Northern Lily & Southern Rose Block 1

Block #1

Reunion

by Barbara

Here's the first block in the nine-month block of the month

 I'm doing this year with Moda called Northern Lily, Southern Rose.

I moved my star down a bit to show the fabric with the words "Union".

Susan Stiff designed it with me and made the model.

 She fussy-cut the word Union for the star.

We both used prints from my current Moda Civil War reproduction collection called Civil War Reunion.

 There's no green in that collection so we used a Moda Bella Solid. Susan appliqued hers to a tan print from CW Reunion. I used a monochrome toile-style print from my scrapbag.

Ilyse Moore is making the blocks at 8" and using an updated dusty pink and olive combination.

I chose a federal shield as the central block because I've seen many quilts from the 1860s with that image.

1850-1880

Here are a few antique samplers from online auctions

featuring a shield among other patriotic symbols and a lot of florals.

1870-1900

1850-1870

See the quilt that inspired the Reunion shield at the Quilt Index.org
It is a New Jersey sampler, inscribed in the center, "Presented to Reverend Mr. and Mrs. D.B. Stout by the ladies of Leedsville Dec. 1867."  Reverend Stout was pastor of the Middletown Baptist Church from 1837 to 1875.
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4A-7F-55D

Another sampler with a shield, this one from New London, Connecticut
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=47-7B-2F8

Ask your quilt shop if they are carrying Northern Lily, Southern Rose this year.

And for inspiration a few more shields from vintage folk art and popular culture.

Three stars on this Memorial Day postcard

Diagonal stripes

Spatterware

Stripes going horizontally and vertically in this ink drawing.

Applique Tutorials

McCordsville, quilt top by Barbara Brackman,

inspired by the work of Susan McCord.

Karla Menaugh's blog offers a class in fine machine applique. A recent topic is how to prepare and applique split leaves or two-tone leaves like those in the quilt above.

http://karlamenaugh.blogspot.com/2010/03/split-images.html

 The pattern is from a book that Karla, Shauna Christensen, Deb Rowden and I did several years ago called Our Favorite Quiltmakers: Susan McCord.

Thanks, Susan McCord by EuJane Taylor,

Photographed at Quilt Market a few years ago.

The Shade Garden Sampler included several applique blocks based on McCord's style.

Shade Garden Sampler by Joan Nell

Cut Glass Dish by Dorothy LeBeouf

Cut Glass Dish by Ilyse Moore

See Susan McCord's original Harrison Rose from the collection of the Henry Ford Museum and a quilted version at Wendy Sheppard's blog

http://ivoryspring.wordpress.com/2008/10/01/a-grouse-y-sort-of-wholecloth/

See more about our book here:

https://www.pickledishstore.com/productDetail.php?PID=1040

Inspired by Rose Kretsinger

Orchid Wreath by Rose Good Kretsinger, 1929,

 Emporia, Kansas, collection of the Helen F. Spencer Museum of Art.

Rose Good Kretsinger created some of the most remarkable 20th-century quilts. I've been working on patterns for friends and students for several years interpreting her designs.

I am crazy about iris in all their varieties so I adapted the Orchid Wreath into an Iris Wreath.

 For her Iris Wreath Lori Kukuk used the pattern that's in my book Making History: Quilts and Fabrics from 1890-1970. She machine quilted it with her typical amazing quilting.

Ilyse Moore is working on a version on a black background.

Here's another interpetation of the Orchid Wreath using lilacs on the cover of Jennifer Chiaverini's book.

I blogged about Rose Kretsinger a few months ago and someone asked where they could read more about her. At the bottom of this posting is a bibliography of print and online sources.

Here's the blog posting about her Antique Rose quilt.
http://siputflash.blogspot.com/2009/12/rose-kretsinger-pattern.html

A Bibliography of Information about Rose Kretsinger

Carrie Hall and Rose Kretsinger, The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1935) Read her chapter on quilting for her ideas and designs.

Some online information:

http://www.pbs.org/americaquilts/century/time/emporia.html

http://www.quiltershalloffame.net/index_files/Page994.html

See her quilts at the Spencer Museum of Art (plus jewelry by her daughter and some of her influences)

http://collection.spencerart.ku.edu/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalSearch&module=collection&fulltext=kretsinger

Jonathan Gregory has studied her life extensively
Jonathan Gregory, "The Joy of Beauty: The Creative Life and Quilts of Rose Kretsinger," Uncoverings 2007 (Vol. 28) from the American Quilt Study Group. Click here to buy a copy of that issue.
http://www.americanquiltstudygroup.org/UCDetail.asp?ID=28

The International Quilt Study Center & Museum has posted a podcast of his lecture:
"An Aesthetic Life: the Story of Quiltmaker Rose Kretsinger." Presented March 6, 2009. View it by clicking here:
http://www.quiltstudy.org/connections/resources/podcasts_video.html

I have written about her in several publications

Kansas Quilts & Quilters by Jennie Chinn et al. Chapter by Barbara Brackman---
"Emporia 1925-1950: Reflections on a Community"

Quilters Hall of Fame, Editors Merikay Waldvogel & Rosalind Webster Perry. Chapter by Barbara Brackman---"Rose Kretsinger"

Flora Botanica: Quilts from the Spencer Museum of Art by Barbara Brackman, contains short essays on two of her quilts. Read more here:
https://www.pickledishstore.com/productDetail.php?PID=1090

Women of Design: Quilts in the Newspaper by Barbara Brackman, contains short chapter on her. Read more here:
https://www.pickledishstore.com/productDetail.php?PID=441

And read more about my book Making History with the Iris Wreath pattern by clicking here.
http://www.ctpub.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=1212
Scroll way down to the bottom of the page and click on the Google book preview to read the first chapter on late 19th century quilts.

Laura Wheeler Patterns

Gwen sent some photos for pattern identification.

"This quilt was given to me by a Mennonite friend, whose husband's great-aunt made this quilt…. It's an unusual pattern, one I've never seen except here in this quilt."

It's a complex design that looks to have been made in the heyday of polyester blends, the 1970s (when brown was a patchwork necessity). It is hard to identify the block but I noticed a seam in the dark brown sashing that defined a square so I drew it in EQ and here's what I saw.

It's actually a nine-patch so I looked up Nine-Patches with small center blocks in my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. It was published as "Sunburst" by the company that used the name Laura Wheeler, probably in the 1930s. Their designer drafted a lot of really complex designs that rely on secondary patterning for effect. Some are so odd you rarely see them made.

Laura Wheeler is one of the names used for a needlework pattern source in New York City. Quilt pattern collectors know little about this company which was formed as Needlecraft Service in 1932. The name was changed to Reader Mail in 1944. Quilt historian Wilene Smith determined that Nathan Kogan, Max Levine and Anne Borne formed the business, but we have no idea who the actual pattern designers were.

Needlecraft's patterns appeared in dozens of newspapers in the 1930s and still run in papers today. The 1930s were the prime years for their quilt patterns and they also sold crochet, knitting, fashion and embroidery patterns. Fictional names like Carol Curtis or Alice Brooks gave a personal touch to the patterns that were neither a column nor an advertisement, but something called a "reader service feature." Readers sent a dime to a New York address at the Old Chelsea Station post office and received a full-size pattern in the mail.

The information on Laura Wheeler is from my Kansas City Star book called Women of Design: Quilts in the Newspaper. I drew a Block of the Month basket based on designs from important pattern sources of the thirties. Here's the block for Laura Wheeler, appliqued by debi shrader.

Ilyse Moore made the Women of Design sampler in batiks.

For more about the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns click here:
http://www.electricquilt.com/Shop/BlockBase/Encyclopedia.asp
For more about Women of Design click here:
http://pickledish.kcstar.com/?q=node/115