Simpler Times - Photos from My Grandmother's Album

 

I am happy to report that my crazy quilt featuring photos from 1904 - 1907 is finished and ready to hang in the Herring Run Quilters' Guild show this coming weekend.  This project has truly been a labor of love for me. Though I never met my grandmother, I smile when I see the fun that she had as a young woman at the turn of the last century. The photos in her album were taken in Togus, Maine; Center Harbor, New Hampshire; and the Boston area.  [You my click on the photo to see a larger version.]

Once I had the twelve blocks arranged and stitched together I faced a dilemma. Crazy quilts don't call for regular batting, but rather a false back is applied. Though I have a small library of crazy quilting books, none seemed to address the steps to finishing a crazy quilt.  I was lucky to find just such a tutorial  on Allie Aller's blog Allie's in Stitches.  

At this point, you may or may not wish to continue reading as I want to record the steps that I took for future reference since I didn't exactly follow all of her directions.  The first step was to fuse a light weight stabilizer to the back of the top. (Whenever I did any pressing, I would put the quilt face down on a fluffy towel to prevent flattening out any of the embellishments; for example, the tiny satin ribbon roses.) Step two was to attach a "batting," or in this case a piece of drapery lining. I don't think I purchased the type that she talked about in her post as she mentioned it being "spongy" while the drapery lining I found was more like a thin flannel. Since I didn't want to use pins which might have created tiny holes in the satin pieces on the front, I simple cut long strips of misty fuse to temporarily hold the batting in place. Next, I did do the rows of hand basting all across the piece about an inch or more apart. This took some times, as per her note, it was important to check each individual stitch to be sure it didn't show on the front side. Whew! 

A layer of stabilizer was also applied to the backing piece. Then I sewed six tiny buttons on the back to help hold all the layers together making sure that the stitches were buried in the seams at the intersections on the front.

After sewing on the binding and the sleeve, I stitched a copy of my grandparents' marriage certificate onto the back. I also sewed three tiny enamel buttons from my grandmother's trousseau onto the label.

With all of the stabilizer used, the piece hangs very well, and I'm glad I thought to use the Misty Fuse instead of risking any pinholes on the front.

If you would like to see this piece in person, please come to the Herring Run Quilters' Guild  show this coming weekend, September 17 and 18th at the Norwell Middle School in Norwell, MA. There will be over 200 quilts on display along with a number of vendors.

Please do come; quilter or not,  I know you will enjoy it.

Thirty-eight Days until Spring and the Snow Keeps Coming

What  have I been doing when I haven't been shoveling? Well, yesterday I finished the covers to complete my cigarette silk actress book.  Take a look inside. . .

Please click on any photo to see a clearer, larger view. I truly loved working on this project.  It began back in the fall when I took a class on making a crazy quilt book taught by Jerrianne Ouellette  at Emma's Quilt Cupboard in Franklin. My focus was a bit different as I wanted to showcase my cigarette silk actresses, but it was easy to adapt what I learned for this project. If you haven't tried crazy quilting, let me warn you . . . it is wonderful fun but highly addictive.  Yarns, floss, buttons, beads, lace, and charms, etc . . oh, my!

Snow update: For those not from this area, let me tell you that we are in the midst of out third major snowstorm of the last sixteen days. It began late on Saturday and will continue through Tuesday morning. Even more special, my area will win the snow jackpot; a jackpot no one wishes to win. We had around thirty inches to begin with and this storm when it ends will have dropped another twenty-five to thirty inches. I live here and even I can't believe it. Here are some photos I just took to give you an idea of what it is like. They are similar to previously posted photos so you can see how much more snow we have received. Side yard . . . four foot chain link fence completely covered.

Back yard fence nearly buried.

Sunporch view . . .

We've been told by the experts that we should try to remove the snow from our roofs. My garage roof has about five feet of snow, and I have a snow rake but it is impossible to get near enough from the backyard. I'm thinking that maybe I should get some snowshoes so I can traverse the deep snow, but that's for another day.

Think warm thoughts as they are predicting more snow on Thursday night. Thirty-eight days until spring . . . 

One Last Post for 2014

Last Friday through Sunday was spent quilting with friends in Stoughton. I was able to complete another block for my crazy quilt book of cigarette silks featuring turn of the century actresses from vaudeville, stage, and screen. Here's a close-up of some of the beading.

Anticipation . . .  This amaryllis will soon provide a bright splash of color as the holiday decorations are packed away. 

At least I won't have to waste time contemplating resolutions for the year ahead ; I can just use the same ones from last year!!! Wishing you a happy, healthy, adventurous new year!!!

Leonora Harris and Nora Bayes

 I have been working on making a crazy quilt book. Each page will feature a cigarette silk with an actress from the turn of the last century.  This is Leonora Harris (1882-1953) who starred in seven silent films and appeared on Broadway from 1900-1947

Another completed page shows Nora Bayes (1880-1928).

Nora Bayes was a comedian, singer, actress, and women's rights advocate. There was quite a bit of information about her on the internet.  She was a very popular vaudeville star unafraid to go up against impresario Florenz Ziegfeld. Another interesting tidbit was that she was married five times!  To read more about this interesting lady, visit Nora Bayes - Jewish Women's Archive. For fun, thanks to YouTube you can listen to her perform two WW1 era pieces: "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm" and George M. Cohan's Over There. 

The purple strip joins the two sides. Eventually this piece will be folded in half and the edges whipped stitched to create one double-sided page.

A Weekend of Quilting

     This weekend was our monthly quilting weekend, and I'm happy with all that I accomplished. Here's a little piece that just needed to be layered and quilted.  It's now on the top of my quilt rack along with a mini pumpkin quilt and a little toy sewing machine.
     During the summer some friends and I had visited various quilt shops to collect their "Row by Row Experience" patterns. Here's my second completed row; this pattern was from Quilters Common in Wakefield, MA.
   

     After the row was completed, I was able to work on the blocks for my crazy quilt project. I'm taking a class at a local quilt shop, and the class project is to create a crazy quilt book. I was eager to sign up for this class because I wanted to incorporate some cigarette silks that I had. (Cigarette silks were premiums given in cigarette packages around 1910. The subjects might be flowers, foreign cities, birds, etc. My cigarette silks feature actresses from that era. The silks are old and somewhat fragile, so incorporating them into a book rather than a wallhanging, seemed prudent.) I'm using some of the ideas from the class but putting my own spin on the project.)

I have now pieced twelve crazy quilt background blocks using coordinating pastel batiks. The instructor had suggested that fusible batting be attached to the back of each block so an embroidery hoop would not be necessary. I then used misty fuse to attach a cigarette silk to each block. My next step is to frame and anchor each of the silks with lace, beading, or trim before moving on to the rest of the stitching and embellishing.

I get a kick out of the pose, costume, and facial expression of this actress.

My First Crazy Quilt Piece

     Yesterday, I finished my first crazy quilted piece which features photos of my dad's mother. I had recently discovered the top two photos in an envelope at the bottom of a wooden chest. I don't recall having ever seen them before. The middle photo was a daguerrotype. Though it was somewhat faded, I was able to work with the image and then print them on fabric. I used two different brands of photo transfer sheets, but unfortunately, I didn't keep track of which one I preferred. I'll be sure to do that next time I print photos onto fabric. 

     

My grandmother, the daughter of a Civil War veteran, was born in 1872.  She and my grandfather had four daughter and my dad. All of them are now gone, but I know my aunts would have loved seeing  this piece since they were all very skilled in the needle arts. I have beautiful embroided tablecloths and napkins, crochet doilies and antimacassars*, etc. that they made. Notice the multi-colored pink, cream, and aqua piece of tatting on the right side of the block. It was done by one of my aunts many, many years ago. The piece was just long enough to allow me to incorporate a small section in each of the three blocks. I purposely chose the similarly colored piece of batik to blend with this tatting.

I enjoyed working on my first crazy quilt piece and already have plans for two more pieces.

     *** In case you were wondering, an "antimacassar" was a piece of cloth or crochet which was placed on furniture to protect the furniture from hair oils. "Macassar" was a type of oil used in years past by men to flatten down and make their hair shiny. 

   *** Some of the trims were purchased, but the embroidery stitches and beading were all done by hand.

Crazy Quilt Possibilities

    Look at these rich, beautiful colors. Mary Ann, a member of the Herring Run Quilt Guild to which I also belong, read on my blog that I have developed an interest in crazy quilting, and she gifted me with a bag of silk scraps and other wonderful fabrics. 

Aren't they delicious!!!  They will be perfect for a project that I have in mind. I want to make a traditional crazy quilt wallhanging and incorporate some vintage cigarette silks. Cigarette silks used to be given away inside packages of cigarettes in the early 1900s. People would collect the various subjects such as flowers, flags, historical figures and use them in their crazy quilting. I have a few silks from Old Mill Cigarettes featuring popular actresses of the period.

In a day or two I will post a photo of the crazy quilt piece upon which I am currently working. The first block is nearly finished.

     This past weekend was a special one in our family as there were four First Communions. My cousin Kristin's little girl received First Holy Communion on Saturday. I was unable to go as Emma was not feeling well. Two weeks ago at her yearly check up, the vet had pointed out that there was a significant build up of tartar on her back teeth, so Emma's teeth were cleaned last Monday, and during the next few days she experienced increasing gastric problems. I took her back to the animal hospital early Friday morning as she had been sick during the night and was very lethargic. They gave her fluids after determining that she had become dehydrated. I took her home and watched her closely. Fortunately, after the fluids and with some additional medicine, Emma improved so I was able to attend the First Communion Mass for my cousin Brian's triplets on Sunday. 

     I am happy to report that Emma is now back to her excited, happy, squirrel-chasing, active self. Thank goodness!