Six Eagle Quilts

Eagle Quilt (Number 1)

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gift of Mrs. Jacob Kaplan

Possibly Made in New England

#1974.32

http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/13899

A Pair of Twins

Quilt date-inscribed 1842 (Number 2)

From Knowlton, New Jersey

David Wheatcroft Antiques in Massachusetts

The quilts obviously have much in common:

• One piece eagle with peaked shield
• Bowknot and vine swag under the eagle
• Spiky triangle border and zigzag border
• Six-pointed stars (26 in one, 25 in the other with 4 additional stars in border)

Another characterstic is the feathers on the head

rather than a smooth, curved head.

We might guess that one woman made both or that two women shared a pattern or a teacher.

These eagles also seem to have some rather awkward cousins.

Braintree Historical Society, (Number 3)

Massachusetts Project, Quilt Index.

Attributed to the Van Alta family

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1D-FC-E10

This one has 29 stars of a different kind plus a fringe around the dogtooth triangle edge. Also a red dogtooth tail. Are those eggs under the eagle?

Also notice the birds along the sides, similar to Quilt Number 2

Massachusetts Project, Quilt Index (Number 4)

Attributed to the Garrison Family, Hartford (CT?)

This one has 32 stars and the eagle is flipped.

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1D-FC-5DF

The four above seem to have New England in common.

The quilt below, also from the Quilt Index, is from the Illinois State Museum.

How many stars? 29 above the eagle,

6 in the gold field below

and 2 below that = 37 in all

plus 4 in the flag at the top

http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/art/htmls/hh_gilchrist.html

The family donated the quilt in 1966 and knew quite a bit

about the maker. They guessed it be made about 1848.

This picture of a mid-century quilt I found on line has no information with it.

Rather than being a medallion with a central focus

it's four repeated blocks.

The eagles are so belligerent they don't carry any olive branches---

just arrows.

More later.....

Alice's Scrapbag: Grandmother's Pelisse

Above a print from my Moda collection Alice's Scrapbag.

The copy and the original document print (top right) from Alice Browne's quilt.

The print appears in Alice's quilt

in one of the four-patches she stitched in the 1860s.

"This quilt was pieced---a complete surprise for my Mother

---when I was nine years old."

I have imagined the source of the scraps Alice used in the quilt blocks that she sewed to surprise her mother. This one might have been a calico lining for an out-of-fashion winter garment...

Perhaps an old pelisse, a coat that

was fashionable when her grandmother was young.

Pelisse has many meanings. It was first a fur-lined or fur-trimmed coat as in the gold garment above and the later coat draped over the woman's shoulders. The trim was often inspired by men's military garments.

1882: Fictional account of a winter drive in a fur pelisse. 

A pelisse could  also mean an outergarment with military trim and no fur.

Or just a long overcoat in the days of Jane Austen.

Patterned pelisse  from the 1820s in the collection of the 

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Nineteenth-century fashion had many words for what we'd call a long coat.

A redingote, a paletot, a mantle, a pelisse....

With hoop skirts in the 1850s and '60s, shorter coats and shawls became fashionable

I imagine Alice's grandmother might have donated the cotton lining of her old wool pelisse to Alice's Scrapbag.

Grandmother's Pelisse #8312 comes in three colorways.

The print must have been popular. I found a vintage block for sale

with the same design in brown above.

William Morris in Tokyo

William Morris quilt by Sizuko Kuroha

Acanthus by Yoko Ueda

Another Morris inspired quilt

My friend Merikay Waldvogel is in Tokyo at the fabulous 2016 Tokyo Quilt Festival.

I Love Feedsacks #1

She has the honor of being one of the judges. Here

she is with her Judge's Choice.

Merikay runs in some pretty exalted circles lately. Here's a video of the show from the website of the Imperial Family of Japan:

https://imperialfamilyjapan.wordpress.com/2016/01/21/tokyo-international-great-quilt-festival-3/

Actually she walks in exalted circles. See the FitBit on her wrist: 17,429 steps yesterday (7.2 miles).

Her manicure is holding up nicely too, she tells me.

She also tells me there is a special exhibit

"William Morris: Paradise on Earth."

They asked 25 artists to interpret Morris's work using the home furnishings fabrics in his designs that are available now.

Kyoko Yoshida

Kyoko Yoshida (detail)

Australian artist Michele Hill is there too. Look at her blog post:

http://williammorrisandmichele.blogspot.com/2016/01/tokyo-quilt-festival-part-1.html

The quilts are inspirational.

Wish I knew the names of the quilts and the quiltmakers.

They built a replica of the Morris home at Kelmscott Manor

inside and outside.

The quilts are on display inside the "house."

See a little more here:

https://www.tokyo-dome.co.jp/e/quilt/

Here's a shot of the Moda booth. They are featuring

my William Morris reproductions for quilters.

Best of Morris

and Morris Jewels

Pretty cool.

All In a Row Blog Hop: Scotties & Westies

We Moda designers did a cooperative book.

Moda All-Stars All in a Row

We're doing a blog hop in January and today is my day!

For the book we each designed a row and stitched it in our Moda fabrics.

Mine is a classic pattern Double Stars (see page 91)

It's done in traditional pinks and brown repro fabrics.

There are many aspects to this Blog Hop. One

is a trade. Me and Me and My Sister are trading today.

Hop over there to see what they're doing...

http://www.meandmysisterdesigns.com/blog

They are making my row and I am making their row.

Their row is Fetch---it's on the front cover and see page 29.

They feature a black and white dog and pinwheel blocks in brights.

Here's my trade. 

I reversed the colors and did the pinwheels in the brights of my Morris Jewels collection. 

A charm pack would be more than enough.

In EQ7 I used a dark grunge print from Moda

#30150-225

If their dog is a Scottie

Mine is a Westie (a white  West Highland Terrier).

A Scottie

A Westie

One of my favorite dog artists is Lucy Dawson (?-1954) who

drew chalk pastels of dogs for postcards, biscuit tins and books.

She drew many Scotties and Westies. 

She signed her drawings MAC.

But I digress...

Here's my Fetch row drawn up in EQ7 with a 2" finished border.

There are huge prizes, give-aways and mass social networking going on over at Moda.

Check it all out here on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/allinarowquiltalong/

The contest is over!

Anita won.

But lots more give-away at the other Moda designer blogs.