Pansy Quilts

 

I was considering buying a pot of pansies for my front step...and then I looked at the weather forecast.  Sure enough it was expected to get cold and I decided to wait a week.  Instead, I spent the weekend spring cleaning the sewing room.  I haven't worked up there in weeks because of the dust and I tackled and happy to report it is done.

The gas company isn't done yet but they are moving farther away and I just need to be in my sewing room.

Today I wanted to talk about Pansy Quilts.  I love pansies like most of you do.  I'll bet that many of you have memories of the flowers in their grandmothers' gardens.  I always loved the cheerful flowers and the tiny "Johnny-Jump-Ups" version that grew in both of my Nanas' gardens.

Although I love the flowers I must admit that I'm often disappointed with vintage quilt patterns that celebrate the flower.  The patterns rarely seem to capture the charm of the plant.  It is ironic to me that the flower that symbolizes thoughtfulness had quilted representations that indicate very little thought to the actual colorings of the flower.  

The fabrics on these patterns do NOT delineate the markings of the flower and the flowers end up looking like embroidered blobs (depending on the fabric and color of the outline stitch):

Laura Wheeler,1936

Alice Brooks, 1938

Laura Wheeler 1939, Double pansy version

Case in point:

Fortunately some quilters were gardeners and put more thought in the coloring of their patterns:

Some other patterns of interest:

Nancy Cabot, 1935, no embroidery showed on the ad.

1933 NeedleArts. 

Ruby McKim had two pansy patterns:

This one is rather charming and the pattern is still available for sale at McKim studios.

One of my favorite pansy patterns was a kit offered by Lee Wards in the 1960s:

Wishing you a warm day full of sunshine and happiness!