Small Pieces

Mini Morris

by Ronna Robertson

We recently had our guild quilt show where we make 100 mini's to auction off for charity. Deb who was in charge packaged up some strips from my Morris Apprentice collection to see what people would do. Ronna's little lily is about 8" square.

Little Lily

by Joan Cooper

Joan's is a little bit bigger but not much. That's an impressive inner border there finishing to about 1/4 of an inch. I was lucky enough to buy this one.

Landscape by Noell Memmott

Noell made a field of flowers for her small landscape by piecing in the tulips.

I've also been trolling the internet looking for projects made with my fabric and have found several small things made out of little pieces.

The quilter at the Quilted Pineapple did an impressive feather on a mini called Redville, pieced out of the Moda Candy precuts for Metropolitan Fair.

Click here and scroll down to see Greenville too.

http://www.thequiltedpineapple.com/2013/04/redville-quilt-and-more.html

Here's a tiny four-patch by Wendy on the Busy Thimble blog, also from Metropolitan Fair.

Click here and scroll down to see the whole thing:

http://busythimble.blogspot.com/2013/03/bits-pieces-and-new-book.html

And here's another mini for the guild by Mary Watson, done from small pieces of the Civil War Homefront line and a shirting print for a neutral.

This is a larger quilt made from the Morris Apprentice and other prints from Antarabesque's blog:

http://antarabesque.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/quilting-quandry/

She alternated two blocks and created interesting secondary patterns.

Thanks to all the stitchers who use my fabric in ways I'd never think of.

Quilt Market Virtual Booth

Spring Quilt Market opens this week in Portland. I always try to prepare a virtual booth to show off the fabric Moda will be introducing.

The name of my collection that will be previewed at market this week is

Morris Modernized: CFA Voysey.

Charles Francis Annesley Voysey was a spectacular designer in England in the early 20th century.

CFA Voysey

1847-1941

He took the basic staples of  Morris design---inspiration from nature with intricate repeats on layers of pattern---and modernized the look.

Here's a Voysey design, Oswin from 1895, that echoes the characteristic Morris diagonal.

Thistle, also from the 1890s, builds on the traditional field flower that goes back to medieval tapestries.

William Morris drew detailed birds stealing strawberries and Voysey's simpler birds are also found among the berries.

Pyracantha 1901

But sometimes you have to look in the background to find them. One of Vosey's signatures is a great use of negative space.

Bird & Tulip

Birds & Berries

Since the booth is virtual I can have the late Mr. Vosey ready to hand out charm-pack freebies.

We may look a little threatening but do come into the virtual booth and see the line.

I love this photo of the artist with attitude.

I am wearing my hair in the manner of Lady Ottoline Morrell---

it looks better on her than on me.

The room we built for the virtual booth is one that Voysey designed. He was primarily an architect who designed furniture and all sorts of decorative details like the andirons here and the chair that Dot is sitting in, but it's his patterns for textiles and wallpaper that really speak to us today.

A sneak preview of the whole collection:

Morris Modernized

CFA Voysey

REALITY:

I'm not going to Quilt Market and neither is Dottie, but do look for my new fabric in the Moda Booth.

Calico Balls for Fun and Funds

Perhaps a cotton print dress

I did a post a recently on a Civil War Calico Ball, which was a fundraiser. Calico Balls had a long tradition as entertainment too.  Many of the period references have to do with young people wearing inexpensive clothing and pairing up for the evening. A recurring theme describes a girl making a calico dress and a matching calico tie, which her escort might wear or which she might bestow upon a favorite at the dance.

Brooklynite Louise Masterson recalled her pre-Civil-War debutante ball, a calico ball where her escort had a strip of "my calico sewed down the side of his pants to match my dress...It was all too romantic."

In Lynn, Massachusetts in 1859 a Calico Ball was held where "All the ladies appeared in calico dresses, which at that time were the cheapest style of dress. A hundred couples were present. The prize of a gold bracelet was awarded to the lady who in the judgment of a committee was arrayed in the most neat and becoming manner,personal charms also being taken into account — and Miss Nellie Clapp was the fair winner of the prize. It was a very pleasant gathering; and the prevalence of silks and satins could not have added to its attractiveness."

Calico Balls were held from Nevada to Manchester, England to Calcutta, India.

A Joke:

Why did you call your calico ball an author's gathering?"

"Because we all appeared in print."— Phila. Bulletin

Here's a Calico Surprise dance program from 1867 printed on fabric

"To Mr. & Mrs. Bean"

A surprise party?

Notice the dances celebrate fabric mills like Merrimack and Sprague.

Related events included Calico Promenades. In 1863 the Brooklyn Eagle reported on a Calico Promenade Concert scheduled for February, but due to the cold it was poorly attended. Calico skirts could be chilly.

A few months ago Fourth Corner Antique Quilts offered a log cabin quilt about 1880-1900 with a small souvenir of a Calico Promenade stitched in.

The quiltmaker preserved a ticket or advertisement for the social event that was printed on a dotted calico.

Calico Balls continued as fundraisers, either for the poor or for ladies' organizations. In Houston, Texas, in 1879: "The Hebrew Ladies Benevolent Society...gave a calico ball for the purpose of swelling their treasury."

Calico Balls also took on another meaning. In many places they were what we might call costume parties, masquerade balls.

A children's Calico Ball with nobody wearing calico.

The Jovial Club's Calico Ball. I like the man 

dressed as a newspaper---but no one else appears in print.

Here's a scold:

"In the Camberwell New Road on Friday night last a most disgraceful gathering took place called a ‘Calico Ball’, which was an assemblage of people in costumes somewhat resembling those disgraceful masquerades that used to take place occasionally at the theatres some forty years ago, but those were conducted with some decency but these Balls which have not that apparent quality as some of the females were attired in tights, with a very questionable amount of other clothing."

There seem to have been some recurring roles at these masquerade calico balls. One could find instructions for a costume for Father Christmas or a Shepherdess.

In a pamphlet on costume making for masquerades Butterick patterns had this to say about Calico Balls:

"As the requirements of calico balls are very generally understood, they will need scarce more than passing mention...."

But fortunately they went on:

"Regarding materials for calico-ball costumes---there are, besides calico, many dainty fabrics, cotton crepes and the like, which may be made up most artistically; however there is most fun when all the costumes are made of the old fashioned calico....Among the costumes most generally chosen for calico balls are peasant and shepherdess dresses, and those for fish girls, flower girls and charity girls; poudre and watteau costumes and those for Cinderella, ...The men at such balls wear simply made character costume or dress suit made of 'calico'; or sometimes ordinary dress suits faced with bright cambric, or flowered fabrics...Strong color contrasts are desirable features in costumes of calico or other cotton fabrics."

Although this photo from the Brooklyn Fair is labeled New England Kitchen

the silly costumes might have been devised for the Calico Ball.

The man at  right might be poudre (powdered) or Watteau.

The exaggerated Lincoln hat is a prize winner.

Read the Butterick pattern book at the Library of Congress by clicking here:
http://www.read.gov/books/pageturner/musdi033/#page/2/mode/2up

Reverse Applique Feathers and Vines

You may have gotten a chance two years ago to see this superb quilt on display at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum. We spent a long time looking at every detail. It has a variety of techniques and designs in it. Things you don't notice in photos make it even more interesting in the cloth.

One detail is that the baskets of cut-out chintz along the edges are cut from pillar prints The lower basket itself is the capital on the pillar. 

Apparently the unknown seamstress only had a strip of that pillar print because she filled out every bouquet in the quilt by adding more flowers to the sides. The sides on each are a little lighter in color.

See the whole quilt at the IQSC website here:

http://cdn.firespring.com/images/8560afb0-fe0a-48dd-821a-dc6c4ff0398f.jpg

The other important thing you can't see in a photo is that the blue feather or vine border is reverse applique rather than regular applique---inlay instead of onlay. This is a technique you don't often see done on such a scale. But it is a hallmark of the style of quilts attributed to Anna Catherine Markey Garnhart, which is one reason the quilt credited to Elizabeth Welch on display at the Brooklyn Museum right now is thought to have some relationship to Garnhart.

Quilt attributed to Elizabeth Welch

Brooklyn Museum.

The dark feather or vine appliqued border is done in reverse applique.

See more about the likeness in these quilts at this post:

The Plains Indian & Pioneers Historical Foundation in Oklahoma owns a quilt strongly connected to Garnhart through her heirs with a similar reverse applique vine.

In the detail you can see a slight shadow around the blue leaves, indicating there is a piece of blue fabric under the white. The white has been cut away to reveal the blue.

The technique is so impressive that I thought I'd show you some others.

The International Quilt Study Center & Museum owns THREE  with similar borders, including the one at the top of the page.

All from the Ardis & Robert James Collection.

See the feathered star quilt at the IQSC website by clicking here:

http://cdn.firespring.com/images/fffc9930-a8c2-412e-a789-fb1293c59055.jpg

See the sampler quilt by clicking here:

http://cdn.firespring.com/images/befe1736-b1a7-4175-a89d-629bb0deb189.jpg

The Turkey red feathers are so similar......

And quite a bit like this one from the collection of

The Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.

And I saw this one online and brightened it up. The bows in the corners caught my eye. I have no idea if it's reverse applique or regular old conventional applique, but you see a hint of a shadow around the green leaves, indicating darker fabric laid under the white.

I also wondered about this one, sold in 2011 at Cowan's Auctions, but they have a great photo viewing area on their site and you can see that it looks like onlaid applique rather than inlaid applique. 

See the picture here:

http://www.cowanauctions.com/auctions/item.aspx?ItemId=101724

This is a feat of needlework whether the applique is laid on top of the white or the white is cut through to reveal the color.

Again, hard to tell the technique from a photo from an online auction.

And a very similar border from a quilt in the collection of Colonial Williamsburg, donated in 1974 by Miriam R. Le Vin. The cataloging information doesn't mention reverse applique.

I found two contemporary versions done in reverse applique---check out these Baltimore Album style quilts 

by Margaret Matthews and Kathryn Tennyson.

See a photo of Margaret's quilt here:

http://margaretmathews.blogspot.com/2010/04/baltimore-twins-study-in-color-and.html

And a photo of Kathryn's Baltimore Album here:

http://bapplique.blogspot.com/2010/02/applique-academy-2010.html

I was discussing the technique with my friend Roseanne Smith who is quite a seamstress. Why would you do this vine or feather border in reverse applique? 

For one thing: it's a challenge.

I guessed maybe because your needlework teacher wanted you to try the technique. Roseanne thought maybe because you could ask someone else to draw the feathers on the border fabric. Then all the seamstress had to do was cut away the holes. Someone who was good at drawing feathers---or a professional pattern drafter---could mark it for someone who was good at reverse applique. Might be easier for the seamstress than a positive applique border like the red and green one above.

I hope you're inspired.

LATE BREAKING NEWS

Look at this pair at a Copake auction in New York next week:

Are those reverse appliqued?

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/17570610_pair-quilts

Rhythm, Repeat and Flow

A few weeks ago I did a post about rhythm, looking at pattern like this which sets up a rhythm, isolating a  design with neutral intervals between the design. These isolated motifs with a rather cool and calm rhythm have been a feature of patchwork quilts since Americans started making block quilts around 1780.

See that April post here:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2013/04/rhythm-different-beat.html

There are other kinds of rhythm and repeat.

After the Civil War isolated blocks had strong competition from designs in which the blocks interlocked and formed secondary patterns.The log cabin design was a very popular example.

Log cabin designs achieve amazing variety mainly with shading.

Variations on the theme were pineapple log cabins.

The Drunkard's Path pattern, popular after the 1880s, sets up a flowing rhythm.

The rhythms in these interlocking patterns like the Split Nine Patch create a sense of movement.

Quilters were eager to find new patterns. The more complex the secondary designs the better.

Notice how that one accidentally misplaced triangle upsets the flow a bit here.

(It's in the center strip just below the center point.)

The all-over designs sometimes make it hard to see where one block starts and another one ends.

When I started making quilts in the 1960s

these were the kind of patterns that knocked me out.

I made one of the Indiana Puzzles above in red and green

for my niece. (Hard to focus on it to quilt it, though.)

I made one of these for my brother.

What impressed me was the interaction between the blocks.

I was not the least bit interested in this kind of static rhythm.

But everybody dances to her own beat.

See more about design on my other blog---

Historically Modern: Quilts, Textiles & Design.

http://historicallymodernquilts.blogspot.com/