Update – Honey Bee Variation Quilt – 1948

Honey Bee Variation Quilt

Honey Bee Variation Detail

Honey Bee Variation Border Corner Detail

 

You might remember this quilt, that I posted in 2014. It was made in 1948 by my great grandmother, Rose Brown Tague. The traditional honey bee block, in pink and purple, alternates with snowball blocks with green corners. The original post can be accessed under “Family Antiques” in the right-hand column.

I recently found an old photo, taken of my grandmother, Mary Josephine Hamrick Tague, holding nine-day-old me, her first grandchild. Covering her chair is this new quilt, positively dating it to 1948. That’s my father’s writing; he probably took the photo.

It would be great if there were photos floating around showing some of the family’s other quilts. Wishful thinking. . . .

 

2016 Silk Pillow

I recently had the privilege of taking a class from Chris Wickert, an award-winning maker of hand-quilted silk applique masterpieces. It was a two-day class that gave me and my fellow students great experience with handling silk and improving our applique stitch.

2016 Silk Pillow

Chris uses a pattern adapted with permission from Deborah Kemball. It made a 14″ square pillow, backed with the fabric in the picture background.
What a wonderful experience!

Genesee Valley Quilt Club – Quiltfest 2015

GVQC Quiltfest is over. And while all of us volunteers are happy that it’s over, we are also happy it went so well. What a great assemblage of quilts of all levels – nearly 700. And a vendor mall with 65 booths.

2015 Quiltfest Exhibit Floor

2015 GVQC Quiltfest exhibits and part of vendor mall

Here are my entries, as they hung in the exhibits. I’ll be posting more photos of some of the award winners and other quilts that caught my eye.

In Jest on display at GVQC Quiltfest 2015

Mock Kenzie on display at the GVQC Quiltfest 2015

Neo-Baltimore Petals on display at GVQC Quiltfest 2015

Courthouse Squares (on right) on display at GVQC Quiltfest 2015

Update – Mock Kenzie 2015

I have been working on a few quilts for the Genesee Valley Quilt Club’s 2015 Quiltfest, running June 4-6 at Gordon Fieldhouse on the RIT campus.

Hand quilting on Kaffe Fassett’s Roman Glass in pink

If you’re familiar with the pattern combos on majolica made by McKenzie-Childs in Aurora, NY, then you get the joke behind Mock Kenzie. This started as a table cover for a card table.

Mock Kenzie Table Topper – 40 x 40

But now I’m quilting it, a combination of hand and machine quilting. After circling the large dots on Kaffe’s great fabric, using threads in three different pinks, I gave the thread a tug to form bubbles for some surface texture.

Hand quilting on Kaffe Fassett’s Roman Glass in pink

Finishing off the backing and hanging sleeve will complete this project.

Diamond Star Quilt ca.1900?

Diamond Star Quilt Remnants

My mother gave me these blocks she salvaged from a quilt found under my grandmother’s mattress. Here’s what I know and surmise:
In the 1980s, my grandparents – Emmett and Mary Hamrick Tague – sold their house and moved in with my uncle, due to their failing health. When Mom dismantled Grandma’s full-sized bed, she found a shredded quilt apparently used to protect the mattress from the open springs. Mom cut out the “good parts” and passed them on to me, saying maybe I could frame one.
So 30 years later, I decided to see what kind of quilt could have been made of 25 blocks with pieces of binding on some of the corners. The most reasonable layout is on point.

Diamond Star Fabric Detail

Whoever made the quilt used a single blue fabric with a fancy-woven stripe. The binding remnants are of a 1930s solid medium blue so was apparently a replacement. It was machine-pieced and hand-quilted, and there was a narrow white sashing and setting triangles.

As for who made it, the quilt is probably too old to have been made by Grandma Tague. Also, I have no quilts by her that weren’t made from scraps or have this complex a block, so this isn’t her style. If her mother,  Mary Levina Dunkle Hamrick, made it, this is the only one of her quilts still existing. Or it might have been made by Grandpa Tague’s mother, Rose Brown Tague. Her other quilts were also made with solid fabrics purchased specifically for the project.  Either way, it was like Grandma to use something vintage as pragmatically as for a mattress pad.

Jacob’s Ladder Full Sized Quilt – ca. 1930s

Jacob’s Ladder Quilt – 1930s

This family quilt was probably made by my grandmother Mary Hamrick Tague in the 1930s or 40s.  The strong diagonals of the Jacob’s ladder block have a different feel when set on point.

Jacob’s Ladder Block

Jacob’s Ladder Block

You can see how she used whatever scraps she had to complete the block pattern.

 

Nine Patch Strip Quilt – 19th Century?

Here is another family quilt from our cousins’ cottage.

Nine Patch Strippy Quilt

The strip design with nine patch blocks set on point was popular in the first half of the 19th century, although usually a variety of fabrics were used. Here two fabrics, both blue with white dots, were used.

Nine Patch Strippy Quilt Showing Rows of Nine Patch Blocks

The dots in the nine patch blocks are smaller/closer together than those in the setting triangles and sashing strips.

Nine Patch Strippy Quilt Nine Patch Block Detail

Speculation: The smaller print was purchased first, perhaps specifically for the quilt. The maker made a second purchase after the blocks were complete and, while the shop had the same color, it was slightly different. Not a problem, use it anyway. From a distance, both blues form a secondary pattern that dominates over the nine patch pattern.

Nine Patch Strippy Quilt Quilting on Sashing

All hand pieced and hand quilted. We don’t know which family member made the quilt and don’t have a more specific date range.

Owned by M. Trizzino

Garden of Eden Quilt – ca. 1940s and 1990s

This quilt is a multi-generational effort. The traditional Garden of Eden blocks were left behind by my grandmother Stella Neill Bower and feature mainly 1930s dress fabrics.

Garden of Eden Block

My father Frank Bower designed a quilt using his mother’s blocks; it was sewn and hand quilted by my mother Joy Tague Bower in the 1990s.

Garden of Eden Full-Sized Quilt

My mother had never been a quilter but took on the task to please her husband.

Garden of Eden Corner Detail

The quilt now belongs to my nephew J. Bower.

Thousand Pyramids – ca. 1900

This vintage double-sized quilt is from my husband’s family. Unfortunately, we have no information about the date or maker. Love the random distribution of colors and patterns.

Thousand Pyramids

One triangle has been replaced, but the quilt is in fairly good condition.

Thousand Pyramids Detail

Hand pieced, hand quilted.

Thousand Pyramids Back

Honey Bee Variation Quilt – 1948

This double-sized quilt was made in 1948 by my great-grandmother Rose Brown Tague, using solid cottons.

Honey Bee Variation Quilt

There are two alternating blocks: the pink and purple block with solid pieced center and appliqued bee wings and bodies; and the pieced snowball block with green corners. Daisy-like flowers are quilted in the snowballs.

 

Honey Bee Variation Detail

Grandma Rose added a serpentine border, turning the bee shapes into leaves.

Honey Bee Variation Border Corner Detail

Now owned by B J Bower.