http://littlemissshabby.blogspot.com/2010/11/summer-in-city-giveaway.html
Ends Nov. 10
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
An answer
I got an answer about my Great Grandmother's quilt. I was trying to do some research online to find out when in history people began to get their quilts machine quilted. I came across the name Harriet Hargrave - from what I read, she seemed like she would be able to give me some idea, so I e-mailed her my questions with a link to my last post. She quickly replied, and told me that the quilt is a 1920-1930 era tulip quilt and the type of machine quilting on the quilt was quite common during that time. She said that there are quilts from the late 1800's on display at the Smithsonian that are machine quilted. Interesting!
Great Grandmother's Quilt
I've always wanted to start making quilts someday. Around the time I was married, my Grandma Eunice Mohr gave me a quilt that her mother had made. What a gift! My great-grandmother's name was Helena (Petersen) Wiese.
 |
Arlo, Lucille, Helena, William, and Eunice Wiese |
I don't know much about her, except that she ran a little cafe in Milford, Iowa. She and my great-grandfather had divorced sometime after the photo, I guess - pretty unusual in those days. Upon checking my mom's geneology research this morning, I discovered that she was born June 29, 1884 in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany and died 70 years ago today, in 1940 . So it's perhaps fitting that I post about her quilt today.
When Grandma first gave me the quilt, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it is so bright and cheery! Somehow I was expecting dull browns and plain squares. But no! Appliquéd tulips in bright pinks, purples, and oranges!
Interestingly they are appliquéd onto squares set diagonally (on the point), which you can't tell unless close up because the background is all one color.
It has colorful stripes of what I think is bias tape or something, right near the yellow binding.
It's machine quilted.
The back of the quilt is of a somewhat brighter yellow than the front.
I love it. I wonder if she made lots of quilts, or just one. I wonder who she had machine quilt it. I wonder who she made it for, and what she thought about while she stitched on those tulips. Questions that will have to remain unanswered...
I've been thinking about this quilt since I posted about it the other day. Something is not making sense about it and I'm wondering if Grandma told me all the facts. Did ladies get their quilts machine quilted before 1940? It seems to me that back then a woman would probably hand quilt it herself. Now I'm wondering if perhaps Great Grandma Helena only made the top and Grandma (who was not a quilter, as far as I know) had someone machine quilt it later. Perhaps someone who knows more about quilts can tell me when machine quilting became common. In the meantime, I'll ask my Aunt - maybe she knows...
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Giveaway at That's Sew Shawna
http://www.thatssewshawna.com/2010/11/beautiful-pure-giveaway-winners-choice.html
It ends Monday, November 8th.
It ends Monday, November 8th.
Giveaway at Fat Quarterly on Facebook
This is week 4 of Fat Quarterly's Remix fat quarter bundle giveaway on their Facebook page - you might want to check that out. ;o)
Giveaway at Leona's Quilting Adventures
Leona is having a fabric and book giveaway. Ends November 10 and winner to be announced November 11.
http://oneygirl-myquiltingadventure.blogspot.com/2010/11/its-bloggy-giveaway-time-again.html#comments
http://oneygirl-myquiltingadventure.blogspot.com/2010/11/its-bloggy-giveaway-time-again.html#comments
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)