On a recent Saturday morning the door at Born Again Quilts opened and in walked Karen Rydman of Ossian. Karen announced that she has been wanting to come visit BAQ for a long time since she had been following my Waynedale News column for years.
Karen . . .
Recently I went to a garage sale promoted for people interested in fabric, sewing or quilting items: No one else need come. I was intrigued by the classified and figured it would be worth a stop. Not only did I purchase lots of quilt quality fabric, . . .
Happy Mother’s Day!
A couple of months ago I received an E-mail from Liza Hazzard who attends Our Shepherd Lutheran Church in Avon, Indiana with my mother. My mother enjoys sharing my Around the Frame column with fellow parishioners and Liza asked . . .
Over 400 quilt enthusiasts enjoyed the Quilt Fair at the Huber Opera House in Hicksville, Ohio. It was heartening to hear people tell me how they read about it in the Waynedale News!
The attendees, who mostly hailed from Indiana and Ohio, voted for . . .
The third Saturday of March is International Quilting Day and this year a new quilter will be counted amongst us. A couple of months ago I got an E-mail from 20-year-old Chris Winters asking me if I could teach him how to quilt. I invited him to come . . .
You may remember my August 3, 2018 article about Quilters Hall of Fame inductee Xenia Cord and her Beanie Baby bashing quilt she made for a friend. Xenia is a woman of many talents including quilter, educator, researcher and writer. During a walk-through . . .
Happy New Year dear Waynedale Readers! By the time you read this, Meteorological Winter is half over. Winter weather hasn’t been too bad and the time keeps flying by.
I guess it is part and parcel of a new year that we think of time, the one thing . . .
It was the first weekend of December 2010 that I met Therese “Terry” Mihlbauer at the Unitarian Universalist Church Craft Show. Terry walked up to my booth and upon learning I restore quilts told me about a special family quilt she would like to . . .
The day is celebrated in various ways: some schools invite a veteran to their class to share their experiences, merchants and restaurants offer veterans deals on merchandise and complimentary meals in thanks for their service.
A friend of mine Al Brothers was recently honored by being awarded a quilt by Freedom Star United out of Hudsonville, Michigan. I often run into Al at the Waynedale Masonic freewill breakfast on the first Saturday of the month and he kindly agreed to share his military background with the Waynedale News readers:
“I received my Air Force Commission in 1964 through AFROTC at Boston University. After commissioning I went directly to pilot training earning my pilot’s wings in 1965. My first aircraft assignment was as a co-pilot flying B-52s stateside and I later upgraded to pilot/aircraft commander and flew one ARCLIGHT in Southeast Asia. I volunteered to return to SE Asia and was assigned as a pilot flying the B-57G out of Ubon, Thailand into Laos. My last flying assignment was flying the FB-111a. I spent 22 years in the Air Force flying aircraft, as a Space Systems Engineer and Branch Chief at the Foreign Technology Division, and as a Commander of an AFROTC detachment. I retired as a Lt. Colonel.
Pilot training was a memorable experience with half my class German pilot candidates. One of my closest friends was my former roommate, Dieter Tietz, who retired from the German Air Force and now lives in the US. At our Pilot Training graduation my parents and Dieter Tietz’s father came. Both of our fathers fought in World War II but both shook hands when we introduced them to each other. That was a great experience: two former foes now bound by the friendship of their sons.
Flying the B-52 in the Vietnam War was a true experience. I had a young crew with the oldest crew member being our gunner. The longest combat flights were 12 hour flights from Guam to Vietnam and return. We refueled the B-52 aircraft once flying three bombers against three KC-135 tankers, and then proceeding as a 27ship wave in country. The in country combat time was about 90 minutes. I was honored to be a wave lead, leading 27 aircraft into combat and return.
Flying the B-57G was a tremendous opportunity. It was a modified test aircraft flying in combat going after supply trucks and supply dumps in Laos at night. I earned a Distinguished Flying Cross engaging a convoy and destroying nine trucks while under heavy enemy AAA fire.
Returning from Thailand after flying the B-57s home to the US, I got a dream assignment to the new FB-111A. These aircraft were about three years old and were being formed into new squadrons in SAC at both Pease AFB NH and Plattsburgh AFB NY. These were supersonic aircraft whose mission was just being defined. A test version of this aircraft, the TFX, had made an emergency landing at my Pilot training base Williams AFB AZ in 1965. Dieter and I had gone to the flight line to see it and get a few pictures. I commented to Dieter that I wanted to fly the aircraft. Six years later I received my assignment to fly the aircraft at Pease AFB close to my home in Boston. During my second tour in the FB-111a at Pease AFB, my family had a house near the end of the runway. This was the first time my kids could see their dad taxing the aircraft not too far from the house and then take off on a training mission and return. Now that he is retired Al is a member of the American Legion Post 409 in Leo, Indiana.”
Al’s wife, Sandi, owned A Quilt of Many Colors in Leo for many years where she provided fabrics for several quilt guilds who made quilts for veterans.
Last April Sandy and Al attended the big quilt show in Paducah, Kentucky. Al wore his Vietnam Veteran cap and when he and Sandy visited the quilt vendors Al was approached and asked if he was a Vietnam Veteran and if he had received a quilt for his service. Al related to them he was in the Vietnam Theater twice but had not received a quilt. Al consented to accept a quilt and Deb Granger of Freedom Star United presented him with one as she thanked him for his service stating Veterans were an inspiration to all for their selfless service and personal sacrifice to our country. Al was flabbergasted and honored at this totally unexpected experience. He was truly at a loss for words for he never thought in his wildest dreams that he would receive such an honor. Al’s quilt is a Friendship Star adapted pattern made of 100% cotton patriotic fabrics. Al is thankful and appreciative to the dedicated quilters who infuse each quilt with so much creativity; for Al receiving this special quilt was truly a humbling experience.
This is how I met Marianne Darr Norman, a quilter, a lover of quilt history, and most importantly the keeper of many of her family’s quilts. Marianne expressed to me a dilemma she has regarding one of her most precious quilts: A 1933 Chicago World’s Fair Century of Progress Sears & Roebuck quilt competition entry. You may recall a few months ago, I featured a purple/green/orange Century of Progress pieced quilt in the Waynedale News. Marianne’s great-grandmother’s and Great Aunt’s quilt features a hand appliqued rendition of the Sears Building as its centerpiece and wonderful hand quilting. The quilt was most likely made from a kit as other very similar designs with similar fabric were. One is featured in Barbara Brackman and MeriKay Waldvogel’s book Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 World’s Fair.
Marianne’s great-grandmother Cathryn Elizabeth Wolford was born June 13, 1864 in Wayne Township of Kosciusko County, Indiana to William Daniel Wolford and Mary Elizabeth Hiner. She married Eugene Burns Cowic 11 Aug 1881 in Kosciusko County and they had six children with only two of them living to adulthood: Mary Cecile Cowic born 9 Sept. 1890 and Marianne’s grandmother Golda Belle Cowic, born 29 April 1897. When Cathryn’s husband Eugene died in December of 1930, she moved to Warsaw, Indiana. She and daughter Cecile now married to Raymond Samuel Finton and living in Laporte, Indiana decided to enter the quilt competition with no expectation of winning the $1000 first prize ($18,818.63 in 2018 dollars) but aimed for one of the regional $200 ($3763.73 in 2018 dollars) prizes. The mother-daughter pair now living 65 miles apart, Marianne theorizes, must have worked on it and many other quilts when Cecile and her husband came to visit.
The quilt was entered in the contest and it did not win a prize contrary to family folklore. With over 25,000 entries the odds were certainly stacked against them. The Great Depression was underway and winning any amount of money would have been a Godsend to the quilters who entered it with dreams of being the big winner. Life goes on and Cathryn passed away in 1946 and Cecile died in 1952. Her sister, Golda, now living in Baltimore, Ohio to be closer to her daughter, Willodeane Darr Luce, becomes the keeper of the family quilts until her death in 1979. In 1995 Marianne is contacted by her cousins, David and Karen Luse, to see if she wanted any family items because their mother Willodeane was in a nursing home. According to Marianne they handed her a stack of quilts and said, “One of the quilts won a prize in the World’s Fair competition; we think you should have these.” She never looked at the quilts until she returned home. She treasures them all but especially the World’s Fair one even though she highly suspects it was not a prize winner.
When I met Marianne she was mulling over the quilt’s future. She knew it had a place in history and she had the genealogy of the women who created it. I suggested she contact the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and send them photos. The museum did not have a quilt from the contest in its collection and upon review, agreed to acquire it. Marianne is thrilled that it is in good hands and thousands of art lovers will be able to view it and learn of its context to the Chicago World’s Fair and Great Depression.
To learn more about the Sears Quilt Contest and the scandals surrounding it go to: www.quilts.com/quiltscout/the-quilt-scout-scandal!-the-century-of-progress-quilt-contest.html
“This quilt pattern was made from one of the many cardboard and newspaper quilt templates I inherited from my Grandmother Ella (Bieberich) Schueler. She was born August 6, 1899 in Preble Township. She married George Schueler from Preble where they raised their three children: Esther Meyer, Melvin Schueler and my mother, the middle child, Eldora Thieme on the family farm. Grandma was a very special person and influence in my life as I lived with my grandparents for two years as an infant to a toddler. My mother had gone overseas to Italy to be with my father Lorenz Thieme who was in the Air Force serving his country during World War II.
After the war’s end my parents returned and I would spend every summer with my grandparents. During those summers, my grandmother would instill in my mother, my cousin Karen (Meyer) Ross and me her love of crafts, sewing and quilting. There were some crafts like lace tatting, crochet and knitting she could not teach me: I was forced to use my left-hand because at the age of two I had four of my fingers cut off and reattached due to a nasty encounter with a feed grinder. It wasn’t until I started elementary school at a little two-room school house that my fourth through eighth grade teacher converted me back to using my right hand.
I never quit loving crafts and the needle arts, especially sewing and quilting. I taught myself quilting and my friend Charlotte Fuelling, from my church’s Ladies Aid, taught me how to mark and lay out the squares evenly.
My grandmother passed away at the age of 87 in June 1986. This quilt was her pattern and it was just simply called “Butterflies.” Since she had created the templates, I imagine she made a quilt from them too, but I don’t recall ever seeing it. Most likely she gave is as a gift to a relative or friend. I crafted mine for Ella’s great-great granddaughter, Briena Myers, my granddaughter who was born on Ella’s birthday August 6, 2002. Briena loves nature and animals so I thought this quilt pattern originally saved by her great-great grandmother was perfect for her as a remembrance to her and made with love from me her Grandmother Witte.”
Judy, what a treasure to have such a wonderful grandmother sharing her love of the needle arts with you. It is unfortunate that your fingers’ condition has deteriorated to the point where you are unable to hand quilt. It is such a blessing that Carole was willing to quilt your beautiful top and give the butterflies flight!
How big was the Beanie Baby craze? Back in 1995 it was the first Internet sensation. People couldn’t get enough of them adding to their collections as fast as Ty Inc. could manufacture them. People collected them not only because they liked them but as an investment as well. As soon as a Beanie Baby was retired their value supposedly went up; to the delight of their collectors.
McDonald’s was never one to let a great marketing ploy go unexploited, so they started adding Teenie Beanie Babies to their Happy Meals in 1997. The promotion was wildly successful with 100 million Teenie Beanie Babies gone in two weeks. You may have remembered seeing cars lined up at the McDonald’s drive-throughs where the driver would go receive their Happy Meal, take out the toy, throw the meal in the trash receptacle and get back in line. It was CRAZY!
Now, as so often is the case, for every yin there is a yang; the people who despised the Beanie Babies. They might not have been very vocal, fearing they might be clobbered if the word got out, but they were out there all the same. They could be considered kindred spirits with “The Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue” clan who made quilts depicting various ways of ridding the world of Sue.
Recently, at the Quilters Hall of Fame celebration, this year’s inductee Xenia Cord, at a walk-thru of her quilts, described to us about one of her quilter friend’s antagonism toward the Beanie Babies. Her friend was appalled that they were even showing up in antique shops where they certainly didn’t belong! So, in 2000 while the craze was still going strong, Xenia collected Teenie Beanie Babies and incorporated them into a quilt entitled “So long it’s “Bean” good to know you.” Each block depicts a Tennie Beanie Baby meeting their demise: The pelican is caught in a lobster trap, the koala is being smothered by factory pollution, the lobster is caught in a fisherman’s net, the hippo will overdose on sugary treats, the cat used up all nine lives and is now road kill, the Marlboro Monkey will die of lung cancer, the giraffe is being strangled by his neck tie, the caterpillar is lunch for the crow, the Doberman is choking on a burglar’s finger (a salute to an urban legend!), the parachuting pup has a malfunctioning chute, the penguin is frozen in ice and the elephant is terrified of three small mice. The center of the quilt depicts Xenia’s quilting friend operating the locomotive ready to sweep the deer off the rails.
This quilt was auctioned to raise funds for the American Quilt Study Guild. It was noted that no beanies were killed in the making of this quilt.
Kudos to Xenia for taking one quilter’s frustration and turning it into a creative quilt!
As Nancy explains it, “This ‘road’ was a network rather than a single highway which carried not only silk but exchanges of religion, technology, art ideas and creativity. We visited a silk factory (my favorite), pottery workshop, paper making center, wood carvers workshop, knife making shop, colorful bazaars, and of course the famous mosaic tile covered madrassahs (ancient religious educational structures), some over 100 feet tall and 500 years old.”
Nancy continued, “The textiles we saw were spectacular. I collect antique quilts and was excited to find a large 120+ year-old suzani at an antique store in Bukhara, Uzbekistan.” A suzani is a decorative textile hand embroidered with silk thread. The ground or base fabric is a heavy cotton woven in strips. Traditionally the bride and the bride’s family made the suzani and constructed it like later quilters would gather for a quilting bee. It is interesting to look at the back and see that the work has been done by different people. Because of the weight of the suzani, there normally is no backing. The work of art was then presented to the husband on the wedding day. Suzanis are used as a “wedding curtain,” wall hanging, bed covering or to cover a pile of bedding. Some believe they were used to block evil spirits from the room. “The intricate designs all have symbolic meanings: the pomegranate is very commonly used since it is full of seeds signifying fertility and abundance. Wavy stems signify wealth and vitality, while tear drops and almonds stand for abundance. The flowers which are the paradise garden in the desert, bring luck, good health and longevity. The peppers around the edge protect from evil spirits. These older suzanis have many bright colors because each color helps protect against difficulties and disease,” Nancy shared.
Another beautiful fabric from Uzbekistan is ikat (pronounced “eye-cat”). This textile is made from a resist dye process, using completely natural dyes. The vertical threads are bound and dyed and then separated and woven with horizontal threads which are slightly off-set to produce a watery look. Some are all silk, some have cotton horizontal threads and others are all cotton.
Nancy reminisced, “We found the people we met to be very colorful and extremely friendly. Our guide even took us to his home to meet his daughter, wife, mother and father. The food was delicious, especially the soft fluffy non (bread) and their national dish plov (lamb, rice, vegetables and flavoring which differs from region to region).
If you decide to go, and I highly recommend the trip not only for the textiles but the ancient architecture and culture too, take note in the entire country of Uzbekistan, they do not accept credit cards; only cash! Since I was not prepared to find such a special textile, a very generous traveler on our tour loaned me the cash until we got home and I could send her a check!”
Thank you, Nancy, for sharing your inspirational textile trip with us. Whether it is the main focus of a trip or not, learning about a country’s textile traditions is just as interesting as learning about their culinary ones. I look forward to sharing your stories of teaching quilting to Mongolian women in a future issue.
For more textile photos of Nancy’s trip go to the Born Again Quilts’ Facebook page.
I remember the 1976 Bicentennial. It was the summer before I turned twenty. I was attending IPFW and living with an elderly woman on W. Wildwood whose father was once Indiana’s Secretary of State and as a very young child she was placed on the lap of First Lady Ida McKinley.
I also remember the delegation from Takaoka, Fort Wayne’s first sister city, who came over to dedicate a friendship garden they had gifted to the city. The garden, full of Japanese trees, shrubs and sculptures is located on the side of the Performing Arts Center closest to the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. At the dedication, Mayor Robert Armstrong addressed the delegation who had an interpreter. Mayor Armstrong started speaking very LOUDLY as if by speaking LOUDER somehow they would understand him.
At the time it was kind of amusing and embarrassing to watch and listen. It makes me think of the present discourse in our country. It seems by yelling, name-calling, finger-pointing, people presume others will see the light of day of their way of thinking and convert to “their side.”
It’s not going to happen this way. Everyone is uniquely raised: even siblings. Ask an oldest sibling if their youngest sibling was raised the same. The reply may be along the line of “No! They got off easy. I got stuck doing a lot more work.” We are all shaped by our gender, our parents, our teachers, subjects we study, our spiritual beliefs, our life experiences, etc.
One of my favorite musicals is 1776. It shows the determination of the delegates from the 13 colonies as they struggle to shape a declaration to free themselves from Great Britain.
The issue of slavery was bitterly debated and Delegate Edward Rutledge of South Carolina sings the song, “Molasses to Rum to Slaves” to John Adams to remind him that it wasn’t only the Southern States that profit from slavery, but the Northern States did too.
The second verse goes:
Who sail the ships out of Boston laden
Ladened with bibles and rum?
Who drinks a toast to the Ivory Coast?
Hail Africa, the slavers have come
New England with bibles and rum
The last verse goes:
Molasses to rum to slaves
Who sail the ships back to Boston
Ladened with gold, see it gleam
Whose fortunes are made in the triangle trade
Hail slavery, the New England dream!
Mr. Adams, I give you a toast:
Hail Boston! Hail Charleston!
Who stinketh the most?
They prevailed and the declaration was signed. It would take another 87 years for the Emancipation Declaration to set them free.
So even though there was major dissent and spirited discussion, the signers did the best they could to break the colonies forever free from Great Britain. Let’s celebrate our freedom to live in a free and diverse country: God Bless America!
On Memorial Day many people not only honor our country’s war dead, but they often make cemetery visits to pay their respects as they remember friends and family placing cut flowers on their graves as a reminder that their lives have not been forgotten by those who love them. The flowers are a symbol of the fragility of life for in their short lifespan they give joy to the individual who views them, breathes in their sweet scents and cares for them, but alas, no matter how much care they are given, they will eventually wither and die.
As I write this, death has struck very close to me. This past Monday I received a call from one of our tenants in the Macedonian Tribune Building informing me that our foremost artist tenant Allen Etter had died earlier that day. NO! It couldn’t be! Not 51 year-old Allen who I just informed on Friday that his favorite restaurant would soon have their delectable frog legs back on the menu, not Allen who last week showed me another creepy hand he had created with his makeup wizardry, not Allen who mentored students and co-workers to bring out their best and most of all not Allen who would do almost anything for anybody who needed a helping hand from the near seven-foot giant who could reach almost anything. Most of all not Allen who made me and so many others laugh.
Death sooner or later comes to everyone whether expected at the end of a terminal illness, the result of a fatal accident or as in Allen’s case somewhere in between. People through the ages and across cultures have memorialized their deceased loved ones in various ways: a lock of their hair and hair wreathes, photos of the deceased, inscriptions on grave makers, memorials to their favorite charities to name a few.
I get calls from time-to-time asking whether I can take a loved one’s T-shirts and sweatshirts and create a memorial quilt from them. When I get the call or email I first offer my condolences on the loss of their loved one, then explain that I don’t have the skill set to assist them and then offer names of other quilters who may be able to assist them or refer them on. I do encourage them if possible to take part in the making of the quilt because as their hands are busy creating it, their minds will be thinking of their dearly departed and the place they now dwell in their heart.
It is much too soon for me to process Allen’s sudden death and how all of the building’s tenants whose lives he touched will collectively memorialize him, but I can assure you it will be creative, it will be huge, it will be funny as Allen’s spirit inspires and infuses us to celebrate his joie de vivre as we are reminded of our own yet-to-be-determined expiration date.
I asked and Priscilla gladly shared her family’s quilting history:
My great-grandmother Magdalina Good was born in 1867 in Central Illinois. She married Daniel Augsburger in the late 1880s and commenced to birthing and raising her family of four children. Daniel was a carpenter and farmer and they lived on a quarter-mile section of rich farmland just south of Flanagan, Illinois. As time allowed she began making and storing up quilts. In 1944, the year before her passing, she invited the family over and gave away a quilt to each daughter and granddaughter. I have a little black and white photo of her on that momentous day surrounded by a dozen quilts, hanging on the line behind her, and draped on chairs around her. The quilt that was passed down to me is called “Ocean Wave” or “Corn and Beans.” The block consists of a central white square surrounded by three rows of tiny triangles made from scrap-bag 1930s prints.
Ida Augsburger, my grandmother was born to Magdalina and Daniel in 1883. As she was coming of age, Ida worked as an assistant to a seamstress until she married Ed King in 1915. They spent most of their lives farming the old home place there near Flanagan. Like her mother, Ida also made and stored up quilts. One Sunday afternoon in 1966 Grandma brought out her quilts, pinned a number on each one and passed the hat. Whatever number you drew out of the hat: that was your quilt. The obscure pattern of the quilt I received is called “Grandmother’s Choice 1”, according to “1001 Patchwork Designs” by Maggie Malone. It consists of a central red and yellow nine-patch surrounded by brown and yellow triangles: The wide sashings and borders are blue and white calico.
Like her mother, Ida was an excellent seamstress. Her stitches are tiny and even. Her points are flawless. Her stitching lines are straight and executed without the aid of pencil and ruler. For the batting Ida used a cotton flannel blanket. This made the quilt warm, and allowed for tiny stitches, although there was minimal loft.
My mother Eudene King Keidel, was born to Ida and Ed in February of 1921. Because she and my father spent their career working in overseas ministry, Eudene did not begin quilting in earnest until she was nearing retirement. However, she quickly made up for lost time, crafting quilts for her home, her four children and nine grandchildren. The quilt she gave me has painted flowers on a white background, surrounded by a wide lime green sash.
When I was a freshman in high school, I told my mother, “I’d like to make a quilt for my hope chest.” I have seldom seen my mother so enthusiastic. The next Saturday, we drove to the fabric store in Bloomington, IL, where she allowed me to pick out a multitude of 1/2 yard cuts of calico fabric. She showed me how to cut out 3” squares, and I set to, piecing an “Around the World” quilt top. It took me all of high school to finish this project. In the winter of my senior year, Mother took my pieced top back to Grandma Ida’s, where they made the “sandwich,” and quilted the whole thing in two weeks. They bound it, and Mother brought it back home, a finished quilt. I put it away until marriage and have nearly worn the quilt out since.
Unlike Ida and Magdalina, I usually piece my quilts on the sewing machine. I use a hoop and quilt by hand, so it is still slow going. Each of my children have one or more of my creations and I am working on the grandkids. My present project is for the youngest child: 3-year-old Mikaela. It has a Mary Engelbreit panel in the center, surrounded by rows in bright primary colors. I hope to have it complete by this fall, so I can give it to her over the holidays. By then, she will have out-grown her youth bed, and will be ready for her “big girl bed.” She will also receive a matching pillow case at that time.
So, as you can see, although some methods have changed over the years, the tradition of quilt making continues in our family.
Thank you, Priscilla for sharing your women folks’ quilting prowess: Each one exemplifies the best in quilt construction and hand quilting.
May we bless all of our Quilting Mothers who have so patiently taught us their needle skills so they live through our stitches. I wish all Mothers and Mother-figures a very Happy Mother’s Day!
Inside was a trove of beautiful fabrics. This is not the first time fabric in need of a new home was left at my door: Some fabrics in plastic bags were tied to the door handle and last summer a couple of sisters wheeled their late mother’s fabrics in their little red wagon to the studio. The fabric hadn’t sold at their garage sale so they brought it in hoping someone would want it. Most importantly people drop off fabric because they don’t want to see it go to the landfill.
So where do these Fabric Foundlings go? Upholstery fabrics are donated to groups and individuals who enjoy making walker and wheelchair bags for nursing home residents. The fabrics are colorful, sturdy and the bags are fairly easy to create.
Flannel fabrics are often donated to kid organizations, church sewing groups or individuals who can use flannel in making blankets, bibs, quilts, toys and hand warmers.
Larger pieces of 100% cotton fabrics that are not sturdy/dye instability or other issues get dropped off at Franke Park Day Camp where the staff can make char cloth out of it to make starting their camp fires easier. Camp Supervisor Chris Freehill appreciates the fabric because so much of today’s fabrics are cotton/polyester blends and can’t be used.
Polyester and double knit fabrics: These by far are the biggest challenge. A box of small pieces is kept at BAQ for polyester quilt restoration purposes, but for the most part they are used for stuffing dog beds for the Allen County SPCA project. Currently there are large pieces of Poly/double knit fabrics that someone could hopefully use for a more noble purpose. My friend Marcia told me she sold large pieces of “Poly” at her garage sale to a woman whose group used them to make charity quilts.
Do an online search of “quilting with polyester” and click the “image” link. You will find many photos of quilts made with Polyester: “scrappy”, solid colors, traditional patterns, even one that looks like stain glass to get your creative juices revved up. If you or your group could use Polyester/double knit fabrics please contact Born Again Quilts.
On April 22, we celebrated Earth Day. Let’s do our part to reuse and recycle fabric and keep it out of the landfill: Mother Nature will appreciate it!
Sears who had been headquartered in Chicago since the 1890s held the National Quilt Contest and encouraged the contestants to create imaginative quilts around the theme A Century of Progress. The drama and scandal that ensued are captured in Merikay Waldvogel’s lecture at: bit.ly/2EnQMpp
Merikay and Barbara Brackman are the authors of Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 World’s Fair. It is an exhaustive study of the contest, the judges, the quilters, their quilts and the aftermath of the contest. Needless to say, Sears underestimated how many quilters would enter the contest, but when there is a $200 prize at stake (almost $3800 in 2018 dollars) with a Depression underway, quilters were highly motivated to participate.
Last summer I acquired a quilt from a lady who was given it by another lady decades ago. Both ladies did not have family to pass it down to, so the current keeper of the quilt asked me to find it a good home. The quilt had an unusual design: a cross between a compass and a star. I wondered if it had a name, so I recently checked through Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns and discovered it was a Century of Progress pattern. According to the accompanying entry the pattern appeared in the Farm Journal ca. 1933. Next, I turn to the index and under “Century of Progress” I find four other entries. Two are attributed to Nancy Cabot a pseudonym for Loretta Leitner who was the needlework editor and columnist for the Chicago Tribune in the 1930s. One of her designs looks like a shooting six-point star and the other looks like an off-center log cabin. Both of these patterns are also dated to 1933. Sears tried to encourage creativity and originality, but obviously pattern designers were busy creating “Century of Progress” patterns for the less creative. It makes me wonder how many of the 25,000 entries were based on commercially produced patterns.
Who knows? Perhaps in another 15 years when Chicago hits the Big 300 they will host another World’s Fair to mark even greater technological advances that we can’t even imagine and another quilt contest will be held to celebrate quilting ingenuity.
How are the Easter dates determined? The Counsel of Nicaea established that Easter is the Sunday following the paschal full moon that is the full moon that falls on or after the vernal equinox a.k.a. the first day of spring. The Western Church sets the calendar date by the Gregorian calendar: the calendar we use today.
The Eastern Church uses the Council of Nicaea’s method, but they use the older less astronomically accurate Julian calendar to calculate the dates.
At Christmas time you may notice that although most of the world celebrates Christmas on December 25, in Eastern Countries it isn’t celebrated until January 6. Some people refer to it as “Little Christmas” because it coincides with Western Church Epiphany or Three Kings Day.
So how is April Fools Day related to the Easter date? Once again it goes back to the Julian to Gregorian calendar adaptation that started in 1582 in some European countries and was last adapted by Turkey on January 1, 1927. With the calendar switch, the first day of the New Year was changed from April 1 to January 1. Some people either because they were resistant to change or perhaps because of slow communication to the rural areas, didn’t get the memo of the date change, so they celebrated on April 1 and became known as the “April Fools”.
I started searching to see if anyone has created an “April Fools” quilt block and although I found blocks-of-the-month for April, I didn’t find anything specific to April 1.
Next, I turned my attention to Easter. I did an internet search and was amazed to find hundreds of secular bunny/chicks/eggs/basket quilt blocks, Palm Sunday (Palms) and Crown of Thorns (Good Friday) quilt blocks, but except for modern blocks featuring crosses, I could not find a single religious traditional quilt block! Surely they must be out there and if you know of one to share, please contact me. I’m thinking of “the empty tomb” or “He is Risen” or “the women at the tomb”.
Easter is celebrated for 50 days: ten more days than Lent. So, if you find one or design one I can publish it sometime in the near future. Until then I wish you all “April Fools” and a Blessed Happy Easter!
On one of Sue’s arms a selvedge was exposed and D.B. Fuller & Co. was written on it.
Online I didn’t find much about the company, but what I did find was pretty fascinating.
The D.B. Fuller & Co, Inc. received its trademark for “Fuller Fabrics” on November 12, 1948. On December 20, 1955 the company filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a trademark on their brand “The Hampton” that covers applying a crease, wrinkle, soil and perspiration-resistant finish to textile fabrics. So not only did they manufacture fabrics, they developed technology to protect them as well.
The D.B. Fuller & Co. is probably most famous for textiles they produced in the mid-1950s that were designed by some of the top artists of the day: Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Raoul Dufy, Ferdand Leger and Joan Mirro. These fabrics are fab! Dan Fuller did not ask them to create new art but rather assisted them in finding inspiration in their body of work to determine what pieces could be by their body of work would be suitable for fashion wear. The patterns were roller printed rather than the more expensive screen printing method so it could be sold at an inexpensive price for the garment industry and housewives alike.
The artist inspired prints were called the Modern Masters Series and it debuted in the Fall of 1955. There was a huge marketing campaign that included a documentary that featured the artists, their original piece of art that inspired their fabric and the finished fabrics. A museum exhibit first opened at the Brooklyn Museum and then traveled the country. Life Magazine featured fashion designer Claire McCardell’s women’s wardrobe that she designed using the Modern Master Series fabrics in a photo essay.
Go to www.pinterest.com/scousesusi/modern-masters-fuller-fabrics/ to view some of these gorgeous dresses.
I have reached out to vintage clothing textile experts/enthusiasts to see if they can determine whether Sue’s dress and arm are from one of the Modern Master’s fabrics. I also sent them photos of other Sues and Sams clothing to see if any of them might have been inspired by famous artists of the day. Perhaps the person who donated them to the thrift store will recognize them from the photo and could shed light on their maker.
I have a feeling there will be more to report. I know the D.B. Fuller & Co. went out of business, but not when or why. Stay tuned!
Happy National Quilting and St. Patrick’s Day! You are all invited to stop by Saturday, March 17 from 10-5.
When one thinks of St. Patrick’s Day, people think of the color green, leprechauns, four leaf clovers and eating corned beef and cabbage. So, let’s combine the two holidays and explore Irish quilts and designs. The most popular Irish quilt design is the Irish chain that can be created in single, double or triple chains. It is basically made of squares with plenty of solid color space for intricate quilting. Now quilt historians have begun to debate whether this block originated in Ireland or in the United States. Barbara Brackman my favorite quilt historian and author of The Clues in the Calico writes that the oldest dated Irish Chain quilt is 1814 and made in America. This book was published in 1989, so it would be interesting to research whether any earlier dated samples have been documented from Ireland. It would also be interesting to know whether the creator of the 1814 quilt was an immigrant from Ireland.
Celtic knot designs make for striking quilts: Whether pieced, appliquéd or quilted into alternating blocks. The knots are interlaced and were often used as decoration on cemetery monuments and manuscripts. The knot patterns first appeared a few hundred years after the birth of Christ and can be found in Roman floor mosaics. It wasn’t until the 7th century that the intricate knot work motifs found their way to Ireland. A search of the Internet for Celtic knot templates reveals many designs from very simple to very complicated ones for the long-arm quilter.
So, on March 17th plan to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at Born Again Quilts from 10AM-5PM where we plan to hold demonstrations to encourage people to “take up the needle” and learn a basic needlecraft skill. At the same time, you will be able to save a bit O’ Green as certain items will be on sale to help you get started. There will be a sample of an Irish Chain quilt at the studio for you to view and appreciate.
Erin Go Bragh!
Recently I received a call from Candace Hoffacker about a quilt her grandmother made her when she was born. I tend to ask people how they learned about Born Again Quilts and her answer was quite interesting:
“Too Funny! The way I found your website was when a doctor friend and I were watching CSI and we were unsure of their tissue sampling technique for forensic identification. So, we Googled “autopsy” and “tissue sampling” and came across your website and its quilt autopsy videos that we projected onto the big TV so we could watch them better and found them fascinating.”
Candace brought her quilt into Born Again Quilts for me to see. As we looked it over she told me, “My quilt was made for me by my grandmother Martha Black, my mother’s mother. She grew up during the Depression and from there she learned to sew. She didn’t like to it. So, a hand-sewn quilt was a labor of love. She did enjoy embroidery and crochet. It’s from her that I learned these skills. I don’t think she ever taught me a stitch of sewing. The quilt she made for me was made of embroidered blocks of the state birds on white backgrounds alternating with a light green block quilted with a feather wreath design.
She also made a quilt for each one of my three brothers when they were born. Mom realized these quilts were precious: She kept them in a chest at the head of the stairs. We were not to mess with them. Often we would look into the chest with awe at our quilts, they were folded so the center panel with our names showed. Whatever the rest of the quilt looked like: we could only guess. When my parents moved to another home all the quilts but one went missing. Mom had looked the house over and could never find the other three quilts. After her death I asked dad if I could snoop around his home for them.
I found one in the bottom of that same old chest covered up with grandma’s afghans. The other two were found behind another quilt on a high shelf in a walk-in closet. My mom was only five feet tall, she probably had my dad put them up there decades ago when they first moved in.
Though my grandmother did not like sewing, her quilt gave me a desire to learn to quilt. It wasn’t until my 50s that I finally started. Mostly I make quilts for the “Linus project.” This organization gives new handmade blankets to children in trauma. Their website is:
bestlinus.org/blanketinfo.htm
That wonderful quilt that I looked and touched a hundred times as a child is now in its rightful place on my bed.”
Wow! It looks like Candace had a real “crime” on her hands: the disappearance of the family quilts with a prime suspect in their disappearance GASP! Dear Old Dad!
Every quilt has a story! If you would like me to share your quilt’s history with my Waynedale News readers contact me at 260-515-9446 or bornagainquilts@frontier.com.
If you would like to view a QCI go to www.bornagainquilts.com
This year people can give cards on the feast day of martyred St. Valentine to the people they love, while taking time to reflect on their own mortality: We are made of dust and to dust we will return.
Eating certain fish is healthy for your heart. If you take two fishhooks and place the ends of the hooks together you form a heart. Muhammad Ali said, “Love is a net that catches hearts like fish.” His quote is very similar to what Jesus told his disciples: to be fishers of men, in essence to capture their hearts and bring them to the love of God.
There are many quilt and craft patterns for heart shapes, but relatively few for fish. One of the traditional fish blocks consists of eight fish with their noses pointed inward to form a compass shape. Their bodies are diamonds with little triangles pieced to the tail end to create the fins. The background was also pieced to square up the block.
The makers would generally alternate solid color fish with a print or a solid dark fabric with a light solid fabric to provide contrast and make the fish stand out.
The quilt blocks in the photo are from the late 1940s when orange, green and purple were a popular color combination. The maker made a few blocks of each color combination in a sufficient quantity to make a quilt. The maker never formed them into a quilt top, but their new keeper I hope, has taken them into her heart and will transform them into a beautiful symbolic quilt.
Cheryl relates how Josh grew up with this quilt: “slept with it, played with it and used it to comfort himself when he was sad. It literally stayed on his bed until he was older and it was so tattered he had to put it in his closet so it wouldn’t be ripped into shreds.
When he was an older teen he asked if it could be fixed. I took it to my sister-in-law who is a talented seamstress. She handed it back to me and said she couldn’t do anything with it as it was so tattered and worn. Since it was in such sad shape, I thought about just throwing it away, but Josh had been so attached to it I couldn’t do it.
Then in Autumn 2016, Josh’s youngest brother Zach was doing some landscaping work for a very nice retired couple. They gave him a tour of their home and the wife had a huge quilting table. When Zach told us about this couple I was hoping this lady could perhaps restore Josh’s quilt. I contacted her and she was very kind when she told me she only makes new quilts – BUT, she did know of someone who restores old quilts. This is how I found out about Born Again Quilts!
My husband Jim and I went to Born Again Quilts. There was not a lot of quilt left to work with but Lois did not seem to see it as a lost cause. We found a beautiful fabric in her shop to restore the backside of the quilt. She took it from there detaching the three layers, adding new cotton batting, a stabilizer was added to give it more strength and keep the rips from ripping further. She would send us photos as the work progressed and allowed us to choose the new color of crochet thread for the ties. She had cautioned us that the original yarn ties were too thick and if similar yarn was used it could do damage to the fragile top fabric. In about 5-6 months later she had it done! The quilt had been restored and it was beautiful! We wanted this to be a Christmas gift so we had to wait another six months to reunite Josh with his quilt!”
“Christmas morning arrives, and Josh is handed the present and is told it is a very special gift and we ask him to guess what’s inside. After Josh makes some wrong guesses we tell him to open it. Josh is kind of puzzled as to why Jim is videoing this moment and mom is making a fuss. Josh takes off the lid and peels back the tissue paper. The stunned look on his face is priceless! He tears up a bit: he is so overwhelmed. He later said, “If I had my entire life to guess what this special gift was I would have never guessed it was my quilt.”
“To help display his quilt, his younger brother Zach refurbished an old paint ladder as a quilt rack where it is now displayed in Josh’s bedroom in Indianapolis. His hope is to someday pass this special quilt down to his first-born child.
The love Josh had for his baby quilt never died no matter how tattered and forlorn it became. We will always be grateful to Lois for reuniting Josh with his quilt on Christmas Morning!”
When making felt ornaments, I look no further than my favorite cookie cutters. The first cookie cutter was a baker’s hand. The maker would lay their hand over the rolled-out dough and cut around it. A heart shape could be cut into the palm to remind the maker of the Shaker verse: “Hands to work hearts to God.” The first actual cookie cutters were fashioned by tinsmiths from scraps and given out to their customers, much like the promotional pens, rulers and mugs businesses give out to their customers today. Fast-forward to the early 1920s and aluminum replaced tin cutters and after WW II plastic cookie cutters were the norm.
Cookie cutters make great templates for Christmas ornaments and are easy to use. I choose cutters of simple designs with minimal fuss: bells, hearts, trees, gingerbread boy/girl and simple angels. I just draw around them and if needed enlarge the pattern either “old school” with my trusty six-inch ruler that measures ¼” on one side and ½” on the other or I enlarge it “new school” on the copier. Next, I will trace my pattern several times over various pieces red, green, blue and yellow felt. If I am going to embroider them, it is so much easier to do it prior to cutting them out.
Once the embroidery is done the ornaments are cut and sewn wrong sides together near the edge. Before it is completely sewn shut batting is added to give it a bit of a “puff”. Once it is complete a crochet chain makes a great “loop” to hang it from and is easily stitched in place.
Snowmen with buttons, angels and metallic fabric wings, trees decorated with sequins and sparkles, are just a few ideas to give your felt ornaments a special touch. The best part of all is taking the time to create together special tokens during this season of love.