Showing posts with label Flower Garden Quilt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flower Garden Quilt. Show all posts

Monday, April 13, 2015

My Weekend Haul: Hankies and Quilt Tops and Embroidery and 1927 Stamped Linens

The weather is finally beautiful in Michigan and I had a hankering to explore. On Saturday we went to Berkley and the Odd Fellow's Antique Mall, the Council Resale across the street, and The Rust Belt Market in Ferndale and Vintage Vogue in Pleasant Ridge.

On Sunday (after church and lunch with family) I ran down to the Royal Oak Flea Market. Something was calling my name.

It turned out the siren was a Depression era Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt top for $20.00! The lady, who was from Port Huron, also had some linens stamped for embroidery.

First up are two handkerchiefs I bought at the antique mall. They had loads of handkerchiefs, but so do I so I am particular

Next up are embroidered pieces I found at the thrift shop for $1 each.
 Above is the detail of a pair of matching dresser scarfs, nicely finished.
Above is a pillow cover with embroidery on linen. It was never used.
The flea market top is below. The setting is pale pink and Nile Green.
 As you can see, the top does not lay flat. I have preordered the Recycled Hexie Quilts book by Mary Kerr and hope I can use it in the way she shows in the book.

There are some interesting fabrics.




The stamped linen pieces are on a coarse, heavy weave ecru linen. The stamping is light blue. Two came with papers showing color placement and a color chart from Nun's Boil Fast Threads, and there were cut out samples of other items they offered. The patterns were dated 1927!

I can't find anything online about Nun's, except for a post at what-i-found blog: http://what-i-found.blogspot.com/2009/01/nuns-boilproof-thread-catalog-1923.html

UPDATE: I have found a wonderful history on the company written by Susan Wildemuth at
http://www.illinoisquilthistory.com/Buettner.html
 This is black and white image of the linen showing an Indian at his tepee; the chart is below.

The sample that was attached to the Indian pattern.


Another pattern was of sail boats.There were five samples attached.

 The color chart showing the threads.

 The little Dutch girl had no papers or charts.

I spent $29 on all of the above. And $14 for some tea blends at The Rust Belt Market. Lunch at Alex's of Berkley was a whooping $20.00: hubby had lasagna, soup, and desert and I had Greek salad and a gyro. It was a cheap mini-vacation in our own home town! Across the street from the restaurant is Guildcrafters Quilt Shop with great modern fabrics. 

I don't think I shared this eBay hanky find from a while back. There is a hole in the top center but if I use it in a hanging it can be dealt with.
We were trying out the lighting in the house for photographs. Not a great local, but it is the first "hanging" photo I have of my Prince's Feather! I will be showing it in the CAMEO Quilt Guilt show in June. We need to provide photos with the entry form.







Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Our Heirloom Quilts

Growing up  there were no quilters in my family. But in 1966 my grandfather took my mom and me with him on a trip 'back home' to Milroy, PA to visit his Aunt Carrie. And Aunt Carrie gave him and my grandmother a quilt which was given to my mom, who gave it to me in the 1970s.

Carrie V. Ramer Bobb was my grandfather's mother's sister. When Gramps lost his mother and then his grandmother, he was an orphan at the age of nine years. Sisters Aunt Carrie and Aunt Annie Ramer Smithers took turns raising him. My grandfather Lynne O. Ramer got a sound education, and worked his way through college and seminary and gaining a teaching certificate.

Aunt Carrie (1904-1971)

The quilt passed down to me is a Dresden Plate. The layers were machine sewn, with the backing turned to the front and sewn down. Then the plates were hand appliqued to the quilt!

The background fabric is white, the plate centers are light blue or medium blue.






The quilt was likely made in the early 1960s shortly before it was gifted to my grandfather. I expect that like most quilters, Aunt Carrie had a collection of fabrics that spanned the early 20th century and came from a wide variety of sources.  In September 1965 my grandfather wrote a letter to the Lewistown Sentinel about just where Carrie got her stash:


“Well we have stitched on another vacation patch to the crazy quilt of life. At the Richfield ‘Ramer clutch” several widely separated cuzzins brought bags of patches for Aunt Carrie Bobb of the Mifflin County Home, who has another Postage Stamp Quilt under way.
     “Aunt Carrie sews on this quilt between times devoted to the guests and writing 10 letters each week.  This year the patches came from Bethesda, Camden, Annapolis, Indianapolis, Sinking Valley, Allen Park and Berkley, etc., etc.—and a crazy assortment they were to be sure!”
   “Yet when a quilt is complete there is some manner of symmetry and form to the total, be it a Dresden Circles, a Field of Diamonds, a Double Wedding Ring or just a plain Postage Stamp.
     “Such is life! Patches added willy nilly, seemingly with no central purpose, yet the total displays an amazing degree of purpose.  A quilt is hard to see because we look at the patches, just like it’s said we can’t see the forest due to the single trees."
The fabric scraps from Allen Park and Berkley were from Michigan: Gramps lived in Berkley and his daughter Nancy in Allen Park.  The scraps from Annapolis was my mom's brother, Uncle Dave and his wife Pat.
Aunt Carrie Bobb's grandson, Sid Bobb, shared with me a photo of the two Aunt Carrie quilts he inherited, a Drunkard's Path variation in red and white and a Grandmother's Flower Garden variation in pastels.


I also have a quilt from my husband's side of the family, given to me by my mother-in-law. It was made by her grandmother, Harriet Scoville (Scovile, Schoville) Nelson, and was given to her daughter Charlotte Grace Nelson O'Dell,  then came to my mother-in-law Laura Grace O'Dell Bekofske.

Harriet Scoville  (1877-1951)and Aaron Nelson. 



Charlotte Grace Nelson and John Oren O'Dell, 1896

Laura Grace O'Dell Bekofske


 The quilt is a red and white Single Wedding Ring, with a polka dot backing, and tied with faded red and white floss.



The cotton batting is quite lumpy!

 The edges were turned in and machine sewn. A thread was never cut. The floss looks pink, but is pin or red and white.
 The quilt was kept in Laura's cedar chest and never used. Tannin in the wood left brown spots.



Laura made Gary and I several quilts in the early 1980s, a blue Log Cabin and a multi-colored Sister's Choice, much beloved by our son.




By the time I started to quilt in 1991, my mother-in-law was ending her quilting career. Arthritis had settled in her thumb joint. She instead took up counted cross stitch. Her vision remained clear and she enjoyed this work until her death.