Cahoagan quilts

[Angelia S.]

Hi, I am a fairly new quilter. I attended the AQS quilt show at Grand Rapids a few weeks ago and saw the Cahoagan quilts from the Philippines. I loved them! I have tried googling various ways to try to find out how to make a similar kind of quilt. Would anyone be able to give me some idea how to get started on one of these. You can google Cahoagan quilts and see what they look like. If I knew how to attach a photo here, I would, but I don't know how to do that either! Thank you!
Jill

[Nancy R.]

Hi Jill -

It looks like these are applique quilts with improvisationally pieced backgrounds. It's funny because these techniques fall under the "modern" movement, but they are very old techniques. I would start by looking for "improvisational piecing" to get the background started. There have been several TQS shows about improvisational piecing, but I'm at work right now so don't have the time to figure out which ones they are. Then, once the background is pieced, start looking at "applique" techniques for deciding how you might want to add the appliques.

Hope that helps!

Nancy

PS - To load a picture, I think you need to be using the full editor. If you clicked "quick reply" then I think there is a button to bring up this editor. I always use the "reply" button that is further down on the left side of the page. Once you get in the full editor, click on the "upload attachment" tab and that will let you upload the picture. Once the picture is uploaded, you will have a place with an option to insert the picture in your post.

[Nancy R.]

Nancy, thank you!!! I will look for improvisational quilts! That's a new term to me, too! Thank you so much. And I got a photo on, too, thanks to you!!

[Margo C.]

Good job Jill! And welcome to the forum!

[Renata L.]

Jill, welcome to the forum! For improvisational quilting, you may also want to look at Marianne Haak's blog, The Quilting Edge at http://www.thequiltingedge.com/ because she does a lot of it along with using a quilt-as-you-go technique that you might find interesting.

[Renata L.]

Thank you, Renata and Margo!

[Renata L.]

I've never heard the term before, but love the photo of one! Very cool!

[Renata L.]

Penny, I just used the term because the quilts are made on the island called Cahoagan which is part of the Philippines.

[Renata L.]

Now that explains why when I Googled it that I could not find any quilt info on it! Silly me!

[Renata L.]

Penny, if you google Cahoagan quilts, you will find lots of images and articles. I have studied the photos I took and the images on the web, but I still can't figure out how they did the applique. It looks like the appliquéd pieces are part of the quilt fabric. I wouldn't think they would be using any kind of fusible. Really want to know how they make these!