Century of Progress World's Fair

 

Greetings!  I hope your week is going well so far!

After the Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago, many things were marketed to celebrate the event and the popularity of quilting.  One of the things that I have never been able to find an actual photograph was marketed after the fair.  It was fabric squares advertised in newspapers.  The price of the patches were reduced the more years that passed:

1933

1933

1937

1938

Have you seen these patches anywhere?

Tomorrow I'll feature some of the patterns sold by Sears after the fair.

Have a safe and happy day!

Rest in Peace, Rosalynn Carter

 

Last night it was announced that First Lady Rosalynn Carter had passed.  She was a great GREAT lady.  Her compassion was immense, not only in the work of Habitat for Humanity but her support of folks with mental health issues and the aged.  A wonderful tribute quilt of that moment is here if you wish to look at it.

Some of us have donated quilts to Habitat for Humanity and many of us have donated funds to this wonderful cause.  

During this week of thankfulness, I'm so grateful for her kindness and leadership through example.  Rest in Peace First Lady Rosalynn Carter.  Thank you.

Rosalynn Carter Rose

Beginnings and Endings: Lucky's big hair cut

 

Happy Friday!

Can you believe Thanksgiving is next week?  

Thanksgiving is a day of gratitude and feasting.  To me, it's also the end of the gardening season.  Even though frost has killed off most of the plants, I'm still cleaning out beds and pruning.  This all ends next week when the city stops collecting yard waste.  On Thanksgiving I'm also grateful that I can rest until the spring jazzes me again.

But for Lucky, it's a new beginning.  Yesterday the vet put him under and shaved off all his matted hair.  They said afterwards that it would have been unrealistic to have anyone do this as a grooming.   My vet calls this "a fresh start for Lucky."

How is Lucky doing without his matted hair?  Well he was mostly hungry when he got home.  Then he wanted to be held and kept warm...until my neighbor came over with a new toy for him and then he wanted to play with her and the new toy 😁

Yes, poodles (and most dogs I suspect) know how to play our heart strings.

Our sweet groomer has already scheduled all his appointments for the next year.  Poodles have the advantage of not shedding or causing allergies but they also have special grooming requirements. 

Lucky often stands on his hind legs to look around and when he did that yesterday, my neighbor and I decided he looked like a black meerkat.  

Lucky may be a year and 3/4 or so, but in many ways he is only about 2-4 months old.  Next week I start training him more (once he is used to his clothing wardrobe).  

Wishing you all a very happy and safe weekend!

Saucer Sunbonnet

 

Happy Thursday!

Sorry but I had posted this early yesterday by mistake.

Back when I regularly lectured on quilt history, one of the most requested programs by guilds was Project Sunway, a history and display of a variety of sunbonnet quilts.  I encouraged my audience to be interactive and received some very interesting insights to the textiles I presented.

One that very few people liked:

"She looks like a flying saucer," one audience member yelled. 

"Alien Sue," another member chimed in.

I still laugh when I think of these wonderful quilters.

This particular pattern was featured after the 1933 "Century of Progress" World's Fair in Chicago.  It was probably the most interesting quilt contest ever done and a great book on it is this one:

Afterwards, Sears-Roebuck capitalized on the popularity of the contest they sponsored and the surprising amount of entries.  The sunbonnet pattern of this post was featured in a Sears catalog that stated, "Where you there?"  

It's a modern take on a hoop skirt and at least this pattern is appliqued.  Other modern sunbonnets of the time were offered pieced...with curves and piecing well above my skill set.

Laura Wheeler, 1937, Sunbonnet Girl:

Dainty Sue, 1939, Needlework Arts Patterns

I suppose a woman was supposed to look dainty even as she hoed the garden. 😕

None of these are my favorite patterns but they are indicative of the times.  Do you like any of these patterns?

Tomorrow is Flower/Friendship Friday.  If you have anything to share, please email me at allentownquilter@gmail.com

Have a safe and happy day!

Progress Rhododendron Quilt Top

 

Good morning and how are you?

Today I'm featuring a quilt top that I just gave to Beth.  We were finally able to get together!  Hopefully in January, we will be hanging out and sewing together on a regular basis as we did before the pandemic.

This was a quilt kit offered by the Progress Company.  This pattern was featured in a catalog in 1952-53.

I didn't get a good enough photo of the border but it is a queen and has a pretty swag border.

Corner bouquet.

The reason I gave the top to Beth is she still does hand quilting and the lines are still visible to follow.  Most importantly, Beth lives in Jim Thorpe and the area is known for the wild rhododendrons which dot the landscape and mountains.  It really is something to see in the late spring/early summer!

Wishing you a safe and happy day!

Mrs. Parker's Lesson

 

Happy Tuesday!

I've been feeling pretty smug lately at all the quilt projects I finished this year.  Thirty-five in total, most were lap or couch quilts for family members or friends.  Almost all of them were UFOs or scrap quilts which made me even prouder.

Yesterday I wrote about Mrs. Parker's quilt business.  A farmer's wife, she had hung out a spiderweb quilt on her clothesline with a sign that said $5 and sold her first quilt.  

Photo from Pinterest.

According to the newspaper article I read, she put all $5 back in the business and purchased scrap fabric from Sears-Roebuck.  She sold hundreds of pieces.

All of them were scrap quilts.

Mrs. Parker's clothesline became her storefront and she hung out each quilt she completed to sell.  

And then I read this:

"You won't see them now, because Mrs. Parker has run out of quilt scraps and it looks like she can't get a hold of any to save her life," the newspaper reported.

Unlike other quilter requests of the time, Mrs. Parker did not ask for a hand-out of fabric.

"If anybody will get up a bunch of scraps, and send them to her, and let her know what pattern they would like, she will make them a pretty quilt."

We will never know why Mrs. Parker couldn't afford to purchase anymore scrap fabric.  My guess is that it had to do with a the fact that she was a farmer's wife.  

If you have friends or family who are farmers, you know that a single bad year of weather or other problems can wipe the family's income out.  My hope is that people did mail her fabric scraps and that she could continue creating and adding income to her family.

Mrs. Parker's quilting provided me with a lesson in humility and gratitude.  I'm not sure I will ever complain about the size of my stash again without thinking of Mrs. Parker.

I never was able to learn anything else about her except that she was born in 1894 and passed in 1983.  

Thanks Mrs. Parker, for reminding us to be grateful for all the goodness we have in our lives.

Have a safe and happy day!

Mrs. Parker's Quilt Business

 

Good morning and happy Monday!

I love old articles about quilters because I like to learn about their perspective and also discover what kinds of quilts they made.

In 1946, The Cleburne News ran an article about Mrs. Loumandy Parker of Edwardsville, Alabama and her quilt business.  

Mrs. Parker was suffering from neuritis in the muscles which the article attributed to hard quilting.  It was reported that she had made 300 quilts in the last 3 years.  Her 15 year old daughter Juanita assisted her and so sometimes did her husband when he wasn't busy farming.  The family lived in a log cabin.  

The business came about only 7 years earlier when Mrs. Parker hung out some of the quilts she had made that the family wasn't using.  The quilts initially sold for $5, then $7 gradually rising to as high as $15.  The $15 price would equal about $207 today; $7 would equal about $69.

Some of the patterns she favored were:

Mrs. Parker also designed her own quilt patterns (no photo unfortunately).   According to the article,  she designed a quilt called "Water Lilies and Swans"  after seeing some of the swans in an nearby waterway.  Another pattern was called "Morning Star" while a third she used for children's quilts and depicted baby chicks eating out of a pan.

Although she was described as gentle and grey-haired, she had her limits.

"If it were not for the fact that Mrs. Loumandy Parker was a good Christian woman and a kindly soul to boot, she would pay her respects to the makers of tufted chenille bedspreads with a snort of derision, thus 'Hmpf!'"

Tomorrow I'll talk about the lesson I learned from Mrs. Parker.

Have a safe and happy day!