Quilt History Reports

Tile Crib Quilt

2012-01-25T12:29:00.000-08:00

The last quilt in my exhibit was a Tile Quilt —

signed "Donald 1944" (50x33)

I'll have to take clearer photo when I get back. This is what I grabbed off eBay when I bought it.

This delightful find has the date 1944 embroidered on it plus the name Donald.

I first enountered a Tile Quilt at the International Quilt Festival in Houston in an antique quilt dealers booth. It caught my eye as I was cruising by and it was such an odd-duck I put on my brakes and took a photo.

I looked and looked at this quilt for the longest time until I finally realized....all those little pieces are just "left-over scraps" randomly placed in the maker's own "made-up" pattern. In some instance she was almost able to make it look like a snowflake-type pattern!

My 1944 Tile crib quilt really has no pattern to it but it was born of the same idea....left-over scraps randomly placed on a background fabric, no scrap too small or too oddly shaped to NOT use! AQSG friends Bobbi Finley and Carol Gilham published a book under C&T's banner in 2010 about this unusual pattern style — "The Tile Quilt Revival".

Here are a couple of links to my previous posts about Tile quilts. (Click on 2nd link here) .

Until next time, keep those needles flying! We don't want to run out of quilts to research and document!

KarenQuilt

TQHF Honoree William R. Dunton

2012-01-24T21:31:00.000-08:00

You might enjoy visiting the The Quilters Hall of Fame blog to read my newly posted article about Dr. William R. Dunton, the first person to attempt to document the history of the Baltimore Album quilt phenomena. The Baltimore AppliqueAlbum "style" began in Baltimore, Maryland, in the mid-1800s.

Enjoy!

Karen B. Alexander

Dabbling and Exploring

2012-01-16T14:34:00.000-08:00

I enjoy dabbling, experimenting. Whatever you want to call it. Before I got into quilting in 1980, I was experimenting, like so many others at that time, with needlepoint, blackwork, cross-stitch, etc.

More recently I have tried scanned art and painting on fabric, which I now want to also embellish.

Experimenting with light.

Dandelion flowers and seeds.

Dandelion seed puff with its own leaves and an leaflets from an unknown bush.

I'm still cogitating on these two small painted squares.

Barbara Brackman had a post recently about Penguin Threads' latest releases. The cover designs were done by Jillian Tamaki. You can order from Amazon here.

I was so taken with the designs of the books covers that I had to go explore the artist's website and blog. Click here to see her working on the book covers. Do take the time to explore her blog. I especially enjoyed her Frequently Asked Questions as well as her artwork itself.

Do you have your own blog? Or do you document your work/life somehow in a notebook or scrapbook or journal? Share your stories with us!

Karen in the Islands

Dark Background Quilts - Update

2012-01-14T23:22:00.000-08:00

After discovering a website selling Uzbek textiles in August 2010, I wrote a bit about their similarity to American quilts. But it was the black background textiles that rang a bell. You can read those first two posts here and here.

Here is still another link to another beautiful contemporary black-background quilt.

I also wanted to share a gorgeous piece of fabric that would make a lovely applique with black background that I found on eBay.

BELOW ARE MORE UPDATES CONCERNING

DARK BACKGROUND QUILTS IN THE USA.

Some of these emails came to me personally. Some were posted to the Quilt History List discussion group after I posted asking for feedback about applique on dark backgrounds. QHL is a GREAT List to belong to if you enjoy studying quilt history. You can subscribe via this link. Another group you really should be aware of and join, if you love quilt history, is the American Quilt Study Group. Or at least order some of their publications! You can see a topical list of well researched articles by clicking here.

From: Jane Hall

Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010

Subject: Uzbek designs

Hi Karen...gorgeous designs. In the research Dixie Haywood and I did for an

early book, we came across Uzbek camel saddle designs...true Flying Geese,

and Geese in the Air patterns, exactly as we in this part of the world know

them! Nothing new under the sun for sure.

I think of Pat Campbell for black backgrounds for applique in our time. Her

Jacobean quilt was spectacular.

Jane Hall

http://www.janehallquilts.com/

From: karen alexander

Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010

Subject: Re: Uzbek designs

Hi Jane,

Yes! That's who I was trying to remember - Pat Campbell. Thanks!

I dug thru my mother-in-laws stash of magazines as soon as I read your email and found that 1990 issue! What is the name of the published book you are referring to that you and Dixie Hayward worked on? Did you include some of the Uzbek designs?

Karen

From: Jane Hall

Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010

Subject: Re: Uzbek designs

HI Karen...glad it was Pat Campbell you were thinking of. That quilt was

spectacular. …

The book Dixie and I did is long out-of-print, I still have a couple of copies, I think. Chilton published it, "Precision Pieced Quilts Using the Foundation Method" .... I found some Uzbek camel saddle blankets in Schnuppe von Gwimmer's book (published late '80s I think, about quilts world-wide) and followed a lead to a man in Switzerland who had a huge collection of them and sent me a couple of photos I was allowed to copy and return. The patterning was exactly some of our traditional pieced patterns...Geese in the Air?? I made slides of a couple of them and show them in lectures.

Traveling in England and France over the years, I've seen perfect LeMoyne Stars, Ohio Stars, etc etc on cathedral floors and walls. Friends have found Log Cabins and stars on kneelers in Buddhist temples in part of Asia. Truly there is not much new that you can do with geometric shapes!

Jane Hall

Jane Hall Quilts

Subject: Black backqround quilts

From: linda laird

Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010

I once saw a black background double wedding ring in an Amish book and promptly made one.

Linda Laird

Linda Laird Designs

Subject: Applique quilts with black backgrounds

From: Sue Reich

Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010

In the mid 1930s, Ruth Finley designed a quilt for Eleanor Roosevelt called "Roosevelt Rose." The original was featured appliqued on a black background. I was fortunate to find an original newspaper article about Ruth, the quilt, and the presentation. It can be seen in the "World War II Quilts" book. A woman from Bristol, CT made the quilt on a white ground. It can be seen there also.

Sue Reich

http://coveringquilthistory.shutterfly.com/

From: Janet White

Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010

Subject: black background

Hi Karen -

In 2004 AQS published Affairs of the Heart (?) which was applique on black. Mary Sorensen has been teaching a class on applique on black or very dark backgrounds ("Dramatic Darks") for many years - must be at least 15 years?

I think I have a book that's even older with applique on black, but no time to dig through books! No doubt the trend was started by someone who took the art class to heart that everything shows up better on black. Or one of those "I never follow directions because I'm such a free spirit" types.

Janet White

From: Audrey Waite

Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010

Subject: Black Background in Applique Quilts

Hi Karen:

The one that stuck in my mind was Faye Anderson's "My Mother Taught Me To Sew" from 1988. I believe it is actually a navy blue background, but those applique patterns just sing and I thought she was pretty clever to use that color palette. American Quilters Society published the 50 patterns in a book in 1990 titled "Applique Designs".

Over the years there was always some maverick that did a traditional pattern on black with stunning results.

Audrey Waite

Sedona, AZ

http://quiltcamp.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-classes.html

Subject: Black backgrounds in applique quilts

From: Laura Syler

Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2010

Pat Campbell pretty much revived the black/dark background with her Jacobean Applique quilt in the late 80's/early 90's, and the subsequent books and patterns.

“Affairs of the Heart” by Aie Rossmann

Originally from Myanmar (formerly Burma) and an architect by education, Alie brings South East Asian design and color influences to her quilting. Started her own design business in 1999 Lotusland’s label. aie@lotuslands.ab.ca

The Best of Jacobean Applique by Pat Campbell and Mimi Ayars, AQS 2000

Over the years there was always some maverick that did a traditional pattern on black with stunning results.

Laura Syler

Subject: Black ground applique

From: Teddy Pruett

Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2010

I'm a little late putting in my two cents on the subject of dark and/or black background behind applique but I don't remember anyone mentioning this particular fact.'

"Between the wars" as I prefer to say as opposed to the misnomer "Depression Era" there was actually an attempt to promote black grounds. You occasionally see an old magazine ad showing applique on black - I've seen several pillow patterns offered all in traditional quilt patterns. It didn't seem to catch on and it's probably pretty easy to diagnose the problem in pushing the style. Ladies had dark dark quilts throughout brown period of the 1870's followed by the Victorian Crazy quilt & silk show quilt period then they had the turn of the century discharge prints in black blue red and gray. Well hellooooooo-----here they are in the midst of a craze for new sweet pastels and light luscious colors. They weren't about to go dark again so soon.

Think about the avocado green of the 1960's. By the 1980's it was a color that gagged the majority of the populace. Today it has been reintroduced in a slightly different shade as sage or any number of variants and we love it again. But it has taken forty to fifty years for us to face it.

Teddy Pruett

Subject: BLACK, DARK BACKGROUNDS

From: Laura Fisher

Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2010

When I return from a too brief few days away, I will upload several pictures related to recent postings, and see what the list has to say.

One is a BLACK background, 1930s floral applique of pink roses with a scalloped border that has green swag like detail appliqued on top of each curve; very chic and a quilt type I have had only a few times before in my quilt life.

Another is a BROWN background 'House on the Hill' pattern in which little houses on curvy green foundations are appliqued in parallel rows diagonally down the quilt.

And if I can find the photo, a third is one huge southern belle type lady with tiered ombre'd salmon color skirt, on a BROWN background (probably from the same kit company as the houses) She was published in an old Quilt Engagement Calendar (of course I never kept a good file of which months and year my quilts appeared, so one day I will look through them all and do so for my own provenance)

And, another is a Stearns & Foster pattern applique of pink tulip like flowers on a NAVY BLUE background, only one I ever saw. It's on my website.

And lastly, the one that got away at Brimfield--a Four Eagles applique, you know the format, on a BLACK background! It has been through many hands and now has a much higher valuation than when I saw it being packed in a shopping bag.

Anything on a dark background that is not a crazy quilt is so infrequently seen that it attracts my immediate attention, as do any of the floral appliques on a peach or green background, that I think are more stylish alternatives than the white background

And, lastly, I still have blocks of a wool Mennonite 1870-80s applique quilt with stuffed work flowers, as well as a leafy vine border, on a black green now oxidized greenish. The blocks were from a PA quilt that had some moth damage, so the picker/seller cut the thing into pieces before selling me the load. How I wish that had not been done; one really can't put it back together the quilt originally must have been a knockout, certainly uncommon, and probably restorable when intact. If only we knew then what we know now. I will try to scan a block or two so you all can lament with me..........

Waiting for laundry to finish, so I am horribly chatty.

A lovely Labor Day to all, the hurricane has passed us by.

Laura Fisher

Laura Fisher Quilts

Subject: Dark grounds -again

From: Teddy Pruett

Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2010

I forgot to mention one pretty important thing in my last post. I actually OWN one of the dark ground appliques. It's a crib sized black sateen ground Roosevelt Rose.

It hung in the back of a hallway in my house for years and was a lovely focal point. I

guess it's all packed up and squished in a moving box with the others right now.

Teddy Pruett

Subject: RE: Dark grounds -again

From: "Jean Carlton"

Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2010

Hi all,

I created an album on the QHL eboard for Black Background examples and posted one with a black sateen ground...as well as two other appliques - one with orange and one with Alamance yellow background. Laura mentioned some with those colors, too.

Teddy, if you find your crib quilt please post - or does anyone else have photos to add to that album? I hadn't posted in a long time but it was smooth - from the QHL site click Gallery and then go to the Quilt Tab to view or post quilts.

Jean Carolton

Subject: black cotton sateen

From: Laura Fisher

Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2011

Hi all - have a question about when black cotton sateen came into use in quilts. I think of it as being used primarily in Amish quilts from Holmes County Ohio from the 1920s-ish era forward, and occasionally have seen it in non Amish quilts like those black background appliques with a lot of greenery, also from that era. Anyone know when it was 'invented'? and how come it seems limited to use among the Amish community? Thanks

Laura Fisher

Subject: Black Cotton Sateen

From: Teddy Pruett

Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2011

Laura, I have a Roosevelt Rose on black cotton sateen ground. There's at least one more listed in the Quilt Index that is on black. From what I've seen, it appears that someone tried to get a following for the pastels of the 20's - 30's placed on a black ground. I think it was too soon after the turn of the century darks, not to mention the long timeframe of Victorian dark darks. The gals just werent ready to embrace it yet and it never caught on. Just an ungrounded theory. But the rose quilts indicate the use of black sateen was more widespread than just the Amish.

Teddy Pruett

Subject: Re: Black Cotton Sateen

From: Cindy Rennels

Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2011

Hi, Regarding Laura's note about black cotton sateen, I have one and have had the Roosevelt's Rose quilt that is on a black cotton sateen ground and always felt that quilt was from the 20's- 30's. Can't answer the question about when it came about, but seems like the right time period. Would love to know for sure though. I never washed one of those quilts, so not sure if the color would bleed, as it sure might have. Maybe that's why we don't see it in more quilts. Anyone know about that black fabric stability as I have some red sateen fabric yardage that the color is still coming out every time I wash it. Wanted to use it for some binding, but afraid to put it on something and have it leach out.

Cindy Rennels

Cindy's Antique Quilts

And here is a newly made black background applique as seen on eBay:

So the beat goes on!

Karen in the Islands

The Quilt Shed - Phase I

2011-12-30T18:10:00.000-08:00

A space of her own is every woman's dream,

so they say. I would have to agree.

I can't complain. I actually do have a sewing room in the house--and a large one at that.

It was built for my mother-in-law. I have no shame. Here is the present state of my collection. Two sets of bunk beds are piled high plus a queen size bed.

But several years after our move to the island, my quilt history/textile history library, research files — not to mention my teaching collection of quilts and quilt ephemera — has long outstripped the space and taken over both guest rooms in the back part of the house as well.

One of the guest rooms. All the quilts get moved when family comes.

They get moved into this small shed above.

So, it's time to build new storage space just for quilts so that the family can have their guest rooms back!

This will be the view down the driveway from the deck of The Quilt Shed.

Machines have replaced buggy-whip makers and ditch diggers

Searching for current electrical lines, not unlike looking for buried coins at the beach.

The electrical line comes out of the house at this corner and goes out to the pump house.

Bill Lewis instructs the digger to go down 24 inches.

Where the line to the well comes out from the house, hand digging takes place so as to not damage the line.

A sharp turn is required as the digging heads up the hill.

The tree roots and salal roots take such a beating but once things settle down, they will grow back.

Rather looks like the Big Guy lost its false teeth!

Stay tuned for the next phase!

Meanwhile, happy New Year from all the Gang!

Indian Folk Art Image on Quilt

2011-12-20T17:50:00.000-08:00

If you haven't yet read my previous post about the Indian image on five quilts found via the Internet over the last several months, click here for background before reading this current update.

Barbara Brackman responded to my email this morning by sending me a link to an image that is so similar to the image on two of the five quilts that I exclaimed in delight! See the iron image below sold at a Cowan Auction in 2009.

You can see it at Cowan Auctions here: http://www.cowanauctions.com/auctions/item.aspx?ItemId=68061

According to the auction details, it is late 19th century, sheet iron, with traces of green paint and was originally mounted on the Red Men's Lodge in Tucson, Ohio. It stands 22" high x 18" wide.

Now look at some of the quilt blocks again:

from a dealer in Pennsylvania

from a dealer in Howard, Ohio

So who are The Red Men? This was a group I had never heard of before. But a little googling came up with a lot of info!

Turns out it is a fraternal order that traces its origins back to 1765 and is "descended from the Sons of Liberty. These patriots concealed their identities and worked 'underground' to help establish freedom and liberty in the early Colonies. They patterned themselves after the great Iroquois Confederacy and its democratic governing body. Their system, with elected representatives to govern tribal councils, had been in existence for several centuries."

After the War of 1812 the name was changed to the Society of Red Men and in 1834 to the Improved Order of Red Men. They kept the customs and terminology of Native Americans as a basic part of the fraternity. The Improved Order of Red Men (IORM) is similar in many ways to other major fraternal organizations in the United States.

Here are three sources with some history. Click on any one of the three links and you will learn a great deal more. One is from Heilwood, Pennsylvania. One from Arizona. The other from California. Apparently, there are Red Men Lodges all over the country.

From the California Red Man website in Mill Valley:

Improved Order of Red Men - Background, History, Ritual and Emblems

The Improved Order of Red Men was founded in Baltimore in 1834 as a fraternal, social, insurance and political society in the United States. The first tribe was Logan Tribe No. 1 in Baltimore, MD. However, the IORM claims, that it is a lineal descendent of earlier patriotic organizations - the Sons of Liberty, Tammany Societies or Columbian Order, and the Society of Red Men.

In c. 1766, an association of patriots in the United States adopted the name the "Sons of Liberty" following British Member of Parliament Isaac Barre calling the agitators in the colonies by that name. The Son's of Liberty may have formed originally as an association of protesters against the Stamp Act. Its best known exploit was the Boston Tea Party, during which members of the Sons of Liberty (many of whom were Freemasons), disguised as Mohawk Indians, emptied the contents of three hundred and forty-two chests of tea off British ships at Griffin's Wharf on December 16, 1773.

In 1771, the Sons of Liberty at Annapolis, MD had changed their name to the Saint Tamina Society, apparently to ridicule other existing associations that had adopted the patronage of some saint of European extraction, such as the Saint George's Society, Saint Andrew's Society, and Saint David's Society, all of which were loyal to the British Crown." Saint Tamina" was undoubtedly American.

Tamanend was a seventeenth century chief of the Lenni-Lenape tribe of the Delaware. He was credited with being endowed with special abilities to communicate with the Great Spirit. In 1682, Tamanend, sachem ("counselor of the people") and chief, welcomed William Penn to America and signed with him the Treaty of Shakamaxon. The Tammany Society took its name from this celebrated chief who was admired and beloved by both Indians and Colonists. Tamanend acquired the sobriquet, "Saint Tammany".

The other three quilts resemble the Mayan figure more in my opinion that I showed you in my previous post, but my guess is that they too may have been created as a result of association with members of a Red Men Lodge.

We will probably never know for sure but do notice that the headdress on each of the five quilts contains five prongs, i.e. feathers.

Again, if you spot any more quilts in this pattern, please let me know.

KarenQuilt

Folk Art Quilt Features Native American

2011-12-06T13:58:00.001-08:00

Above is a quilt I saw on-line at a Case Antiques auction in September 2011 located in Knoxville, Tennessee. It looked so familiar, yet I could not recall where I had seen it.

Today I was flipping thru my copy of Woodard & Greenstein's "Twentieth Century Quilts 1900-1950" published by E.P. Dutton in 1988, and there it was on page 63.

What do you suppose the odds might be that these two quilts were made in the same community? The Case Auction took place in Kentucky. The Woodard-Greenstein book say the golden-colored "Indian" quilt originated in Pennsylvania. Oh, wouldn't the sources of these two quilts be a fun mystery to track down!

UPDATE

Thanks to a lot of sleuthing on another AQSG member's part (my friend Barb Garrett), two more Indian quilts have now been located on the Internet.

The 3rd one -- blue and red -- may well be the original one that inspired all others. I am posting photos of it courtesy of Jeff R. Bridgman American Antiques, LLC of York County, PA. YOu can also see these photos on his website here. Do take some time to browse his website by clicking here to see more great Americana!

Here is the description of the above quilt from the Jeff R. Bridgman American Antiques, LLC website:

Description:

A FOLK ART MASTERPIECE:
BERKS OR LEBANON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA QUILT WITH IMAGES OF INDIANS WITH DRAWN BOWS:

This ca 1910 window pane quilt, with nine Indians holding drawn bows, is one of the best folk image quilts I have seen reach the marketplace in the past year. The fact that it transcends several categories of Americana: quilts, folk art, and Native American-related art, makes it all the more desirable and extraordinary. Take note of how the squat form of the figures closely resembles that of the hood ornaments found on late 19th century freight trains.

Only three or so Indian quilts are known in this basic design. Of these, two (both red and blue) came out of Pennsylvania German estates in the Lebanon County - Berks County region. This is believed to be one of those two.

The 4th such quilt was found by Barb here at still another antique dealer in Howard, Ohio. Be sure to click on the additional photos on their website. Their business is called America's Antiques LLC. They have quite a presence on eBay as well. Definitely worth checking them out, too. (I have no affiliation with any of these dealers.)

The description reads:

This 1950's Indian crib quilt is made with dark peach cotton for the Indians, chocolate brown cotton for the sashing and borders, and bright white cotton for the zig zags and background. It measures 49" x 45", has a thin cotton batting, a machine applied binding, and a red & white checked back. Hand quilted with radiating Chevron quilting on the blocks and outline quilting on the sashing & borders @ 6 stitches per inch. Professionally hand laundered, we found very, very light bleed around the Indians, a couple faint spots, and a couple professional repairs to the white background. This is a very rare crib quilt - the first we've had in over 30 years!!

Well, I still don't have a definitive answer about what inspired the first quilt (i.e. no paper trail dating back to the maker) but weathervanes are a distinct possibility. Plus, Jeff Bridgeman, who once owned the blue and red quilt, suggests that it resembles a 19th century train hood ornament.

The weathervanes seem much more likely the design source to me. Here is a prime example from the cover of the summer 1989 issue of The Clarion, the name the American Folk Art Museum in New York once gave their quarterly magazine. I found this on eBay today here.

I see a faint resemblance as well between the first "Indian" quilt and the book cover below about Mayan art. This is probably a looong stretch, but it caught my eye nevertheless.

Always more research to do and never enough time. Half the time I just hope to wet someone's appetite to begin some research of their own on any of these subjects. We will never run out of research material!

KarenQuilt

PS: After this story was posted, Joy Swartz of Arizonia wrote me: Over the past ten years I have seen two quilts with this same Indian pattern. Both were in Indiana. Both quilts were white, with the Indians on four sections in red. The Indians were not pieced nor appliqued, but rather stenciled on. The last one was just last year at a small southern Indiana town antique show. Cheap fabric, basic stencil, poorly quilted, looked from 1950s.

Ruby Short McKim Revival

2011-11-20T22:47:00.001-08:00

Ruby Short McKim, July 27, 1891- July 1976

“What is the compelling fascination of quilts?” is a question I hear frequently once someone discovers my passion for quilt history. One of the reasons I give is because quilt history is a natural vehicle for learning about the changing theories of social history and, more specifically, the changing tides of women’s history. But quilts also have an amazing thread linking them to the study of economics, trade and the industrial revolution.

After the 1880s, quilts also gradually began to reflect the shifts in Western attitudes about children and childhood, i.e. childhood as distinct from the world of adulthood, a trend that blossomed as we entered the 20th century.

Children, Art and Ruby Short McKim

"Love From Sarah". Art by Sarah Alexander (age 3-7) interpreted through needlework

by quilt-maker Wini Alexander, 1976. (See the full quilt here.)

Children and art naturally make me think of Ruby Short McKim, the 33rd Inductee of The Quilters Hall of Fame. McKim's first quilt designs focused uniquely on themes that would entertain children but eventually her newspaper series contained many traditional quilt patterns as well.

To read my complete article, visit The Quilters Hall of Fame blog by clicking here.

Enjoy!

Art and Children

2011-11-15T17:09:00.001-08:00

I just cannot not resist. My daughter sent this photo to me today. No, it's not my grandkids. My daughter found it on the Internet somewhere. But boy can I relate!!

I just had to share it, even though it is not quilt related.

Someone needs to teach them how to thread a needle, then hand them scraps of fabric and a spool of thread. The curtains would probably turn out fabulous and any potential mess would be a lot easier to clean up!!

But this story does remind me of something my grandsons DID do two summers ago. It was the first time we allowed them to walk the 2-miles to the village and back by my themselves. They had finally talked us into it, so we had them buy some vegetables to give us a reasonable belief that they would be back by a certain time.

On the way home, they discovered globs of black gooey sticky stuff along the road and, of course, thinking it surely must be some kind of play dough, they experimented!

Good thing grandma has some turpentine on hand.

Let's hear it for curious kids!

Woven Coverlets

2011-11-03T17:25:00.000-07:00

Woven coverlets, another example of something I don't collect myself;

but I do like to photograph them when I see them.

This example was also seen at an antique shop in late August of this year.

You can see this lovely woven Jacquard coverlet is "lost" in the jumble on this shelf. What a shame. It is in excellent condition!

I hear rumors that a couple of researchers in the quilt history world may be exploring the cross-over between the patterns seen in Jacquard woven coverlets and the rise in similar patterns in U.S. quilts about the same time. Hopefully an AQSG research paper will appear some day soon! The cross-over seems so natural but who influenced who the most, I wonder?

Joseph Jacquard invented a very sophisticated type of loom that first arrived in the U.S. about 1820. Safford and Bishop, in America's Quilts and Coverlets, state that there were many pattern books for the Jacquard loom so why couldn't quilters have borrowed from those pattern books as well?

I was curious as to why the earlier Double Weave coverlets did not contain a name or date. Safford and Bishop suggest it is because the Jacquard loom could now produce elaborate wide borders and said borders became a distinguishing feature of the large un-seamed coverlets. In contrast, the earlier narrow looms forced forced weavers to create seamed Double Weave coverlets. But with the large border the Jacquard loom could produce, the weaver now had the option of adding something unique in the corner of the border, if he so chose. So why not a name and a date?

Do you suppose this also influenced quilters to name and date their quilts? Or did a weaver see a signed quilt and decide to sign his work as well? Will we ever know which came first?

Franklin D. Sheaffer, whose name appears on this found coverlet, is included in the list of Professional Weavers found on page 277 of the 1972 Safford and Bishop book, America's Quilts and Coverlets.

I couldn't find any example, however, of Sheaffer's work in the book itself. But I did see another coverlet that contains the same outer "leaf"/ring pattern (see page 256). It is dated 1848. (See additional photo details at the end of this post.)

The house border pattern (see detail immediately below) on the the coverlet is similar to but not the same as the one seen on page 267 of the Safford and Bishop book. However, the one in the book is 1856, so much later. It's a very iconic rendition of a house for its time.

Franklin D. Sheaffer is also mentioned on page 211 in American Coverlets and Their Weavers: Coverlets From the Collection of Foster & Muriel Mccarl by Clarita Anderson. Unfortunately, there is no mention of where Sheaffer lived or worked, though we do know that the great majority of this type of coverlet were apparently woven in PA, NY, OH and Indiana. Safford and Bishop also record a few known and identifiable weavers from New Jersey and Michigan.

In the Anderson book it is stated that it is unknown whether Sheaffer was the weaver or the client of the coverlet dated 1849 bearing his name, and, according to Anderson, 1849 is the only date known to carry his name.

As a client, could there be more than one coverlet bearing one's name? Did weavers put the name of a client on every coverlet they made for that individual client? I shall have to check with a few friends who are into woven coverlets to see if they can enlighten me.

Now that I have done this much research today, I wonder if I should have purchased this coverlet! If I had had an iPad with me that day, I could have discovered all this info on-line while still in the antique shop!

Nah, I don't need to start collecting woven coverlets or buttons. No room in my house for more than quilts and books! And not enough money in my budget to to allow the collecting bug to do any more damage!

Enjoy these coverletswherever you see them, and do take a few minutes to visit the Foster & Muriel Mccarl Gallery now! Justclick here.

Cheers!

Karen

PS-1: See a previous post about another woven coverlet I discovered right here in the San Juan Islands.

PS-2: A little footnote in the comparison of patterns:

Did this pattern inspire appliqued wreaths in the 1840s-50s or vice-a-versa? The quilt below was seen in an online auction in September 2011.

Actually, I think this feathered wreath pattern pre-dated both the coverlet and the quilt. When I discover something that contains a similar wreath that pre-dates 1840,

I'll add it to this post.

The Teddy Bear - Strangest Quilt in My Collection

2011-10-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

Teddy Bears have been ubiquitous in our culture since the days of Teddy Roosevelt. Here is a link to how Roosevelt became connected with the bear. We in this day and age would find appaling what his friends did. Thank goodness, Roosevelt did, too, and refused to shoot the poor bear, though he insisted that his friends put the poor bear out of its misery.

The incident became widely known as a result of a political cartoon by Clifford Berryman in The Washington Post on November 16, 1902.

Morris and Rose Michtom created the first Teddy Bear in 1903, and with Roosevelt's permission, named it Teddy.

Like our Beanie Babies of a decade ago, the Teddy Bear was such an outrageous pop-culture item of its day, according to one source, that even grown women were known to carry them around in public. (I am certain no quilter ever carried a Beanie Bay around in her purse, right?)

Bear lore in human culture and myth long pre-dates the famous Teddy Bear phenomena of Roosevelt's day. As always, humans and their myths are a fascinating study. You might enjoy exploring this site that writes on the bear lore of Europe or this one that writes of the bear lore of Native Americans.

So, yes, my "strangest" quilt is a Teddy Bear!

Why strange?

Because real teddy bears surely had to have been sacrificed to make this very three-demensional quilt!

Seems a bit macabre to me. But this quilt has been well used, as the photos far below show, and possibly, therefore, well loved.

So why did I add the quilt to my collection? Because it is so outrageously unusual I think Julie Silber would be willing to add it to her collection of Maverick Quilts!

Antique Buttons

2011-10-17T13:17:00.000-07:00

For the button lovers among my readers!

I had never seen anything like this before so I figured it was something that I needed to share, even though I don't collect buttons myself.

Seen in an antique shop just south of Seattle (and photographed with permission) on my way to the Pacific West Quilt Show August 25, 2011.

Have any of you button collectors seen something like this before?

This little gem is about as unique as the Signature china plate I found two years ago that reminded me of a Signature Quilt. You can read that post by clicking here.

May we never grow weary of collecting! And may our children survive our passing when confronted with the consequences of our passion!!

Cheers!

Karen

PS: There was an excellent article about buttons that ran in PieceWork's July/August 2011 issue.

Documenting Family Quilts-Part 1

2011-10-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

Everyone Needs Quilted Memories in the Family!

And future generations need us to document these quilts now!

Sarah in Pink!

Teen-agers! Well, what can I say. Some females will go to strange lengths to keep that skin beautiful! But I don't think she went out in public with that goop on her face! No self-respecting 14 year old would — not even in New Orleans where we lived at the time!

The Lone Star quilt on the wall sets off Sarah's pink glow nicely, don't you think?

The name of the portrait quilt below from 1978 is "Sarah in Pink". My mother-in-law actually made three of these, one for each child, based on the art work we had sent her. (See the photo of all three below.)

Of course, I had no idea she would make a quilt out of the art work when I sent it. I didn't know anyone could do that.....make a quilt out of a child's artwork!

Oh my, how my daughters are going to love me for these photos. All quilts by my prolific mother-in-law, Wini Waters Alexander, born in Yakima, WA and raised in Seattle.

Christmas Eve 1978

What's Your Story?

We all have a story about how, why and when we got hooked by the quilting bug. I think when we record our stories, we are leaving behind a very valuable legacy. I hope you will consider writing down your story for your children or grandchildren!

I Owe it All to My Mother-in-Law!

I never would have gotten bitten by the quilt bug if it weren't for my mother-in-law. It was the above three portrait quilts plus one other quilt (below) made of Sarah's art work from age 2-7 that finally lured me into quilting.

What intrigued me most of all about the above quilt was what a carrier of history it was, a child's history. I was hooked!

Wini was proficient in so many different forms of neeldework.
I think her first love was clothing

In 1978 she made robes for the whole family, along with those quilts you saw above!

Wini made quilts at every stage of the children's lives!

I'll be showing you more in future posts.

I knew I had photos somewhere of my youngest daughter (Lori) taken about 1977 with two of the doll quilts Wini had made. Finally found them!

Pink Medallion doll quilt ( see above) was lost shortly after Lori received it in 1977.

I reluctantly allowed Lori to take this precious new birthday gift (above) to her friend's house that day just across the street. It never came back and this is the only photo I have of it. Fortunately I snapped the photo just before she left the house that day. The friend's mama could not find it when I called the next morning. She claimed she hadn't even seen it. I was so upset. The two little girls had stayed home the whole afternoon so it couldn't have been left somewhere else. I always suspected her little friend might have squirreled it away somewhere to play with later, as little children will sometimes do. I hope some day it shows up in someone's antique doll quilt collection! Alas, Wini did not sign her doll quilts like she did all her other quilts.

Above is another one of Wini's birthday gift's to Lori. I confess, I had a very hard time allowing her to play with this one. Each fan is trimmed in lace.

Here's Lori some 30 years later ready for a 2010 Halloween party, black wig and all!

And below a photo prepping for her wedding. Though she doesn't make quilts (yet), she is a graphic artist!

My son's only daughter --and our only granddaughter -- in my lap with our eldest daughter looking on as her sister preps for her big day. My granddaughter is now learning to sew, thanks to her own mother and Girl Scouts. In fact, she surprised Lori and made the Ring Pillow for the wedding!

"I'll give the baby Fan Quilt to Lori some day," I told myself those many years ago...."when she has her first baby." It will be a lovely "baby presentation" quilt.

No baby yet but plenty of time for she just got married in April here on the island.

They are going to make GREAT parents! They already take on the nieces and nephews for several days at a time.

Our wedding day 1968!

Loren, Gary's father, is on the right side of the photo. Wini, Gary's mother, on the left side of the photo. My mother is on the right side of the photo with Loren. Frankly, my wedding was very simple. I did not even set a color scheme, yet both mothers showed up in the same color! The wedding was outdoors in a friend's lovely backyard that had just been re-landscaped with a bubbling waterfall added.

As I uploaded my wedding photo onto the blog, I got to remembering my search for my wedding dress. I found it in a bridal shop in Pasadena, CA that carried used wedding dresses. I don't know if I ever told my daughters this story for I didn't keep the dress. At least five more college friends wore it after I in a space of three years! I don't remember now who was the last one to wear it, but it led a good long life.

Lori (above) found her dress at a Cancer Fund raising Auction. Her wedding ceremony took place in a wonderful historic church here on the island. It has perfect acoustics, no microphone is ever needed no matter what the event.

Sarah (above-my eldest) found her dress used on eBay so they both carried on the tradition. (We'd all three rather have money to spend on books than clothes.) Sarah also got married outdoors like Gary and I.

My mother was married in a suit on Easter Sunday 1942. Pearl Harbor had already been bombed. How quickly their world changed. Yet how much more the world has changed since even those days of crisis in the early 40s!

Peace,

Karen Alexander

Honoring Steve Jobs

2011-10-08T20:35:00.000-07:00

iPhone Quilt in Charity Auction Honors Steve Jobs

KTUU-TV
updated 10/7/2011 10:46:53 PM ET

A quilt depicting an Apple iPhone hanging in the atrium of the BP Building in Midtown was made by a group of women who wanted to contribute something unique to an auction for United Way.

About $300 worth of materials went into creating the completely handmade auction item. United Way officials say the recent death of Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs makes the quilt a piece of history that's also a sign of the times.
"It's something that someone can use and share with their kids," said United Way's Katria Strauch. "It's very, very current and common that you'll see, for example, college kids have iPads or iPods or all of the above."

The quilt has been on auction since Sept. 19, and will remain available until Oct. 13. If you would like to bid on the quilt, contact Strauch via email at katria.strauch@bp.com.

To reach Katria, click here. Katria sent me a photo of the quilt today with this note:

A unique, almost queen size (76" x 96") quilt, framed by BP green. It is a replica of a smart phone with interpretations of 21 different apps designed and appliquéd by several BP employees, contractors and spouses. The overall quilting pattern chosen is called "Pipelines."

Has anyone heard of any other quilts being made to honor Steve Jobs? If so, please leave a comment with the story or a link to the story. Thanks!

My favorite Steve Jobs quote:

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Listen and watch Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement speech here. I highly recommend it. I have had a Mac since 1984. My kids persuaded me to try a PC in 1999. I survived that experience for 3 years and then went back to Macs. I LOVE my iMac. Now I want something I can upload my entire research file onto. And I want to be able to type on it and add data to it while traveling. (Is it apparent that I do not have a laptop?) I also don't want it to weigh much. Suggestions?

Guess I had better get on a ferry and go visit an Apple Store in Seattle.

Do what you love. Like Steve said, life is so short!

Karen

Organizing Your Stuff

2011-09-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

A quilt friend wrote me recently:

I have come to think of your head as a vast vaultof "where to find it" information. You seem to know something abouteverything!

I only WISH I COULD remember

everything I have everread or seen!!!

Computers make my research work so much easer now! I just do a "word search" on my computer whena question on one of the quilt history discussion lists that I belong asks a question.

However, Since I began giving more lectures in the past few years, I have given some thought about whatfinally enabled me to retain as much as I do about the general history of theindustrial revolution, textile production, pattern development, etc.

I noticedthe shift myself right after my first textile study tour to Europe with Deb Roberts in 2006 to France (followed by my 2nd to the U.K. in 2007 and 3rd to the Mediterranean area in 2008). Those textile study tours trulyGALVANIZED me.

I suspect it was because I got to see the REAL thing incultural context. It made history come alive ----just like I wrote in my mostrecent blog post about how living overseas for three years in my teens andseeing 19 different countries by the time I was 20 made history come alive forme for the first time.

How a Family Timeline Set the Mold

I lay my ability to retain all this new information,however, at the feet of my genealogical research begun in the 1980s. Once I put together all the ancestors on my father's direct male line back to 1500, I created a birth and death Timeline in1994. I realized in 2006 that the "picture" of THAT Timeline in myhead gave me something visual to hook OTHER time-related information onto.

It doesn't always work but it works so much better than anyother "memorization" tool that I may have unconsciously tried before. So I just overlay new information on the dates associatedwith my father's family line.

This is a family quilt I inherited made up of blocks dating from1840-1890.
This are often called "Pattern" quilts.

The easiest way for me to remember a date is toassociate it with one of my great grandfathers. For example, my husband is ahistorian of financial, economic and music history by avocation and is alwaysspouting off dates to me. But I never remember them. Then one day, I wasreading liner notes at a music event and saw that Mozart died in 1791 and thathe was working on his "Requiem" at the time. 1791 is the year my 3rdGreat Grandfather died in Shenandoah Co, VA and a light bulb went on. Eversince I can remember Mozart's death date and the year Requiem was written.(Just don't ask me any more dates associated with Mozart. I just latched on tothat one to impress my husband. LOL)

Anyway, as I took those three tours with Deb Roberts, I readvoraciously-- especially on the plane coming and going. My favorite book wasChapman and Chassagne's "European Textile Printers in the EighteenthCentury" published in 1981. I also began taking copious but BRIEF hand notes (+dates) as I read thisand other books about the industrial revolution and textile production, notingimportant inventions and other "mile markers". (I also write notes inthe margins of my books as I read.) Then I started creating a Timeline of theevents and dates from my notes. I am constantly adding to my Timeline and I tryto source every fact I add to this Timeline, though occasionally I forget. (Notgood for a researcher to do. )

Basis for a 20th Century Timeline

I used the TQHF Timeline that Hazel Carter created about theHonorees' lives as the basis of my 20th century "mental imprint"rather than just family history.

Maybe some day I will publish it all. Who knows. For thetime being, it's just fun creating it. I use it faithfully, too, as I preparefor lectures and always have a copy with me when I give a talk so that I canrefer to very specific dates, if needed.

How do you train yourself remember what you study?

Off to a research conference! My favorite trip every year! Have fun researching and documenting your quilt!!

Karen

PS: Here is the beginning of my Textile Timeline:

INTEGRATED TIMELINE OF TEXTILE HISTORY

35th century BC—An ivory carving, found inTemple of Osiris at Abydos in 1903 and currently in the collection of theBritish Museum, features the king of the Egyptian First Dynasty wearing amantle/cloak that appears to be quilted. (Colby, 4).

600 B.C. Pre-Columbian Peruvian textile fragment exhibitioninstalled at 724 Fifth Ave Jack Larsen, weaver and textile designer andPresident of the American Craft Council quoted: The Peruvians were the bestweavers in history and invented a wider body of structures than any otherpeople. They also happened to have those air conditioned tombs in which theirwork was preserved for centuries.” The 29 “gloriously colored textiles awashwith abstract images, date from 600 B.C. to 1500 A.D. in this exhibit.” (NYT Section H pg. 36; 2 Nov 1986) (KBAarchives)

770– 221 BC—Chinese silk ornamental quilts are excavated from tombs dating fromthe Eastern Zhou dynasty (Liddell and Watanabe, 1).

327BC—Alexander the Great invades India and describes brilliant printed clothsseen there (Robinson, 111).

1st century BC-2nd century AD—The earliest surviving quiltedobject is a quilted linen carpet found in a Mongoliancave tomb. It is housed in thecollection of the Leningrad Department of the Institute of Archaeology of theAcademy of the Sciences of the Union of the Soviet Republic (Colby, 5).

1stcB.C. – 2nd A.D.

Scythianchieftan’s floor rug in the style of a quilt Colby,6-7

500to 800 —Mosiac patchwork of silk found in Caves of the Thousand Buddhas in ChinaColby, 97, von Gwinner, 22

andde Koning-Stapel, 8.

800– 900 AD—A slipper of quilted felt patched with leather discovered on the SilkRoad near the present Sino-Russian border. The slipper is currently housed inthe British Museum, London (Liddell and Watanabe, 3).

Life Before Quilting - Part I

2011-09-11T15:54:00.000-07:00

What in the world did I do before quilting?

I was digging through an box of old albums recently that I put together long ago and thought I would share some of the photos with you.

I think I was born a documenter. My siblings did not make scrapbooks and photo albums like I did as a teen-ager, though my sister does today. Nor did they write letters like I did. It's just what I have always done. I wrote volumes home to my friends the year and a half we lived on Panay, The Philippines and then, after one year of college, in Tanzania with my parents and siblings. I even illustrated some of my letters with sketches using colored pencils. My friends faithfully saved these letters at my request.

Here are a few highlights from those early years. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

The Biedler* and Gonzaga family Christmas 1959. My friend Daday and I on the left. The high sleeves of our dresses are called butterfly sleeves. To read more about this type of dress, click here.

(The family name was originally Beidler and is still pronounced as though it was spelled Beidler.)

Dr. Eduardo Gonzaga and his wife Anita were both graduates of American universities. Dr. Ed was an an eye surgeon and the President of the Board of Central Philippine University at the time. Auntie, as we called her, was a musician and soloist as well as mother of six. They were a wonderful couple and made sure we Biedlers had many wonderful and unique (for us) experiences in our 18 months on Panay. One of the most memorable was spending a week on a fish farm on the island of Negros, sleeping in nipa huts, riding carabao and getting up in the middle of the night to help net fish in the fish ponds! We also hiked back into the mountains to where their extended family had hidden during the Japanese occupation during WWII.

My mother and father in the middle, my sister front far left, and my youngest brother in the front.

I had always had an affinity for history and geography from about age 10 on. Now as our family traveled the world to and from The Philippines, history came alive before my eyes. WWII came to life as I heard stories from those who had personally lived thru the Japanese occupation of The Philippines. As we family camped across Europe on our way home the summer of 1960, we even saw remnants of some of the devastating bombing that the Allies had imposed upon Germany.

We also saw wonderful museums, ruins of ancient historic cities, and visited people in their homes.

Being exposed to so many different cultures during my teens also introduced me to a great diversity of design and crafts, especially in The Philippines. I still have several yards of handwoven jusi from the Island of Panay as well as the barong that my youngest brother wore. This link to jusi, however, doesn't adequately describe the lovely silk-looking fabric that I remember and still have several yards of.

Here is a group of photos I just dug out and scanned that show the various kinds of outfits my sister and I wore on special occasions in The Philippines. Here is a link to a lovely YouTube slide show of gorgeous traditional Filipino national dress.

With a friend at school.

My sister and I with a group of school friends.

Another interesting experience my sister and I had was being invited to take part in a fashion show. I don't remember now what group organized but it wasn't the school. We were asked to model a Western wedding party to contrast it with a traditional Philippine wedding party.

Here I model my own Filipino dress. I later wore this dress to my Junior Prom....minus the sleeves.

Same dress above that I wore at the Filipino fashion show, minus the butterfly sleeves.

Mother's blue dress was also made for her while we were living in The Philippines.

This is another dress made for Mother in the Philippines but she re-made it for my senior winter
formal but belled the skirt. It was a very nice touch. The fabrics for both the blue dress and the red dress were woven in The Philippines, as was my red and silver shawl.

The last 3 months of our first overseas sojourn were spent visiting some 19 countries on our way home across Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Ever since living in and traveling to such fascinating places at such an impressionable age, I have found keeping track of world news as natural as reading about what is going on in another State.

Camping across Europe and the British Isles for almost 2 months as a 16 year old made history come alive and it was soon enough after WWII that we actually still saw bombed out buildings in several places. Alas, most of my letters and postcard collection were "lost" after I moved to California to finish school. I don't think the folks meant to throw it away, but I wasn't there to rescue my "stuff" as they broke up the household. Some of it survived and caught up with me later in life and some of it didn't.

Double click to enlarge so that you can read this article.

My parents were educators so the local community paper decided to do a series (above) on our travels as we headed home in 1960.

East Africa - 1963-1964

As I left for college in 1962 my parents left for East Africa. After my first year of college we four children joined them for one year, 1963-1964.

The area today known as Tanzania became a German colony called Tanganyika in 1884 while the Sultanate of Zanzibar became a British Protectorate in 1890. Tanganyika became a British mandated territory in 1918 and achieved independence in 1961. In 1963 Zanzibar achieved independence, and a year later formed a union with Tanganyika under the new name of Tanzania.

During our year in Africa Kennedy was assassinated in November of 1963; Tanganyika united with Zanzibar and became Tanzania in January 1964; and two weeks later a portion of the army and police force of Tanzania revolted.

(above) The Dar-es-Salaam/Tanzania news photographer just happened to catch our family in the crowd at the Kennedy memorial service in November 1963. (I have circled us.) Only Mom is missing as she was unable to be there.

Experiencing a coup d'état at age 19

The Embassy personnel woke me at 6 a.m. with a phone call at the home where I was caring for two small American children while there parents were on vacation in South Africa. A coup d'état was in progress, they warned me. I was to keep the doors and windows barred, let no one in and to pack suitcases for the three of us. As soon as the Embassy gave me the signal, I was to jump in the car with the two kids and flee a mile down the road to the nearest American residence and stay put. Once I hung up the phone, I could hear guns firing and see soldiers surrounding the house across the street. The Embassy called me every hour on the hour all day. I kept tabs on what was going on in the city by turning on Voice of America that was broadcast out of West Africa. At 6 p.m. I finally got the all clear signal to hop in the car and head down the road where I holed up with two other American families for the next two days.

Car loaded and ready to roll for our camping trip across the Serengeti spring 1964.

Lots and lots of more stories there!

There are also the stories of sailing up the coast of Tanzania with my brothers in our little 18 foot boat; working in a small jetty on the wharf in Dar-es-Salaam while doing contract research, pouring over ancient merchants' logs of goods shipped up and down the coast on Arab dhows since the late 1800s; staying at the American Ambassador's residence for a week while the Ambassador and his wife were away to watch over their two daughters and being waited on and and foot, including being chauffeured around town on my errands; camping across the Serengeti and seeing vast herds of wild animals on the move with prides of lion in their wake!

1963-64 was one of the most unforgettable years of my life.

I'll also never forget seeing the movie Lawrence of Arabia while living in East Africa and many years later being flooded with memories as I watched Out of Africa.

The roads were always a bit "iffy" up-country.

Setting up a tent in a strong wind is always a bit "iffy" too! This happened to us many times while camping in Europe in 1960 also. One time as a storm approached, the wind go so wild that we four kids simply held onto the tent and all jumped into the VW Bus at once.

Saying good-bye (above) to a group of students at the Teacher-Training College

in Dar-es-Salaam. They were heading for studies in the USA.

Fabric Mother brought back from Africa.

Somewhere in my siblings' stuff are several more pieces of the bright colorful fabrics my mother purchased in the African market place. I can find only one example in among my stuff.

There a large number of emigres from India living in East Africa at the time as well. It was in Tanzania that I had a sari made and wore it on festive occasions. Alas, I have none of my Filipino costumes or my sari anymore to show my daughters or granddaughter. But we can't keep everything, can we, or STUFF takes over our lives completely.

Hope you enjoyed this walk down memory lane with me. It brought back a lot of memories!

Peace, joy and a sense of adventure to you in your daily exploration of life,

Karen

Colville Washington Signature Quilt

2011-09-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

I recently purchased a Signature quilt in Fife, WA that appears to be part of Colville, Washinton history. The quilt consists of 30 blocks. The center block says Colville Chapter - 514 W.O.T.M. - Jan 26. 1934. There are 29 embroidered signatures, one on each of the other 29 blocks.

At the moment, I suspect that W.O.T.M stands for Women Of The Moose. According to their website, the Moose organization is a fraternal order first founded in the late 1800s but "reinvented" about 1906 to "provide protection and security for a largely working-class membership" in case the bread winner died, i.e. the husband.

The women's auxiliary was formed in 1913. The focus of the group changed a bit after WWII. There are still many active chapters across the US today. I am in the process of trying to track down whether or not there was once a chapter in Colville, Washington.

Some of the embroidery on the quilt is difficult to read so the spelling of the names on the quilt are subject to interpretation.

The names are as follows: Ruth Harner, Julia Pool, Grace Wennmans, Mrs. Bloom, Ena Miller Boletta M. Elwood, Mrs. Sarah Lewis, Olive Vine, Annie Skeels, Maud D. Moser, Madge Dunham, C. M. Clark, Lillian Carman, Mrs. W. H. Hoeft, Flora Carman, Ethel Thomas, Emma Nelson, Evelyn Bennett, Alice Knapp, Claire Curry, Mary Anderson, Dora Campbell, Edna Moore, Susie L. Noble, Jeanie Nugent, Carrie Carman, Lena Artman, Lena Montgomery, and Mrs. Benedict.

I would love to be able to document any information about the women listed on this quilt and discover why the quilt was made. If you recognize any of the names or can help shed light on this quilt's history, please email me.

I look forward to hearing from some of you!

Karen Alexander

Update on the Acanthus Design Source

2011-08-29T13:22:00.000-07:00

Reading the Wall Street Journal daily doesn't usually generate a lot of excitement, although I must admit I always find something each day that intrigues me. And my reading definitely educates me about the present craziness in the world markets! Why else does one read read a particular magazine or newspaper so faithfully? "Meat" or entertainment, right?

Today I let out a "whoop" that shot my husband's head up to attention. "What, What?!" he questioned.

"I've discovered another thread of history about the design of the acanthus plant on the antique quilt I bought a couple of months ago."

"Oh, ... ."

Ok, so my discovery isn't so exciting to someone who doesn't track down design sources found on quilts.

Nevertheless, he does understand my excitement for it is another piece of the puzzle in my research on this particular Four-Block acanthus quilt that I wrote about in this blog in June! Click here to see the earlier post about this quilt.

Christain Sahner, a Rhodes Scholar and doctoral candidate in history, writes in the first paragraph of his article "Temple of the 'Bride of the Desert,'"

Each night at sunset, the "bride of the desert," as she has been known for centuries, gets dressed for her wedding. In those last moments of daylight, she dons a robe of stunning colors—the buttery yellow of her limestone columns mixing with the blue shadows of her temples and the soft pinks of the desert floor. It is a scene that has inspired countless cultural suitors over the centuries, from Persians and Romans to Georgian Britons and Arab Nationalists. But could a new suitor materialize out of the current turmoil in Syria?

Powerful imagery!

James Dawkins and Robert Wood Discovering the Ruins of Palmyra - painted 1758,
National Gallery of Scotland

Sahner goes on to write:

First settled in the third millennium B.C., the city made her fortunes as a trading depot. Silk, Palmyra's prized commodity, began its westward journey at the Indian port of Barbaricon, passing by boat to Seleucia and Babylon, before traveling by caravan to Palmyra, and then on to the Mediterranean coast.

Now he really had my attention because I like to weave the fascinating stories about ancient trade routes and the economic history of cotton into my lectures on the history of quilting.

The temple above was constructed around the turn of the first millennium A.D. and still dominates Palmyra and the modern city of Tadmor. What caught my eye was the freeze along the top of the temples portico.

There was the acanthus plant again! Sahner writes:

On the north side, there is a much-eroded zodiac motif, set within a detailed coffered ceiling.

On the south side, a large acanthus medallion sprouts amid a field of stone rosettes, as delicate as on the day they were first chiseled. In the late 18th century, these designs found their way into the parlors of posh English homes, thanks to the sketches of the antiquarians James Dawkins and Robert Wood, who visited Palmyra in 1751.

This doesn't mean the design may not have been there earlier on some object imported from the Middle East, but here was a direct reference to this design being brought into England by two named individuals!

Compare it to the quilt's applique pattern once more.

Next: an update on the visit of Cathy and John Miller to Lopez Island and the quilt history Cathy sets to music and my visit to the Pacific West Quilt Show in Tacoma, Washington.

Cheers!

Karen Alexander

The Singing Quilter - Cathy Miller

2011-08-17T20:54:00.000-07:00

In Concert with Cathy Miller

Listen to Women's History set to Music

at the Lopez Center for Community and the Arts!!

Come visit us on Lopez Island

following the Pacific West Quilt Show in Tacoma!

Canadian singer/songwriter/storyteller Cathy Miller will be performing at the Lopez Island Community Center for the Arts, Sunday, August 28 at 4 pm. This program is sure to entertain and inspire both young and old, quilters and non-quilters alike.

Cathy used to be a folksinger with a slightly jazzy bent. She performed at folk festivals, clubs and house concerts all across Canada and released five CDs of her music. That was before quilting.

In 1991 Cathy was hired to write music for a play about quilting. As part of her research, she took a class and the rest, as they say, is history. She now devotes her entire career to researching and writing songs about this fascinating art. Why? Because often embedded in quilts, there are important human stories about love, death, immigration, hope, and community. Cathy realized that no one was capturing these stories in song. She was uniquely qualified to take on this task.

Cathy is a stickler for detail. For her song A Quilt & A Kettle about the Oregon Trail experience of pioneer Rachel Bond, she worked with Portland/Lopez quilt historian Mary Bywater Cross to refine her wording. Cathy¹s husband, John Bunge accompanies her. He is a former member of The Gumboots from Yellowknife, a folk group that first formed in 1984 and performed both traditional Canadian folk songs and original songs about the North.

Cathy is known for upbeat performances, which have made her an event favorite. Cathy and John are a unique couple, traveling the world, singing about the life of contemporary quilt makers as well as historic quilts. Cathy released her first CD of 12 quilt story songs, One Stitch at a Time, in September of 2000.
The tales surrounding a quilt¹s history can be fascinating, and frequently tell a tale of women's lives and community life that don't often make it into the history books. Cathy delights in finding and writing songs about unusual and wonderful stories woven into quilts.

For her Lopez concert, Cathy will be performing songs that relate to World War II, western migration and other themes. The songs range from the historical, through the poignant, to the drop-dead funny!

Quilts will frame the concert setting, including several of Mary Bywater Cross’s woolen quilts. Mary's quilts will be available later on the Studio Tour. Featured will be the new Lopez Island Signature Quilt from the Lopez Island Historical Society. This visual record of island residents is the quilt style that leads creative minds like Cathy’s to write her songs. We’re eager to share it with her and the island community.

Please come and join us for a special late afternoon concert of stories set to music!

Karen B. Alexander

"You honor the life that has been given you by remembering and telling your stories."
Robin Moore's "Awakening the Hidden Storyteller"

My Blogs:

Quilt History Reports
http://karenquilt.blogspot.com/

Honorees of The Quilters Hall of Fame
http://thequiltershalloffame.blogspot.com/

Enchanted Quilters of Lopez Island
http://enchantedquiltersoflopezisland.blogspot.com/

Smocks is no longer smocks, they are shocks.

2011-06-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

It is so entertaining to read the descriptions by earlier generations of women's fashions.

I am writing this post simply because my attention was caught one day by the look of a worker's smock on a U.K. history website. (See first photo below.)

Source: http://www.reading.ac.uk/merl/the_collections/the_museum/smocks.html

The above photo of a farmer in a "smock" reminded me very much of a photo in our family archives. I immediately went digging and wa-la.....my grandmother in a very similar frock in 1921 shortly after my mother was born, only her smock is belted.

(Left, my grandparents Crystal [nee Pauley] Peebles and Robert Peebles with my mother Elizabeth (Betty) Peebles, almost spring 1921, Miami, WVA.)

Below is one image I found that very much resembles my grandmother's dress.

Source: http://www.fashion-era.com/visitor_pages/1917_shay_visitor.htm

Here is the American version of the British gentleman's smocked outfit I started with.

Above is amid-19th century smock from the Sturbridge Village collection.

Source: http://www.lexingtonminutemen.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=12&Itemid=68

Then I got curious about the style and googled around until I stumbled across the article below. The transcription follows the photo of the article.

So, do you think the "designer" of the dress my grandmother has on was inspired by the farmer's garment? Truth be told, howver, her dress is, unfortunately, not smocked.

Of Interest to Women

By MAROARRT MASON

(written for the United Press)

Dame Fashion knits a soldier's stocking:

With the yarn that's left she does her

smocking.

Now don’t you think this very shocking?

NEW YORK. July 15, 1916.

Perhaps along Ellis Parker Butler's line of reasoning that "Pigs is Pigs," you think that "smocks is smocks." But you are wrong. Smocks is no longer smocks. They are shocks. There is a new hybrid race, flock or swarm of them in a tiny little box of a shop on Fifth avenue. It offers hats, too, but the smocks are the real curios.

They are not any of them what you would expect a well regulated smock to be. Each one is rather the embodiment of a wild flight of fancy, to put it mildly.

They start out all right and proper in linen, pongee, crepe or cretonne but then comes the funny business. Some of them are appliquéd in a mad hit or miss riot of gay, colored linen disks outline-stitched with yarn. Others are patched in crazy quilt fashion and feather stitched with yarn. Always there is yarn, yarn, yarn in some of every color, stitch or fashion.

Some of the more decorous smocks have cut out patterns of the cretonne, baskets of flowers, birds or beasts appliqued at intervals around the skirt or on the pockets, and yet others have yarn crocheted scallops around the collar, cuffs and pockets. One of black satine is broken out so rashly in cart-sized and varicolored appliqued disks that it looks like a futurist companion piece to "A Nude Descending the Stairs." There are also some new sweaters or blazers quite as new as the smocks, but not quite so wierd. However, they put to shame for very stripedness both the zebra and the Sing-Sing habitant.

These striped sweater coats worn with the one-toned corduroy or linen skirt are a sort of vice versa flipflop or fashion from the one toned sweaters worn with awning striped skirts that were so omnipresent at the beginning of the season.

Although the stripes are riotous in their color effects, they are not so without rhyme or reason by any means. They are striped in regimental colors, and each daughter of the regi- ment may express by her coat of many colors her regimental preference.

For the patriotic preparedness person there are the stripes of red, white and blue, and her sentiments as well as her figure may thus be embodied in her garment. Regimental colors are a deal more exclusive, however, and express a preference not quite so broad and promiscuous. Worn with white skirts these gray striped sweater coats are particularly stunning, and there also are accompanying accoutrements of hats and parasols striped to match.

The expression “Oh, she is that stripe,” hereby gathers a new meaning and the regimental sweater offers, as well as warmth and adornment, a delightful modern method of wearing your heart on your sleeve by wearing instead HIS stripes.

Verily, no regiment would fail to present arms to such color bearers.

Now wouldn't you just love to see some examples of those " appliquéd in a mad hit or miss riot of gay, colored linen disks outline-stitched with yarn. Others are patched in crazy quilt fashion and feather stitched with yarn. Always there is yarn, yarn, yarn in some of every color, stitch or fashion"?!

I can sure tell I don't know a whole lot about the history of dress design! It took forever to find that plaid dress image that resembles my grandmotehr's dress. Do check out the link for the plaid dress for some background for the era 1914-1920 in "ordinary" women's dresses.

Happy hunting to you in whatever kind of collecting or research you do!

Karen

New Pattern Added to my Collection

2011-06-17T22:59:00.000-07:00

Another Unusual Find

I had never seen this broad-leaf pattern (below) on a quilt prior to my find on eBay December 2010.This is a Four-Block quilt.

I am assuming the tan was once green but I can find no real evidence of it. Even where the loose fabric enables me to get under the tan, there is no appearance of the green left.

The fact that the red has worn so unevenly makes me wonder if the red wasn't from two different dye lots. Seems strange that some leaves held-up so well and others did not.

Below is a photo of a Corithn column with two ranks of stylized acanthus leaves. Is that what this leaf is -- an interpretation of the acanthus plant?

Below is the leaf on the quilt side-by side with a large acanthus leaf.

Here are four different architectural variations of the acanthus in

various periods of history.

You will often see this pattern in Moulded Ceilings as well. Click here to see some beautiful examples.

Below is another variation from a stair railing at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

And still another column.

So far I have found two legends about the plant but there are probably more.

Acanthus. The acanthus plant grows throughout much of the Mediterranean region. Its large leaves appear in many ancient sculptures, especially on top of columns in the Greek style called Corinthian. Legends says that after a young girl's death, her nurse placed her possessions in a basket near her tomb. An acanthus plant grew around the basket and enclosed it. One day the sculptor Callimachus noticed this arrangement and was inspired to design the column ornament.

http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Pa-Pr/Plants-in-Mythology.html

As seen on a green wedgewood teapot.

From Wikipedia:

Acantha (Greek: Ἀκάνθα, English translation: "thorny") was a minor character in Greek mythology. She was a nymph loved by Apollo, the sun god. In one version of the story, Acantha refused Apollo's advances and scratched his face when he tried to rape her. Apollo then turned her into an acanthus plant.[1] Another version features Acantha as a mortal man who returned Apollo's advances.[2] The matter of Acantha's identity is further confused by the fact that the acanthus plant is not a tree, but a shrub or bush, and therefore is unlikely to have had a nymph associated with it. This may simply indicate that it was perceived to be a tree at the time the myth was created.

Here you see the use of this plant's pattern in clothing.

The little nine patch checkerboard at the intersections of the four blocks is a nice touch.

A second acanthus quilt pattern appears within 6 months!

Now came the real surprsie. I found another quilt made of this pattern just this week! It has the very same over all loss of the green coloring to that same creamy tan! They came from oposite coasts of the country. Oh how I wish there was some history of the source of these two pieces! Is it possible the two women knew each other and shared the pattern?

When I first spotted this quilt I thought it had stains.Upon closer look, however, what looks like stains in this photo are actually those same "tan-looking" leaves.

I'd appreciate from hearing from anyone who has a photo of a quilt similar to this pattern or knows of a published source for this pattern.

UPDATE: Tim Latimer of Tim Latimer Quilts, etc sent me a link to another Acanthus plant whose leaf even more like this quilt's pattern! (Be sure to check out Tim's gorgeous quilting!)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Macleaya_microcarpa_Habitus_BotGardBln0906b.jpg

PS: August 29, 2011

See update on this design by clicking here.

Will Red & White Spark the Next Revival?

2011-04-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

An Important 40th Anniversary in Quilt History

Jonathan Holstein and Gail van der Hoof - 1971

Just as the 1971 Holstein-van der Hoof quilt exhibit "Abstract Design in American Quilts" at the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC kicked off the late 20th century quilt revival, the recent Red & White quilt exhibit “Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts” held in NYC at the Park Avenue Armory may go down in quilt history as the defining moment for the next revival of interest in quilts....or at the very least, interest in creation of Red & White quilts.

(click on photo to enlarge)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-kelly/major-quilt-exhibit-spons_b_839490.html

(click on the article to enlarge)

Here is a link to an additional story about the owner of the quilts in this exhibit. Her husband asked her what she wanted for her 80th birthday and she said she wanted him to underwrite an exhibit of her red and white quilts and open it free to the public!

http://tinyurl.com/5vv23os

Below are two videos of the red and white exhibit with lovely music. Almost like being there!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XK99ct7o5s (4 mins)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV0e7HfB_yo&feature=related (8 mins)

Here is still another link that presents a short brochure which can be printed page by page. Just click on the story lead next to the photo of the exhibit.

http://www.1stdibs.com/index.php?tsid=2164

I think Quilts in the Barn ahs the best set of photographs that I have yet seen. Click here to view Linda's blog. Click here for a flickr link to still more photos.

The exhibit design world has been almost as excited about this exhibit as we quilters have been. http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20110329/exhibition-design-in-the-app-age=

A RED & WHITE CHALLENGE

Author, designer, quilt teacher Pat Sloan has created a blog post archiving all the websites and blogs and news articles she has found as well of this exhibit. Her blog is worth visiting and bookmarking for future stories in addition to a sense of immediate pleasure.

Pat is also going to be issuing a 'Make a Red and White' Challenge in the near future.. so if you're anxious to make a Red and White quilt, be sure to keep track of her challenge on her blog.

You can also see a photo of Joanna Rose, owner of the Red & White quilts at the Park Avenue Armory exhibit on Pat's website.

http://patsloan.typepad.com/pat_sloan_red_and_white/

Here is one quilter from Indiana who has already made her new Red & White quilt! See story here.

photo by Rod Rowe

Clair Baker of Middlebury, Indiana, is pictured in front of her “vortex” quilt she made this

winter, with Nick Hoffman, former director of the Elkhart County Historical Museum.

You can see my two blogs about Red & White quilts in my collection here.

March 13 post - http://karenquilt.blogspot.com/2011/03/what-is-ulster-inspired-quilt.html

March 7 - http://karenquilt.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-york-celebrates-red-and-white.html

Enjoy!

Karen Alexander in the Islands

PS: Watch for an article on the 40th anniversary of the 1971 Whitney exhibit and Jonathan and Gail van der Hoof.

Threads of Feeling Exhibit Ends in London

2011-03-13T13:16:00.001-07:00

What a powerful exhibit!

By John Styles

Accompanies an exhibition at the Foundling Museum, London 14 October 2010–6 March 2011

When mothers left babies at London’s Foundling Hospital in the mid-eighteenth century, the Hospital often retained a small token as a means of identification, usually a piece of fabric. These swatches of fabric now form Britain’s largest collection of everyday textiles from the eighteenth century. They include the whole range of fabrics worn by ordinary women, along with ribbons, embroidery and even some baby clothes. Beautiful and poignant, each scrap of material reflects the life of an infant child and that of its absent parent. The enthralling stories the fabrics tell about textiles, fashion, women’s skills, infant clothing and maternal emotion are the material of Threads of Feeling. Read more here.

The above link will also give you an opportunity to order the exhibit catalogue. Click here to read a review and responses to the exhibit.

Karen in the Islands

What is an Ulster-inspired Quilt

2011-03-13T10:41:00.000-07:00

Wanting to give this post its own search title and also wanting to continue the Red and White theme, I've moved the 2nd half of the last post into this spot.

My Most Intriguing

Red and White Quilt

43x57

Purchased on eBay in Nov 2007. Came from an estate in central Illinois.

The design of this crib quilt reminds me of some Ulster quilts I have seen photos of. I'll add a little more to this post when I get back from my guild meeting.

July 2011 Update: Here is a quilt very similar to my quit above in The Quilt Index.

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=18-36-73E

Citation:
Bowman, Grandmother. Applique Hearts. 7-30-1988. From State Historical Society of Iowa, IQRP . Published in The Quilt Index, http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=18-36-73E. Accessed: 07/16/2011

March 2011 Update:

Okay, now to add some more information that may or may not relate to the above crib quilt in my collection.

A research paper by Valerie Wilson, "Quiltmaking in Counties Antrim and Down: Some Preliminary Findings from the Ulster Quilt Survey", appears in the 1991 Uncoverings, the journal of the American Quilt Study Group. According to the article, at the time of the paper's publishing, Wilson was a Textile Assistant for the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. You can find a few quilts on their website but nothing like the quilts mentioned in Wilson's research paper. Too bad.

However, I have added two photos from the article below PLUS photos of more quilts that I have found on eBay and other places that for one reason or another made me think of my crib quilt.

Now for additional photos I have found and saved for study purposes.

Found in state of Vermont (above) - source....AQSG member

Size: 84 inches x75 inches
2011 eBay item: 390175677617
Item location: Lancaster, PA

Seller description states : THIS ANTIQUE APPLIQUE HAWAIIAN QUILT FROM THE 1870'S, IN SOLID RED AND WHITE, AN EXTRAORDINARY WORK OF ART.

click to see quilt above on eBay

click for source of above quilt

same source as above

eBay find

source for above quilt

Sunburst source above

above-source - eBay Jan 2010

Unfortunately, I did not record the source of this one. It's dated Feb 2010 in my photo files. I think it may have been a Mid-West Quilt Study Group meeting.

Source "In Praise of Quilts" weekend at the

Genesee Country Village Museum

by Lorie Stubbs

Source - This is just one block from the quilt. I found the quilt on

Betsy Talford's Rocky Mountain Quilts website in January 2010.

I have no conclusions. Just lots of questions!

Please feel free to to contact me if you have photos of quilts resembling any of the above or know anything more about on-going research on Ulster quilts!

KarenQuilt in the Islands

New York Celebrates Red and White!

2011-03-07T19:52:00.000-08:00

Networking through blogs is the name of the communication game today. I'm still not interested in Twitter. But who knows.

Recently Beth Donaldson at QuiltDoctor blogged about Taryn at Repro Quilt Lover. To celebrate the Red and White Quilt Exhibit in New York City hosted by the American Folk Art Museum, Taryn decided to offer a Red and White Challenge of her own.

Check out Taryn's Challenge here.

If you have a Red and White quilt in your collection, enter a photo in the challenge! I have entered the Challenge by sending a photo of the Red and White Star quilt below in my collection to Taryn.

I have a confession to make. After I read Beth's post and went looking for this quilt, I was astounded when I opened it up. I had forgotten it had a large red star at the center!

All I seemed to remember about this quilt (once it went into storage) were the wonky corners! Now that I see it fully open once again, I remember how I loved the fact that the maker didn't give a hoot about making those corners come out the same at each turn!! My kind of gal!

I have a very hard time taking head-on shots in this house without going to a lot of trouble....like dragging a ladder into the house. I punted today and just hung it in my office for this shot. But the room is too narrow to get a full head-on.

As you can see, the red is quite worn in the center of this quilt. This is one of my few quilts that I cannot find any record on. Given that almost all of the quilts in my collection that I purchased pre-2004 were found at estate sales in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia or in antique malls on one of my many trips with Hazel Carter across Ohio and Indiana, I can pretty safely assume this one came from one of those three states.

NEWS FLASH: Just since posting this last night, two folks have sent me links to quilts very similar to this quilt. Both are located in the U.K.!

Link #1

Link #2

Here is mine.

What do you think?

The four wonky corners!

Double click to enlarge.

Most of my other red and white quilts are redwork quilts and/or doll or crib quilts.

Here is a crib quilt dated 1918. This pattern was Ruby Short McKim's first quilt design produced in 1916. You can read an article I have written about McKim here.

Redwork Quaddie Quiltie McKim Crib Quilt

The quilt from my collection whose blocks you see here bears only 9 of the 20 different patterns from this first McKim series. A fabric tag stitched to the back reads: Carol Burr Baby quilt made for Richard born 1918. Although the red sashing is badly worn in places, especially across the top border, I was thrilled to stumble upon such an early copy of Ruby's first series.

This first series was a joint copyright venture with well known author Thornton Burgess, who died in 1965 at the age of 91, wrote over 170 books and 15,000 stories throughout his life. His characters, such as: Peter Rabbit, Joe Otter, Hooty the Owl, Jerry Muskrat, and Bobby Raccoon are famous worldwide. It was an auspicious beginning to Ruby's career to land this joint venture.

To see more Ruby McKim quilts visit Lynn Miller's blog here.
http://quilts-vintageandantique.blogspot.com/2011/01/ruby-mckim-quilts.html

Red and White Applique Doll Quilt

17.5"x18.5"

The little animals above were cut out from another fabric and

appliqued onto this little doll quilt.

Two-sided Redwork Doll Quilt

15.5"x23"

Below: reverse side of above doll quilt

Early Red & White 20th century Crib Quilt

This is actually rather like a duvet and has the initials at the top RMB for Rita M. Batka. Rita was a secretary and teacher who lived with her sister, and never married.The back is a small flannel plaid in blue and pink. Dont know where she was born but do know she was born in 1922. Some family still lived in Maryland at the time of her death. The known history includes a copy of her obituary and a copy of the estate sale ad giving some family history, and history of her life, which she lived mostly in Kansas.

37"x53"

detail of above quilt - Jiggs from "Bringing Up Father"

Excerpt from history of "Bringing Up Father". Click here to see more history and to see sample comic strips.

"It wasn't until January 2, 1913 that the strip formally became known as 'Bringing Up Father.' And it wasn't until 1916 that the strip began appearing as a daily on a regular basis, with Sunday strips following on April 14, 1918.

Bringing Up Father told the story of Irish-American Jiggs, a former bricklayer, and his wife Maggie, an ex-laundress, who achieved sudden wealth, supposedly by means of a lucky ticket in the Irish Sweepstakes. While the snobbish Maggie and beautiful daughter Nora constantly try to "bring up" Father to his new social position, Jiggs can think of nothing finer than sitting down at Dinty Moore's restaurant to finish off several dishes of corned beef and cabbage, followed by a night out with the boys from the old neighborhood. The clash of wills that ensued often resulted in flying rolling-pins, smashed crockery, and broken vases, all aimed in the general direction of Jiggs's skull."

detail of above quilt

Red Work Doll Quilt

20"x25"

Red Applique Doll Quilt

19"x19"

Click here to see more Red and White quilts in my next post, including some Ulster quilts.

Karen in the Islands

PS: Concerned about the current cotton market and the price of quilting fabrics?

So is the market place. Check it out here.

Star Quilt Reporter Cinda Cawley Passes

2011-03-05T10:11:00.000-08:00

Block I made for Cinda when she first became ill.

If you are a member of the QHL quilt history discussion list or the AQSG quilt history discussion list, you have already heard of the passing of our beloved Cinda Cawley.

If you are a member of neither of these groups, you are missing out on the experience of a lifetime when it comes to friendships — as well as quilt history information!

Here the quilt sleuths gather at one of Fran's Friends fabric study meetings in Maryland
about 1999 or 2000, eagerly awaiting that first quilt to be spread out! Cinda is in the far
right corner of the photo. Hazel Carter has her back to the camera. Barb Garrett is in the upper left
with Suzzane Cawley next to her--(no relation to Cinda). Phyllis Twigg Hatcher is the 3rd person
to Cinda's right. Can't remember the rest of the names.

Like most of those I have met in the quilt history world these past 30 years, Cinda was one-of-a-kind. Her sense of "can-do" when it came to ferretting out the story hidden in a quilt was contagious. Her moral outrage when it came to politics could light up the sky. Her generosity touched your heart and her fun-loving spirit made you want to be sure to be in her car so you could be along for the adventure!

How fortunate we of the VA-MD-PA fabric dating clubs were to have Cinda in our midst for so many years. Her ability to retain what she saw at those meetings and produce a full-blown written report later without hardly taking a note absolutely amazed me. Without her written reports, which she posted to QHL and AQSG, I wouldn’t have been able to identify half the photos I took at the meetings.

Nov 2000 - Cinda on right holding one of her fraktur quilts.
The hanging quilts are from my small Shenandoah Valley collection.

I spoke to Bayside Quilters on Maryland's Eastern Shore in Nov 2000 and had the great joy and privilege of spending the night with Cinda. It was the night America couldn’t decide who had really won the presidential election. It was an experience I will fondly and forever remember for having shared it with Cinda Cawley!

Cinda had not been well for a couple of years but we had all so hoped she was going to be able to keep putting one foot in front of the other and do what she loved best - document those quilts! And so she did for almost two more years.

Lorie Stubbs and Cinda Cawley stop to examine an antique quilt
at the 2009 AQSG Seminar in San Jose, California.

Alas, Cinda finally laid her pen and needle down and headed off to wherever Cuesta Benberry, Sally Garoutte, Lucy Hilty, Helen Kelley, Shiela Betterton, Mary Schafer, Bonnie Leman. Cryil Nelson, Joan Kiplinger, Sara Dillow, Hilary Fletcher, Sharon Newman, Helen Ewer and now even Jean Ray Laury (who also passed this week) are gathered in the Great Beyond. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Look at the Seminar attendees she is hob-nobbing with now!!!

Karen in the Islands

PS: If you want to leave a note for the family here, I'll be sure these messages get passed on to them.

More photos from Cinda's friends!

Beverly Birkmire from Maryland's Eastern Shore shared the following from the 2008 AQSG Seminar:

Who knows the story about this quilt?

Back row l-r: Julie Hardy, Cinda, Greta Van den Berg. Looks like the three in the front are first timers from Texas! Welcome First Timers Vickie Stipe, Debbie Stojanik and Ramona Williams!

Eastern Shore Quilt Study Group

FRONT ROW - Nancy Hahn (red), Polly Mello, Marylou McDonald (green), Cinda Cawley;
MIDDLE - Debby Cooney, Mary Kerr (behind Debby), Susan Shreuers (turquoisie), Madge Ziegler (red), Julianne Hardy (pink);
BACK ROW- Greta VanDenBerg Nestle, Karen Dever, Beverly Birkmire, Barbara Garrett (purple)

Below is a booth she set up at a show in Maryland, I believe, to share AQSG with the public.

Cinda was passionate about AQSG. Presenting her paper Ihr Teppich: Quilts and Fraktur at the 2004 Seminar in Vancouver, WA was a dream come true. Wish I had some photos from that moment.

(My wish was just granted! Lisa Portwood just sent the photo below.)

Cinda delivering her paper in Vancouver in 2004

Tribute from Xenia Cord

Anyone who ever encountered Cinda, in person or through the cyberworld, was aware of her prodigious memory, her sparkling intellect, her sharp wit, her incredible generosity. "Cindalogues" were word pictures that made us wish to have been there to see the quilts she described, and also made us long for the graceful language skills with which she excited her unknown readers.

But Cinda also made an impact in other, less recognized ways. When she was researching and writing her AQSG paper on fraktur quilts, she asked me to be her mentor (an improbable role-reversal). During the process we shared many laughs over her insistence on still more in-depth research, and my threats to bring out my whip if she didn't
begin the writing process. And so the paper developed and matured, and in October 2004 she appeared before an eager AQSG audience at the annual seminar, that year held in Vancouver, Washington.

Until that time, the format for presenting papers had been to read an edited text to the audience, a procedure that kept presenters on track within the tightly scheduled presentation period. Cinda was impatient with that approach, choosing instead to share with us some of what she had discovered about the lives, inter-familial connections, and personalities of the people she had met on the signed quilts. We could read her research at our leisure, she said. As she told us about Avaline Sarah Ann Ziegenfuss Stern, the woman who sparked her research interest, she brought us into the world of the Pennsylvania she knew and loved and made those who peopled her quilts live again. It was her hope that her research would "insure that not only she [Avaline] but those she loved, will not be forgotten."

And so Cinda has affected us all, and we are the better for it.

Xenia Cord

The following photos came from Jean Carlton and were taken at Cinda's PA Quilts Study Center at the AQSG Seminar in Lowell, Massachusetts in October 2007.

Photo below is from Anita Loscalzo, recalling another AQSG member we lost (Helen Ewer) not long after the 2007 Seminar. Helen so much resembled Cinda that members were constantly walking up to Helen at Seminar and assuming she was Cinda and vice-a-versa. They finally came up with a solution....look at their name tags in the photo closely.

Another photo from Lisa Portwood

Photo below courtesy of Judy Grow

More photos below from Beverly Birkmire from the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe....Looks like Cinda, Patricia Herr and Dawn Heefner have a very difficult decision to make! Cinda discovered the bakery just down from the hotel where the 2009 San Jose AQSG Seminar was held....and proceeded to lead us all astray. (Like we needed any help! When you attend Semianr, count on being led astray.)

A Tribute from Hazel Carter, founder of

The Quilters Hall of Fame and co-founder of the

Northern Virginia Antique Quilt/Fabric Dating Club

Say it isn’t so! Those have been my thoughts since receiving the phone call from Beverly Birkmire about the passing of our dear friend, Cinda. Cinda had phoned me the middle of February and in her conversation said as soon as she got out of the hospital she was going to have John bring her down to our Dating Club so she could let us see her newly acquired New York quilts. She explained that they were quite different from her Pennsylvania quilts.

She had been active in the Pennsylvania quilting community prior to joining our Antique and Vintage Fabric Dating Club. We are indebted to her for reporting on our meetings and putting us on the map! Can you believe she wrote those reports without notes in the beginning?

I enjoyed seeing the many historical printed scarves and hankies that she began sharing with the group so I gave her a Frankie Welch scarf printed with the Cherokee alphabet. She gave an outstanding presentation for my guild on this collection. She explained that the scarf I had given her was a great addition to her collection as she had researched and found that Presidents had often presented the Cherokee scarves to visiting foreign guests.

Cinda you will be missed for your knowledge, your humor, research and collections. But you will live on in our memories forever. Hazel Carter

A Tribute from AQSG member Gaye Ingram

With Gaye Ingram's permission, I am adding her AQSG post below.

March 6, 2011

I've been unable to get Cinda out of my thoughts this weekend. My mind cannot accept her absence.

For if anyone was ever fully "present," it was Cinda!

Without her, we will not be the same.

When I first joined this list, I was fascinated by references to "The Dating Club." I knew it had something to do with quilts, but I couldn't figure out exactly what. Somehow the notion of assigning dates to quilts did not occur to me. I was teaching teenagers at the time and accustomed to another context.

My first fully formed idea of that group came via one of Cinda's famous posts to qhl. In the wake of 9-11, I was like a lot of people, just stunned into some new system of time and priorities.

Clearly the Dating Club ladies were made of sterner stuff, for Cinda described the difficulties involves in getting to a previously scheduled meeting. A large truck transporting missles had been in a wreck on a highway in the D.C. area, and missles littered the highway and roadsides. Traffic was stopped, then turned back. The Dating Club members were undeterred, however. They did the unthinkable, given the time and place: they drove across the greensward between highways, and then by hook and by crook, they found their way back to the unblocked portion of the highway. In the South we would have reported the maneuverings and our daring in defying authority, but not Cinda. She made the whole affair seem routine. What she reported was what the group saw that day. In full and glorious detail.

Cinda taught me so much by way of this list. Living in Louisiana, I had no ready access to the kinds of bounty to which Cinda and others in the Mid-Atlantic group routinely saw. I'd spent time in museum archives and seen more than most people I knew. But I simply hadn't the largesse available to that group. And Cinda, without notes, generously opened that world to me and many others. I've missed her reports, the conversations they generated.

I confess I cannot fully grasp that her posts will no longer appear on qhl. I've not been able to grasp that this terrible disease could stop a force so vital as Cinda Cawley. Of all our list members, she seemed the most unstoppable.

I think tonight of so many people who had been her traveling companions and fellow discoverers, of how they must feel. And I think of all of us on this list, how much poorer we are. We are a diverse lot, but we are one in our dismay and grief at this loss, I suspect.

All day I've wanted to thank Kris, who gathered us here when there were no blogs and web sites and created a community wherein we could support and learn from one another and where, it is clear to me this night, we could come to love one another. I've never valued it more, Kris. Gaye Ingram

A Tribute from Candace Perry

of the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center

I second Gaye's post -- and want to add how supportive Cinda was to the

little guys like my museum, always including us on her travels through PA.

Also, what struck me is what a rich and diverse life Cinda had -- and it

saddens me that I only knew her from one perspective, quilts -- and how I

wish I had the opportunity to know her many fascinating facets.

Brava, Cinda!

Candace Perry

Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center

A Tribute from Sally Ward

of the British Quilt & Textile History List

Anyone whose life has been touched, on any level, by the world of quilters will be aware of the generosity always shown in their works. It took the internet to show me their wonderful generosity of spirit. Once, with my arcane interest in the history of quilts, I felt rather alone in a corner of northern England. Then along came the internet, the happy chance of finding Kris's Quilt History List, the flowering of internet access among quilters in the UK, and the wonder of daily chat worldwide with people who willingly share knowledge, information, and textile experiences I would otherwise have never know.

Cinda saw, and then spent her time reporting for us, more in one of her Dating Club meetings than I will see in a decade in my small corner. I wish my brain could retain a fraction of what she had to tell us (long live the QHL and BQTHL archives, what a resource she left us) . But what will always stay with me is admiration and gratitude for the generosity of a remarkable lady. Sally Ward

A Tribute from AQSG member Jan Thomas - March 2011

Dear friends,

I remember a few years ago when I offered to turn over my research on the Blosser quilts to someone who could write or put together a paper and Xenia threatened to get out her whip". A few months later Cinda asked me "when are we going to hear about those quilts. Do I have to get out my whip"? I know, for a brief second, an image of AQSG board members violently abusing their researching members flashed through my mind but, instead, I said "Wow, you all sure think alike." She just grinned, but now I know where she got it.

I met Cinda in 2005 and it was love at first paragraph. As it was when I read my first Gaye-gram, I wondered how had I gotten along not knowing this enchanting person. I grew up reading one book after another so I admire the written word. (My middle sister liked cleaning and polishing. Today, her house is really clean; my mind is cluttered, haha!)

After seminar in MN, I wrote to Cinda to tell her I would be replicating Margaret Blosser's 'Hand Quilt' with contemporary tracings. I had to get over thinking it was a really dumb idea and go for it. Last November she sent me the drawing of her own hand. So, I'm officially committed to doing this since she's now watching us all from above.

If y'all would send me a tracing of your dominant hand with your name and the date, I would be most grateful. I promise no turkey simulations. And, please don't think that I might be getting too many since I know Maggie had 'leftover hands' that she put into a fourth quilt (which could be living somewhere in Michigan or California).

I'm not a quilter either, but Maggie didn't start quilting until she was 60 years old and I'm, well, let just say in the range. You may all send your deepest apologies to my dear friend, Lorie Stubbs, and the Rocky Mountain Quilt Study Group who will be taking my blood pressure and holding my hand through it all. The worst is yet to come girls. What would I do without the women in my life?

This means you too guys!

Thank you.

Jan Thomas, just below the Stargate.

Tribute from Lorie Stubbs of Colorado

Lorie Stubbs sent me the following note and two photos March 18, 2011.

Hi Karen, Not sure why I'm sending this to you, except that I consider you the expert in disseminating information. I love these two pictures of Cinda. These were taken March 1, 2009 at the study group in DC. My friend Susan and I were heading to the airport after the AQSG Williamsburg Conference. Hazel Carter had alerted me that the group was meeting that Sunday afternoon within hours of our departure from the airport. We decided we couldn't miss it! and I'm so glad we went because it was as good as some of the museums we'd visited. There was a MAJOR storm coming which did hit but not until after our plane took off. We were meant to be there.
Thanks,
Lorie Stubbs

A Tribute from Teddy Pruett dated November 2008

Once upon a soft, lavender, dewy morning, the Great Goddess- of-All-Wonderful-Quilt-Things discovered a secret place of Quilt Blessings. She had placed those blessings there her very self, but as GG was getting on in years, she'd forgotten where she put them. It was as much fun as discovering money in an old purse! She held this enormous pile of blessings in her hand, blessings that sparkled and glistened and delighted her.

The greatest among the blessings was the opportunity to see every wonderful quilt related event on earth. The next greatest blessing was the ability to be able to write passages of great description to share with mere mortals who could only dream of possessing Blessing Number One.

GG moved her hand slowly, admiring the effect of the blessings she held, delighted that they looked much like a hand full of sparklers. The negative thing about sparklers is that they burn out so quickly, and if shared with others, you get the effect of many many sparklers and much fizzy light. At this point, GG decided to share the wealth of the blessings. She raised her sparkling, blessed hand to her face, closed her eyes, and blew the blessings to earth.

She hit Cinda Cawley right square in the ass.

Teddy Pruett

Additional Note from Karen Alexander:

Barbara Brackman, Cinda, Karen Alexander,
Merikay Waldvogel at the 2009 San Jose Seminar

What a surprise to receive the above photo from Beverly Birkmire. I have been re-reading many of Cinda's emails and posts the past few days. As Gaye wrote above "I've been unable to get Cinda out of my thoughts this weekend. My mind cannot accept her absence."

Nor can I believe she is gone from us. Her personhood, her personality will forever live on in my mind’s eye. She will always be fresh and alive to me because she was always SO VERY ALIVE in her whole attitude towards life. She was one of a kind. But this is so true of so many AQSG members! I have always experienced AQSG as a place where women could shine as individuals. My first seminar was 1985. For some 25 years my best friends have come from the ranks of AQSG members.

I will contine to post tributes and photos as I receive them.

Karen in the Islands

PS: Please take a moment to review the additional tributes left in the comments field of this blog post as well. Pat Kyser's is especailly poignant.

1950s Contemporary Fabric Designs

2011-02-26T13:28:00.000-08:00

Some designs are so iconic they leap off the page at you and yell 1950s or 1960s. Here is one example from Ann Champion's blog Quilt Top Cupboard.

By the way, Ann's blog is well worth bookmarking.

Click here to go to see the whole top and more details of this particular fabric.

The fabric in the above Cream and Teal Log Cabin top rather reminded me of a doll quilt I saw on eBay recently, so I began capturing photos so that I could compare them.

The item eBay item number is 310219291510. Or just click here to go directly to the auction.

This 1950s doll quilt is 20x27 inches.

Here is a detail of the fabric in this little quilt.

Somewhat similar to the fabric in Ann's quilt top, wouldn't you say?

This type of design is so familiar, so iconic to the "modern look" popular in the 1950s. It will be a great dating clue for future historians documenting the quilts of this era.

Then I stumbled on another similar design on eBay. This seller referred to the design as a "Vanart stamped tea towel". It's eBay Item number 150566514000. Or just click here to go to this eBay auction directly.

I have googled "Vanart" hoping to come up with some info about the designer of this "contemporary" '50s fabric but no luck so far. I suspect it may have been a French-Canadian designer. I thought I might find a similar photo of this style of design in Twentieth-Century Pattern Design by Lesley Jackson, but no luck there either.

At any rate, it looks very “European-modern” to me. I remember seeing this kind of art on magazine covers from the ‘50s when browsing in antique shops.

If you are familiar with this type of design or know where to find something similar on the Internet, please leave a comment to let the rest of us know where to look.

Meanwhile, happy sleuthing in your quilt and fabric studies!

KarenQuilt

UPDATE #1: Reader Tim Latimer just sent me another find from eBay of fabric from the 50s-60s era. Though the barnyard critters aren't a play on sophisticated strollers as in the other fabrics, it definitely has what today is called the "retro" look of the 50s-60s.

UPDATE #2 - March 2: Just stumbled on a new blog today. (Only 3 million to go!) The Adventures of the Empress of the Universe....or how I learned to quilt on the Internet. I particularly liked her post titled Bottling Rainbows. You'll see some great examples of small Tile Quilts made from her leftover scraps, not unlike what I did with my little Signature Jazz Quiltlet but her quilt has a more tradtional tile layout format as seen in Bobbi Finley and Carol Gilham's The Tile Quilt Revival. Here is another interesting blog that is a mixture of quiltmaking and quilt history that comes from Holland --Quilting with the Past. Lucy also has experimented with Tile Quilts. Check it out.

Speaking of my Signature Jazz Quiltlet, I am so very pleased to share that it was one of five featured in today's The Wednesday Quilt Show on Jenifer Dick's blog Forty-Two Quilts. If you like red and green applique quilts, check out Jenifer's new book The Circuit Rider's Quilt.

Jazz Signature Quilt and Yarn Bombing

2011-02-14T21:42:00.000-08:00

Jazz and Quilts

Have a Lot in Common!

Scanned art by KarenQuilt: 100% cotton and the
found "skeleton" of a leaf.

Click on any photo to enlarge.

The artists of both forms

know how to incorporate "soul"

into their work!

Dindga McCannon's "A Tribute to Charlie Parker" from Textural Rhythms: Quilting the Jazz Tradition by Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi.

See one of Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi's jazz and quilts exhibit here. You will need to scroll about half-way down the page to see some of the quilts.

Click here to visit Carolyn's website to order one of her books.

Our First Jazz Cruise!

Just back from our first Jazz Cruise. What a fabulous experience! It was unlike any other jazz event I have ever attended with Gary. It wins hands down as the kind of venue in which I can enjoy experiencing jazz.

Some of the members of the marvelous Clayton Brothers Quintet. L-R: Terrel Stafford, Jeff Clayton, and Gerald Clayton at piano. Missing from the photo are bassist John Clayton and drummer Obed.

Below are signatures on fabric from the Clayton Brothers Quintet. Love the way John Clayton and the drummer added a little icon with their signature!

Their most recent recordings were nominated for Grammy awards for best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group "Brother to Brother" (artistShare, 2009).

Here's John Clayton playing with Diana Krall and another link to one of his jazz workshops.

I am not a hard core jazz fan. It's weird, but I have seldom had any music on in my office the past 10 years. I'm not quite sure why that is.

And I can't sit and listen to live jazz for more than one set at a club without getting restlesss...until now!! I have discovered the secret for me....having needlework in my hands.

Dark jazz clubs and concert halls do not readily lend themselves to executing needlework. The eye strain is terrible.

Love the saxaphone! L-R: Grant Stewart, Harry Allen, KenPeplowski. All I can says is WOW!
Ken is also a wicked comic!!

Then came The Jazz Cruise, which changed my whole experience of jazz!

I now know that if my hands are engaged, I can sit through set after set! In fact, the needlework actually helps me concentrate on the music!

Remember the small quilt (above) I told you about that I rushed to put together to take on the trip from already cut and sewn scraps someone had given me?

I thought I was preparing a "doll" quilt to embroider while cruising, but once I started stitching on the ship, I realized it was really meant to be a small signature quilt for the musicians to sign!

And the more I looked at it, the more the "story" this little quilt wanted to tell began to come to me.

There are two pillars, one on either side of the central medallion which contains the original "flame" of jazz....THE HUMAN SOUL, if you will......THE PURE LOVE OF MUSIC AT THE HEART OF ALL who have the ear to hear!

The two pillars represent the incredible confluence of African rhythms --and its call and response-- with that of Western classical music. The checkerboard effect of these scraps represent (to me) how these two musical streams have experienced a long evolving journey through human history. The spark this confluence of musical streams ignited has evolves endlessly, just like our quilt art does!

So many wonderful musicians!

And because of the venue, you actually get to talk with them one-on-one!

We were once again privileged to hear Freddy Cole --brother of Nat King Cole-- and to meet him in person this time...

as well as meet George Wein --founder of the Newport Jazz Festival. What an honor to have both sign my little quilt!

....Plus all but 2 of the female musicians and/or singers, including the marvelous Grammy winning Janis Siegel (who was there with her own Quartet) signed. Of course Janis is still singing with the original Manhattan Transfer group as well --going on 31 years now! Manhattan Transfer is one of my all-time favorite singing groups. I first heard them while living in New Orleans in the 80s. The concert was outdoors at Audubon Park next to the zoo. I asked Janis if they knew ahead of time they were going to be riding elephants onto the concert grounds ---or was it a last minute surprise the organizers pulled on them?!! It was pretty much last minute surprise, she said, that they decided to go along with. I have to say as an audience participant, it was a pretty darn exciting entrance!!!

Janis was intrigued with the idea of a signature quilt when she went to sign it. Unfortunately, I had left my camera in the cabin the first four days of the cruise so I never got any photos of her. You can hear a song and see her here.

Talk About a Beautiful Soul!

I also heard Nnenna Freelon perform for the first time. Yes, you read right. It's spelled Nnenna. Click here to read about her on Wickipedia.

Nnenna Freelon - WOW! What an incredible human being!

If you like jazz at all, you may have already heard of Nnenna. I haven't kept up with current jazz artists so she was new to me. WOW! Just click here and here to see some of her performances on YouTube. Once you go to the first one, more will come up on the right side of your screen. She is well worth a "visit".

Nnenna Freelon, nominated for 6 Grammys, has a huge heart for arts education and loves talking about parenting. When she signed my little quilt she exclaimed, "Oh, a quilt! Don't people sometimes make quilts out of people'sclothes? My sister and I want to do something with our Mama's clothes but we don't want to just give them all to Goodwill. Maybe we could make a quilt!"

I told her I would be happy to connect her with someone who could help her get such a quilt made and that I could also help her document any quilts her mother or grandmother had made. Her eyes lit up and she asked if I had a card. I did! I hope she finds time in her busy schedule to contact me or find someone else who might help her to realize this dream of a quilt made of her mother's clothes.

I also shared with almost a dozen women on the cruise about Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi, the Women of Color Quilt Network, Kyra Hicks and Cuesta Benberry. You can read my tribute to Cuesta at her passing here. The transcript of Faith Ringgold's interview of Cuesta is here.

Two More Incredible Women Artists in the Field of Jazz New to me.

Italian Ada Rovatti (left) and Israeli Anat Cohe, (right).

See Anat on Wiki here. Ada Rovatti plays with the Randy Brecker Quintet.

Bucky Pizzerlli and his son John are two of our favorite guitarists. Bucky was on the cruise this year. John Pizzerelli will be on the cruise next year!

Bucky Pizarelli above

Our lovely dinner companions for the week of the cruise!

Are you still in the mood for more color?

Have you heard about YARN BOMBING? I learned about it from a British gentleman on the cruise. He told me about it after he saw me stitching on my small quilt.

Take a peek at their blog. Some call it "stitching graffiti". Wikipedia even has an article about it. Click here to see it. Here are some marvelous photos of what knitters and crocherts are doing to spiff up public places. http://tinyurl.com/5wff3d5. It's a hoot and is spreading around the world!!

And a bit of humor to close with....

Karen in the Islands

PS: Gary's jazz radio program --JoySpring of Jazz-- streams live on Mondays and Friday at 3-5:30pm PST or 6pm EST on KLOI Lopez Island. Click here http://www.kloi.org/ to find the live streaming link and listen via your computer. He also does a classical program!

PPS: My sweet husband fixed the most fantastic meal for me last night and did it ALL by himself! This was my Valentine surprise gift. His preparing a complete dinner is a rare event in 43 years of marriage. Who says an old dog can't learn new tricks!

"Tile" Pattern Doll Quilt

2011-01-27T14:13:00.000-08:00

In the last two photos of my last post, I showed you two very different "Tile" quilts.

Below is a close-up of one of the blocks in one of those quilts so that you can see the tiny bits of fabric the quilt maker used. Amazing, isn't it! She laid them out in a design and then button-hole stitched them down to the background, if I rememebr correctly. Tiny, tiny pieces in some cases!

(Click on the photo to enlarge.)

In the process of going through more inherited stuff this past week in my sewing room, I came across a small box which contained scraps of an experimental project. Because I had just written about the Tile quilt pattern, I got the bright idea of turning these scraps into a Tile Doll Quilt.

Quite frankly, I am not sure if these are remnants from one of my MIL's projects or of someone else's projects that I was given since moving to Lopez. The handwriting on the papers in the box does not look like my MIL's.

I plan to have the finished size be about 17x15.

My AQSG quilt restoration friend Anne Dawson, who also lives here on Lopez, showed me how to adhere the tiny scraps to the background fabric using a tacky material that you press on. Now I am ready to hand embroider around all the edges.

The two 20-patch squares are about 2 1/4 inches square! This is my "keep my hands busy" project when I am away from my computer or don't have a book in my hands.

The strips of tiny patches are 1 x 2 1/4 inches.

Each 4-Patch is about an inch square.

I am also taking along another doll quilt that I won at a fund raising auction in 2005. It needs quilting and a binding. It will be interesting to see how much I actually get done on the cruise! But I know I will need something to keep my hands busy while listening to the music.

These tiny little Nine-Patches are 1 3/8 inch square!

Below is another even smaller embroidered quilt from the Rainbow Quilt Block Company. Found this little jewel in May 2006.

Dolly Dingle was a favorite from the 1930s. Just do a search on eBay and you will find all kinds of Dolly Dingle paper dolls. They have even reproduced her in fabric in the past couple of years. I believe these were also from the Rainbow Quilt Designs Company as were the Teddy Bears below.

You can still find all of these patterns today.

Here is another little treat for you from my collection. It is 13x18 inches.

My guess is that the patterns are from the Rainbow Company but I have yet to confirm this by finding them in a catalogue or an ad. I love the strippy format!

Ah, the search is such fun!

Keep those needles flying!

KarenQuilt