Sunday, March 2, 2014

Flourishes from the Ladies' Album



Here's a late-19th-century four-patch block.
The dark print was the inspiration for "Forget Me Not,"
a print in my Ladies's Album reproduction collection
from Moda.




"Forget Me Not" is available in three colorways:
Forever Green, Red Rose and Natural

"Sweet Sentiment" (see the enlarged detail) comes in five colors:
Natural, Forever Green, Tea Time, True Blue and Red Rose.

Many people added a flourish to their autograph in old album quilt blocks...

1855
perhaps a sprig,

1853

1848

1847



a rose,

or the whole branch.

Mid-19th-century culture required
a little drawing skill.

We tend to leave out the flourishes today because we fear our 
drawing and handwriting isn't
good enough.

Are our standards too high?
These homemade flourishes have a lot of charm.

The key, as any 19th-century handwriting teacher could tell you, is
Practice
Practice
Practice!

4 comments:

  1. I love how they signed the quilts, a lost art. We did a signature swap and added our own little touches to them. I still need to make something with mine.

    Debbie

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  2. the forget me not in forever green is my favorite of this line, I think. Wish my house was COVERED in it!

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  3. Thank you so much for showing the flourishes. Susan McKelvey first introduced me to the idea of incorporating that into a quilt and, now all my quilts have something. If you cannot draw, find those that you like and trace or use stamps that she created.

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  4. The 'whole branch' block signed by C.E. Green is from my dated 1842,43 signature quilt, Variable Star, from Phila. PA area.

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