Iowa Quilt

This quilt is made with cotton and linen fabrics. The colors are achieved using natural (plant based) dyes. The indigo blue fabrics are hand dyed by me in my backyard, here in Austin, Texas. The  turkey red fabric is hand dyed with madder root in India using a traditional 30 day dye process. The design in inspired by traditional Amish bars quilts. This size is well suited for a queen size bed or a king size platform bed. 

True "Turkey Red" which is the bright clear red of antique cotton quilts, was achieved on cotton through a multi step dye process. The beautiful permanent red dye is harvested from the roots of the madder plant, a viney low growing shrub native to the Old World, Africa, temperate Asia and America. It has been cultivated in Europe and the Middle East for at least 5,000 years. Similar wild varieties have been used by Native Americans and in the Far East.

The blues in this quilt are created using natural Indigo. Indigo is a dye different than any other. It does not require a mordant, rather it is dyed through a living fermentation process. Vat indigo is complex and requires proper instruction, experience, commitment, and comprehension of what's going on in the dye vat and maintaing a balanced alkaline solution. To achieve dark blue I immerse the fabric in the dye bath numerous times, allowing the cloth to dry between sessions, layering the color on the cloth creates a darker blue with each dip.

Hand quilted using japanese sashiko cotton thread dyed with indigo. Sashiko quilting uses simple running stitches, slightly larger than traditional quilting stitches. The edges are finished using a double-binding technique with the same indigo dyed linen fabric from the patchwork bars design.

Machine pieced, hand quilted, hand dyed: 90 inches x 90 inches