Month: February 2020

Papa’s Girls

This photo was taken around 1920, the girls with the man whose name peppered lots of stories.  His daughters called him Papa, one calling that name in the days before her death.  “Papa is waiting for me.”  

In this photo is Papa with two granddaughters; Cleo was born in 1914, Corine in 1916.  Their mother died in 1918, giving birth to their little sister.  Their father was in the Army, then a traveling photographer, so he was not around to parent them.  They lived with this grandfather, spinster aunts, and an invalid grandmother.

The photo is printed on a fragment of vintage linen fabric, layered with wool batting, then collaged with bits of vintage lace, rickrack, beads, ribbons, hand and machine stitching.

The green background is a heavy linen fabric, frayed on the edges.  I try to channel the little girl in me when I’m playing this way.  One of the things I loved to do when I was a child was to pull threads on the edges of linen fabric to make a fringe.  I see I still have that skill.

The heart in the top left is a bit of a silk log cabin quilt that was deteriorated to smitherins.  I’ve used bits of it several times, but this time the edge seemed a bit too raw.  So I couched a twisted black and white cord around the edges.

I layered all of it on a bit of new commercial fabric that looked old to me, then used freemotion quilting in a heart strings design to make the many layers one.

The backing is another commercial fabric that reminds me of a dress my grandmother wore.  The label is becoming my go-to; handwriting on a vintage doily.

I’ve written more about these spinster aunts before:  https://sandygilreath.com/spinster-sisters/

And, did I mention that the older girl is my mother?  Oh, the wonderful Papa stories I’ve heard!  I remember more every time I see his image.

The finished quilt measures 26″ x 16″.

Recess

Purple is not my go-to color.  But a discarded (finished but not framed or pillowed) piece of cross-stitch art came home with me to live a new life.  Purple I didn’t love, but old needlework from unknown hands – I love that!  And the words spoke to me.  “My Day is Complete – I Heard a Child Laugh.”  Well, doesn’t that speak to all of us?

These little girls had been playing on my design wall for months (okay, years), waiting to jump onto some yet unplanned quilt.  The purple girls decided they belonged with the purple words.

I plundered through my stash of vintage linens until I found an old embroidered dresser scarf that was the perfect size for a background.  Layering the girls and wool batting on the dresser scarf, I gave them dimension with dense machine quilting.  Then it was time to play with hand stitches.

My thread stash revealed a skein of hand-dyed embroidery floss in just the same colors as the girls.  So I used two strands of it to secure the edges of the fabric used as the base for the girls.

I appliquéd hearts (these words tugged at my heart strings, you know) from some similar fabrics to the white space, then stitched some hearts with that same floss to distribute the colors throughout the quilt.  A few fun buttons came to play as well.

I added a layer of thin cotton batting beneath the whole piece as well as a remnant of an old linen sheet I had dipped in the indigo dyepot.  Back to the sewing machine for some strings of hearts to glue the layers together.

I love the rolled up quilt stories – maybe there’s a bit of mystery about them.  So I sewed the first phrase on the backside of the piece, enticing the viewer to unroll it.  A big Mother of Pearl button along with a bit of silk ribbon provides a closure of sorts.

The label was part of another rescued dresser do-dad.  It seemed to fit the story unfolding.  These girls loved to play outside in a flower garden.

When I work on art quilts, I tell myself to channel the little girl inside.  This piece certainly did that.  I saw myself with Kaye and Rene and Marcia and Juanita and Margie and Debbie and more running and playing and skipping rope on the grounds of Sycamore Elementary School.  Thus, the title was obvious.

Oh, and the girls?  They are a fragment of my childhood, too.  My mother cut paperdolls from folded bits of paper, catalog pages, and even church bulletins to entertain me.  I tapped those memories one day and these little girls came to life. 

Unrolled, the piece measures 18″ x 34″.

Emma Sue’s Work Basket

Emma Sue Emerson was born in 1930.  No, her parents did not give her that rhythmic name.  She was born Emma Sue Whittle, marrying Bob Emerson at age 20.

Bob and Emma didn’t have any children, but they would have been wonderful parents.  They gave of themselves to nieces and nephews and to the community as a whole.  Emma never worked outside the home much; in those days women weren’t expected to have a career.  Oh, she substituted at the grammar school when they needed her, sold a little Avon, and she sang in the choir at church.

Emma and Bob had seventeen nieces and nephews. Emma spent some time working on items to fill the nieces’ hope chests.  She embroidered linens, tatted edging for pillowcases, made some baby clothes when a new generation came along.

An accident at the canning plant in the early 1970’s left Emma’s right hand with some nerve damage and she could no longer execute the fine stitches needed for some embroidery.  She learned to write with her left hand and didn’t miss a beat with other day-to-day activities.  Those hope chests of the youngest nieces were filled with unadorned sheets and pillowcases (with neat hems done on the sewing machine), and copies of recipes handed down through the years.

An assortment of treasures from Emma Sue’s sewing basket came into my possession and I collaged them together to tell Emma’s story.

A bit of a stained and unfinished dresser scarf, a remnant of barkcloth (from draperies in the 1950’s), some lace, a tab from a linen shirt, and a collection of buttons reveal elements of Emma’s life.  A corner of one of her pocket hankies is held in place by a belt buckle from her sewing basket.  A large hook and eye like those used to fasten coats was included, too.

I wove a base from strips of cotton – some of which were in the basket, others I added from similar fabrics.  I attached it all to a bit of an old grain sack to give it a firm base, then used a quilt remnant to provide a backing and frame.  The dimensions of the finished piece are 16″ x 26″.

I hope the wall hanging will trigger fond memories of Emma Sue when viewed by those who knew her.  I love it when pleasant memories are not packed away in a box.

Safe Haven

I don’t say this often, but this art quilt was all hand stitched.  I almost always attach something by machine, or get a trapunto effect by using dense machine stitching to add dimension.

In this case, the underlying quilt itself was all hand stitched.  But it is not all my hand stitching – some unknown woman made the quilt remnant which is the base of this piece.  She pieced baskets from a rather unattractive orange fabric with a white background.  As I stitch things onto it, I know at least part of it was made from sheets – the thread count is high, making my stitches less than pleasurable.

I overdyed the remnants of this antique store find in the indigo dye pot and now I have green baskets on blue.  Much better color.

This piece got its start when I found escutcheons at Seventh Street Salvage and brought some home.  The composition was started with a thrill, but stalled when I struggled to find a way to attach the heavy piece to the cloth.  After months of staring at it and rejecting first this potential solution, then the next, I just sewed it on.  Who knew it could be so obvious?  Or so simple.

The weight did dictate that some support was needed, so I mounted the piece onto a canvas mat – that involved hand stitching too.  You can examine this photo taken from the back and see that stitching.

The machine was needed to attach the label to the canvas.  That could have been done by hand, but it’s faster and easier by machine – gives my hands a break.  I first remove the needle and presser foot, put the canvas under the needle bar, reattach the needle and presser foot, then stitch free motion to attach the label.  

I combined elements I liked because of the color or the mood they conveyed. The title is obviously linked to the key and the escutcheon, but I like to think of our home as a safe place for the birds and the bees and the flowers, as well as for the humans here.

Dancing Hearts

Old spools, old quilts, old ticking, old buttons, memories in old clothes.  What’s not to like?

Put them all together in a new format.  Unroll to see fresh delight every time.

It seemed a perfect place to collect some old reds and make a Valentine’s project.

The old quilt was soiled and tattered, tan and white with red accents.  I love that the indigo dye subtly changed the backgrounds, but left the reds RED.  

The unfurled piece measures 7” x 30”.

I love the rolled format for story quilts.  The first one I did is the one above. And, I’m working on another one now. It has hearts on it, too.

In Joey’s Pocket

As a toddler, Joey loved to pull his elephant toy around the house. He pulled that toy until the wheels fell off and then pulled it some more once they were repaired.

Outdoors, he loved to climb trees and collect things. His pockets were always full of rocks and sticks and bugs. Once his mother found a lizard among the laundry. Joey giggled when she screamed, but he never admitted that he brought it in the house.

I used commercial fabrics, vintage fabrics, ribbons, buttons, and other treasures to tell Joey’s story.  The piece is mounted on a remnant of an old quilt and measures 19” x 16”.

Treasures were attached using both hand and machine stitching.