Pan-American Exposition Redwork Quilt Top Compete

Years ago I purchased reproduction fabric of Pan-American penny square Redwork blocks reproduced by Blue Hill. I embroidered the blocks and then created additional ones by tracing blocks on my antique Pan-American Redwork quilt. 

I am finishing up UFOs and decided to set these blocks with fabric from my stash. It is not what I envisioned when I started, but it is another quilt top done!

The blocks are set with plain blocks from Buttermilk Basin fabrics left from my Hospital Sketches quilt.

Note President McKinley ant President Theodore Roosevelt are on the quilt along with their wives Edith Roosevelt and Ida McKinley. There were also blocks for George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Buffalo Bill, and a Native American. And, a Buffalo which I suppose stood for the city that hosted the Exposition.

The reproduction blocks included common motifs from the era of children, a mother and child, and natural motifs.

Here is the quilt made with the penny squares sold at the Exposition in 1901.

President McKinley was shot while standing on the steps of the Temple of Music. At his death, Theodore Roosevelt became president.

Buildings for the fair are depicted. Below is the Johnstown Flood.

The Temple of Music "Where President McKinley was shot"

Bostock's Trained Wild Animals was on the Midway

Learn more about the Pan-American Exposition at "A Guide to Buffalo's 1901 Pan-American Exposition" here.

See Thomas Edison's films of the Exposition and President McKinley's death at the Library of Congress here.

Read  my review of The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City by Margaret Crieghton here. Learn about Tesla's contribution to the electric lighting of the Exposition in Tesla by Richard Munsen.

Quilt Display, Gifted New Handkerchiefs, 1857 Update

My quilt guild has a display at the Royal Oak Public Library. This was my library when I was a girl & teenager, so it is so special to share some of my quilts there! I helped set up the display last night during a snow storm.

I brought my quilt based on the Morning Glory fairy in A Year With the Fairies by Anna O. Scott. It is mixed media using crayon tinting, embroidery, appliquéd silk flowers, beading, and a sheer net overlay. The pink fabric is silk.

 My handkerchief border quilt includes embroidery based on a 1930s greeting card vintage buttons.

A part of my Redwork based on illustrations from Reggie's Christmas can be seen on the shelf below. The book was read by my mother-in-law who got it from her uncle James O'Dell.

The left quilt below is a folded bow-tie. The doggies are wool appliqué on cotton.

 So many cute things were offered for the display, small quilts and pot holders.

 Scott T. Dog uses reproduction 1930s fabrics.

Yesterday morning at my weekly quilt gathering's show and tell I saw a quilt based on The Fiona Quilt Block by Carolyn Perry Goins. I will have a photo later. And a lady gave me some handerchiefs from her collection.

AND, between my morning group and the late afternoon gathering I met with a lady to guide her in making her first handkerchief collage! She had a wonderful heirloom collection of laces, trims, and dress pieces from her mother and grandmother. I want to go back and get photos!

I finished six blocks of the 1857 Album from Sentimental Stitches. 

Little Hazel from Esther Aliu has been showing up on her Facebook page in extraordinary manifestations! The interpretations are remarkable! I eagerly await the next part to be released!

More Finds

The Tuesday Quilters are a generous group, making items for charity and sharing goodies. The gals bring in fabric, yarn, patterns, or magazines to give away almost weekly. Today we had linens and fabric. I brought home some great stuff!

I loved this embroidered 1930s lady on a heart shaped doily embellished with lace. I can see her on one of my wall hangings.

These pansies were embroidered on the four corners of a table cloth. There is staining on the cloth, but I can see several ways to use it.

This Redwork is so cute! 

"What does the birdie say/In its nest at peep of day"

These preprinted cheater cloth panels marked "Charlotte" by Denise Beavers of The Violet Patch would look amazing hand quilted for a charity quilt!

This silk 1939 new York World's Fair handkerchief is in mint condition!

I love the different national costumes so colorfully illustrated

I also brought home a piece of ribbon and this piece of pretty fabric.

I had better clear out my stash and share with the gals!

Love Entwined Update and Pan American Redwork Reproduction

I finished the second corner basket last week. I am eager for the 15th of the month when  the next basket pattern is released! Love Entwined is Esterh Aliu's reproduction pattern based on a 1790 appliqued marriage coverlet found in Averil Colby's book Patchwork. The medallion style quilt has seven borders, three densely appliqued.

See more about the project at Esther Aliu's blog:
 http://estheraliu.blogspot.com/p/love-entwined-1790-marriage-coverlet-bom.html

The pattern is available to members of the Yahoo group found at:  http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/estheraliubom/info

I am also working again on my Pan American Redwork reproduction quilt. I am using the Blu Hill printed fabric from several years ago, and adding more blocks by tracing the patterns from the Pan American Redwork quilt I purchased last January.

Here is the 1901 quilt.

And here are the blocks I have finished. The Electricity Building is the first one I traced from the vintage quilt. President McKinley and the American Eagle is also from my vintage quilt. The rest are from the Blue Hill fabric which I embroidered. I use DMC #304 embroidery floss, three strands mostly but 2 for detailed areas. The background fabrics are not all the same, as I could not completely match the Blue Hill fabric background. I think the setting blocks will be varied so it will all work out in the end!

The printed fabric can still be found at times on eBay and also at Quilt In A Day's website shop:
http://www.quiltinaday.com/shoponline/fabric_display.asp?i=41936

Pan-American Redwork Quilt

I just acquired a 1901 Redwork quilt made of penny squares sold for the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY.  About 60 different squares were sold for a penny each. This quilt has a predominance of buildings but includes a central gathering of President and Mrs McKinley and Vice President and Mrs Roosevelt around an eagle block.

 

These Redwork quilts made for the Pan-American Exposition have fascinated me, and I am thrilled to now own one. First, I grew up near Buffalo, NY. I am interested in Presidential history, as well as American History, and since making a Redwork President's quilt I have been quilt in love with Redwork.

On Sept 6. 1901 President McKinley was in a receiving line at the Temple of Music when he was assassinated by  Polish immigrant Leon Czolgosz who was holding a gun under his handkerchief.


 Illustration by: T. Dart Walker.
Source: The cover of the September 21, 1901 issue of Leslie's Weekly.

 

An African-American waiter named James Parker wrestled Czolgosz to the ground, preventing him from firing another round.

 " I heard the shots. I did what every citizen of this country should have done. I am told that I broke his nose—I wish it had been his neck. I am sorry I did not see him four seconds before. I don's say that I would have thrown myself before the bullets. But I do say that the life of the head of this country is worth more than that of an ordinary citizen and I should have caught the bullets in my body rather than the President should get them. I can't tell you what I would have done and I don't like to have it understood that I want to talk of the matter. I tried to do my duty. That's all any man can do."

 "I am a Negro, and am glad that the Ethiopian race has what ever credit comes with what I did. If I did anything, the colored people should get the credit."

On Sept 14 the president died of gangrene and Teddy Roosevelt became president. Leon Czolgosz was sent to trial and was sentenced to die on October 29, 1901. The government went after anarchists, much in the way we search out terrorists today, creating the Alien Immigration Act in 1903.


For an overview of the President's visit see
http://library.buffalo.edu/exhibits/panam/law/mckinley.html
 http://library.buffalo.edu/exhibits/panam/index.html

For a booklets detailing the buildings at the fair, which are depicted in the penny squares, see
http://library.buffalo.edu/libraries/exhibits/panam/booklets/arthandbk/index.html
http://library.buffalo.edu/exhibits/panam/booklets/100views/100views.pdf

Sending my Heart to Lancaster, PA

This week I shipped my quilt "I Will Lift My Voice Like A Trumpet" to Paducah, KY. They will then take it to Lancaster, PA to appear in the American Quilt Society quilt show there next month.

I Will Lift My Voice Like A Trumpet when it appeared in a quilt show in Muskegon, MI

I had only entered one juried show before--the World Quilt and Textile Show which travels to different venues. My Barbie Quilt appeared in their Lansing, MI show. I have some quilt pics on My Quilt Place (http://myquiltplace.com/profile/NancyBekofske), which is part of the AQS website, and received an email from AQS inviting me to submit quilts for consideration. I knew that this quilt needed to be seen, and submitted my entry.

It was exciting to find an acceptance letter in the mail. Then my stomach flipped over and I decided I was not sure my quilt was 'up to' coming out in public. Especially I hated the binding job I had done, which was too thick and awkward.

I had recently found a great binding tutorial online, and it motivated me to rebind my quilt. (quilt.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2hWQ5-ZccE&feature=share)  I spent a day removing the original binding. Then another day preparing the new binding, another to sew the binding on, and two more to hand sew down the back side of the binding. The new narrower binding made the quilt look SO MUCH BETTER!

And yet taking my quilt to the post office, I felt nervous. Would it get lost out there? Would people see all the technical flaws in workmanship? Hopefully, the message of the quilt, honoring the sometimes forgotten women who risked everything to make their voices heard for freedom, is what viewers will remember.

After learning Redwork embroidery by making Michael Buckingham's pattern for The Presidents quilt, I had designed a quilt of the First Ladies. At that time I was disturbed to realize that, at that time, only European Caucasians were represented on these quilts, and I wanted to do something that celebrated America's broader and more inclusive heritage. I considered various themes before emailing a local college professor of African American history. She told me about a book, Freedom's Daughters, which she used in her course.

 The President's Quilt, on which I learned Redwork. I added a border of new and traditional blocks.

Detail of my Remember The Ladies, my original quilt of the First Ladies and my second Redwork Quilt

I had been reading Life Up Thy Voice by Mark Perry, about Sarah and Angelina Grimke', and had already read about Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglas, and Harriet Tubman. Lynne Olson's book, Freedom's Daughters, The Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement from 1830 to 1970 was just what I needed to read. The stories of these women, many of whom I had never heard of, were inspiring. I was too young to understand the battles that had occurred in the early Sixties. I did not read newspapers, or watch tv news, or hear about current events in the classroom when I was ten years old. It was not until the Detroit riots the summer I turned sixteen that I became aware of Civil Rights and the fight for equality in America.

So this quilt was a part of my self-education as I read about these women and designed the quilt.

Now it is out of my hands, and open to the world.

Independence Day

My quilt life has been put on hold for quite a few months as we packed, moved, unpacked and settled into our new home. Next week I hope to finally start to set up my quilt studio!

In 1976 we were living near Philadelphia. It was a wonderful time to be there! We spent all summer taking the train to downtown Philly, and walking from one historical sight to another. We saw the musical 1776 performed for free on Independence Mall. We wore buttons saying "Ask Me", declaring to the tourist that we knew our way around.


When several years ago I saw Bicentennial era embroidery patterns on eBay, I had to buy them. And I made my quilt, Bicentennial Memories.

The images include George Washington cutting down a cherry tree; Independence Hall, a George Washington medallion, the Liberty Bell, and  Betsy Ross sewing the flag. Thomas Jefferson was adapted from clip art. Martha Washington is a vintage Redwork pattern. The last two blocks are the American eagle and the flag of 1776. The red and white fabrics have a small cherry print on them.

In my collection is a hanky and scarf from the Bicentennial.

One of my favorite hanky designers was Tammis Keefe, and I have collected the Philadelphia souvenir handkerchiefs she designed in the 1960s. They feature famous landmarks. Here is her Liberty Bell, and Independence Hall.

Another souvenir hanky of Independence Hall:

I had always an interest in early American history, but being in Philadelphia during the Bicentennial really increased my interest. I have read such books as David McCullough's 1776, which details all the battles of that year...something I would never have considered previous to living so close to history!

Happy Birthday, America. And best wishes for many more to come.