What makes a great Amish Quilt.
Fine quilting is what can made the difference between a mediocre quilt and a great one.
A handmade Amish quilt is a creation of its own. Time and loving care is put into each quilt making it a work of art rather than a mass-produced item made overseas. Many people view a handmade Amish quilt as an investment as well. They will increase in value as any fine work of art does.
Accuracy and experience play a large part of a well-executed quilt. I work with ladies who on the average have quilted 25 years or more. They are some of the finest quilt makers in Lancaster Country, and come from a tradition passed down from several generations.
In a well made quilt several important skills come into play. An artist's eye for choosing fabric prints, solid, and colors that work beautifully together are the first very important steps to creating a work of art, called the Amish Quilt. Many Amish quilters seem to have a natural gift of design and sense of color.
After the fabrics and pattern is selection, the task of cutting each fabric piece, and sewing it together will be done. Aligning all the fabric is a challenge to the quilt-maker, and very important to the outcome of the quilt. The fabrics should lineup and complete the quilt's design as perfectly as possible. When choosing quilts to add to our site, I always strive to selected quilts that have excellent piecework.
Marking the quilt's top is another piece of the puzzle. Marking is simply done by using a stencil and pencil to add guidelines to where the quilting will be done on the quilt. Again experience, care and attention are needed to insure accurate spacing.
Great quilting is like the icing on a cake. Fine quilting is what can make the difference between a mediocre quilt and a great one. Qualities of fine quilting are small stitches that are even and uniform. A high quality quilt will have 6 to 8 stitches per inch. Some of our quilts have an even higher stitch count. We always note the amount of stitches per inch in the description of each quilt. A very good quilt will have over 50,000 stitches.
Each of our quilts has 400 - 700 hours investment into them.
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