Merry Christmas

Redwork Pattern V

Click for PDF file for all 36 blocks.

Blocks 5 & 6

I have this same dog on several of my redwork quilt pattern.

 

Redwork Pattern V

I have a lot of vintage and antique redwork quilt patterns and quilt blocks.  I want to share more patterns, and think I now know how to attach a PDF for you.  There are 36 patterns in this group. The original blocks are 9 inches.  If you plan on doing them I would at least make them 10 inches and trim them later. Always best to have the extra fabric to trim. It takes a while to clean them up, so I'll post a few at a time.

 HERE for the PDF for all 36 Blocks 

Old Glory Quilt Pattern by Mary Erckenbrack

This was a quilt pattern printed in the newspaper, c. 1940 by Mary Erckenbrack. 

Old Glory Quilt Pattern by Mary Erckenbrack

Old Glory
Click the link for the pattern.

A favorite quilt I am lucky to own, actually not a quilt, more like a coverlet. It is in excellent condition, looks like someone just finished making it. Old Glory Quilt Pattern by Mary Erckenbrack

Restoration Quilt Wash

Several years ago I bought this quilt from an online auction.  I was pretty upset when I received the quilt.  Blue marking lines all over the quilt that the seller had neglected to show in any of their photos.  For me the quilt was a lost cause.  So I figured what is the worst thing that could happen to the quilt if I soaked it in Restoration?  Now, I am not trying to sell you anything or recommend that you try this at home.  I am just sharing what I did and what happened for me.  And it is a quilt from my guess 1940 to maybe even 1960. Hopefully you can see all the blue markings in the photos. And this blue was not the popular blue marking pen lots use today.  I am not sure what kind of marker made the blue lines. Note the red and green fabric.  It did not fade in any way.  The colors are just like they were before I soaked the quilt. So you can see the BEFORE pictures.  And then the after.

 

 I did have to soak this several times. There might be a little tiny bit of blue hiding on the quilt, but really it is so hard to see.  I recently soaked a white wholecloth quilt.  Very dirty, lots of spots and stains, yellowing.  It turned out beautiful.  I have used it a lot on redwork blocks and redwork quilts. I have not had a a problem with any of the embroidery fading.  In fact right now I have a whole stack of things waiting for their turn in the soak.  I always say you have to make the call yourself whether you use it on your quilt or fabric.  No guarantee it would not ruin something. My decision  is always based on the worst that could happen to a quilt I maybe don't feel I could live with the dirt, stain, etc.

Many years ago as my kids were growing up I used Biz in the laundry.  And I used Biz on old quilts and blocks.  But about 6 or 7 years ago, something happened to Biz and it was no longer the same formula.  I learned the hard way.  I put a 1930's pink and green quilt into a Biz soak and the pink ran all over the place.  I should show you a pic, but I would have to go dig it out of the bottom of a closet.  I had never had that happen before with Biz. I happened to have an older box of Biz and compared it to a new box. Different ingredients were listed on the box.  So long story short, I tried a whole bunch of different products to try and find something that preformed like Biz.  That is when I found Restoration. I like it a lot and use it a lot. I use it so much I had to become a dealer. You can buy it from me if you are in my area. Or direct from Engleside.

Hexagon Mosaic Charm Quilt

Really lucked upon this beautiful, crisp, never used, never washed hexagon, mosaic quilt.  Just recently had a chance to really exam it up close.  My DH and I spent a couple of hours looking at all 1613,  1 1/2 inch hexagons.  So far we have not found any two alike.  It is so much fun to look at.  When I first started looking at the round of pink hexes, I thought "are these reproductions, I know I have some of this fabric".  I went to the stash and pulled out my tub of pink repros.  I did find one, and I found a star print that I have in another color.

 

See the red one with stars, I have this in a pale gold.  I know I have it in other colors, just have to keep searching my stash. I bought a lot of reproduction fabric in the 90's.

 The light pink hexagon  in the middle is the one I have in a reproduction print.  Not sure of the manufacturer.  I know it is an early repro, I have had many years. How do I know that, I use to think I should serge the edges before I prewashed everything. Not only do I not serge anymore, I don't prewash anymore either!

Oh, the shirting fabric, I haven't even started to look through all of those.  I love shirting and have a lot. And all those browns, love, love.  I bet you can even find some you have.  Okay, everybody bring your repros over and let's look for more reproduction fabric.

Red and Green Crib Quilt

This charming early crib quilt is 40 inches by 62 inches. I found this in New Jersey this summer and just love this little flower. So sweet.


Wouldn't it be fun to reproduce?  That is just what I thought.  So I made a simple pattern. I would love to share the pattern with you.

The only way I know how to do that right now is for you to email me that you want the pattern and I can send you a PDF file.

Thanks to a wonderful son, you can now Click Here to get the PDF pattern. For a 14 inch block increase pattern by 200 percent.


The block is 14 inches finished. Everything is a solid fabric except for the pink, it is a tiny little stripe.  Pretty simple applique. Just think of all the ways you could make this your own design. No copyright here, just go for it!

Bucilla Kit Quilt

Cross Stitch Kit Quilt

 

American Provincial

Bucilla

No 2868

Quilting Design

Emma Andres

Emma Andres
Prescott, Arizona
1902 - 1988

I became a huge fan of Emma Andres in 1992 when I first saw her quilts and read about her in the Arizona quilt documentation book

Grand Endeavors: Vintage Arizona Quilts and Their Makers

and in the

1990 Uncoverings "Emma Andres and Her Six Grand Old Characters by Janet Carruth and the late Laurene Sinema

Emma was inducted in the Arizona Quilters Hall of Fame, Class of 2009. 

Emma was also a contemporary of Florence Peto and you can read a little about Emma and her friendship with Florence  in the book

A Passion for Quilts The Story of Florence Peto

The Quilt Index now has downloadable copies of the Quilter’s Journal. In the Summer 1981 issue Joyce Gross wrote the story of Emma Andres.

Quilters Newsletter Magazine April 1984 also has a very nice article about Emma.  I even know several people who met her and went to Prescott to visit her.

One quilt titled Lady at the Spinning Wheel (AKA Silhouetter) was purchased by Joyce Gross sometime in the early 1980’s. That quilt is now in the  Joyce Gross Collection at the University of Texas at Austin.

You can read a little about that here 

I am dreaming Lady at the Spinning Wheel  might someday be returned to Arizona.

Most of Emma quilts are in the care of Mark & Jill Tetreau. Janet Carruth has been doing some intense research for the last several months. Emma kept wonderful scrapbooks. Those who attended the Arizona Regional Quilt Study Day, March 24, 2012 in Tucson, Arizona were most fortunate to see Emma's quilts. They are amazing.  So hoping Janet will continue her research and write a book about Emma Andres.

Janet Carruth with Emma Andres' Ninety and Nine

 

Emma Andres Lady at the Spinning Wheel Quilt

Infinite Variety, Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts

This quilt is owned by Joanna Rose and was in the exhibit March 2011 in New York City.  I have no info on the above quilt, but many have seen Emma Andres quilt so it most likely came after seeing Emma's quilt.

Emma Andres made her quilt and entered it in the 1933 Sears Century of Progress in Chicago. 

Emma's is thought to be an original design.  Made with 3500 red and white squares and won a merit award in 1933 at the Chicago World's Fair.

Janet Carruth recently discovered this fascinating coincidence while doing extensive research on Emma Andres 1902-1988 of Prescott Arizona. I recently found THIS wonderful article on Emma Andres on the Quilt Index. 

Emma's quilt was purchased by Joyce Gross and is now in the Joyce Gross Collection at The University of Texas at Austin.

KIT QUILTS-THEIR STORY

I wrote the below information for my lecture/trunk show about 5 years ago.  So it may not be totally up to date. I have a large collection of kit quilts, both crib and full size.  It is a passion.  I love to collect a quilt and then find a reference or advertisement for the pattern.  I have many, many notebooks full.  How do you share with other who have the same passion?  I am trying to make a stab at it with blogging, but I am not always motivated to get the blog done. 

Bucilla, Progress, Paragon, Gold-Art Needlework Co., Lee Wards, Home Needlecraft Creations, Herrschner’s, Wonder-Art, Vogart, Marvil Art, Aunt Ellen, Franks, Ladies Art Co., Rainbow, Jack Dempsey and others are names you will hear associated with kit quilts.

A quilt kit is the material (stamped or die-cut) in the package for making the quilt. A kit quilt is the finished quilt made from a kit. There is some discussion about what is a kit. Some do not include stamped blocks in their definition. Rosie Werner stated, “Years ago, Shirley McElderry, Merikay Waldvogel, and maybe Cuesta Benberry came to the conclusion that a kit had to have some component(s) that remained in the quilt.”  I personally think a kit quilt is when you find quilts that are exactly alike in design, color, fabric, quilting, size, etc.  Stamped blocks alone do not make a kit in my opinion.

In 1935, Carrie Hall wrote that the kits popularized by “this hurrying age” were especially distressing for the “true quilter”. 

Cuesta Benberry, eminent quilt historian and kit quilt authority,  said in 1975 kit quilts made from precut or prestamped kits were one of the most controversial subjects in the quilt world of that time period.  A noted quilt author compared pre-cut kit quilts to paint by number art kits. Kits have also been compared to the box cake mix and other instant foods.

In the 1996 book Art Quilt Penny McMorris and Michael Kile commented “ Professional designers made the creative decisions, leaving women with only the work of sewing the preordained quilts together…With the introduction of these kits, quiltmaking became as far removed from art as are paint-by-numberings.”

The International Quilt Study Center & Museum in 2003 held a quilt show “Modern Marvels-Quilts Made from Kits, 1915-1950.  They stated quilt scholars were not aware until relatively recently just how many surviving Depression-era quilts were made from kits.

Lots of the negative comments on kit quilts comes from quilts made from kits entered in shows competing with quilts made-from- scratch.  

I love kit quilts and my opinion on kit quilts comes from being a collector of kit quilts starting with the crib quilts in 1999 and in 2006 when I started collecting cross-stitch quilts which most were made from kits, I look at each quilt individually and I’m not judging it with another quilt.  There are some really great kit quilts that in today’s market are bringing thousands of dollars and some quilts that are under one hundred dollars.  And there are quilts in museum collections made by well know quilters that were made from kits. There must have been some very accomplished needle workers making kit quilts and some who had absolutely no experience with a needle at all. Most of the kits were either an appliqué or cross stitch with a few pieced patterns.  I am not alone in noting they have a much overlooked place in the history of quilts.

Quilt kits started around the turn of the twentieth century. By 1911-1914  Ladies Art Company offered kits for quilts in their supplementary embroidery catalog.  In 1922 they had a full fledged catalog of quilt kits “ Book of Applique Patchwork by Deaconess”.  Early kits consisted of a background cloth, perforated paper pattern and stamping paste or power.  Later, kits came prestamped with appliqué out line on both the background and appliqué piece.  Even the quilting line is marked on the quilt. These markings are what to look for when trying to identify a quilt made from a kit.  Most markings did not wash out of the early kits.

An early name associated with quilt kits is Marie Webster, the first author of a full-length book solely on quilts.  “Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them”. She was the needlework editor of the “Ladies Home Journal” 1911-1917.  Many quilt patterns in “Ladies Home Journal” during that period were original designs by Marie Webster.  In 1921 Webster founded The Practical Patchwork Company.  Webster’s highly successful business was a cottage industries and sold quilt patterns and kits from her home in Marion Indiana.

Other important early designers were Anne Orr, Ruby Short McKim, Mary McElwain, and Mrs. Scioto Danner.  All had highly successful businesses from their own homes.  Often overlooked is the importance of the quilt kit to the general economy of the time. These cottage industries provided livelihoods for their families and for members of the community during difficult economic times.

Magazines and catalogs that sold early kit quilts. Ladies Art Company, Ladies Home Journal, Home Needlework, Modern Priscilla, Needlecrafts Home Art.

As the quilt kit industry grew more were offered through general needlework sources such as Herrschner’s, Lee Wards, Virginia Snow, Aunt Ellen, Aunt Martha, Mary McElwain Quilt Shop and others.  Kits were also offered through large mail-order houses such as Sears Roebuck & Co and Montgomery Wards.  They could also be found in the popular five and dime stores such as Ben Franklin, McCrory’s and Woolworth’s.  

A confusing practice that began in the 1930 was the offering of quilt kits under the name of a magazine, but also having it available in stores under the name of the company that produced it. 

 

The largest commercial quilt kit manufacturers are Bucilla, Paragon and Progress.  These companies but forth great efforts to obtain fine patterns, either from prominent designers or from museums. More on this later as we look at some of the quilts.  They used the finest material available and most quilts have stood the test of time.

Quilt kits saw a decline in the early 1940’s with the beginning of WWII and the resulting shortage of fabric and paper.  In addition, women were now employed by the defense industry.

McCall’s Needlework  Magazines of the 1950’s advertised Bucilla and Paragon kits. And remained popular through the 1980.  Some manufacturers started using Polyester blends in their kits which did not hold up to the test of time. 

Quilt kit researcher Beverly Dunivent in Uncoverings 1994 concluded:

Kits continued popularity, independent of the changes and trends that occurred in twentieth-century quiltmaking. Large number of  kit quilts shown in quilt shows, books and magazines.  Kits offered women the opportunity to become entrepreneurs and to be recognized for their creative efforts. Kits provided quiltmakers the means to develop skills in various aspects of quiltmaking in areas with no other source for guidance. Some kit designs were copied from works in museums and private collections.  Often first time kit makers went on to make other quilts.

NIMBLE NEEDLE TREASURES MAGAZINE

http://www.nimbleneedletreasures.com/irenegoodrich.htm

1975 Volume 7 No. 1-Quilt Kits-Present and Past by Cuesta Benberry

CUESTA BENBERRY

http://museum.msu.edu/Exhibitions/Upcoming/TheLegacyofCuestaBenberry.html

Unpacking Collections: The Legacy of Cuesta Benberry, An African American Quilt Scholar
December 6, 2009 - September 5, 2010

LADIES ART COMPANY

http://www.ladiesartcompany.com/index.htm

UNCOVERINGS 1994 (15)

 “Kit Quilts in Perspective”   by Beverly Dunivent & Anne Copeland

UNCOVERINGS 1995 (16)

 “Marketing Quilt Kits in the 1920s and 1930s” by Xenia E. Cord

MARIE WEBSTER

http://www.practicalpatchwork.com/websterstory.html

CHILDREN’S QUILTS FROM THE 19th CENTURY (online article)

http://www.fabrics.net/LauretteChildrenQuilt19thCentury.asp

THE HISTORY OF  20^TH CENTURY KIT QUILTS

http://www.womenfolk.com/quilt_pattern_history/kit-quilts.htm

AMERICAN KIT QUILTS - A BRIEF HISTORY

http://www.geocities.com/qllsite/kits1.html

VINTAGE TINTED EMBROIDERED LINENS

http://reviews.ebay.com/Vintage-Tinted-Embroidered-Linens-and-Pillows_W0QQugidZ10000000004649089

BUCILLA

http://www.plaidonline.com/articleDetail.asp?entry=article&articleID=102

 PROGRESS

 PARAGON

GOLD-ART NEEDLEWORK CO.

Lee Wards, Home Needlecraft Creations, Herrschner’s, Wonder-Art, Vogart, Marvil Art, Aunt Ellen, Franks, Jack Dempsey

http://www.antiquequiltdatingguides.com/Eagle_Quilt_Kits.htm

QUILTMAKING IN AMERICA BEYOND THE MYTHS By Horton, Laurel

ON THE CUTTING EDGE By Lasansky, Jeannette

UNCOVERINGS 1990

“Quilt History in Old Periodicals” By Wilene Smith

Books and articles by Merikay Waldvogel

Childhood Treasures: Quilts by and for Children

The Quilts of Tennessee: Images of Domestic Life Prior to 1930

Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 World's Fair

Soft Covers for Hard Times: Quiltmaking and the Great Depression

·         Quilts in the WPA Milwaukee Handicraft Project, 1935-1943 - Volume 05

·         Southern Linsey Quilts of the Nineteenth Century - Volume 08

·         The Marketing of Anne Orr's Quilts - Volume 11

·         Mildred Dickerson: A Quilt Pattern Collector of the 1960's and 1970's - Volume 15

·         The Origin of Mountain Mist Patterns - Volume 16                          

Antique Pillow Case

16" x 30"

Very surprised to find this antique pillowcase last July in Redmond Oregon. They called it a wall hanging.  It is the only one I have ever found. The colors are what Anne Hermes calls Pennsylvania German.  Wouldn't you just love to know how it got to Oregon?

The blocks measure about 3 1/2 inches to 4 inches

This is what is on one side of the pillowcase.

 

This reminds me of the quilt along Lori is doing called Pink Lemonade .

Check it out if you have not seen it, very cute.