Civil War Reunion Star

Union Star

a Mockup using EQ7

and my Civil War Reunion prints

Towards the end of the 19th century Susie King Taylor wrote her memories of being a Civil War nurse. Bringing her story up to date, she described an 1898 ladies' fair in Massachusetts to raise money for the causes of the Grand Army of the Republic (the GAR), the Union veteran's organization.

Her contribution: "A large quilt of red, white and blue ribbon that made quite a sensation."

Susie King Taylor

Quilts were an important part of the fundraising and fellowship, especially in the women's auxiliary groups such as the Women's Relief Corps (WRC). Magazines published patterns with suggestions for making designs up in red, white and blue. An example:

"The Double Star makes a beautiful quilt for a G.A.R. or W.R.C. Fair. Make the outside of red, the star of blue and the center white. If the date 1861 is worked on the white everyone will recognize the significance, M.E.B."

(Ouch! say the quilt historians. Everybody 100 years later will think it's a quilt made in 1861----but I digress...)

GAR Parade about 1912 in New York

Union Star

The Ladies’ Art Company, one of the oldest businesses to offer quilt patterns, sold this pieced Union Star design about that time, probably because there was such an interest in Civil War reminders.
Although perfect for the Civil War Reunion theme, the pattern wasn’t often made up. The probable reason is that the piecing looks difficult, but the curves in the circle and Y-seams in the star are easy enough.

Here's a free pattern for a 9" finished block.

To Print:

• Create a word file or a new empty JPG file that is 8-1/2" x 11". 
• Click on the image above. 
• Right click on it and save it to your file. 
• Print that file out 8-1/2" x 11". The top sewin line should measure 4-1/2" across.
• Adjust the printed page size if necessary. 

And see a red, white and blue G.A.R fundraiser from Massachusetts in the Quilt Index by clicking here:
http://www.quiltindex.org/basicdisplaynew.php?kid=4-15-38
It was signed by everyone from President Grant and General Sherman to Louisa May Alcott.

See one made of Civil War Reunion ribbons in a February, 2011 episode of the Antiques Roadshow by clicking on this video:
http://video.pbs.org/video/1799383067/

Read Susie King Taylor's Reminsicences of My Life in Camp at Google Books by clicking here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=v3-cyYKvZr8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=susie+king+taylor+reminiscences&hl=en&ei=n7RrTcvpLYL7lwfUxoD_AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=quilt&f=false

Jean Ray Laury 1928-2011

The world of textile art has lost an influential artist with the passing of Jean Ray Laury on March 2, 2011. She wrote over thirty books, taught countless students and was a pioneer in the art of teaching women to prioritize their work.

The Housewife's Fantasy

(c) Jean Ray Laury

"She was an instigator in getting women to realize they could do their own creative work while still maintaining a household," her husband Frank Laury told the Fresno Bee. "Many women wrote saying how much [she] made a difference in their lives in terms of doing creative work."


Jean Ray was born March 22, 1928, in Doon, Iowa. She earned a bachelor's degree in art and English from the University of Northern Iowa in 1950 and then a master's degree in design at Stanford University.

Toms' Quilt 1956

(c) Jean Ray Laury

For her thesis she made a quilt. If that quilt seems conventional now, it's only because she created the conventions. At the time “Tom’s Quilt” was innovative enough to earn a spot at the De Young Art Museum in San Francisco and travel in an international exhibit. Roxa Wright, needlework editor for House Beautiful, was impressed, describing it later as

"a delightful, completely unorthodox quilt depicting all the things that interested and excited her children, at that time very young. It was like a fresh breeze, the first contemporary quilt I had ever seen that really came off successfully, yet it was far simpler and more direct in stitchery than the many fine traditional quilts in the exhibition."

The quote is from American Quilts, The Democratic Art by Robert Shaw.

Detail of a quilt from Jean's 1970 book Quilts & Coverlets

Jean’s first article appeared in House Beautiful in 1960 and she began designing quilts for Woman's Day. Her first book was Applique Stitchery in 1966. Among her many other publications was the California state project's 1990 book Ho For California: Pioneer Women and Their Quilts, which she edited. 


Jean was a confident upbeat person, always consistent in her feminist positions about what was art and how it should impact your life. She also had a great sense of humor. Judi Warren Blaydon wrote a note:

Jean Ray Laury ruled. She enriched all our lives. My favorite Jean story: at a Nova Scotia quilt show, she overheard a woman say, "Those aren't quilts! They're just art."

LINKS
To her webpage
http://www.jeanraylaury.com/
And to one of her quilts at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum
Starfire 1981. 1997.007.1031
http://cdn.firespring.com/images/dab0bb46-eccf-4f19-881b-d397ddc9c28b.jpg
Do a search for her name to see more.

For more information about Jean
http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/fresnobee/guestbook.aspx?n=jean-laury&pid=149093169&cid=full
http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/03/03/2295579/fresno-artistauthor-dies-at-82.html
http://www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/treasures/main.php?id=5-16-6

http://thequiltershalloffame.blogspot.com/2011/03/passing-of-jean-ray-laury.html
http://www.saqa.com/information.php?ID=388

And here is the obituary she wrote for herself, published in the Fresno Bee.

I Write This For My Many Friends

Don't mourn for me. I have had a long and happy life, a wonderful family, and an exciting and satisfying career. My family includes Frank, my husband for most of over 60 years, who has always been incredibly supportive, helpful, and fun to live with. Our son Tom is a voracious reader, and for more than forty years a beekeeper. Tom's wife, Dr. Ritva Laury is a linguist who divides her time between Fresno and the University of Helsinki, Finland. Our daughter Lizabeth Laury works with horses and writes. Mike Brown teaches chemistry and physics at Washington Union High School. Ritva and Mike are very special additions to our family. Our granddaughter Anna Laury, M.D. completed her final boards in 2010 and pursues her career in Boston. Her sister, Emma Laury, J.D. graduated in May 2010 from law school, passed the California Bar and now works at OSHA in Washington, D.C.

Among my most cherished friends of many years are partner and co-author on several books, Joyce Aiken; the talented and remarkable Stan Bitters, a diamond covered in clay dust; and Ruth Law, Los Angeles toymaker, and friend for over sixty years. It's been wonderful working with fellow artists and writers. My Book Club, which has met for over forty years, has been special, and I've enjoyed our discussion group, Dry Creek Seminar, and my writing groups. I have always loved writing, and have had numerous books published, and many articles, parodies and essays. It has been a constant in my life. I recently completed a collection of stories, titled "Growing up in Doon, the 1930's: A Quilter's Memoir" about life in Iowa with my sisters, Jackie, Joan and Joyce.

My quilting career gave me the opportunity to travel the world: Japan, Australia, Canada, Norway, France, England, South Africa and many other countries. Quilting friends from across the United States have been an important part of my life, having always been enthusiatic and supportive in whatever I did. I was never far from home when I was with quilters. As wonderful as teaching and traveling were, getting back to Fresno felt like coming home. It has been wonderful being here with you. To all of you, thanks for being with me on this journey.

Remembrances may be made to Hinds Hospice; Marjaree Mason Center; or at jeanraylaury@... NEPTUNE SOCIETY Of Central California 1154 W. Shaw, Fresno (559) 222-7764

 

Modernism, Quilts & the Wiener Werkstatte

Digitally leafing through an old catalog about art and design from Vienna's Wiener Werkstatte (Viennese Workshop) I came across this illustration....Patchwork pillows as hot new design in 1916.

I've posted about the influence of the German early-20th-century design workshop the Bauhaus and how their modern style parallels quilt design.

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/09/modernism-and-ornament.html

A shop selling crafts from the Wiener Werkstatte

 at a time when ruffled

Priscilla curtains were cutting edge decor.

The pillows above from the Austrian workshop show the same parallels between patchwork quilts and modernism.

WW Designers made good use of the simplest shapes

In ceramics

In interior design.

Is that polkadot item a stove????

In fashion.

( I posted about the artist Mela Koehler recently.)

And textiles

Here's the best source on the textiles,

Angela Volker's book Textiles of the Wiener Werkstatte

A few quilts the Viennese avant garde would have enjoyed displaying.

Early 20th century

Mid 20th century

Early 20th century

Mid twentieth century

Twentieth century Amish

Early twentieth century

The catalog with the black and white illustrations above is

Österreichische Werkkultur By Max Eisler, Österreichischer Werkbund, Vienna, 1916.

Read it at Google Books

http://books.google.com/books?id=xHkVAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA192&dq=%22mela+koehler%22&hl=en&ei=vV08TZ6PKYrcgQe2joiLCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22mela%20koehler%22&f=false

Read more about the Wiener Werkstatte here
http://www.gseart.com/exhibitions.asp?ExhID=406

My guess is this postcard says:

Viennese cafe; the intellectual.

Post Script: Annelies in the comments translates:

Der Litterat is not an intellectual, it is a second-rate writer.

 His sheet of paper is empty so I think this one hasn't much inspiration.

Thanks!



Susan Else and the 3rd Dimension

Susan Else

A Work in Progress

2005-2006

Mixed Media Fabric Sculpture

38"x20"x20"

A Work in Progress (detail)

Susan Else works with the same tools and materials as the rest of us quiltmakers.

But there's more than a front and a back to her pieces.

Forever Yours

2010

Chasing a Dream

She often works with a human figure
Whose figure many of us can all relate to...

Gaining

Boundary 2005

But sometimes the work is about fabric and space.

Here's what she writes about her sculpture:

I use cloth to create an alternate universe and the resutling work is full of contradictions: it is whimsical, edgy, mundane, surreal, and engaging, all at once. Each piece tells a story, but the narrative is always open to interpretation. The power and beauty of the surface play off the form and content of the work, and the result is a dynamic seesaw of meanings and possibilities.

Susan has work in two shows in 2011 at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky. The first, the invitational anniversary show from the Studio Art Quilters Associates, is called Celebrate!
It's scheduled for April 7 - July 11, 2011

And she'll have seven pieces as a guest artist in the show up from July 15 to October 4, 2011.
See more about the National Quilt Museum here:
http://www.quiltmuseum.org/


Check out Susan's webpage. She teaches her techniques and says " I do two- to five-day workshops where the class makes a group 3D dioramma (either village or jungle, depending on the class)."
http://www.susanelse.com/

No Fear Master

The Alliance for American Quilts has a project called Quilters' Save Our Stories in which one quilter interviews another.In 2008 they did an interview with Susan. Watch it here:
http://www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/qsos/interview.php?pbd=qsos-a0a8b5-a

Journal

Daffodils

It's March and I have daffodils on my mind.

I'm photoshopping photos to make them look like paintings.

And thinking about daffodil quilts

Actual quilt block above. I redrew the daffodil  from Eveline Foland's 1933 Kansas City Star pattern Memory Bouquet

Here's the original Memory Bouquet

Another fabulous quilt design is Mountain Mist's "Dancing Daffodils". The basic unit here is an asymmetrical stem.

Flipped over twice and rotated to make a 4-way symmetrical block

You could also repeat the daffodil unit

I've sketched a pattern for the asymmetrical stem. Click here to see the PDF file for a flower that would fit in a 9 or 10 inch block.

http://www.barbarabrackman.com/daffodil.pdf

I combined Eveline Foland's flower with the Mountain Mist stem.

An interesting vintage quilt from an online auction.

See a few other vintage daffodil quilts by clicking on the links below:

The International Quilt Study Center and Museum has a perfect copy of the Mountain Mist design:

#1997.007.0912

http://cdn.firespring.com/images/0a55bde2-7a13-4502-b8c5-2029d024d384.jpg

And several are on display in the Quilt Index.

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1B-3A-4F0

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1E-3D-1963

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=57-90-5D9

Quilt dealer Stella Rubin has one for sale
http://www.stellarubinantiques.com/items/439820/enlargement439820sra.html

And here's a picture of an unusual quilt from a Marie Webster design, called Daffodils and Butterflies. It wasn't often made.
http://piecefulslumber.blogspot.com/2009/04/daffodils-and-quilting.html

As far as the daffodil paintings: I photoshopped some seed catalog photos by applying an "artistic filter". I wish I could paint this well.