The Teddy Bear - Strangest Quilt in My Collection

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

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

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

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

Scanned Art

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

Life Before Quilting - The Philippines & East Africa

~ You honor the life that has been given you by 
remembering and telling your stories. ~    

Robin Moore's "Awakening the Hidden Storyteller"


What in the world did I do before I discovered quilting and quilt history?

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 the Island of 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.  This family eventually moved to southern Ohio. We a big reunion in 1984 where we all got together with our mates and children and once again sang together like we used to do at gatherings at their home on Panay.

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 at the Sarabia Fish Ponds 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.

Above: Faculty and friends from Iloilo School of Arts & Trades

My mother and father in the middle, my sister front far left, and my youngest brother in the front. One of my mother's many dinner parties. She loved to throw dinner parties from the age of 16 on! She went to work for a college in Texas after we all left home and adopted all the Filipino students (and then some!) and continued to cook Filipino dishes.  She would do the same after we lived in Tanzania, East Africa and she learned to make curry and serve it HER style. We all love curry to this day---as well as chicken adobo, pancit, lumps, fried bananas, mango cutneys, you name it! …Yummy! Check out https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/filipino-food-for-beginners-thrillist-nation

Our family with the Gonzaga family visiting Negros Island

My Love of History and Geography Came to Life

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 through 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. Ahh, so many stories!  When it came time to find a camping site for the night, Dad loved to knock on a farmer's door and ask if we could camp for the night somewhere around the farm. In return, he offered the labor of himself and his two sons for the evening and/or morning chores.

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 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.  Here is another link about some of the uniqueness of the some of the peoples on Panay Island among the Visayans.

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.

Traveling Home from The Philippines Summer  1960

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.  We even road camels around the pyramids in Egypt....in "pencil skirts" no less because it wasn't deemed "socially appropriate" for women to wear slacks publically at that time.  (Just try riding a swaying camel in a pencil skirt, trying to keep your knees together!)

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 the next community down the road or the next 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 cities. My father loved trying to give us as many different kinds of experiences as he could with the country folk wherever we traveled in Europe. Instead of always staying in designated camp grounds, he would stop and knock on a farm-house door and ask if we could camp in their barnyard overnight in exchange for helping with the evening chores.  We were never refused!

I kept a journal in those days and wrote many letters and postcards home. Alas, most of my letters and postcard collection were "lost" when my folks divorced soon after I moved to California to finish school. I don't think the folks meant to throw my things away, but I wasn't there to rescue my "stuff" as they divided the household. Some of it survived and caught up with me later in life and some of it didn't.  I have always regretted the lost letters and journals.

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 on the left side of the church at the Kennedy memorial service in November 1963. (Click on the photo and you can see I have circled the five of us.)  Only Mom is missing as she was unable to be there.

Experiencing an attempted coup d'état at âge 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 their parents were on vacation in South Africa. (The father of this family was 2nd in command of USAID in East Africa.) 

A coup d'état was in progress, the Embassy 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 broadcasting 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.

This was the same House/ Family where a big long black snake slithered in in thru an open window and up the wall of the living room during the two weeks I was caring for the 5 & 7 year olds. I called the nearest American household and their 21 year old son hopped in the car and came up the road to help me get the snake out of the house.

                                      

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

Many, many more stories….like the night our father decided to attempt to "crash" a diplomatic party at the Presidential Palace when the President of The Philippines, Carlos Garcia, was visiting President Julius Nyerere, the first President of Tanzania.

We had driven to the National airport on the edge of Dar-es-Salaam as a family -- all dressed up, we women in our Filipina national dresses and the men in their Barong Tagalogs.  (We four kids had had no idea mother had brought our Filipino clothing with her to Africa!)

Dad had the flags of both countries flying at the corners of our VW van so we looked very "official" and pulled right in line behind the last official car in the motorcade as it left the airport. When we reached the official Presidential residence (The State House), we were directed right onto the grounds along with everyone else without anyone stopping the car to check our IDs.

The White House (Ikulu), also known in English as the State House

Dad just happened to personally know one of the Cabinet Ministers in the PI Presidential entourage and wanted one of us kids to try to get a note to him just for the fun of it!!  (I remembered the gentleman and his wife from having had a family dinner with them in Manila in 1960 before we left on the return home journey to the States.) My brother Dan and I volunteered to be the guinea pigs. I don't recall what my brother and I said to each other as we  approached the front door of the Presidential State House, but we surely must have known our goose would be cooked when they discovered we didn't have an official invitation.

Long story short, they were very gracious to us. After they discovered why we were there and that we weren't on the guest list, they ushered us into a small sitting room, took our message and Dad's card  and left. About 20 or so minutes later, they came back to give us Dr. Bernedino's return message. To this day, I always wonder if they checked us out with the American Embassy FIRST before they took that note up to the party. I am sure the American Ambassador would have been present at the party also! (Luckily, I had cared for his two daughters once for a week at the Embassy residence when he and his wife were out of town on vacation, so he would have known Dad's name!)

Brothers Dan and John help launch a dhow

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 (Cool job!) by 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 hand and foot, including being chauffeured around town on my errands; camping across the Serengeti with my parents and sibs (no commercial safaris for my father!) 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 Chang'ombe Teacher-Training College 

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

Fabric my mother brought back from East 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 my fabric stash. At that time it didn't occur to me to track down where the fabric was actually manufactured but I am pretty sure it was not East Africa; probably England or India.

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. (Why and when  I gave them away is another colorful chapter in the story of my life.)  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

PS: Added note 2015

In 2006 I signed up for a Textile Study Tour to France with Deb Roberts. One of the highlights of this tour was seeing shelves and shelves of huge swatch books that dated from the early 1700s to 1900. It was very interesting to see the swatches/designs influenced by African trade. These cotton fabrics were produced in Europe and sold to Africa. I highly recommend Deb Robert's tours. Read more here about one of my trips.


(*Our family name was originally Beutler/Beidler and is still pronounced as though it was spelled Beidler. Don't know why our branch changed it to Biedler after the Civil War.)