Roses in December

Typical roses from 19th c. applique.

Drawings are from Pop-In-Applique,

a source book I'm working on.

Applique artists working in the mid-19th century represented roses with cookie-cutter shapes derived from European folk arts.

 A simple graphic circular shape with 8 lobes was common.

Detail, quilt from an online auction...Abstract roses and buds

Some stitchers looked at roses, their leaves, buds and stems with a naturalist's eye, 

drawing a profile with indications of the petal layers...

...and thorns on the stems with naturalistic buds and triple leaflets.

I've been working on drawing 19th-c. applique patterns and looking closely at their roses. See a post from a few weeks ago...

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2024/11/computer-aided-drawing-my-pasttime.html

 The blue vase above is drawn from a fabulous rose quilt in the collection of the University of Kansas's Spencer Museum of Art, attributed to Susan Stayman whose family called it Moss Rose when they donated the quilt.

I've simplified it. This project is for the applique artist

with moderate skills.

Read more about Susan Stayman's quilt here:

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/08/moss-rose.html

Print vase with a chintz flair

I'm working on my computer-assisted-drawing skills,

keeping myself entertained and thinking about

applique projects. I decided against converting the one above,

all that bias and a cluttered composition.

Simple shapes. The first volume of Pop-In-Applique is "Roses,Vases & Baskets." All the roses

wind up in some kind of floral container.

Roses with 6 petals

Ten and five....

The next volume: Wreath Shapes and Tulips. The florals will be interchangeable between volumes, which are not pattern books as such but source books of classic shapes. You print the 20 or so pages yourself & cut them up with a scissors or capture and re-compose with your C.A.D. skills (either manual rearranging or digital.)

I'll keep you posted....

Beyond Scrappy

 

We looked at scrappy quilts last month...

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-scrappy-quilt.html

Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum

Bessie Bailey Sanford

Detail

But then there are quilts of shreds....

Maryland Historical Society

And shards

Massachusetts Project & the Quilt Index

Found in an attic trunk

International Quilt Museum 1997-007-0866

National Museum of American History

Signed by Nancy Rutherford Fisher

1899

Vermont Historical Society

Turkey Giblets - Renamed

 

Cooking the Turkey.... it gets clinical---internal parts....

The Giblets

Accuquilt has a new die for cutting "Giblets" and they asked me for a little

information and a few design ideas last month.

The pattern with the name Turkey Giblets comes from the 

Chicago newspaper pattern in the 1930s.

Not my favorite pattern name. So I worked on designs in EQ8 and a little renaming.

Turkey Pot Pie

The Scrappy Quilt

 

A cartoon character "Scrappy"

A scrappy quilt

We love to make them and love to look at them....

One would guess the name is fairly recent but....

In 1854 two Richmond, Virginia quiltmakers entered

"scrap quilts" in the fair.

Quilt dated 1854

Pat Nickols Collection Mingei Museum

Blocks dated 1857-1858, Quilt associated

with Emmeline Smith, Rhode Island Project

Already an object of nostalgic memory by 1888

Computer Aided Drawing: My Pasttime

 

Rather than wailing I've decided lately to spend pleasant time that some psychologists call "Flow." I've picked a couple of things I enjoy doing---the kind of activity that occupies your whole brain and when you look up at the clock you realize 3 hours have gone by.

For me one of those activities is improving my Photoshop skills. I want to get more of the drawing decisions into automatic mode versus higher cognitive choices. Difference between driving a car and doing a crossword puzzle.

And as Malcolm Gladwell tells us it takes thousands of hours to get really good at something.  I have been racking up the hours lately---With a goal of writing a book/computer program of applique options that one could just pop into a composition. Maybe.

I've never been good at drawing 6-pointed flowers----they don't fit easily into a square so for the past week I've been working on that challenge. I've got three cheat sheets now where I can pop the florals into a pattern.

And I'll share them with you.

If you have computer drawing skills you may find them useful.

If you can cut and paste paper---ditto.

Print these 3 sheets on 8-1/2 x 11" paper or save the jpgs and pop the images into any ideas you have.

Looking for ideas?

I don't have a lot of 19th-century images with six-pointed florals.  As I say they are rather hard to draw.

But in the 1920s modern quilt designers liked the look.

Modern Priscilla's 1925 Horn of Plenty

Paragon did a simpler version.

I'll try drawing this 19th century example.

Florals based on six---19th century.

Tattered & torn but inspiration

Redrawn!