Amish Quilts with Tina Helfrich

For our March meeting we enjoyed an excellent talk from Tina who told us the history of Amish quilts and how this interlinks with the history of the Amish community. Tina used her knowledge of growing up in Maryland USA .   She showed us pictures of many different quilt patterns favoured by the Amish and explained how they use plain dyed fabrics but used the patterns to express their creativity. Tina explained about quilting bees where the community come together to quilt (aiming to sew 7 stitches per inch) whilst other members of the community cook and complete other tasks for the group. Quilts that were traditionally made for use in the home have now developed into a business for the community where quilts can be purchased for $450 to $2000 in shops and online. Quilts made for sale may include decorative fabrics still not traditionally used in the Amish homes.