This and That

A few bits and pieces...2014 grape crop, more house renos, a quilter visits and the making of a scarecrow!

The racoons are loving us this year! It has been a good crop! We have 2 grape arbours, one over the back deck and one over the secret garden room, both have had a good but sour crop this year. We are still using last years harvest which was made into grape jelly.

They have been here a long time!

House renos continue and thanks to the good weather Peter is making progress re-shingling the worst of the shingles, the south facing back wall. He uncovered a bit of a surprise...birch bark flashing! 

And lots more wide boards and handmade square nails.

After a Google search, yes, Google does know everything, I found it is quite common in houses as old as ours. Creative builders?

I was so delighted to hear from Kay Phillips awhile ago, she and her husband were coming to NS and would have time for a visit. Peter and Gerry went golfing and I gathered together a couple of quilt friends and we had a lovely but too short afternoon talking quilts! Kay shared a couple of her latest quilts, can't wait for her to come back next year!

Now we are getting ready for the Mahone Bay Scarecrow Festival which starts on Friday. Well over 150 scarecrows will appear all over town. If there is one thing this town does well, it is having festivals thanks to a huge crew of great volunteers. More information and the schedule of events can be found here. Our Mahone Bay Quilters Guild bi-annual quilt show and sale happens this weekend too with set-up starting tomorrow.

Please come!!

After moving here last fall, we were determined to have our own scarecrow this year. We get quite a lot of traffic by our house both cars and foot traffic so we just had to have a scarecrow who would advertise our quilt show. Here is her transformation...

This is how she arrived,stuffed with plastic bags and dressed in crimpoline! She is ready for any weather! Thanks to PJ's in Oathill, I had told them she was going to be a quilter and this is what I got! Gray hair and all!

Auditioning outfits!

Thanks to Ben we are getting there! The quilt top was pieced by Peter, a good 35 years ago! Come back to see the final version tomorrow!

A Quilt Block Mystery

About 6 months ago I had an email from someone in Massachusetts that I didn't know (oh, the joys of the internet!). Catherine was writing to me about some quilt blocks that a friend of hers had bought at a yard sale while she was visiting Nova Scotia. Unfortunately her friend doesn't remember where in Nova Scotia she found them. Catherine was writing because she thought that these blocks should come back to Nova Scotia, perhaps to a museum and would I be interested in helping her, needless to say I jumped right in!

There are 30 blocks in all, they are all the same pattern but only a couple are the same fabric combination. The most interesting thing about these blocks is that they are signature blocks, each one is signed and most are dated and in most cases there is a place name.

I love this block, it has 5 different fabrics. The verse reads "Know then this truth, Enough for man to know, Virtue above is happiness below" Johannah Stone 18th January 1848

This is the back of the above block, see how the centre was just a bit too small so a very narrow strip of white was added to the bottom.

This is the oldest block signed by Eunis Holloway, Kempt, March 21, 1842

This is one of the "newest" ones signed in 1857 and it reads "Except this token of esteem, While under this you sweetly dream, May no false friendship harm thy..., While under this you sweetly rest. Sophia J Nichols" A lovely sentiment to write on a quilt.

The signatures date from 1842 to 1857! Most of the place names are in Queens County (Liverpool area) of Nova Scotia. One is from Halifax and a couple from Cornwallis. Three were from Brookfield, I was curious about those ones as Brookfield is quite a distance away especially in the 1840's. Then I searched further on Google maps and found there is a Brookfield in Queens County. I am a bit stumped about Cornwallis though, as the only one I can find is in Annapolis County, directly on the other side of the province from Liverpool. What a find! They are all hand stitched and you can tell they were made by different people as the stitches do vary. Some are quite exquisite and fine, others are not!Most just have about 1/8" seam allowance. Most are made with two fabrics, some three and one or two have several different fabrics.

I am so grateful to Catherine for finding me and mailing the blocks to me. I have shared them with quite a few quilters, everyone has their own idea as to why someone would have made these over a 17 year period. I am looking forward to visiting the Queens Quilters next month and showing the blocks to them. After that I will deliver them to Simeon Perkins House, the local museum (one of the branches of the Nova Scotia Museum) in Liverpool where hopefully someone will be able to trace some of the signatures. 

Some of the blocks have interesting short verses or poems, but nothing indicates if they were made for someone's "hope chest". All were signed by women with their given names, not "Mrs. John Brown" as so often seen on old signature quilts. All the signatures are different which indicates to me that perhaps the maker of the block signed it.

I have been in touch with noted American quilt historian Barbara Brackman. I have sent her all the images of the blocks and she is writing a blog post about them and the fabrics. The fabrics are quite varied, some very fine, others are glazed and some are pieced within the patchwork.

Some of the statistics - the years the blocks were made - 1842-1, 1843-1, 1845-1, 1848-11, 1851-6, 1855-3, 1856-1 and 1857-3. Several blocks did not have dates. Where the people were from who signed the blocks - Port Medway-7, Brookfiled-3, Cornwallis-2 and one from Bridgewater, Whitsburn, Kempt, Milton, Halifax, Caledonia and Liverpool. There were eleven blocks signed that did not have a place name. Some of the names are quite unusual in this day and age, Mehetabel, Ceritha, Penira and Jedidah.

The blocks have all been well cared for, there is no mustiness or other smell one often associates with fibres that have been stored a long time.

I am looking forward to reading what Barbara Brackman writes about the blocks and the fabrics. I have posted images of all 30 blocks and some of the backs on my Flickr page here.

Everything Old Is New Again

Since I first heard about the Modern Quilt movement in the quilt world I was intrigued. I have written in the past about my concerns for the next generation of quilters - where are they and why aren't they joining our guilds, coming to workshops? I know there are many Modern Quilt Guilds now, over 150 worldwide and we have one based in Dartmouth NS The Maritime Modern Quilt Guild (they are also on Facebook here) and I think that is terrific. 

I was really surprised when my friend Ann gave me an old copy of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, issue 89 from March of 1977. There on page 8 is an article written by Mary Leman (daughter of the founder of QNM Bonnie Leman) under the banner Modern Quilting is "Rock Star A QN Original Design". That was written 37 years ago!  

I have been in touch with Mary and she has graciously given me permission to share her article here.

We are seeing 'modern quilts" show up at our Guild's show and tell.

Vicki's fun modern quilt Converging Corners, came from a tutorial here

 Sandra's quilt Popsicles has a wonderful "modern" feel and look, the fabrics are her own hand dyed and snow dyed fabrics. It's not a pattern but it's not an original idea. It was done following the technique of improvisational piecing by Melody Johnson. Sandra quilted it on her Bernina....quilting a series of narrowly spaced ....."somewhat "straight lines.

I made this Fireside Log Cabin (started in a Heather Stewart workshop) which I called Log Cabin Renovations, it kind of has a "modern" look though it wasn't my intention when I started. Funny thing, I selected the fabrics based on the orange print to pick up the greys and white, I took the workshop just a few days before I had cataract surgery. After the surgery I was amazed how much colour was in this quilt and that it wasn't just greys and whites! The quilt was beautifully machine quilted by Lynn Jones.

While looking up a reference for a quilt I made back in the '80's which was inspired by a crazy quilt I saw in a Quilt Engagement Calendar. I was looking through calendars from1980 - 1985 and I was surprised by some of the quilts that had a distinctly "modern look" using today's terminology of "modern".

Wall quilt made by Carol Anne Wien, 1981.

Straight Furrow Log Cabin, unknown maker, 1890-1910. Sure looks modern!