- Today we hit the trail out west for our show, Western Wonders.

Discover quilt possibilities as we see cowboy printed fabrics plus a collection of reproduction fabric from a quilt shop in downtown Bozeman, Montana.

Good boy.

♪ Could you imagine a more clever object ♪ ♪ Warms the body ignites the mind ♪ ♪ A child sleeps under mother's creation ♪ ♪ Together forever.

♪ ♪ The art of the heart ♪ ♪ And design of the mind ♪ ♪ Puts you to bed one day at a time ♪ ♪ Be art of the heart and design of the mind.

♪ - [Announcer] "Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel" is made possible in part by grants from Omnigrid, the original patented black and yellow ruler, by Leisure Arts, publisher and distributor of needle work and craft publications, including an assortment of quilt books and related products.

Additional funding by Fairfield Processing.

maker of poly-fil brand products for the home sewing quilt and craft industries, and by Bernina, delivering sewing technology and education to sewers worldwide.

- Today, you will feast your eyes on the latest styles out west.

Is it the big sky landscape?

Maybe the mountain peaks, or maybe the great streams for trout fishing?

All this scenery results in a new character to the quilts.

First, let's discover where quilters do their shopping for that precious commodity fabric right here on Main Street.

Hi, Margo.

- Hi, Georgia.

- I'm in quilt heaven.

Oh, good.

- If we only had television today, it would be complete.

What makes your shop unique to other quilt shops?

- We carry a large selection, about 600 bolts of reproduction fabric, and we go from an early pre-1890s type of print down to The Depression era.

- Well, let's look at a few of 'em.

- Okay.

- Tell me about them.

- Well, these are some wonderful new ones that have just come in.

Here's an excellent example of a chrome green, which was a real popular color back then.

I've heard it called poison green, also.

Down here are some Madders.

Madder was a natural dye that can give you a color from a tomato red down to a nice rusty brown.

That's a very good way to date a quilt is by a color that was in the quilt.

We move on to some double pinks.

These were originally got their name by being printed with a pink.

Very, very fine line to give a background and then overprinted with another design, so they were called double pinks.

In pre-1890s, we also have some very nice indigos that were available.

Some electric blues.

- Lots of character in these.

Yes.

- Strong.

- A lot stronger.

- Strong, real dramatic type patterns, very strong colors.

This is an example- - Tell me about these.

- Oh, this one, we call electric seaweed.

Isn't it wonderful?

- [Georgia] [laughing] Yes.

- This is from a group called Pilgrim and Roy.

- [Georgia] And give me a date around here on this one.

- I'd say about 1850 to about 1900 has a real strong masculine look to this whole group.

Another example of an ombre stripe, which was a shaded type of dye and then overprinted, so it gave some character that the pattern before they had a lot of technology for print.

Post civil war, we had some major socioeconomic changes.

Changes in the cotton industry, and Prince Albert had died, and Queen Victoria was in mourning and the prince tended to get to be dark, monochromatic, tight, little neat prints.

Lots of navies, soldier blues, Turkey reds, still double pinks, and the lights were the shirtings.

- [Georgia] Oh, I see my grandmother's apron there, too.

- Yes!

[Georgia chuckles] Also shaker grays.

These were called half mornings or shaker gray.

Sometimes they have a little brown tone to 'em, and they're called chocolates.

And these were through the ladies that were through with the year of deep morning in black, and they would wear a shaker gray print.

Post World War I, Germans had to give up aniline dye formulas as part of war reparations.

American chemists got ahold of those, and in the 1924 Sears catalog, you start to see the lemon yellow, lilac, which was a good, and my favorite are the novelties.

- Yes, yes.

- By the 1926 catalog from Sears, you have mainly these Depression era prints, but just still a couple dark prints for the ladies that were in mourning and were never going to wear anything but black, navy, or gray.

- Margo, here's a collection of blocks.

Now that we've seen the reproduction fabrics, maybe you can fill in some of the blanks.

Not only the name, but maybe some clues to some of the The fabrics.

- Sure.

This is was called double squares, Jack-in-the-pulpit, or broken dishes.

The fabrics are from around the turn of the century.

This is an excellent example of an early indigo print.

More indigos.

Here's another one.

This is an example of a later, more like 1915, 1920 indigo design.

Also the shaker grays that we had talked about.

Good shirting print behind it.

Another shaker gray, and can't you just see this as a woman's blouse?

Another shirting stripe and a lovely shaker here.

They were called half mornings, or chocolates, or purples depending the shade of gray.

Good example of a purple.

Soldier blue coordinate with it.

And then double pinks with the fine line and the overprint of the pink.

- Now if I were gonna put these into a quilt, give me some hints as to sashing choices.

- I think a indigo would make a good sashing against a block like that, maybe even against one like this.

That would work nicely for you.

- [Georgia] Let's see some of these fabrics and your quilts.

- [Margo] Okay!

This one is a classic example of a pre-1890s.

It's an album quilt made by Joyce Morgan, and the sashing print is a reproduction that is actually in the original quilt, along with double pinks and electric blues, and some great chrome greens.

- [Georgia] And now, we're going to more the turn of the century.

- [Margo] The turn of the century.

This is a reproduction from a quilt from Kentucky from 1900.

It's made by my daughter Megan, and it's called "Zigzag", and it's a log cabin variation.

- [Georgia] Margo, this has the best feeling to it and it looks real old.

- [Margo] Yes, it's a reproduction of a 1930s pattern, improved nine patch with 1930s fabrics, and it's beautifully hand-quilted.

It's made by Gil Holzer from here in Bozeman.

- [Georgia] Stars have never looked so good.

Now, at one time, these were natural dyes.

- [Margo] Yes, these are reproductions of the natural dyes.

The first synthetic dye was discovered by William Perkins in 1856.

He was a chemist trying to produce a synthetic quinine, and was splashing some solutions on his lab coat, and couldn't remove the color and was the first discovery of a synthetic dye from coal tar derivatives.

- [Georgia] Are we lucky for that?

[laughs] - [Margo] The first one was mauve.

This is an example of a coal tar derivative mauve print right here.

Several more stars by Judy Schwender here of Bozeman, and some good examples of an electric blue, double pinks that we had talked about earlier.

- My wall hanging is called "Big Sky Country".

A western trip inspired a new view of mountains.

This time, equal parts sky that echo a repeat mountain range, and sunrise and sunset colors are interrupted by a couple of streams that are appliquated in place.

Welcome back to our studio.

Since our visit, there have been a few changes.

The quilt shop in Bozeman is now called Bear Comforts, and Margo is primarily a mail order business called Patchworks for reproduction fabric, catering to period apparel and decor used by museums, the theater, the movie industry, and, of course, quilts.

She shared a few selections with me.

Aren't they beautiful?

The antique medallion quilt is our lesson today.

The essence of traditional patchwork is featured in this medallion quilt.

I acquired this quilt top and a collection of quilts from the Charleston, South Carolina area, replacing a few patches plus elongating the top with the addition of opposite piece bands and an outer border give this quilt a whole new life.

It was quilted by Marie Detweiler.

Remaking classic quilts can present many challenges, but considering our new methods and updated tools, it becomes a piece of cake.

The center block is called Seven Sisters.

There are seven stars in that particular block and we're gonna concentrate on just one star.

Now, it's a 60-degree diamond, and it's a one inch diamond.

So we know from raw edge to raw edge, we'll cut out one and a half inch strips.

I've done a dark and a light calico.

I simply cut the strips.

Go ahead and introduce your 60-degree angle right on that raw edge and cut that.

Once that's been cut, you know that from that raw edge you would then come to your one and a half inch again.

And that means that for each star, I would cut out three light and three dark diamonds.

Now, by sewing those together in sets of three, staggering your seams and coming across, machine stitching those together, and making sure that outside angle to stop at the quarter inch.

So you'll have that free loose seam allowance, allows the hexagons to set in place.

You'll need six of those hexagons to connect all of the seven stars.

And then I'd appliquate that on your foundation.

I'm gonna give you a nice tip to work and cut out hexagons, and I'm gonna do it on a larger scale.

Makes it a little bit easier to see.

I have cut a band of six-inch muslin, and go ahead, introduce that 60-degree angle again and cut.

Once that's been cut, then I would turn this, and from that first cut, six inches again.

Now, half of six is three.

Going to my obtuse angle, both on opposite sides, line up my ruler with three inches and three inches, and simply cut once, and then line up again and cut again.

Making sure that they're both lined up on the obtuse angle.

Knowing that when I was sewing that together because of my seam allowance on each end, I would have a height of five and a half inches.

Now for our star pattern, the star block can be pieced in three rectangles.

It's comprised of a large center square, four sets of flying geese.

You can see where those go.

And once they are connected with the corner squares, your block is all done.

That same star is represented in the four corners too of that band.

The quarter square triangle is next.

Going back to our calculator, we added an inch and a quarter to that flying geese long side.

Cut two out dark and light with the right sides together and one diagonal, we would then stitch on either side, cutting that apart, reposition those, pressing the close seams to the dark, and repositioning them one other line, machine stitch on each side of that, and when we cut apart, we have two sets of quarter square triangles.

Remember to prune those dog ears, and on the back, open those seams so you have a nice, flat intersection on the backside.

Split flying geese is the next band.

It alternates between a dark band and then a light band, one and a half inches by three.

Immediately you can see the quick piecing going on in this band.

The little half square triangle is made by placing two contrasting fabrics together.

Diagonal line, machine stitching on either side, and then cutting apart not only on the diagonal, but the quarter section, too, to reveal that half square triangle.

Once that's been pressed and dog ears trimmed off, then we're gonna add more triangles on either side to build it up larger.

Now in order to get that measurement, all we need to do is take half a three, which is 1.5 on our calculator, and then plus 1 and a quarter.

Remember, that's the extension that we add.

So, two and three quarters is the square that we would cut apart on the diagonal once and twice to give us those triangles that would be added on either side of the half square triangle.

To complete it, larger triangles.

Now for the triangle zigzag border.

It's made up of two bands that come together stitched as one to create that zigzag look.

I turn to Seminole techniques here, going ahead, and with a 45-degree angle, cut the dark and the light colors out together.

But this time, on the bias.

Once they have been cut on the bias, machine stitch a quarter inch, open it up, cut apart every two and five eighths inch, and you can see that once they are cut apart, you are going to slide that down until your seam comes right down to allow for the quarter inch.

Re-stitch each of those together ala Seminole.

Then I'm going to come, and with my ruler, lining up the right angle with the quarter inch.

Can you see how I've got that quarter inch lined up right here?

Then I'm ready to trim off, and what happens is I get a nice straight of the grain, and that's because I started with bias.

Realign those, machine stitch together so the inside right angle is at the midpoint of the long side of that triangle.

What a nifty border.

There are stars in each of the corners.

Squares on point.

Seminole technique, too.

This gets kind of tricky, but I know you can do it.

Notice that there are three sets of bands.

The first one, bright bands cut.

The narrow ones are cut an inch and three eighths.

Bias cut on either side are three in three eighths.

Then you're going to a combination of bright and dark, the same measurements in and three eighths, three and three eighths.

The dark band, inch and three eighths, and then the wider one, all cut on the bias on the outside.

Stitch those together, cut 'em apart an inch and three eighths, and then re-stitch them.

This time, you are staggering them each time, and they alternate.

Dark, a combination, and then the bright, a combination again, and then the dark.

So they do alternate and you need twice as much as this as the other two.

Good luck.

Flying geese.

I know you're ready for something simple on this next to the last band.

Many shades of brown make up this band.

I'm using an aqua green here.

One large triangle with two small light triangles become the sky.

Use that 45-degree angle to line up, machine stitch and flip back, and then add the next one.

Notice that it's nice to press the seams to the outside, and make sure you've got that quarter inch on that right angle at the top.

The classic LeMoyne star in a six-inch block makes up the final border.

Notice that we have one star set aside here to show you how that block is made.

The diamond itself, from raw edge to raw edge, is an inch and three quarters.

Here we can use our 45-degree angle to cut out those points.

This time, dark and light calico, cut in one and three quarter inch strips, and then cut that out using our 45-degree angle.

Swing that around, and from that cut edge, cut an inch and three quarters again.

Now, I like to piece that in halves.

In other words, I'd get the twos sewn together, and then the twos will go into fours.

Make sure that your seams are staggered going in opposite directions and get rid of that extra, those dog ears here in the middle.

Line those up, and once those are sewn, you're ready to stitch in your triangles.

The reason I like to start with the triangles is because the 45-degree angles line up very nicely.

Once I stitch those starting at the inside, then swing that around and, once again, go to that inside angle to start stitching.

With that lined up, I do back stitch at the very beginning.

Start, back stitch, and then all the way out to that point.

When that has been all pieced, I would then go ahead and trim off any excess, because that allows you to take your square and line that up exactly with that 90 degree.

Machine stitch once again, stopping at that inside right angle, and then swinging that around.

I hope you enjoy making all those six-inch squares.

Do try at least one band of the antique medallion.

Next time, we're going to the nine quarter circle ranch where you're gonna learn how to use all those fabrics that have been printed with rodeos and cowboys on them.

Now, I wouldn't have finished this if I didn't have my Gammill quilting machine.

So I'd like you to now meet Mr. Ken Gammill, who's gonna tell us about professional quilting machines.

Welcome, Ken.

- [Ken] Thanks, Georgia.

- What are some of the differences in a Gammill machine and the home sewing machine when used for quilting today?

- Well, obviously, the machine is large and has a large throat capacity, and it comes with a large stand, and then it also has two sets of controls, one on either end.

It has a hopping foot and a double capacity bobbin, and then, also, the machine moves.

It's hand-guided, so it's mobile.

- Now with these features, tell me how that can be an advantage, each one of those to the operator.

- Well the large throat simply allows the machine to stitch around extremely large patterns, and also quilt a large area before the fabric has to be rolled on to the pickup roller.

- And why two sets of handles?

- Well, the machine versatility is the reason that we put two sets of handles on it.

When a person wants to do a pattern that they're unfamiliar with, they can have it on paper, and trace it with the stylus.

And that's the thing that we do from this side with this set of controls.

When you want to do outline quilting, or freestyle quilting, or channel quilting straight lines, then you must operate it from the other side.

- And I like to write messages on my quilts, too.

- Right.

- And I would do that on this side.

- Yes - Yes.

Now, tell me about that hopping foot.

- Well, the hopping foot simply allows the machine to step over thick seams and over thick fiber fill rather than slide over it, and it causes the machine to do a better job.

Has less problems with thread by having the foot hop up and down.

- I see.

So the fabric is held taut, and this time, the head and the needle move just the opposite of one on a home machine.

- Right, we say it's a more natural motion, really, because when people move there, when people draw or write, they move their pencil, not their paper.

- Well, this is all very interesting, but I wanna see you work it.

Let's see, the operator go to town.

- Okay.

Positioner, which I will- - I was anxious to see Ken work his quilting machine.

He first used the needle positioner to draw up the bobbin thread to the top side to make a quilter's knot.

- And I'll turn- - He then demonstrated the channel lock used to guide horizontal lines, and then he showed how easy vertical straight lines are made.

- [Ken] Block off.

[sewing machine whirring] And just push it, and it will go in a straight line.

- [Georgia] You have made a square.

How nice!

Using the stylus and the continuous design on the other side of the machine, Ken was able to rapidly quilt a rose in the square.

[sewing machine whirring] [sewing machine whirring] - [Ken] And there you have a rose in the center of a block.

- How lovely.

To highlight the rose, Ken tightly quilted the surrounding area in a stippling style, - And this way, you're moving it at your speed, the most comfortable speed you can find.

[sewing machine whirring] - Beautiful.

- Okay.

I can raise the needle, and move the machine, and clip off my, or bring the bobbin thread to the top side with the needle positioner.

And, of course, I could leave a long thread and do the quilter's knot if I desired to.

- Yes, right.

But that's just beautiful.

These machines work equally well with today's new metallic threads.

You can also load metallic thread in the bobbin.

- [Ken] Controller on it, and I'm using 30 now.

It has a possible 100.

- [Georgia] Is this your only model?

- No, actually, we have five models.

This one is in the middle of the five.

There's a model just under this one in size that is very, very popular because it's large enough to do a king size quilt.

And it does have the convenience of the two controls.

People do not want to give up the two controls.

- [Georgia] I know Well, you brought that with us.

- Yes.

- Will you?

I'm anxious to see it.

- Georgia, this is our new model.

We call it the Premier.

A slightly downsized machine from the other one that you saw, and it has some of the same features that the other one has, such as the two-way control.

Very popular with people who want to do king size quilts all the way down to placemats.

I would like to demonstrate it to you.

- [Georgia] Okay.

- On the bow tie pattern, and I'm doing stippling where there's no bow tie to emphasize the bow tie.

[sewing machine whirring] This particular pattern allows you to go from one end of this quilt to the other without stopping.

[sewing machine whirring] - Now when you finish, Ken, and it starts accumulating on this roll.

What happens then?

- Well, then you must elevate the roller, because when the fabric touches the bed of the machine, it causes resistance on the movement.

- Mm-hmm.

- And you can go to the end where you'll find a crank that when you turn the crank to the left, it will elevate both ends of the pickup roller.

- [Georgia] In just one step, you can do that.

- Right.

- That's great.

Well, two points I wanted to mention, Ken, in this wonderful demonstration you've given us and that is that I believe men are just as interested in working the machine.

Don't you find there are a lot of male operators?

- We do have lots of men operators and they enjoy the quilting very much.

- And, also, if anyone is experiencing any arthritis, they don't need to even think about giving up quilting now they have a new opportunity to very easily just hold onto the handles and use the machine.

- That's true.

- Yes.

Well, the only way to end is with a wonderful quilt.

So let's pull over the bow tie and get a chance to see what it looks like when it's all finished, and we can't thank you enough, Ken, for sharing your time and energy with us today, and also for bringing these wonderful samples that we can now gaze on.

And this is the end product.

It's what we get so excited about.

And I know you're proud, and I'm proud of you being in the sewing industry for 43 years, so congratulations to you on that.

- [Ken] Thank you.

It was my privilege to be here.

- Thank you.

[bright country music] [bright country music continues] We end our show today with a quilt made by Genevieve Grundy from Etowah, North Carolina.

She calls it "End of the Trail" and it's a Western quilt.

Well, maybe Southwestern with this material.

[gentle music] - [Announcer] "Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel" is made possible in part by grants from Omnigrid, the original patented black and yellow ruler, by Leisure Arts, publisher and distributor of needle work and craft publications, including an assortment of quilt books and related products.

Additional funding by Fairfield Processing.

maker of poly-fil brand products for the home sewing quilt and craft industries, and by Bernina, delivering sewing technology and education to sewers worldwide.