Room To Dance

Happy Thursday!

There's a set of nature photos I also saw on Pinterest that interest me.  The photos are called "groundcore aesthetic" and are meant to be taken from the perspective of a bug.  A lot of these photos are really artistic.  Here's two I appreciated:

I worked a lot in the garden this week and amused myself by thinking about a bug's perspective on my garden.  It's a jungle!

I became lax about the garden during the drought and heatwaves, choosing to only water when absolutely needed.  I am determined to get the garden under control before the first frost.  I need to weed but also thin invasive perennials.   One of my mantras as I do this work is a charming phrase I saw on a photograph on Pinterest:

So now as I work, I concentrate on a ballroom here and there and plenty of paths for fairies to waltz, pirouette, and dance a conga line through the garden.  It's good for the plants to have space in between them and it's good for the sweating weeding senior to have some amusement as she works.

Is there anything you do to make the work easier in your garden?

Tomorrow is Flower Friday and if you have any photos to share, please share them with us via the email, allentownquilter@gmail.com

Have a safe and happy day!

Really Not a Sunbonnet

 Once in a while, a quilt I see on Ebay or Etsy just demands to be discussed.  Here is a vintage doll quilt that is being marketed as a sunbonnet quilt on Ebay:

Close-up:

To be honest, the Halloween season is the perfect time for this piece.  She is somewhat scary looking.  In fact, she reminds me of a Walt Disney movie I saw in the 1960s, The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh:

The only reason this movie didn't scare the crap out of me when I was a kid was because Patrick McGoohan starred in it.  He also starred in the Three Lives of Thomasina and I adored him in that role.  You might remember him:

Oh he was wonderful and so was Susan Hampshire and the kids in the movie!  

Also wonderful is this Sunbonnet quilt from my collection:

Each doll was carefully crafted to make a wonderful piece for some lucky little girl (or collector as in me).

You know there is some kind of story that goes with that spider on her hat.

The face of a true sunbonnet is never seen.  So the Ebay piece isn't a sunbonnet figure.  In fact, she looks like she was appliqued in the 1980s versus mine from the 1930s.  Of course, maybe the maker was trying to make store mannequins which is fine.

Except I found 6 creepy horror movies about mannequins...😮

Have a safe and happy day!

Tuesday's This and That: October 10, 2022

 

Quilt blocks on sale at etsy depict a house on a hill.

The blocks are from the earlier part of the 20th century and not the "Over the Hill to the Poorhouse" pattern.

Yesterday's post got a nice response so let's keep the conversation going on that.  Robin knows of a quilt pattern that depicts a house on a hill with the sun coming up behind it.  I know the pattern she is referring to but for the life of me, I couldn't find a single photo of it either.

Sue shared a Brock House that might have been the inspiration for Florence La Ganke.  It was a Philharmonic hall that the BBC bought in England and you can see it here.  It was named the Brock House by the BBC in the 1930s.  Sue also shared a pattern that is a zig-zag and currently called "Over the Hills" and offered by Annie's Catalog here.

Then there is the Brock House quilt pattern.  Sue loved the pattern and wondered if it required partial seams.  I absolutely agree with her.  I'm sure the blocks you would make up comprise of the large block with the two squares attached.  Then one would need to do partial seams around the center square.

In an interesting aside, La Ganke suggested using grey and red in the quilt with a white fabric (like a shirting) with some figures on it for the big white squares.  Although that color arrangement would make the quilt really modern (especially for today), she admitted that a member of the Nancy Page Quilt Club said she couldn't make this one for her pastel dainty home.  

Still, La Ganke thought it would make an excellent quilt for a boys room and could even be made in brown, henna, and creamy tan.

I looked for this pattern in Brackman's new encyclopedia but it isn't  there.  

Thanks for keeping the conversation going!

Have a safe and happy day!

Monday's Mystery

Happy Monday!

I hope you had a pleasant weekend!

  

Harry Barton was an American impressionist.  His landscape is very similar to our landscape right now:  still green with blankets of orange forming.  How is your autumn looking?

Today I reach into my mystery box of strange clippings to present you with Monday's Mystery...

The year was 1886 and folks often bartered or requested things they wanted via the newspaper.  

In Washington, D.C., The Tribune reported that Candace Jones sought lace samples or the quilt pattern entitled, "Over the Hill to the Poorhouse."

I doubt you have heard of this pattern since it doesn't appear even in Brackman's work.  This must have been one of those regional names for a pattern and I sure wish I knew what it looked like.

The title of the pattern is actually based on a popular poem which was published in 1872.  The poem describes what happened to a 70 year old woman when her husband died and left her without an income.  The 22 verses of the poem describe how the woman went to all of her six children for a place to live.  All of them rejected her.  This poem is considered a classic not because of the prose but because it does illustrate what happened to so many seniors before there was Social Security.  You can read the poem here.

The only interesting pattern I found while searching was this one published in 1935.  Florence La Ganke wrote that it was an old pattern that appeared modern to her.  It appears modern even in this day and age.

I have no idea what the word "Brock" meant.

Ironically, I did find a "Brock House" affiliated with seniors in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  It's a senior society that sponsors many wonderful activities for seniors.

What do you think "Over the Hill to the Poorhouse quilt pattern" should look like?

Have a safe and happy day!

Flower Friday: October 7, 2022

 Happy Flower Friday!

Happily Susan S. emailed me a plant I no longer have but that I see often on my walks.  Sedum is such an autumn staple!

I still have some blooms in my garden, like this cleome:

A few coneflowers:

Some of the annuals are still going strong too like the begonias:

And the snapdragons have come back with the cooler weather and rebloomed:

Have a safe and happy weekend!

Catching up.

 

After a four day rain, it's clear that autumn is here.  The red leaves on this tree startled me and soon the whole city will be awash with color!

I spent this week catching up on other work.  You know, the life work:  cleaning, get my driver's license photo, paperwork, etc.

Many of you have asked recently why you are not getting my blog via email.  The company that used to email blog posts folded and I know that bloglovin' is sometimes erratic in mailing things out.  I'm sorry but I don't know what else to tell you to do except maybe bookmark the blog.

Tomorrow is Flower Friday and I hope that some of you will submit some photos to us via email at allentownquilter@gmail.com.  Soon we won't have many flowers to enjoy (except indoors). 

Have a safe and happy day! 

Going Fishing

 

I need to take a few days off to refresh myself and get some things done.  I'll be back Thursday to remind you of Flower Friday.

Have a safe and happy week!