Bird in a Cherry Tree

Bird in a Cherry Tree

Appliqued by Klonda Holt & Edie McGinnis.

Quilted by Brenda Butcher. 2011.

This fabulous reproduction is in Edie McGinnis's new pattern book from the Kansas City Star.

Confederates in the Cornfield

The book tells the story of a guerilla raid into the Union state of Iowa during the Civil War.

Klonda and Edie named the featured quilt after the birds in the border--- a terrific example of that style of birds and berries (lotsa berries). 

See more about Edie's book and a preview by clicking here

https://www.pickledishstore.com/productDetail.php?PID=1257 

The block is one of the fad quilts of the mid 19th century. Many examples of this design were made, usually as repeat blocks, rather than being featured in samplers.

There are variations, something you'd expect in a pattern handed around quilter to quilter. The basic characteristics are a center floral with two different motifs rotating around the center.

 One is a stem with fruit, the other a leaf or bud extending into the block's corners.

I show nine variations in my Encyclopedia of Applique on page 84. Names given to the design include Flowering Almond from Comfort magazine in the early 20th century. This is the earliest published name from a pattern source I've found. It's a name that was still used in Tennessee in the 1980s when Bets Ramsey and Merikay Waldvogel did the Tennessee Quilt Project.

I have a flowering almond bush in my yard. It puts out a lot of small flowers on a leafless branch in the spring, looking very much like those rotating arms in the quilt pattern. I found a reference to the name Flowering Almond in a letter from 1860, in which Elizabeth Nessly Myer described such a quilt that was left to her family. (Mill Creek Journal, Kay Atwood editor and publisher, Ashland, Oregon, 1987)

Other names found in print in the early 20th century are Currants & Cockscombs in Marie Webster's book Quilts (1915) and Poinsettia in Ruth Finley's Old Patchwork Quilts (1929).

See a version dated 1853 in the collection of the Kansas Museum of History

http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/220860 

And a mid-century example from the Quilt Complex

http://shop.thequiltcomplex.com/2009/12/currants-and-coxcombs.html 

See more Flowering Almond applique quilts in the Quilt Index by clicking on these URLs.

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=46-7A-3 

http://museum.msu.edu/glqc/collections_1998.053.035.html

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4C-83-A18

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4C-83-A7E

http://www.quiltindex.org/basicdisplay.php?kid=4C-83-470
She arranged the berries in a different way.

Here's another great reproduction at Lurline's blog

http://lurlineg.blogspot.com/2008/06/flowering-almond-quilts.html

And here's one from Barb Perrin

http://barbperrin.com/MaryCurrantsCoxcomb.aspx

And here's Sue Garman's pattern for a 56" square quilt

Buy it here at Quaker Town Quilts http://www.quakertownquilts.com/coxcomb-and-currants-by-sue-garman.html

Terry Thompson sells a pattern for a reproduction (an economy of dots in this primitive version)

http://www.terrythompson.com/aby1.html 

Once you notice this old design you find it over and over.

Unknown Pattern in an Old Photo

Photographers sometimes hung quilts and tops as backdrops for photos. This picture was offered in an online auction a few years ago, advertised as from Texas. The clothing looks early 20th century and the quilt seems to be a unique pattern although it's a lot like this basic snowball or baseball pattern.

#1505

Same shapes can be arranged in different ways.

#1504

In the variation above the quarter circles in the corners of each block are all pink and the center circle is unpieced and of various colors. 

These patterns (#1504 and 1505 in BlockBase) were given names like:

Baseball or Boston Puzzle from the Ladies' Art Company about 1900

Circle Design from Grandmother Clark in 1931

Winding Blade or Marble in the Kansas City Star in 1937 & 1934

Steeplechase or Bow & Arrows from Ruth Finley in 1929

The bow shape can also be pieced of strings,  but string quilts were not often published and named in the pattern catalogs and books.

The quilt in the photograph is string pieced.

But there is this odd stripe across the snowballs.

Here are some links to Quilt Index photos of snowball/baseball variations. One from Tennessee:
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4C-83-245
Another from Louisiana:
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1B-3A-1D2
And one from Merry Silber's collection
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1E-3D-1150

I couldn't find anything like the one in the old photograph, so I've filed it away in the massive file labeled "Patterns I Can't Find Anywhere."

Doggone Good Furniture

I found this picture of Jo's dog from Jo's Country Junction on her blog.

http://www.joscountryjunction.com/?p=4157

She made a chair cover to protect the chair from Gracie the beagle. There's a recipe for it on the Moda bakeshop.
http://www.modabakeshop.com/2011/06/jelly-roll-chair-cover.html

Jo used a Jellyroll package of strips from my Civil War Reunion collection for Moda.

It's a theme. I just finished a similar item for my sister who collects dogs. Her husband collects antique furniture. Bad combination.

Izzie and friend

She thought some kind of a chair pad of William Morris fabric to cover the craftsman settle (a leather-upholstered bench) might be smart, because the new dog Izzie likes to sit on it.

Here's a mockup we agreed upon by email. That's my dog Dot photoshopped in there to show the function.

We decided on this green Honeysuckle from the Morris Garden collection I did for Moda several years ago. I'd bought a bolt.

She measured the seat and I made a whole-cloth rectangular quilt that size without any batting, bound it in a compatible print and made two ties for each corner (each about 12" long) so she could tie it to the wooden posts and it won't slip off. It's two-sided and I needed 4 yards of the fabric (her bench is 27" x 72".)

Here's a shot of the corners with one tie pinned into place and the other already stitched into the binding. I put the ties about an inch from the corner.

She says it's too good to use (NOT!). It's machine quilted and not quilted very closely so it took a few hours to make. I even bound the edges by machine.

She could, of course, teach the dog to sit on the floor, but if you look closely at this William Morris painting of his wife you will see the dog is curled up on the bed (where dogs belong.) So Willie would approve.

Go! Baby Cutter

One of the good things about being a top-55 quilt blogger (aside from all the nice comments from you readers) is I got a free Go! Baby cutter in the mail.

 I agreed to try it out and blog about it. I asked for templates for Stars, Hearts & DOTS. Here's my first experiments with the hearts.

I cut a lot of 10 x 5" rectangles from my red scrap bag and cut a lot of hearts, 4 layers at a time.

Then I cut a lot of 10" x 5" rectangles out of freezer paper and cut 6 layers of freezer paper.

I do my applique with freezer paper backs.

I pressed the medium-size freezer paper hearts (2") to the large-size fabric hearts (3").

Using a glue stick I folded and glued the fabric over the freezer paper.

This is a larger seam allowance than I usually use but I don't see why it won't work.

I slashed in the V curves at the top and the U curves towards the bottom point and that was the only cutting I had to do.

Now what to do?

Usually I start with a pattern and cut the shapes.

Here I start with the shapes and experiment with pattern.

I looked for patterns with heart shapes in my Encyclopedia of Applique.

There is a whole page of patterns based on four hearts in the center.

This design has many variations. The oldest published name I found for it was "Double Heart" in a newspaper clipping from about 1900.

I might cut some little stems but it works pretty well in this mockup (I just laid the hearts on fabric)

& I like that little negative space between the hearts.

Once I thought of negative space I remembered this pattern, a heart wreath that makes a star or sunburst in the negative space.

A wreath of 8 hearts makes a star in the center

Twelve Hearts

I auditioned several fabrics down at my fabric shop Sarah's.

Wendy said this needed something in the middle and suggested a large-scale print.

That was a great idea.

I liked this one best and bought a yard.

More later.....

More Quilt Shows

Bingham-Miller Collection

Add these shows of antique quilts to your summer traveling agenda.

Louisville, Kentucky

Quilts from Kentucky and Beyond: the Bingham-Miller Family Collection

June 19- September 18, 2011

The Speed Art Museum in Louisville, KY is featuring quilts from the private collection of Eleanor Bingham-Miller and her family.  The show opens today!

Mid-19th-century sampler from the Bingham Miller Collection 

"Ms. Bingham-Miller was one of the founding directors of the Kentucky Quilt Project—an organization that worked to document Kentucky quilts, quilt-makers, and their stories. Quilts from Kentucky and Beyond: the Bingham-Miller Family Collection (June 19-September 18) explores the history of more than a century of American quilt-making through selections from the Bingham-Miller collection—including works from across the country dating from the 1830s through the 1940s as well as pieces from the Amish and Mennonite communities in the eastern U.S.  Quilts from Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Alabama, Pennsylvania and (of course) Kentucky will be featured in the exhibition." 

Indianapolis, Indiana

Frugal & Fancy: Indiana Quilts

Through July 17, 2011

Clarissa Strong

"The Indiania Fancy"

1854

Collection of the Indiana State Museum

"Quilts from the Indiana State Museum’s collection reflecting both aspects of this craft will be on display through the middle of July. For more info, visit http://www.indianamuseum.org/ "  

or click here:

http://www.indyarts.org/calendar.aspx?id=13605  

And see Deb Geyer's post on her visit:

http://debgeyerquilter.blogspot.com/2011/05/indiana-state-museum.html  

For more posts on this summer's antique quilt shows click here:
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2011/05/east-coast-quilt-shows-2011.html
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2011/06/summer-events-in-mid-usa-west-coast.html

Here's a good online resource for updates on all kinds of needlework exhibits. Click here on Piecework Magazines website
http://www.pieceworkmagazine.com/
Click on the current issue.
Then go to the Calendar on the menu
And download the current calendar.

Northern Lily Southern Rose Block 4

Midlands Lily

by Ilyse Moore

Nineteenth-century variations on the layered triple lily

The fourth regional applique design for the Northern Lily/Southern Rose Block of the Month is a triple lily reminiscent of the applique quilts from the area cultural historians call the Midlands, which is centered in  Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio. Midlands Lily seems a good name for a pattern quite popular in the area around the time of the Civil War.

Midlands Lily by Susan Stiff

Susan used pieces from my Civil War Reunion collection with a Moda Bella Solid green.

debi schrader is making her blocks out of a 10" square Layer Cake package of the Civil War Reunion prints with a solid background from Blackbird Design's Antique Fair from Moda. (#2677-17). Click here to see more solids and prints from this collection:
http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_Antique_Fair.pdf

This triple floral design is often interpreted as a tulip but lilies were also depicted  in profile.

Angel by Leonardo DaVinci

 Lilies have a long history of symbolic use in Christian iconography. Renaissance painters often depicted the Angel of the Annunciation handing Mary a white lily, a symbol of purity.

Angel by Botticelli

Triple arrangements of  flowers seen in profile are a staple of Germanic folk arts. Here is a Pennsylvania redware plate dated 1789 with three-lobed flowers arranged in threes, a possibly symbolic reference to the Holy Trinity. 

This shot of the digital sketch shows the colors in Susan's version better.

Here's my version in the traditional Germanic folk art colors of red, green and yellow.

I stuck the leaves in where they fit.

I don't think it matters as long as the design has some balance to it. (You can see why I am glad debi, Ilyse and Susan are making these blocks too.)

This is one of nine regional applique patterns in the Block of the Month Northern Lily/Southern Rose that Moda and I are offering in the year of the Civil War Centennial.