Feature: Mimi Dietrich: "It's been a very good Year"

by Janet Esch

"None of us would be here without Mimi" was Marylou McDonald's opening remark at our December meeting. Most of us know the history of the founders of the BAS--Mimi Dietrich being one of the four, who, together in 1993, declared that they should start a guild to help museums take care of their quilts. Mimi's sense of wonder--she says of the memory, "Women showing history in Baltimore, the place where I live"--has not diminished. Members of the BAS were celebrating both the holiday and Mimi's new book, "Baltimore Basics: Album Quilts from Start to Finish" and her new line of fabric.

Her first line of fabric has created the most excitement. For years she has been teaching many, many women the technique of appliqué in the style of the Baltimore Album quilts and has produced many books. Now she glows with excitement as she describes the process of creating her first line of fabric.

Four years ago the day began in a very average way--Mimi was babysitting for a friend, but at 1:00 p.m. P&B Textiles called and asked her to design a Baltimore Album quilt fabric. She said, "The day began with a diaper pail and ended with art--to design a fabric."

P&B wanted a "reproduction" fabric. (Mimi tells us a wonderful story of her earlier--much earlier--experience with the Smithsonian Museum of American History that did not allow for the words "copy" or "reproduce" to be used in describing designs based on their antique quilts; instead it wanted "adapting designs.") Today museums have become more open for quilters to trace patterns and copy designs from their quilts. Mimi contacted Anita Jones at the Baltimore Museum of Art to see if she could use the "Samuel Williams" quilt, circa 1847--the one that BAS reproduced and raffled as a fundraiser for BMA in 2004--as a basis for her colors and designs. The museum was in full agreement and the project began.

P&B not only asked for the reproduction of colored fabric, but also wanted entire blocks to be copied from the quilt. "Whoa! Isn't that ‘cheater' blocks?" was Mimi's response. And we know "cheater" is a dirty word! However there is a new term, "reproduction blocks," fabric that copies the entire quilt block. With her decision made to develop a line of fabric, Mimi immediately knew that she wanted to copy birds and fondue blues from the "Samuel Williams" quilt for the fabric.

Technical artists at P&B in California drew from Mimi's photographs: four wreaths (one being the holly with hundreds of berries) and four birds: a blue eagle, two other bluebirds, and one brown dove. These eight blocks with a mini flowered border have been put into an 18 inch repeat design on standard size fabric. There is also a larger border, similar to the original, of 9 1/2 inches in width. From the design blocks, Mimi selected colors for other fabrics--blue, red, green, and brown--using prints of tone on tone, from large to small, of large and medium fondue, ferns, puzzle lines, small flowers arranged in crossing diagonal lines, and wavy stripes with dots. It was a "very complicated and tedious process, but too much fun!" A friend suggested that it was "rather like childbirth." Long distant calls, emails, overnight packages, all were used to communicate the exact values and shades that were needed: the brown goes from deep gold to pale yellow and beige with lights, mediums, and darks; and the blues, reds, and greens all have dark (bright), medium, and light values. There are twenty-five different fabrics with six having authentic colorways from the original fabric, circa 1840.

The arrangement and design of the blocks for the quilt that was photographed to make up the cover of the pattern booklet required more cross-country communication.

Mimi's final choice for the cover is "A Trip around the World" using all the bird and wreath blocks and creating patchwork blocks that combine different shades of complementary colors. The blue eagle is the center block surrounded by patchwork blocks of different shades of blues and pink. Those are encircled with the eight wreath blocks. Sixteen patchwork blocks of shades of reds and greens continue the design and the next are four groupings of the three birds with patchwork blocks of browns and blues. The four wreath blocks are in the corners. The repeat flower and vine pattern in the border just "happens" to match the size of each block--Mimi calls it "magic." We call it innate skill and creativity. The overall effect of the design of the quilt is that of a large block on point with emphasis on the eagle in the center.

Picture by Barbara Burnham

The booklet, showing the fabrics, also gives patterns for making small, medium, and large quilts from a one-block quilt using the mini border to a twenty-five-block quilt, all in Mimi's clear, easy-to-follow instructions.

Of the new book, "Baltimore Basics," Mimi says, "It is a book that shows ‘Yeah, you can do it.'" Of all the kudos that Mimi has received this year, another comes in the April issue of "Quilters' Newsletter": It will feature Mimi's first quilt--a "Sunbonnet Sue" design--and her last quilt; I think it will be her 2006, Baltimore Album quilt with the blocks on point and her monogram in the center. But it may be one using her very own fabric. Two thousand and six has been a very good year for Mimi Dietrich.

Mimi has many followers attracted by her positive attitude and creative spirit. She can still be as exuberant as a child. When she saw her name printed on the selvage of the "strike-off" (I gather that is a sample of fabric.) for the first time, she was elated. "Oh how I wanted to snip that small piece with my name and save it for myself!" she says. The glow of her excitement is reflected in the Christmas lights and on our faces as we share this eventful celebration.