Monday, October 3, 2011

Kent Cloth of the United Nations

I am not a huge feedsack fan, but I do have a few, I think 7 or 8.  I buy them mostly if I think they are pretty unusual.  That's why I bought this pair,

looks like Lil Abner to me.  I haven't seen this design talked about anywhere.  But I did find this article about feedsacks posted on  Etsy.  And the Quilt History site has a very informative article on feedsacks.

I have these two feedsacks because I have a small collection of vintage cheater fabric.

Love cowboys, so this one is a keeper.



 When I saw this quilt on a trip summer 2010 in California, I just had to buy it.  It is four feedsacks sewn together to form the center panel. 

The back of the quilt is also feedsacks sewn together. A large pink and red flower design.



 

It is Kent's Cloth of the United Nations.  The fabric was printed in 1942 by Percy Kent of buffalo New York.  Using famous WWII battles and Alliance symbols including Tojo, Hitler and Mussolini. 

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Red and White Quilts, Again

I still think and dream of the Infinite Variety Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts exhibit last March in New York.  I downloaded an app to my IPhone of a virtual tour of all the quilts.  It is fantastic.  As a matter of fact, instead of reading myself to sleep last night, I clicked on the Virtual Red and White Quilt Show. Never, never get tired of looking at these quilts.  So amazing to see them all in one place.

So recently my friend Jean wanted to see more of my red and white quilts. I did find a few in Oregon and Washington recently.



A Ruby McKim Bird Life quilt top found in Washington, guess I should post this under Ruby McKim.  But it is red and mostly white.


This is called Old Maid's Ramble or Double Triangle in BB Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. Purchased this in Aurora, Oregon. Home of the  Aurora Colony  and a very nice museum with family quilts from the colonist.




This quilt is a little dirty and needs to be cleaned.  Not sure if it was intentional to have white work or did the redwork fade to white, still need to examine this one closer.  Found this in Hillsboro, Oregon.  A charming little town with a Thursday night street fair.  Food, fun, music, antiques what more could you want.  I wasn't finding any quilts even though the antique stores were very nice.  As I was leaving one antique store the salesperson said something like can't find anything you can't live without.  Of course my response "No, I didn't see any quilts".  I kid you not this is what he said, "Oh, we moved all the quilts across the street to the liquor store!"  Okay, so now I guess I'll be checking in every liquor store for quilts.  I found several quilts in the liquor store that came home with me.


  
A redwork summer coverlet dated 1891, found in Washington.  


A redwork signature quilt, no date or location, not in the best shape.  
But I had to bring it home with me for $35.
Found in Sherwood, Oregon


 Found in Utah and paid way too much for it.  
Redwork is one of my favorites and there seems to be less available.
At least I don't see many anymore.  Someday soon I will show you a quilt I am
making with a bunch of antique redwork blocks I have been collecting for years. 


I did make this little quilt it is about 12 inches x 17 inches.  I had a very worn redwork top I had taken apart many years ago and recently started looking at it again.  Took the best of several blocks and made this little crazy redwork.  I found some floss in my stash and added the "L" and I did all of the feather stitch.



I found this redwork apron in Oregon recently.  
I like having things I love on display in my quilt studio.
No picture, but the ties even have redwork on them.










Wednesday, August 10, 2011

What's A Friend For?


I found a lot of wonderful antique quilts while traveling the last couple of months. And a lot of them came home with me. I’ll be showing them in the next couple of months here.
Lots of times I see a fabulous quilt but it is just not something that fits into my collection/collections. But I always can think of the right person that would love it. I know one woman that is crazy for crazy quilts and I saw a lot of those, but just not something I collect. Another friend collects polyester quilts and occasionally I will see one of those. Recently I saw a very interesting basket quilt on an on-line auction. I do collect basket quilts. On looking and reading the description closer, it was made from polyester. So I quickly sent an email off to my friend to give her a heads up. She responded pretty quickly that she just loved it! But she needed a big favor, she was out of town and forgot to bring here passwords for her account. She couldn’t bid on it from where she was. Would I please make an offer. Of course, she loved it, had to have, I had to help her. She is now the proud owner of a really cute poly basket quilt. I still have temporary custody so you get to see it.





While in Portland Oregon I found an interesting quilt, but just not something I thought would go in my collection. But it was just too interesting and not something you see everyday. So with my handy-dandy IPhone I took a picture and emailed it to another friend who I thought just might be interested. Of course she had told me to let her know if I saw anything she would be interested in. And her email was set up in my phone for just such an occasion. I continued looking around the antique store and didn’t hear from her. About twenty minutes later she called, luckily I was just up the street at another store. We talked about making an offer on the quilt, for the right price she was interested. As the third party negotiator we agreed on a price my friend was happy with. I think she has lots of research to do on this one.

No I don’t think it stand for Portland. I do know it was popular to put your initial on quilts. I was looking around the internet and came across this exhibit:


The “P” does look similar. The Ladies Art Company and others had patterns for letters of the alphabet. Check BB Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.

Here is a “P” quilt from an online quilt exhibit “Wild By Design” from the International Quilt Study Center.


There are many names/things the “P” could stand for.
Happy researching my friend.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Little Dutch Girls





Update from a reader, here is a link for a pattern for the Little Dutch Girl.











I am not sure of the name of this pattern. She looks a little Dutch to me. I have several variations. But as yet have not found a source for the pattern. I have looked in Rose Alboum Quilt Indexes, a valuable resource for quilt pattern identification. I have searched- Aunt Martha, Home Art Studio, Capper Publications, and Ladies Art Company. No luck in BB Encyclopedia of Applique.  I think someone called them Red Riding Hood. But would love to know the original source for the pattern.
These quilts are all from my collection.

Some of the little girls are holding flowers.






A before and after of a top a took apart.





























Some look sweet and others look a little scarey.


This one is not the same, but interesting and I have never seen the pattern for this one.
If you know or have any ideas let me know.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

MORE RED AND WHITE QUILTS

A few more Red and White Quilts for the online show.
All Redwork Quilts, hard to date any of these





















Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Red and White Quilts

Red and White Quilts are so classy. How can you not love them.
From my collection. Don't know much about any of these, except I love them.












Redwork dated 1926 large motifs from online auction.



























I purchased this top in Pennsylvania June 2010.



















Bethlehem Star




















I have had this quilt a long time, don't even know
where I got it. But just love it. This is the first time it has had it's picture taken. It has been at the bottom of a trunk. So glad I finally got these pictures.




















This one was in the same trunk. Classic.





















Amazing what you can do with half-square triangles!
Lots of different red prints. First picture. Love the things you see in a picture.






Taryn at Repro Quilt Lover is hosting a virtual red and white quilt exhibit. The American Folk Art Museum in New York is having a red and white exhibit from March 25 to 30. I even checked the price of a plane ticket $307 not a bad price, but have no one to travel with and too chicken to go to New York alone.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Vintage Doll Quilts

My small collection of vintage doll quilts.
My favorite of course is the little bow tie quilt.


Posted by Picasa


I don't show quilts I have made very often. These are little quilts I have made.

Judie Rothermel Kit



Redwork Quilt

Makes me want to make a small quilt. I hand quilted all of these.





Thursday, January 13, 2011

Ruby McKim Quilts

When I first started to make quilts appliqué was my very favorite technique. I was lucky enough to have learned from one, in my opinion, of the very best quilt teachers, Laurene Sinema. And Laurene is the one who planted the seed for my love of antique quilts. When Laurene first introduced me to Ruby McKim quilt patterns I was hooked. And when I started to collect quilts, of course I recognized those patterns. Also I was lucky enough in the early 90’s to acquire the volumes of Ruby McKim/Kansas City Star Patterns compiled and edited by Harold and Dorothymae Groves. I have the patterns Volume QP 1-6, suitable for redwork or embroidery. I don’t think they are available anymore. I did find this information here. But none of the contact info is any good. I highly recommend collecting these books. None were on Amazon right now, but I would keep looking.
Here are some of my quilts and tops with Ruby McKim patterns. Dates are when the patterns were originally published.

Mother Goose Quiltie 1916


Flower Garden Quilt 1930

And the one I wrote about here.

Farm Life Quilt 1930


Peter Pan Quilt 1926



Roly-Poly Quilt 1923

My quilt is dated February 25, 1924 and has many signatures, purchased this in Texas.

Bird Life Quilt 1928 



Toy Shop Window 1933

This is the first antique crib quilt I bought around 1998. I love this, so sweet.


Bible History Quilt 1927


Bedtime Quilt 1916

Patchwork Sampler Quilt 1930


I wrote a little about this pattern here and have taken that quilt top apart, but not sure I’ll ever get it back together. It needs a lot of help. But I did buy this quilt. Love, love, love.




Not too long ago I bought a quilt that really doesn’t fit into any of my collections, not something I would usually buy, but I thought it was really different and I wasn’t familiar with the pattern. After having it several months I was looking through one of Ruby McKim’s Designs Worth Doing catalogues dated 1931-1932 and what did I see an ad for a kit for my quilt. I was really surprised. I guess because I love the applique and embroidery pattern so much I really haven’t paid too much attention to the pieced patterns she did.
The maker of this quilt couldn’t quite figure out how that leaf in the bottom right corner was suppose to be. Funny! Mine has 15 Iris blocks that measure 12 inches x 15 inches.
There are six different patterns. Now you know what I am on the lookout for.
Do you have any of these quilts? Tulip, Pansy, Iris, Rose, Wild Rose and Sunflower.
Well, I did find another one the Rose pattern now in my collection. Only four more to collect!
I hope you will share your Ruby McKim quilts on the Facebook Group, Quilts-Vintage and Antique I would love to see and hear about them.

Another one I found summer 2012. Oriental Poppy

I wanted to add this update about another blog with wonderful information about Ruby McKim. Check out the blog at The Quilters Hall of Fame Blog.