Christmas Past

It’s Christmas. Santa has delivered his packages, enjoyed his cookies and cocoa, and gone his merry way. All is calm once again.

Each Christmas I’m reminded of a Christmas long, long ago when I received a special present. I’m reminded of this same Christmas each time someone asked me how long I’ve been quilting. See, the special present was a little red Singer sewing machine, and I was 5 1/2 years old. I’ve no idea what happened to that particular sewing machine, but over the past few years I’ve tried to recapture my youth by collecting children’s sewing machines. Machines that really sew, like my little Singer did. In fact, one of my machines is very similar to that first Singer, but it’s not red.

The first quilt I ever made was sewn with that little Singer. I’d been given a Raggedy Ann and Andy embroidery set for my birthday. It came with blue stamped fabric, embroidery thread, needle, blunt-ended scissors and instructions. My mother taught me how to thread the needle and carefully sew the little cross-stitches and stem stitches. There were two small squares that could be used as handkerchiefs or sewn together to make a pillow cover. There was also a larger square that was intended to be a quilt for a doll.

I carefully stitched the designs and when I was finished, my mom showed me how to make a quilt. I remember embroidering little x’s all around the edge of the pillow-cased top. Then mom showed me how to knot ties here and there to finish the quilt.  The quilt and pillow fit perfectly on the doll bed that my dad had made. Oh how my dolls must have enjoyed that hand-made first quilt. They didn’t care that the stitches were uneven or that the quilt wasn’t exactly square. And neither did it.

So you can see why these children’s sewing machines are dear to me. Two of the machines are Singers. Both are metal; they were made in Great Britain in the 1950s and hand-cranked. One has a clamp and must be clamped to a table to hold it steady while sewing. The other has a weighted bottom to keep it from moving around. These machines, like most children’s machines, sew a chain stitch. They machine with the clamp as a 3-position stitch regulator that adjusts the stitch length.

The third machine is a Betsy Ross Model 707-E. This metal machine is screwed to the base of the hard case, enclosing the electric motor. Yes – this one is electric so you can actually use both hands to guide the fabric. I love the sort of Art Deco design on the green metallic face.

The manual for one of the Singer Sew Handy machines suggests quilting clothes or blankets for one’s doll, or making a quilted hot dish holder for mother. To make the items more decorative you simply had to sew with the face side down; the lovely chain stitch loops would then be displayed on the front side.

During this holiday season I will sit and sew and remember that Christmas long ago that started me on the path to becoming a quilter. Thank you, Santa!

Photos by Patrick di Natale

Is It Art?

A trip to a local thrift shop almost always uncovers a treasurer, and today’s trip was certainly not a disappointment. It wasn’t a significant purchase in either dollars or importance. It was simply a round ball with buttons pinned to it.

The pins were fairly new, with round, colored heads and there were two bows made of vintage cloth at the top. It had a big red button on it, and I’ve been looking for just the right big red vintage button. The price was $1.99 so in my cart it went.

This evening I pulled it out of the bag intending to remove all those pins and buttons, but something made me stop and take a closer look.

Someone took a lot of time to pin all those old buttons to a Styrofoam ball. I assume it was made to be decorative. Were the buttons from someone’s collection, or their mother’s or grandmother’s collection? Was this a “memory ball”? The fabric bows were definitely vintage, possibly 40s. But the base was much newer. What is the story behind this treasure?

 

I’m a victim of the Antiques Road Show. I keep thinking that some day I’m going to stop at a thrift store and pick up an amazing treasure for almost nothing. Well, this button ball isn’t that treasure. The buttons alone are worth more than the price I paid. But it definitely isn’t a valuable treasure. What it is, or at least in my mind, is a piece of sewing folk art. Quilts that I find often talk to me, and this ball of buttons is talking to me. Saying, don’t take me apart. I’m pretty; I’m special.

So it’s going on the shelf with my other sewing collectibles. And I’m still searching for the big red button.

This little quilter is going to market!

Just 24 hours from now I'll be in Houston in the midst of the madhouse that becomes the International Quilt Market every fall. Boxes and crates everywhere. What's inside those boxes and crates? New fabrics, new patterns, new books and new ideas from the world's top textile companies and designers. Fall Market is where shop owners go to see what's new in Quiltland. How exciting is that?

Fall market is followed by Quilt Festival -- some of the same textile companies and designers, but Festival is open to the public. If you are lucky enough to attend, you'll have the latest news on what we'll be seeing next spring.

My latest book, Prize Quilts: The Omaha World-Herald Quilt Contests, will be introduced along with 10 other books in the Kansas City Star Quilts booth, #2046. Look for Prized Quilts in your local quilt shop now, or go the pickledishstore.com to see all the latest books from Kansas City Star Quilts.

A treasure in the mailbox

You know the saying, "buy it when you see it because it may not be there later"? I recently was browsing Missouri Valley (Iowa) Antique Mall and found a feed sack with a toy pig on the back. At first I thought it was just a flour sack, interesting because it said "Blair's" and my parents once lived in Blair, Nebraska, and the fact that the company was in Atchison, KS, near where I live. But I picked it up and turned it over and found a pig toy on the back. Yep -- a pig. Okay, that it made it more interesting, but I'm not really into pigs and I'm trying to wean myself from feed sacks. So I put it back and left the mall without the bag.

When I got home, I emailed a friend about the bag. She said she wished she had known about it. Apparently this type of bag is fairly rare. So I looked for these bags on the Internet. Nothing. No toy pig bag. No toy bags at all. What's with that? I know they made feed sacks with several different toys on the back. Dolls. Animals. Maybe this was rarer than I realized.

Of course that made me want the bag even more. So... I took a chance and called the mall. This lovely lady answered the phone and I told her about the bag. Would you believe she took the phone and walked down the aisle and found the very same bag?! Could I charge it on my credit card and would she mail it to me? Of course! SOLD!

Today I went to the mail box and there it was. This innocent little manilla envelop with a return address of Missouri Valley Antique Mall! And there it was. In absolutely perfect condition. I wonder how old this bag is. I searched the Internet and discovered that Blair Feeds is still in business. The company was started in 1867. Of course I emailed them to see if they could date my sack. Stay tuned for updates!

Deb Rowden (debrowden.blogsport.com) spoke to my quilt guild the other night. Her inspiring presentation, Thrift Shop Quilts, was about improvised quilts and quilting. Not cut and dried, perfect points quilts, but quilts made before we had rotary cutters, specialty rulers, and glow-in-the-dark plastic templates. Quilts made of old clothes or leftover scraps cut using a pair of scissors that probably needed sharpening 2 years ago.

I have some blocks I purchased in Atlanta a few years ago that fit into this category of "improvised" quilts. If I were to define the blocks, I would say they are Log Cabin blocks. But no two are alike. The size of the strips are all different, and they aren't perfect squares or rectangles. A few of the blocks have the same fabric in the center, but strips around the center appear to be whatever was at hand. Some of the "strips" are actually hems -- hems cut off shirt sleeves, perhaps, and still turned under and sewn.

It is hard to tell how old the blocks are and what era the fabrics came from. An expert in textile history could tell, but I can't. I don't see feed sacks but there are wonderfully bright colors and prints. I'm sure they all came from clothing, so the best resource for dating them may be catalogs and fashion magazines.

After listening to Deb and seeing her quilts, I'm inspired to go ahead and put these blocks together, perhaps with a plain muslin sashing so as not to distract from the blocks and the fabrics. And I want to cut the sashing with scissors, not a rotary cutter, just as the original piecer would have done. I wish I knew who made them, and what they intended to do with the blocks. I hope wherever that person is, they will be happy with the finished quilt.

Here is a sneak peak at one of the quilts in Prized Quilts. The design
is based on a quilt made in 1931 by Mrs. Mary Peck of Omaha.
She made a full size quilt in honor of her son, who was killed in
France near the end of World War I. This small quilt, which can be
hung on a wall or placed on a table, is dedicated to my Uncle Ralph
Simpson who served in the Navy during WWII, and was a survivor
of the attack on the Bunker Hill. Marilyn Carr made the quilt and
Freda Smith quilted it.

Prized Quilts: The Omaha World-Herald Contests

Here it is!

My latest book from Kansas City Star Quilts hits the shelves this week. The book is about quilt contests sponsored by the Omaha (Nebraska) World-Herald newspaper from 1931 to 1940. The exhibits were co-sponsored and held in local department stores. Hundreds of quilts were entered each year and thousands of people came from all over to view the quilts. The book contains a history of the contests and ten patterns redrafted from patterns printed in newspapers during those ten years. Be sure to check it out on www.pickledishstore.com.

Thank you to those of you who helped put together the lovely quilts in this book: Marilyn Carr, Janiece Cline, Susan Thorup, David Hurd, Donna Simpson, Freda Smith, Janette Sheldon, Lindsay Lawing and Alex Thompson. A special thank you to Shawnee Town 1929 for allowing us to photograph the quilts on location at the museum.