Susan's Suitcase

What is better than fabric shopping and lunch with a friend? Well . . . 

A few months ago, when my neighbor, Susan, and I (Teri) enjoyed such a day, she told me she had a suitcase that she thought I might enjoy looking through: it was filled with treasures made by her aunt and her mom. I couldn't wait to see what stitched stories were inside!

Remember when we used to put these precious
embroidered bibs on our babies?

The suitcase was filled with bibs, dresses, bonnets, congratulatory cards, shoes, and even a quilt. Susan's aunt, Mary McQuilkin, made the bibs, bonnets, and dresses in the 1940s. She was born in 1904 and lived until the early 1990s, a lifelong seamstress taught to sew by nuns. The detail of her dressmaking was enthralling. Her stitching was flawless! I hope you will enjoy her needlework as much as I have. I certainly learned a lot about embroidered detailing from studying her work. One thing was clear to me—there are few times that we see babies dressed up in such finery today! Susan must have been adorable, dressed in such fabulous frocks.

  

Each dress was lined, and almost always with lace. This velvet dress had a satin sash, with hooks in the back and a snap to keep the layers in place.

  

She even made these sweet little slips.

Several of the dresses had smocking.

Those tiny buttons!

The lining snaps into place at the neckline. This dress is accented with hand-embroidered flowers.

Just wait until you see the details in this one!

Aunt Mary must have loved the feather stitch as much as I do. She used it here to adorn the cuff, along with some French knots.

It opens to a satin, lace-trimmed lining. Pink, of course, for a sweet little girl!

More feather stitches and knots on the collar

 Mary used French knots to hem the dress.

  

This bonnet has pretty hand-embroidered flowers along the ribbon.

This is the only dress in the suitcase that was larger than baby-size.  

Perhaps it was a birthday party dress?

Bodice stitching: feather-stitched leaves, with lace. 

 The leaf design is repeated on the collar. The center of the bodice has a pattern of zig-zag blanket stitches with French knots between.

She hemmed the dress with her feather-stitched leaf pattern, and carefully cut away the organza.

The skirt is attached below the bodice with the feather stitch. Ingenious! 

I can only imagine the fashion show that Mary might have had with all of her  exquisite creations! Her workmanship is awe-inspiring, especially for someone like me, who loves embroidery but has never made clothing (except for the obligatory Home Ec assignments). Her attention to detail demonstrates a real passion for her craft. What an honor it would have been to wear one of her designs!

Susan's mother, Fern, made this quilt for Susan's son in 1965. Susan said her mother hated to sew, so you can imagine that it is filled with much love! What does that say about the power of a quilt, if one who hates to sew decides to create one for her grandson?! 

There were numerous pairs of shoes, as well as a crocheted sweater, hat, and bootie set. And a pair of lederhosen, worn by Susan's son in the late 1960s when they were in Munich, Germany. So many stories packed away in this suitcase. And so much love stitched into every one of these items. 

This is the question I leave you to ponder: What does one do with such beautiful dresses? How can this amazing workmanship be preserved and shared? 

Please share your thoughts! 

Many thanks to Susan for sharing her treasures and their stories.

On the Road Again...

Over the last five months, I (Kara) have traveled to, on average, one state per month. Even for someone who loves to travel, that is a lot, and certain portions of my anatomy are tired of sitting in a car or plane. It has all been worth it though, because I was able to see so many loved ones over the course of those travels. 

No matter where I travel, I am always on the lookout for inspiration for future works, treasures from the past, or quilts for my collection. You can read about some of the treasure found in Maine (one of my five states) here, but today I am going to share a bit about my most recent road trip to Michigan and Ohio. 

My daughter, McKenna, and I set a course for Dublin, Ohio, to meet my grand-nephew Aiden for the very first time. I had a very belated, baby first birthday present for him, and giving it to him in person was going to be very special. I have been a University of Michigan fan all of my life, but my nephew, Nick (Aiden's father), is an Ohio State graduate and life-long fan of the Buckeyes. We have spent many a Thanksgiving together, trying to be kind when our respective teams played football. When Aiden was born, I knew that only one color scheme for a baby quilt would work for this particular family—scarlet and gray—for the Ohio State colors. Love trumps rivalries, and Aiden loved his quilt, even if it was made by a Michigan fan.

Aiden liked it so much, he tried to do a headstand!

A lot of half-square triangles!

An homage to the Ohio State football helmet

After our visit, we traversed across Ohio and Indiana to get to my parents house in St. Joseph, Michigan. Right on Lake Michigan, St. Joe is a fabulous place to visit, and the downtown is a wonderful place to window shop. 

The Toy Company holds so many fond memories for my children,
and this display of huskies in their window caught my eye.

Unfortunately, there are not a lot of quilt shops nearby, but that doesn't stop my Aunt Carol and her friends from getting together weekly to stitch together. I was privileged to join them, and we had a wonderful time chatting, stitching, and gluing some hexies for my aunt's Quiltmania mystery quilt.

Stitching friends are the best friends!

My aunt hard at work

This was my first time gluing hexies, and I loved it!

After a morning of stitching, it was time to get out and see the town, regardless of the weather. I love the beach in the winter, and McKenna loves it, too. Her love extended to getting out and walking on the beach, while I was content to gaze at the water from the confines of my mom's toasty car.

It's hard to tell from the picture how windy and cold it was,
but McKenna bravely got out to enjoy the view.

After McKenna's brisk walk on the beach, we headed south to the Harbert Antique Mall to see what we could find. While we didn't find anything we couldn't live without, we were tempted by a few things.

Some lovely cigarette silks that would be fun in a crazy quilt

Bathing suits sure have come a long way!

This is a creative way to display antique blocks.

This would be a fun quilt  to re-create with English paper piecing.

A scrappy, tied, star quilt

I was tempted by this simple quilt top because of some of the reproduction style fabrics used,
but left it behind since I already have plenty of tops at home.
 (See Unfinished Objects of the Past)

This, however, was the biggest temptation!!!
My threads would be so well organized in this beauty!

Alas...the price

While I normally try to stop in at a local quilt shop in the area, the timing for this trip just didn't lend itself to stopping. Although I recently went to an amazing quilt shop in Denver, Colorado, that road trip story will have to wait until next time...

Ella's Cinderella

I (Teri) have written several posts about my grandchildren's quilts. Both of my grandsons, who are about six weeks apart, got Cat in the Hat quilts. [See Thing 1 and Thing 2 and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.] Unfortunately, my boys didn't get their quilts until their first and second birthdays. I was determined that my granddaughter, Ella, would actually get a baby quilt. I was planning even before she was born and looked to many sources for inspiration. [See Inspiration for a Baby Quilt.] Finally, having completed our Fairy Tale Album, I thought that there could be not a better quilt for Ella than Cinderella. 

A baby blanket should be soft and cuddly, so I decided to use flannel for the appliqué. Off to the quilt shop I went to do my favorite part of the quilt process: choosing my fabrics. Although I was a bit more limited in my choices, since there is not nearly the selection of flannels as cottons, I was able to find everything I needed in one stop. It probably helped that I shopped in the fall, and I was stitching a pumpkin. That, and I love the whole autumnal palette, so it worked out perfectly.

Kara's Cinderella block from
our Fairy Tale Album

When Kara and I made our Fairy Tale Album, we divided up the blocks and each stitched different ones. Somehow, although Cinderella has always been one of my favorite fairy tales, Kara ended up stitching that one. I knew that block would be in my future, so this was the perfect opportunity for me to appliqué our design. I went to the copy shop and had the 12.5-inch block design enlarged to a 20-inch design area.

To do the vine, Kara used bias strips of the greens and wove them as she stitched. Because my design area was so large, I would have needed more than a yard of each of my vine fabrics to use bias strips. So to save money—flannel being more costly than cotton—I decided to do one section at a time. That ended up being quite the challenge, as I had to determine just what overlapped where to figure out which sections to stitch in what order. Good thing I've always liked to solve puzzles and brain teasers! I would definitely just buy the extra fabric and weave bias strips if I ever stitch this again.

Ella's Cinderella block in flannel, a 20" design centered on a 32"x38" baby blanket.

Stitching this was great fun, and quite a different kind of appliqué experience. Such large units were both easier and more challenging at the same time: gentler curves and more straight lines to stitch, yet there was so much more bulk to handle, especially when appliquéing the center of the block. But flannel is a dream to appliqué! If you've never tried it, I encourage you to do so. I expected the fabric to fray, but it didn't at all, and it turned under so nicely. 

Technically, this is not really a quilt, because while it does have three layers—a piece of flannel in the middle for the "batting"—I chose not to quilt it, because my experience is that the flannel stays together nicely, even through washings. (I've made quite a few flannel baby blankets.) I toyed with the idea of using a sashiko-style quilting around the appliqué, but ultimately, I was afraid it might detract from the design. I am planning to stitch her name beneath the design before I officially give it to her, however.

Here are a few details of her blanket.

Pumpkin turned carriage

Cinderella's glass slipper
I had to pad the light blue so that the leaves and flowers would not show.
It gave the slipper a bit of dimension as well.

The magic wand

A wee mouse, before transforming to a horse

The bow on the slipper: carefully and securely stitched with beads;
and the center of the pumpkin flower: knots surrounded by bullion stitches 

    

Ella loved exploring her new baby blanket! She especially loved the shoe and the flowers.

And she got it before her birthday!!