Misty Mountain is a mercantile in the South Fork Amish/Mennonite community.
While its stock of goods caters particularly to locals of those persuasions it has items of interest to those of us who live a simpler rural lifestyle.
The section of kitchenware is alluring with quality bakeware, cutlery, everything needed for canning and preserving. What you will not find there is electrical appliances.
There is a selection of fabrics used by the plain people for garment construction, as well as most of the gadgetry desired by quilters. I often buy thread, sewing machine needles, rotary cutter blades there.
Two aisles in the store are given over to books, stationary, greeting cards, as well as picture books for small children, all of a type considered suitable for the Amish community.
A display of Leaning Tree cards is there for those who are more 'English' minded.
In the back of the store are utility items: brooms, mops, shovels, canning jars, small hand tools.
When building our present house we purchased our wood-burning stove there.
Whatever my errand at Misty Mountain I detour to the area where quilts are displayed, for sale on consignment.
Some are vintage, others more recently constructed.
Most are machine pieced, hand quilted.
The precision of workmanship varies but is usually fine quality.
Today I noticed that the display had been altered since last time I was in.
I'm sharing my photos for those who are interested in stitchery.
Sadly, the fabrics used in the quilts aren't 'quilt shop' quality.
The store stocks reprints of calicos that were popular in the early 1980's when there was first a renewed general interest in quilt making. When my late friend Edie Robie and I began constructing quilts many of these same prints were produced by VIP and Cranston Print Works, but in a better quality fabric.
A beautifully pieced and quilted Broken Lone Star; quilting detail below.
Classic 6 point Lone Star with 'clam shell' quilting in the white areas.
I believe this pattern is Wedding Ring--I should check on that.
A white whole cloth quilt, sometimes referred to as a Bride's Quilt.
The quilt is protected by a clear plastic sleeve that caused distortion in my photo, however the quality of the stitching should be evident.
Quilt constructed from identical hand-embroidered blocks.
This older quilt doesn't display the usual quality of work.
The tag notes that it was hand-pieced and machine quilted. This was done on a standard sewing machine--a difficult task. As you can see, the layers of fabric bunched creating wrinkles and wobbling lines of stitches.
A display of colorful scrappy quilts. The lozenge-shaped pieces of the one in upper left were hand whipped together with a variation of a herringbone stitch that I've not seen before.
Oh thank you - nearly good as being there myself. That looks like a Wedding Ring quilt - sadly the ones here are mostly made in India - originals came over about 30 years ago. I had one for mum's bed. Now they turn up in auctions and fleamarkets as "hand made quilts" (e.g. British handmade).
ReplyDeleteI was of course carefully looking at the stitching - some lovely hand-quilting there. My speciality. Interesting to see the quilting patterns on the white quilt. My eye is tuned in to the Welsh designs, esp. Carmarthenshire, and also Durham quilting patterns.
Jennie; I had one of the imported Wedding Ring quilts years ago [I gave it away] the hand quilting was decent, but the fabrics not good quality. A number of local Amish women do custom quilting at a reasonable fee. Mind you, they don't have electric light! One of our neighbors told me that on a dark day she works with a tiny flashlight held between her teeth [which are most certainly false teeth!] Often they do 'echo quilting' which is the simplest, following the outline of individual patchwork pieces. Not sure how they mark a quilt for elaborate designs --feathers, scrolls and such, but it has to be a tedious process.
DeleteI find myself liking the imperfect quilt more than the perfect ones.
ReplyDeleteThe piecing on that quilt is pretty accurate. I believe it was made by an Old Order Amish woman--the Old Order people are the true 'plain people' not allowed to have 'print' fabrics in garments or soft furnishings. Shades of blue are standard for them.
DeleteLovely quilts with countless hours of painstakingly slow stitching. I find myself drawn to what you refer to as white whole cloth Quilts.
ReplyDeleteI hope you're having a good day, Granny M
GM; The whole cloth quilts really showcase fine hand stitching. I doubt an all white quilt was often used on the bed.
DeleteBeautiful quilts with so much love and workmanship involved. The mercantile sounds like a great place to shop for those practical things that are so hard to find these days. It's a shame that the quality of fabric has changed and is so expensive now. I find myself searching flea markets and yard sales for unused vintage fabric just for the quality and price.
ReplyDelete