Sunday, January 18, 2009


My Staphorst quilt -part 1-

On CQForNewbies I told the story of this quilt, it is handsewn and handquilted and took me 5 years to make.
First I have to explain that
I love making quilts from second hand fabrics of traditional Dutch dresses, especially from costumes from Staphorst and Spakenburg, which I like most. Staphorst is one of the most religious towns in the Netherlands with a lot of people attending Calvinist church. It is situated in the province Drenthe, has about 15.000 inhabitants and is famous for people wearing traditional dresses. It is forbidden to take fotographs of Staphorst inhabitants without their permission. On the site of the museum of Staphorst
you can see pictures of people wearing the costumes when you click on "foto's", then click on "museumboerderij".
There are still about 600 women and 6 men who wear the traditional costume. A daily dress is different from a Sunday dress. On a weekday they wear a "kraplap" (upper part of costume) made of cotton or viscose, on Sunday the kraplap
is made from a heavy satin and decorated with "Staphorster stipwerk". This is made by nails stuck in corks and then tipped in paint. In early days it was made with a paint with lead in it, which is forbidden now. On the pictures you can see a cap and a close up of it and another close up of stipwerk on another piece of satin. Every stipwerk painter made his own patterns.
The Sunday kraplap is different if people are in heavy mourning (when a parent or husband has died),then it is in black and white as shown on the last picture. When in light mourning more colours, mostly blue and green are added to the kraplap, I show you a picture of that next time, also I will tell more about why I used the black, blue and green fabrics and the making of the quilt.

7 comments:

NormaH said...

Everything is so beautiful WIlma! Love the richness of the colors. Can't wait to read Part 2 of your story quilt.

Gerry said...

These are really pretty, Wilma. Thanks for the history.

SH Sue said...

Wilma - I appreciate the history lesson and seeing the beautiful fabrics. Thanks for sharing with us.

CrazyKwilter said...

That is so beautiful. Thanks for sharing a bit of culture with us!

Susan said...

What a stunning quilt, Wilma. Just beautiful. Thank you for the explanation of the fabrics, too. That was very interesting.

Maddie Can Fly said...

Your quilt just glows -- the colors are so rich and blend in with your traditional fabrics. I hope you plan on showing this quilt somewhere -- it's certainly a prize winner in my book.

Caro said...

Hi, very lovely your quilt, it's stunning. But isn't Staphorst in Overijssel?
bye bye Caroline