Thursday, March 11, 2021

The Calico Jungle

Most of us love children's books that feature quilts.  Before my granddaughter was born, I looked for a book called The Calico Jungle.  It was out of print at that time and the used books that came on the market were expensive.

It was only recently when I submitted some of my work to the copyright office, that I realized the book had been republished in 2010:


Dahlov Ipcar (1917-2017) was a well known artist and book illustrator.  I love her work and I love this book.   Of course I purchased it right away.  Then I called Beth and she purchased it too--she has young grandchildren who will love this book (my grands are too old).

If you are a quilting grandma, I highly recommend it if you have young uns!  The story is wonderful and those...

wonderful calico inspired illustrations!!

Barbara Brackman posted about this and I don't know how I missed it but she was inspired when a woman used the concept to create a quilt.  See the blog post here.

So what does all this have to do with the upcoming series?  Well it's focused on quilts for children.  Long before I collected quilts I collected illustrations and children's books.  As I collected quilts, I began to realize that I had books in my collection that matched the designs I saw in the old quilts.  I did a whole program on this called "Story Time Stitches" which was very popular.  


I'm getting ready to retire that program and as a final hurrah, I thought I would post my research and photos on the blog as a series.  Because this research took years to assemble, I need my work to be protected--hence--copyright.  For the blog, I'll go beyond the original theme and we will look at all kinds of interesting children's quilts from my collection.  It should be a lot of fun!  If you have any you want to share, that would be wonderful too.  

Tomorrow is Flower Friday and I've already received a great submission from Barb S.  Do you have a floral image you would like to share?  Email me the photo at allentownquilter@gmail.com.  

You can also email me a photo of your constant companion if you  are still interested!  We are getting great responses to your furry friends!

Have a safe and happy day!












1 comment:

  1. Oh I cannot wait for this series!! Children's books are such a source of inspiration. I love this book of Dahlov's too. My favorite of hers is "Bug City". She was a dear friend and neighbor of mine for over 30 years. We miss her greatly here in Georgetown. She made fabulous soft sculptures for decades but only made one quilt in her lifetime for her son Bob. My greatest compliment was when after seeing my quilts, she called me an "artist". I made a Dahlov inspired quilt last September for my niece which is pictured on my blog (The Constant Quilter) if you would like to see it. Her son Charlie Ipcar keeps a wonderful Facebook page of her work. It is worth a visit. I am really looking forward to your children's book posts. Thanks for sharing.

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