Brown is a new favorite color of mine. Blue has always been at the top of the list for me, but in recent years, I’ve come to love brown. Maybe there is a reason.
This photo is one I made a few years ago to use on the invitations to my family reunion. Pictured are a platter and pitcher from the Tea Leaf dinnerware which was my grandmother’s pattern. On the evening of Ollie Jane’s wedding in 1890, her mother hosted a supper for family. She served the meal on those dishes and gave them as a gift to the bride and groom. These two pieces in the photo were later purchases, but I do have one plate left that was on Ollie Jane’s table that night. The large pitcher was one she used and I still use it, too.
Also in the photo is a piece of brown and white checked fabric. I’ve been accused of “adding a little brown check” when a quilt needs a spark of something different (as in GBI Blues), or when I don’t know what else to use (as in Seven Black Birds). [Photos of those two quilts are in the gallery.] I included that fabric in this photo because it looks like the apron I remember Ollie Jane wearing a lot during the last years of her life.
When I printed the photo of Bunk Bates for the Flag Bearer quilt I wrote about yesterday, I printed the above photo on linen as well. In thinking about a composition using that photograph, I decided to pour some dye in a bucket and dip some things. Here you see them drying.
Stay tuned for the final result, but suffice it to say, I’m having a lot of fun! I ordered some indigo dye today; I can’t wait to play with that. Oh, I like blue and brown together, too.
You can read more about Ollie Jane’s wedding and her quilts here. And more about her influence on my quiltmaking here.
When antiquing, I keep my eye peeled for vintage linens like the ones I found today at Blue Moon Antiques and Vintage Junktion (both stores in Warner Robins, GA). I’m always hoping to rescue a treasure from the trash bin. I look for linen or cotton, and pass up any that have a polyester feel to them. I want hand embroidery or appliqué, but don’t turn up my nose at some older pieces that were machine made.
As I’m looking and touching and plundering, I’m dreaming. I’m planning and scheming projects galore! I love it when a vendor asks, “what are you going to do with these?” Today I pulled out my phone, shared a few photos of recent pieces, and gave them some ideas to ponder. I could see their wheels turning as well as mine. After all, they love the vintage cloth, too. That’s why they have so much on hand.
This newly completed piece is one I began earlier this month in a “Second Chances” class with Susan Lenz in Tifton, Ga. Susan’s work with textiles takes on many forms, but in this class, we worked with grave rubbings and vintage linens to rescue memories and bits of fiber that might otherwise be lost.
The dove’s image is on dupioni silk, the background fabric is synthetic. The ruffle is from a cotton pillow sham, the black lace a remnant in the bin of fabrics. The dove is stitched with hand-guided, free motion quilting on a sewing machine. All the other stitches and beading are done by hand. Some beads came from Susan’s bins, others were supplemented from my supplies once the class was done.
The quilt back is a piece of a tattered silk log cabin quilt I found a few months ago in an antique store. The label is a linen piece I bought from some other antiquing trip. I’ve been rescuing such treasures for a long time, but only when I became acquainted with Susan’s work was I daring enough to cut them apart and use them fearlessly.