New take on the sampler quilt.
I drove down to the States recently and one of my stops was in Concord, near Boston where I spent 2 nights with my good friend Marianne Hatton. Marianne and I have a lot in common. Besides both being quilters, we are both originally South African. We always have a great deal to talk about over our rooibos tea.
It was great to visit Marianne’s studio and see current work on her studio wall. Marianne has just written a new book that is an exciting, fresh new take on the sampler quilt. Very impressive. It offers a creative new twist on the sampler.
Here is Marianne holding the quilt from the cover of her book, Simply Dynamic Sampler Quilts which is published by American Quilter Society. Here Marianne and I stand in front of her design wall with a new sampler quilt unfolding on it. I admired her wonderful little Elna Lot
us which is sitting in front of us. Do you remember those little gems? The perfect little workshop sewing machine. Snap one up if you see one!
The first Elna Lotus I used belong to my friend Annie. We were about 18 and Annie lent me her little treasure to sew a dress on. Aah, back in the day when we made out own dresses…remember?
I do remember. . .in 1975, I sewed my weDding dress on an Elna Lotus, which I still have today.
I still have my Elna Lotus SS which I will likely keep forever. Sewed my wedding suit, going away outfit, coat for our 2 year old son plus about 90% of my own clothes through the years. Finally bought a new computer machine for machine quilting but still use my old Elna for workshops. They also have an Elna Lotus at MOMA in NYC.
Fran
Thanks for writing about your Elnas! Thanks for writing in.
We have a project here is South Africa that use Elna machines exclusively! Great Article.