one like this. Your work is exquisite! But where can one find material for 50 cents/yard???
ReplyDeleteQuilters measure the thread they use to handquilt the quilt. The quilt shop brings the pieced quilt top to the quilter, she measures off thread a yard at a time to quilt. Thus the 50 cents a yard. A simple quilt takes around three hundred yards of thread to quilt, more intricate patterns can take much more.
DeleteThat sounds like only $1-2 per hour.
DeleteThat's another reason why I never wanted to quilt to supplement our income. A lot of work for a little bit of money.
DeleteAbsolutely beautiful!!
ReplyDeleteThank-you!
DeleteI started a quilt when The Squire and I got engaged. We've been married almost 40 years and it's not done yet!
ReplyDeleteI have a few quilts I pieced before we were married that are still waiting to be quilted. I don't enjoy quilting, at all. I do want to teach my daughters how to quilt so maybe in the next few years we'll tackle them.
DeleteSo beautiful. I still have the quilt my grandmother made for me when I was a little girl.
ReplyDeleteThank-you!
DeleteWhat a treasure you have!
I've made only three queen size quilts-all handle quilted but machine pieced. I can understand the time involved in each of these works of art.
ReplyDeleteYour is absolutely gorgeous.
Blessings,
Betsy
Thanks! Hand quilting really is time consuming.
DeleteIts beautiful Mary Ann...have you and your girls quilted together? Wishing you and yours a blessed Easter Sunday
ReplyDeleteThank-you. No, the girls and I haven't tried quilting together. Maybe in the next few years I'll have to try teaching them that art.
DeleteWhat a lovely quilt. I think doing it in a month is pretty good! It would take me ages.
ReplyDeleteThank-you! It is one of my favorite quilts. It would take me longer than that to do a quilt now with all the interruptions I would have.
DeleteGood morning Mary Ann,
ReplyDeleteAgain, just beautiful !! This is just soooo pretty !! I looked to buy one of these when in Lancaster, but, the were very expensive ....... some like 500-600 dollars !!! So, I had to pass, but, next time MAYBE !! They are truly a piece of heart ..... amazingly, talented women ... Have a happy day my friend ~Tanza~
They are really expensive, but they last for generations. The price is also why I make my own instead of buying them.
DeleteYour quilt is just beautiful! Those quilts in the Amish shops are SO expensive, and now I know why! Lovely, though.
ReplyDeleteThank-you. I agree they're really expensive, but the quilters need to make a living too. :)
DeleteI really love the colors you chose! It's so beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI was really happy with how it turned out.
DeleteWhat a beautiful quilt! My Grandmother hand pieced each of her grandchildren and some of her great-grandchildren a quilt top (my daughter was the last one). My Mom sent ours off to all be machine quilted. They are beautiful. I have a quilt that was made by my great grandmother and hand quilted by my great-aunt. I love to make baby quilts but it's all done by machine.
ReplyDeleteHaving a quilt made by your grandmother is such a treasure.
DeleteWow so beautiful! Can see the hard work put into this quilt, what a treasure it must be!
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad to still have this quilt! It was one of the last projects my Mom helped me figure out. The pattern was more challenging than I had realized when I chose to make it.
Deletepretty nice blog, following :)
ReplyDeleteThank-you!
Deletepretty nice blog, following :)
ReplyDeleteThis is amazing! First of all ~ thank you for visiting me! I will be your newest follower!
ReplyDeleteI make denim quilts but they are a whole different breed from the Amish works of art! I have always been fascinated by the Amish and look forward to getting to know YOU! Easter blessings to you and yours !
Thanks for following. I have never tried making a denim quilt, I bet they're very nice and warm!
DeleteYour quilt is so very, very beautiful! I want to learn how to quilt, but don't want to do it on a sewing machine, because I don't know how to use one. I do, however, know how to sew with a needle and thread lol.
ReplyDeleteA quilt made entirely by hand is a real treasure!
DeleteYour quilt is beautiful! I have made a couple of quilts but sadly I paid someone else to do the quilting and finishing of them:(
ReplyDeleteAs much as I'm procrastinating when it come to quilting my quilt tops I may have to pay someone to do the quilting for me. I really, really dislike hand quilting.
DeleteYour quilt is absolutely GORGEOUS!
ReplyDeletehttp://romisdg.blogspot.jp/
One month is an amazing time to finish a quilt in. My first one took 7 months (all hand sewn) and it was nowhere near as large as yours. The hand quilting really does take lots of time. A xx
ReplyDeleteI love your quilt! Absolutely gorgeous!
ReplyDelete