Kathleen Ware

Yesterday I watched a short video clip from of a longer video called Quilts in Women's Lives by Pat Ferraro. You can watch it at Folkstreams. The clip features three women from very different backgrounds who all are passionate about quilting. A fascinating look at quilters and this was made in 1981.
While at Folkstreams I watched a 30 minute video of Kathleen Ware, a quilter from Oregon. This video was made in 1979 and it is a real time piece. The video shows Kathleen Ware in her home where she makes and sells her quilts. The quilt she is working on during the making of the film is the Lone Star Quilt.

Forget about rotary cutters! She simply holds her template on top of several layers of fabric and cuts it out. Unbelievably for all of us rotary cutter/acrylic ruler devotees, her quilt looks fabulous in the end. Quiltmaking has grown in all directions since 1979, but these are our modern roots; the American quilting revival is often traced back to the 1976 Bicentennial.

It was especially interesting for me to watch this video because just this week I have been buying fabric for a Lone Star quilt. Don't you love synchronicity? I want to do mine in 1930s fabrics. The second picture above is from Australia and uses 1930s fabrics. I am thinking of using some of the blocks from Baltimore Country Cousins for the applique. I'm still in the dreaming stage; I don't even have a pattern yet.