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Sold— 1934 Quilt Paper Lemoyne Stars Top

Offered for Sale

Great winds sweep the Dust Bowl. An oddity is reported in a tectonic lake in Scotland and Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, is born. The talking picture show solidify Hollywood’s lead on culture and commercialism while the FBI hunts Bonnie & Clyde and notorious gangsters in the era of the “public enemy.” Alcatraz becomes a federal prison. Unemployment decreases to 22%, marking a turning point in the Great Depression. Adolph Hitler becomes the commander in Chief of Germany.

While the world hurled forward in 1934, individuals kept up with their daily business, as did the unknown maker of this lively LeMoyne star quilt top. The softer news of this incredibly complicated American era is documented in the newspaper clippings she used as foundations for the difficult to piece bias-cut 8-point star. Baby chicks hatched and were sold, seed catalogs marketed the season’s best varieties, dress goods were sold by the yard. Comic strips, classifieds, and women’s achievements in sports are here documented.

For this quilt, she chose bubblegum pink borders and a variety of large scale novelty prints and feedsacks. Geometric designs, horses, tea cups, ballerinas, and a variety of florals are combined in settings and star points. The fabrics are in excellent, unused condition, and the newspaper is crisp and easily legible— a testament to careful storage. The single defect is light to medium staining, seen most notably in the top row, second column, which most likely bled through while the quilt top was folded.

If you’re looking for a piece of material culture and love quilt paper and ephemera, here’s a great piece documenting an important moment in American history. See it on ebay.

 

Sold— Cockscomb or Cotton boll pod? A Unique Large Block Appliqué c.1870-1890

Offered for Sale
This early quilt from the Deep South is a truly unique, large-block appliqué quilt with a half-block top edge and striped interior borders. At 82″ by 65″ it’s quilted in an all-over Baptist fan pattern at approximately 6 stitches to the inch, giving the hand-carded heavy batting great texture throughout the quilt. Confident but nimble appliqué hand stitching tacks the red and tan (dun) medallion designs onto a muslin.

The original Turkey Red medallions may have been inspired by oak leaf or cock’s comb designs, and are somewhat reminiscent of Princess Feather shapes in their flared tips. The central turkey red appliqué shapes encase single tan (dun) Oak leaf or Princess Feathers, which are then also placed outside of the medallion. The end result radiates out from the open center, creating a symmetrical design unlike any I have seen. It is as if the quiltmaker was inspired by the period’s large cock’s combs, oak leafs, and Princess Feathers and sat down to create a pattern herself with the visual inspiration in mind but out of sight. Quilt scholars have commented that the pattern could be inspired by a cotton boll pod.

This quilt features all the wear and tear one can expect with an aged quilted textile that has been used and stored. Fortunately, the key fabrics are generally in great shape, with no bleeds, no flocking, and little overall deterioration with a few holes and scattered staining as pictured (especially on the back). There is significant staining on the back of the quilt along the fold lines and deterioration of the backing fabric in one corner. The binding is in place around the entire quilt, but is fraying and torn throughout. This age related wear and damage adds to the interest and appeal of this truly unique early quilt from a Mississippi estate.

String Quilting & Family: Making a Commissioned Custom Quilt from Childhood Clothes

Commissioned

An antique quilt dealer I often repair for introduced me to a friend who was interested in turning a bag of clothing— childhood clothes her mother sewed her— into a quilt. She wanted something like a crazy quilt, with dark deep tones, and the quilt would sit on top of a family heirloom four-post bed. Over time, a friendship blossomed and more projects followed…

*** Full Post to follow once I get more photos and video off an old hard drive! ***

 

Pebbles and Swirls

Machine Quilting & Surface Design

I first learned how to pebble and swirl from Angela Walter’s Craftsy class “Machine Quilting Negative Space.” Angela Walters is an excellent instructor— especially for people who have quilted some, but are really looking how to become comfortable with a toolkit of free hand designs that can be stitched into just about any quilt. If you’ve been trolling Pinterest for those heavily-quilted contemporary pieces full of pebbles, swirls, spirals, and other designs that climb right up out of the batting, this is the class for you.

Why choose this class instead of a different one?

  1. Angela uses a long-arm machine in this class. It doesn’t really matter for learning the designs unless you are a total newbie and would prefer seeing someone with their hands oriented to their domestic machine. For the rest of us, it means that the camera view is clear and you get a sense of the rhythm and movement of the designs.
  2. It’s a classic introduction to a basic toolkit of contemporary free motion designs. Swirls, clamshells, spirals, pebbles, feathers— if you’re looking for that heavily quilted free-hand look, this is a great starter class to build your toolkit of go-to designs.
  3. Don’t scrimp on the paper and pen! Doodling really helps to get the design down, and especially, how to move from one design to another.

While you can get a pretty good sense of a particular design by looking at quilts in museums and around the internet, Angela’s specialty IMO is to teach you the flow of a design, both in how to complete one element and in how to replicate it across your surface.

I have purchased many Craftsy classes— and have a wishlist of 15 more courses, which would represent a considerable investment. This is one I do not regret buying! If you purchase through this link within the next 7 days, I may get a small commission that will help me write more reviews, as I just became a Craftsy affiliate! It’s 50% off for Black Friday!