Small Quilts and Doll Quilts: March 2020

Monday, March 30, 2020

Design Wall Monday - March 30, 2020

Hi everyone. Another Monday in isolation for us. I see Bonnie Hunter is starting another mystery quilt to help quilters keep busy while we are isolated. It starts today if you are interested.

I have only two projects with me at the cabin. 1) The baskets of flowers that you have seen in the past few weeks, and 2) a redwork squares quilt that I’ve been working on for ages. This week I finished one square for the baskets quilt, and one square for the redwork quilt. This basket looks like a snow globe or a fishbowl.

Here is the square I finished for the redwork quilt, not yet pressed:

The redwork quilt has 64 squares, and this one brings my count to 61; so I can see the finish line....except for the four borders that are leaves and flowers of redwork. I blogged about the borders (Here)

What are you working on? I had this happy (fantasy) dream that ALL of our UFOs will be finished when we finally get the all clear to leave our homes again. A girl can dream can’t she? America just got the stay apart order extended to the end of April. We are so fortunate to have quilting to keep us calm, aren’t we?

Please link up below and show us how you are coping with the virus. You posted such pretty projects last week and I thank you all. Just put a link back to this blog post somewhere within your post.

Monday, March 23, 2020

Design Wall Monday - March 23, 2020

Monday morning again, and my little world is calm, as I watch the bigger world change drastically. We are staying at home, and I am working on my embroidery UFOs....very calming.

I am praying for all those who have been laid off, that there will somehow be an ending to this virus. And for jobs beginning again. It is all so unreal to me.

Here are the two baskets I’ve worked on this week:

I have been calling a lot of old friends, just to see how they are coping, and most people my age are just fine. Very reassuring to me. I pray you all are coping well with the confinement.

Please link up to reassure me that you are stitching, as it is the only “normal” part of life right now. I appreciate so much your pictures and links to your blog posts. Thank you.

Monday, March 16, 2020

Design Wall Monday - March 16, 2020

Well, the world is in crisis mode right now. There are lots of unknowns here in Michigan, and lots of closings. The Governor just closed all the K-12 schools and all events where people gather are being cancelled.

The only good thing I can think of during this upheaval is that my quilting hobby is unchanged. It's a rock in a very unstable time. I imagine you think so too. Our sewing give us a sense of calm, even when all around us adjustments and changes are being made daily.

We had tickets to go to the Big 10 basketball tournament, but on Monday afternoon, we got a refund, and also a refund on our hotel confirmation. It was a good decision, as on Thursday, they cancelled the whole thing. We are staying home, and I am working on embroidery on the baskets of flowers. The latest one:

I looked on EBay and bought the November 1932 issue of "Successful Farming", just to see the advertisement where they offered the quilt pattern for the 30 baskets. The whole magazine is so interesting to read. What the farmers and their wives were interested in when my Mother was a teenager is good reading for me.

Here is the magazine description:

Interesting embroidery work that you will enjoy doing. Consider 32 baskets, each one different in design, each one filled with gay blossoms, all embroidered upon a single quilt. If you would keep the beauties of Springtime ever with you, do make a flower basket quilt. The Flower Baskets can be stamped on muslin, unbleached muslin, sateen or broad-cloth. There are 32 blocks, 9x9 inches, two more than are needed for the quilt. The extra blocks may be used for pillows or bolster. Complete set of 32 blocks stamped on 8 sheets, only 50 cents. Patchwork pattern for Petal Border and 9-inch quilting design, 10 cents.

Also, I was looking online to see if I could see a completed quilt made with this pattern, and I found that in 2018 one was a third place winner in Paducah, Kentucky (for the category of first entry in a Paducah contest). If you'd like to see the video, click on this link: (Here) The winner, Linda D. Vaughan, said the pattern was called "Meredith's Inheritance" and the pattern "maker" copied it from an old quilt. Linda commented that the pattern was all French knots and lazy-daisy stitches, which she found boring. Linda filled her quilt with lots of different embroidery stitches......and her long-arm quilter did a spectacular job with the quilting. Both her embroidery and the amazing quilting were fun for me to see.

I shall send my long-arm quilter the video and she will probably faint if I suggest she follow the prize winner's quilting pattern. LOL I'm not going to think about the quilting until I get the top finished.

What are you doing this week, besides washing your hands and not touching your face? Stay healthy and please send a picture to the link up and show us what sewing is happening at your home. All I ask is that you link back to this particular blog post from somewhere within your blog post. Thanks!

Monday, March 9, 2020

Design Wall Monday - March 9, 2020

The 30 basket patterns have been researched somewhat and I have a little more information about them. Last week, Annie O, of Annie’s Quilt Orts (Here) gave me more information and I thank you Annie. I had wondered why the woman who designed them used so many French knots on each block. The article Annie told me about is published in a Better Homes & Gardens special edition “Century of Quilts” from 2002. The article on Pages 60 and 61 reveals that the baskets were designed by a man! I bet he never even made a French knot in his life, which explains his excessive use of them in his designs! I’m just sayin...

Hubert Ver Mehren and his wife lived in Des Moines, Iowa and he stamped quilt blocks, pillowcases, and linens with designs for embroidery, as a side business for his button and pleating business. His wife worked from home, and they started a mail order business called Home Arts Studios, and that name was sometimes used on his patterns, but never his actual name on any patterns.

Here is the basket I finished last week; notice the big circle of French knots:

In November 1932, Successful Farming, offered Hubert’s “May Day Flower Basket” quilt as a set of 32 embroidered designs, each with different flowers. The baskets came stamped on white muslin, sateen, or broadcloth, for $1.00 up to $1.75 for the set depending on the fabric chosen.

The patterns I have are later copies of the baskets from a semi-monthly Publication called “Pattern World” and there was one basket pattern in each issue in the 1979 and 1980 time frame. I bought the 30 copies of baskets I have on EBay, and note that there were originally 32 baskets in the set—30 to use in a quilt, and two extra for shams or pillowcases. I am missing #30 and #31.

I am trying to get a picture of how the original quilt was put together, but I only have a small picture of it from the magazine Annie pointed me to. More research is needed.

So I decided this will be my March UFO to work on, as we watch a lot of basketball here and I can work on embroidery during half-times and between games.

What are you working on? There were lots of great pictures last week, and I thank you all. Just link back to this particular blog post from somewhere within your blog post and I will be happy.

Monday, March 2, 2020

Design Wall Monday - March 2, 2020

March is here! Not spring here in Michigan yet, but edging closer to it. The birds are singing their cheerful spring songs. My March UFO project hasn’t been pulled out yet; I will do that this week. I will choose something spring like, I think.
Last week I worked on some nine patch blocks for the next Churn Dashers of Tidewater Virginia exchange. We are exchanging negative and positive nine patch blocks, and I had fun making them. We are making four “sets” of 2 nine patch blocks for each member of the group who is exchanging the blocks (six of us). one negative and one positive nine patch in each “set”. I found this "a sweet little technique for making nine patch blocks two at a time" (Here)

Here is a picture of my exchange blocks on the design wall. It went very quickly using the new (to me) method. Since my blocks finish at 3 inches square, I started with a light and a dark fabric that were 4.5 inches square. They all turned out the right size when the process was finished. I would never have thought up this method, but it sure was easy. Each column is for a different person.

I noticed some fabrics I chose were “directional” and this method made it easy to make all the squares in each nine patch go the same direction. Such as these keys on a ring in the shirting fabric below:

Also the embroidered baskets are multiplying on the other end of the design wall. I have a plan to make about 15 of them into a quilt.

These vintage baskets were designed by someone who loves French knots! Just look at this basket:

How will a long arm quilter quilt this for me? Will the French knots cause trouble for them? I know that is a problem for the future - not now, but if any of you have any thoughts on quilting embroidered French knot projects, I'd love hearing from you.

What are you working on this week? We'd love to see it! Just link up below and we will be encouraged by your progress. You keep me inspired. All I ask is that you link back to this particular blog post from somewhere within your blog post. Thanks!