Pussy Willows

 

Grandma went upstairs to her scrap drawer to find some pieces of bright calico.   "We will make a pussy willow quilt for our farmer's new baby boy," she said.

"Oh, oh, how lovely!" cried Anita with shining eyes:  "but tell me dear grandma, what is a pussy willow quilt?"

A pussy willow quilt, Anita is a quilt made out of pieces, sewed neatly together and here and there we will embroider tiny bunches of pussy willows on the patches."

Anita was, indeed, happy, and she helped her grandma with the sewing and by 5 o'clock the quilt was ready to embroider and then line.

The next day Anita learned how to embroider little gray down pussies in the patches, and she and her grandma had lots of fun both working on the same quilt at the same time...

From "Happy Days for Anita" syndicated in many newspapers as a child's tale, 1920.

🐱🐱🐱

The magic of pussy willows is the appeal to the young and to those of us who are young at heart.  Nana Betty always had a bouquet of them in her home before Easter and I continue the tradition by adding branches to whatever floral arrangements I have in the house.

The story of the quilt that Anita and grandmother made makes me wonder if this was a new idea for a quilt or one that makers were doing before the Depression.  It seems like all of the pussy willow quilts I've seen were crib quilts.  Quilt kits in particular celebrated the idea of kitties on a branch.  Most of the kits were from the 1940s through the 1950s.  I have two of the same pattern in my collection:

The pink above is most likely from the 1940s batch of kits.  The mint green one from the later production of the kits in the 1950s.

Another style of quilt kit from the 1950s was found at an online auction:

There is a lot of folklore about how pussy willows got their name.  The tales usually focuses on kittens and water.  Be it flood or falling in a river, the willow trees magically bend their branches to save the kittens.  Each year afterwards, the willows showed soft furry buds in honor of the kittens they saved.

The magic of springtime is enhanced by these whimsical bushes.  There is even a poem for children written by Aileen Fisher that celebrates the advent of the little pussies:

"Close your eyes

And do not peek

And I'll rub Spring

Across your cheek.

Smooth as satin,

Soft and sleek.

Close your eyes

And do not peek."

Wishing you a happy and magical day!