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Eastern Shore Quilt Study Group
Last week's meeting of the
Eastern Shore Quilt Study Group evoked some very enthusiastic responses.
If anyone was disappointed by our afternoon focusing on kits and
patterns I didn't hear about it. I know that I learned a lot and had a
wonderful time doing so.
We started with a charming baby quilt featuring
cherubs peaking out from clusters of flowers and the Elephant Baby quilt
by Homeneedlecraft (1940-50). Next up was the eagle kit American Glory
(a copy of the 1876 quilt in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum
of Art) in both its appliqué and cross-stitch and a golden eagle by
Paragon offered first in 1956 in blue, rose and gold. Lee Ward's 1961
Eagle was a bilious yellow.
Two Rose of Sharon tops from the 1930s were
on incredibly heavy muslin (the reason they were not quilted, perhaps).
Paragon # 01001 white Snowflakes on blue and blue on white blocks
emerged from a box along with a Progress kit on which the dots were
black (#1294).
We saw a series of cross-stitch kits from the 50s up to
1970s Country Colonial with sampler designs. The Aunt Martha's Lone Star
kit turned out to be the very one that I donated to the AQSG auction
last fall (it didn't stray far).
The ultimate pieced kit was the
3/4" finished Trip Around the World. We talked about the designers
and looked at Ruby McKim's Nursery Rhymes. Barbara Brackman's Women of
Design is a great source for info on quilts in the newspapers (in fact
that's the subtitle of the book). We saw an enormous collection of
newspaper patterns gathered by Nell Nash (1900-2003).
Mountain Mist was
represented by Poinsettia (#39 designed by Margaret Hayes around 1930)
quilted by a church group in Carbon County, PA. Barb Garrett offered a
different perspective: an envelope with pieces for a single blocked
price ten cents, a panel of baby animal blocks 25 cents at Newberry's,
Lee Ward's Babies Asleep on the Moon. We saw an Anne Orr Flower Pots
with rainbow borders and a delightful Tiger Lilly kit made about 1940.
We were all fascinated by the Zodiac quilt made by Anna de la Reussille
in 1933. None of us had seen it before. Madge Ziegler invoked the magic
of Google to solve the mystery. Check it out: http://www.tias.com/cgi-bin/google.fcgi/itemKey=1923063941
Before we adjourned we looked at off-topic items. The thrill of the day
for me was seeing a new top using fraktur motifs which combine appliqué
with extensive inking. I expect to see the finished quilt, made by a
direct descendant of a famous scrivener, on the cover of magazines. From
Baltimore there was an 1841 quilt as you go friendship sampler which
appeared heavily influenced by the Delaware Valley. A first quarter 19th
century stripy from Maine had a very wide bird chintz ruffle. The quilt
is a real show stopper! An 1880 quilt from Kansas with fugitive purple
setting blocks was made of blocks composed of four tiny Lemoyne Stars.
Our next meeting will be August 22 at the Caroline County, MD Public
Library. The topic is "orange." Cinda on the Eastern Shore
Cinda on the Eastern Shore
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