Rainy Monday: Noah's Ark

 

It's a rainy Monday and all of the gardeners here in the Lehigh Valley are sighing with relief.   I can't say the same for my dog.  She looked outside and returned to bed.  Scout has decided it's a good day to sleep in.  For me it's a good day to do a rambling post.

It's no surprise that I love textiles and I love paper.  The Nancy Page Quilt Club Scrap Book combines both of these loves.  Florence La Ganke Harris was the author of these patterns and you can read more about her here.  In 1931, the Nancy Page Quilt Club offered a suggestion for storing quilt patterns--women should put together a scrap book or patterns!

"Keep quilt patterns in beautiful scrapbook," the author declared. 

So you received a copy of the cover and then were to embellish the words with fabric, crayons, etc.  Over at the Sentimental Stitches blog, there is actually a photograph of one of them (here).  

Even before I collected quilts, I had amassed a pretty large collection of quilters' notes in the way of copies of patterns (embroidered or diagrams).  There was never anything personal written on the notes but I always figured if the quilter had taken the time to save these notes, I should too.

I think it is unlikely that our local women decided to start a Nancy Page Scrap Book.  I couldn't find any articles in Lehigh Valley newspapers.  I think it was exceedingly clever of Florence La Ganke Harris to legitimize all the ephemera quilters saved and encouraged a "Scrap Book."  How do you store your favorite patterns?

So because of the rain, I've been thinking about Noah's Ark patterns.  Through the years, there have been quite a few kit quilts done on this theme.

Nancy Page Quilt Club published a pattern of Noah's Ark in 1929. 

I thought this was fascinating because it was published as a wall hanging.  The pattern was to be appliqued and each week, a new part of the pattern was published.

I've never seen this piece completed but would love to--if you have, please email me!

There's an appliqued Noah's Ark quilt here.  The website dates it circa 1930.  It's actually a Paragon Kit quilt from 1943.  There were quite a few Noah's Ark quilt kits in the later part of the 20th century and it remains a popular pattern for children.

Another Noah's Ark pattern is from after World War 2 but it is for embroidery.  It was published in a UK sewing magazine called Needlecraft and Needlewoman.  Frequently, the magazine included a page of iron-on embroidery transfers.  I've collected a few of the magazines that I found locally.  One of the magazines had a Noah's Ark wall hanging.  I made this small wallhanging 7 or 8 years ago:

Noah's Ark is a fun pattern for any child's room.  I like how similar it is to the Nancy Page wall hanging.  If you are interested in making something like this for a youngster in your family, I sent the pattern to my friend Martha many years ago.  She put a copy on her blog here and it should be an easy pattern to copy!

Have a safe and happy day!