Penny Sanford Designs

Need Fabric!

It never fails.  I buy 1 yard of fabric...my minimum purchase.

Fabric settles into my stash, gets to know its similarly-hued neighbors.

Said fabric slowly reveals its charm over a year or so in my stash.  Then one day, I pull this piece of fabric and FALL IN LOVE with it!

One yard is NEVER enough, so over the next few years, I comb the Internet looking for more of my new fabric love.

Sometimes I succeed. 


In a spirit of optimism, here are the two fabrics I am looking for now.  They are reproduction feedsack or 30's fabric.  I cut off the selvage with the name and a smidgen of the print...but I cannot remember where I stashed the little selvage/name pieces!  LOL

So if you happen to run across either of these two fabrics, PLEASE let me know!  If you just happen to have the name of the manufacturer or the name of the fabric collection, please also let me know!



See the green and pink daisy 30's reproduction fabric? I had enough to make two pillowcases.  The dot print on the pillowcase cuff is also one of my fabric searches.  The dot fabric is Makower (I think) and the pattern name is something with "Party" in it.

I need to just make a list with photos and post it...Putting that on my To Do list, page 357.

"Thrilling" Quilting Magazines - Humor

This was meant as a joke on one of those geek or tech joke sites, but the joke's on the humor website. I suspect many of us would indeed think this section of the magazine rack is indeed THRILLING!

I found this picture on that joke site the other night but had to reboot and lost the link. I'll try to find the original source of this photo and will post it here when I find it.
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Here 'tis:  http://wins.failblog.org/2010/10/21/culture-jamming-win-needlepoint-gives-me-a-rush/#comments 

Quilted Vehicles and a Quilted Gas Station

That's right. Cars and vans with quilt blocks covering them. Even a Quilted Gas Station. If this is a new fashion trend for vehicles, then I am afraid we might miss out on this one. Our gravel country road would cover it in dust after just one trip into town.

But lest you think I am dreaming this up, here are just SOME of the DIFFERENT vehicle quilts I've spotted around the Internet. 

Now, this quilt-covered van was not the very first one in the country. Here's a quote from the blog that detailed this quilted van.   http://www.alaskaquilt.com/blog/acqcblog.html 

"Creating car quilts is a Willamette Valley thing

"The idea to create a true “car quilt” was born when Peggy Christopherson saw a car quilt made by Karen Wells of nearby Jefferson, Oregon. Karen had quilted her PT Cruiser in 2008. She based her quilt on a car in Florida she saw on the Internet.

"Taking photos of Karen’s car to a guild meeting in spring 2008, Peggy convinced members that they should make a car quilt for Lebanon. And so it began. The result is now there are 2 quilted cars in Oregon of the 8 to 10 such vehicles in North America.

"Springing to life in 2008

"The car quilt was made over about 6 months in 2008-2009 by 6 to 8 quilters using 100’s of orphan blocks, batting, backing and binding. All this material came from the entire Guild. The finished cover is “sort of street legal” on a 2005 Honda Odyssey van. At fairs, shows and other events is now takes 5 to10 minutes to get fully “gussied up.”

"After they created this cover, they discovered how truly unique it is. Thus they decided to use it to promote quilting, the Guild’s Quilt Show 2009, Oct. 17-18, 2009 and Lebanon in general."

 

This one was from the Vancouver, B.C. Annual Canadian Route 66 Association Picnic, August 2009. If one could blow up the picture, one might see what is on the big block at the very front of the car. Source: http://wetcoastscootin.blogspot.com/2009/08/experienced-norton-rider-tames-scooter.html

 

From the Portland, WA 2010 Northwest Quilters Show comes this Quilted Bug!

It is the creation of Janice Jones, Maureen Orr Eldred and Carol Gier Becker. Look for it in the upcoming year at many other quilting events!  So when one sees this Volkswagon Bug on the road, what color does one declare for that Bug Punch game?

Here is a link to "The Making of the Quilted VW Bug" on Flickr.




This quilted car was included in the big blog post about 2009 The Sisters Quilt Show in Sisters, OR.
No details were given on this quilted car, but it looks different than any of the other quilted cars I am posting on this blog post. Source:  http://with-heart-and-hands.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html

This is Liza Eastman of New Zeland. She is a free spirited quilter who has won awards and has been involved in some national and international quilting movements. This quilt looks painted on her car, don't you think? Any idea the brand of this car? Source: http://www.virtualbay.co.nz/lizaeastman/

One might assume this quilted car was created to promote the New England Quilt Museum, perhaps? Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackbirdbye/2816819239/



This was a quilted car that showed up at the 2009 LQS Quilt Walk and Antique Car Show last August. Sorry, I could not find out where or what LQS stands for, but gleaning from other blog posts, I think the even took place in Oregon. If you can identify the town or the sponsoring quilt organization, please share. Here is the source of this picture: http://snippetsofaquilter.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html

Is a quilted car still considered a quilted car if the quilt blocks are made with paint? This car, actually was painted with nail polish. The source site has A BUNCH of painted quilted cars, and perhaps a quilted fabric covered car somewhere on the site. I did not look through every picture, and the site did not provide a search bar. Still, if your guild wants to make a quilted car, this might be a good place for some ideas: http://artcar.blogspot.com/2008/12/nail-polish-quilt-art-car-by-jill-bell.html

The site does have a category of FIBER art cars, so that probably contains some quilted examples.
http://artcar.blogspot.com/search/label/Fiber



I would never have known about the Quilted Gas Station had I not visited this site: http://artcar.blogspot.com/search/label/Quilted%20Gas%20Station

From the site: "This Quilted Gas Station was the brainchild of artist/activist Jennifer Marsh who came up with an idea to bring greater attention to the world's dependency on oil. She put the word out to fiber artist all over the world to submit 3x3 foot squares to cover the abandoned gas station. This old gas station located on the way to her studio was the perfect candidate to be covered in 5,000 square feet of fabric (colossal handmade blanket). With the help of other artists from 15 countries and more than 2,500 grade-school students from 29 states, Marsh covered everything including the pumps, light stands and signs. With more than 3,000 fiber panels, crocheted, knitted, quilted and stitched together she managed to cover this 50-year-old gas station that on a cold nights is the perfect place to stay warm."



"This Quilted Art Car was created by a group 30 crafty women from Queensland, Australia's quilting community, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of a quilt exhibition. This is the kind of car you can get cozy with on cold winter nights....You don't have to worry about finding your car in the mall."
Source: http://artcar.blogspot.com/2009/01/quilted-art-car-from-down-under.html

That's all I'm going to post on this topic tonight. I would like to find THE FIRST quilted car cover that started this "fashion trend". Thanks to the Internet an idea like this spreads all over the world in such a short time!

I can understand this would protect a car's painted finish underneath. I can understand the advertising or promotional value of such a quilted car cover. If someone gave you a quilted cover for your car, would you use it? *grin*

The Sky is Pregnant

The weather is pregnant this afternoon...fretful, heavy, very uncomfortable, pensive. The air feels claustrophobic.

A few grumbles of distant thunder signaled the slow beginnings of labor pains in the sky. Then, just a short while ago, her water broke with a 2/10ths of an inch of rain.

Now the labor pains and grumbles and sharp pains of lightning have picked up. We anticipate the delivery of a nice bouncing baby thundershower very soon.

Just like a nervous father-to-be, we are all unsettled, restless, waiting on the rain to arrive before we can settle down and focus on an activity.

We need the rain on the crops and the garden!

Here is a quilt picture to go with today's weather. It is the quilt on a guest bed upstairs. I did not make it, but I love this particular section of the quilt and hope to incorporate the concept of this design into some as-yet-unplanned future quilt.

3-D Art Quilt at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Update: Just heard back from Gil Lee, Marketing and Communications Assistant at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens: "Raynore Pope, a longtime volunteer, made the quilt for the Gardens as a gift some years back. She is now deceased. The size is approximately 6' x 8'."

A friend recently visited the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida, and sent these pictures for me to share with you!

This is such an intricate three-dimensional art quilt! I am still fascinated with the details! Can you tell if it is made of all fabric or if there are other materials used in the quilt?



It is hung in the coffee shop at the Gardens, that specialize in tropical plants.

I've sent an email to the Gardens, asking them the name of the quilt artist who made this. If you happen to know, please let me know so that I can give proper credit!

Encouragement: A first quilt!

I'm so jealous (in a good way) of Karen High of Sherman, Mississippi, a member of the Gum Tree Quilters Guild of Tupelo, Mississippi!

This is her very first quilt, and you should see how well she did on matching the points! Believe me, my points are still not that good, by machine or by hand!

Karen brought her beautiful first quilt for show and tell at the program Gordon and I gave almost two weeks ago in Tupelo, at the invitation of the Gum Tree Quilters Guild. Yes, I am still blogging from that fun gathering of quilters, and I have more blog posts to share with pictures from the event!



Karen still has to bind this quilt, but she has finished two more quilt tops since she made this one! Sharp points and prolific...yep, I'm a pale lime green jealous of Karen!

Standing next to Karen in the first picture is Cheri Weber, who quilted Karen's first quilt. Cheri used a 2009 APQS Millennium to do such a beautiful job, and the quilting patten she used was "Wildflower" purchased through Willow Leaf Studio. That was generous of Cheri to share that information, I thought!



Cheri, of Saltillo, Mississippi, is also a member of the Gun Tree Quilters Guild of Tupelo and the Piecemaker's Quilt Guild of Oxford, Mississippi. Cheri is one of my friends on Facebook as well as a friend from the Mississippi Quilt Association.

More beautiful quilts to share with you from that program that we gave in Tupelo to the Gum Tree Quit Guild, with members present from the Needlechasers Quilt Guild from Iuka, Mississippi, the Piecemakers Quilt Guild from Oxford, Mississippi, and the Golden Triangle Quilt Guild, from Starkville, Mississippi.

Our specific program was on the History of Quilting with heavy emphasis on Historic Mississippi Quilts.

Read about the mystery rose wreath quilt, now identified, here. We're still trying to identify these quilts made between 1860 and 1920, posted here.  Then here is a new sidewalk art installation in downtown Tupelo that is not quite complete, so you are getting an early peak. Think Elvis!

Books for Rose Wreath or Rose Sampler Blocks

My blog, Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed friend Ramona Bates, shared this book with me when I was looking to identify the Marie Webster Wreath of Roses quilt a few days ago.

I could not get the Ramona's image to post here in Typepad (yet), so maybe you can see the book at this link: She very graciously wrote out the names of the each rose block to aid in my search for the quilt linked above, that turned out to be a Marie Webster pattern.



Now this cover is different from the book by the same name that I found elsewhere online, so I am not 100 percent positive it is the same book. Ramona's version is probably the hard back version and the one below is the paperback version. The blocks pictured on the front do look the same, but I could not see the author of the book in Ramona's picture and have not had time to email her to ask.

This book by the same name (below) is by Rosemary Makahan, published in 2000. It lists for over $100 online, in paperback version! Surely there is a better price somewhere.

 

At any rate, I am now quite fascinated by all the various Rose Wreath, Rose of Sharon and Whig Rose patterns that appear in quilts from over the decades.

There WILL be a couple of programs I can offer on this topic in the near future. I'm already at work on the research! Let me know if your guild or your group would like Gordon and me to come do one of these rose-related programs for you. penny (at) pennysanford (dot) com

Do you know of other Rose-related quilt books I should buy for my research? I look forward to hearing from you and will share your input on this post!

Identifying Great-Great Grandmother's Quilts

Here is another set of beautiful old quilts that were brought to the show-and-tell portion of the program that Gordon and I gave to several quilt guilds in Tupelo, Mississippi, last week.

Charline Hill of Verona, MS, brought three of the quilts made by her husband's great-great grandmother Louisa Ruff Estes, who was born in 1849 and died in 1923. Notice that Louisa signed this particular quilt with a "L".



Please note on the pictures that I identified Charline as the great-great granddaughter. That was my bad memory and my mistake for not checking the notes that Charline made for me. Rather than go back and re-do the edits of all seven photos, which would have delayed this post by at least another day, I'll just ask you to overlook my error. Louisa Ruff Estes is the great great grandmother of Charline's husband, not Charline.



The first two quilts were once red and green on white, but the dyes in the red and green fabric faded through the years. Historically, a single green dye was introduced as early as 1809, but that does not mean it was color fast. Prior to 1809, the color green was created on fabric by printing blue and yellow in separate steps on the same spot on the fabric.

Notice the repair on this quilt made in red thread that has remained red. The process of dying fabric was even more abusive to the cotton fibers than it is today. The art of making a fabric accept color and then staying that color, colorfast, used a vast array of chemicals that you probably don't want to know about. Some of the sources of the chemicals were icky!



Any idea of the pattern name of this first quilt that was once red and green on white or ecru?



You can see the areas of wear in the fabric, but that may be a factor of the harsh chemical processes the fabric was subjected to in order to be dyed as much as wear and tear of normal use. In these subsequent quilts by Louisa Ruff Estes, the condition of the quilts is considerably better.



This second quilt was also a red and green and white or ecru quilt. Exquisite work and detailing on this quilt. Any idea of the name of the pattern?



I believe Charline told me her husband inherited several trunks of quilts made by his great-great grandmother, and over the years, she has judiciously given a family quilt to a several descendants who wanted one...and were sure to take care of this family treasure.

There are more photos of beautiful quilts to share with you from that program that we gave in Tupelo to the Gum Tree Quit Guild, with members present from the Needlechasers Quilt Guild from Iuka, the Piecemakers Quilt Guild from Starkville, MS, and the Golden Triangle Quilt Guild, also from Starkville.

Our specific program was on the History of Quilting with heavy emphasis on Historic Mississippi Quilts.

More photos and details to come. Check out this previous post from the program with other beautiful quilt photos!

ANSWERED: What is the name of this pattern?

Answered: It is Marie Webster's "Wreath of Roses" that appears on the cover of her book, Marie Webster's Garden of Quilts. by Rosalind Webster Perry and Marty Frolli. The pattern is on page 67. Thanks to Cynthia Collier for providing that information!
Thanks also to Marga Andresen-Gransow, one of my Facebook friends, who first identified the pattern, ca. 1925, pictured in the book, Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Applique, page 54.

Thanks also to Nancy Losure of my own quilt guild who TWICE told me the night of the program that it looked like a Marie Webster design. Did I listen? NOOOOOOOO. I spent two days researching Rose of Sharon and Whig Rose patterns. (I did have fun researching, though!).


See other updates in blue print below.

Last Tuesday night, a week ago, Gordon and I were in Tupelo, MS, giving our program on the History of Quilting with heavy emphasis on Historic Mississippi Quilts. The Gun Tree Quilters were the host organization, and there were members present from the Needlechasers Quilt Guild from Iuka, the Piecemakers Quilt Guild from Starkville, MS, and the Golden Triangle Quilt Guild, also from Starkville.

This beautiful quilt was brought for Show-and-Tell by Karen Asbury, who is a member of the Gum Tree Quilters in Tupelo.

"I inherited quilt squares handed down from my grandmother," Karen said. "I wanted to know how to put them together. I have done many sewing projects over the years and quilting is my passion now.


The needle turn applique is beautifully done!

The border is a large scallop, bound small and tight. Beautiful!
 
One area where the fabric has begun to fray, Karen covered with a piece of netting. She was asking for advice about applying such netting over a damaged part of a vintage quilt.

I think I would have shaped the netting in a circle larger than the flower and not let the stitches show over the green leaves, BUT, there may have been damage on the green stems and leaves that I did not notice that she was also covering with the netting.

What would you advise for stopping damage in a vintage quilt without altering the actual quilt?

I'm still learning about taking close or macro pictures with our new camera, and yes, I have much to learn. The quilting stitches were small and so even. Just lovely!

Can you help identify this pattern? It is either a pansy or an English Rose design. I'm leaning toward an English rose or summer rose flower represented by the pattern.

It has been identified as Marie Webster's Wreath of Roses pattern. See update at beginning of post.

What approximate date would you put on this quilt? From the pastels, I'm leaning toward the late 1920's? What do you think?

Update: Karen said the quilt was left to her by Angie Poland who died in 2009 at the age of 93. Mrs. Poland did not know who made the quilt, and she was originally from New Jersey, but moved often with her Army husband, so the quilt could have come from anywhere. Is it not a shame the quilt was not identified with maker, date, etc?

I will be sharing more photos of other exciting vintage and antique quilts from that program, so stay tuned!

"A Timeline in Quilting", Sunburst Quilt

Here is the final excerpt from Penny's presentation "A Timeline in Quiting", which she gave to the Cleveland Mississippi DAR in November 2009. Of special note, the "Sunburst Quilt" was hand made by Penny's Great Grandmother Beatrice Welch Dunn in the 1930's.

The Sunburst Quilt is also featured in the coffee table book entitled "Mississippi Quilts" by Mary Elizabeth Johnson.

If you or your organization would be interesting in having Penny present a program, you may contact her by email, leave a comment on this blog or her Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/pennysfikes