quiltersmuse.com Blog

Ever since purchasing the book, Paper Piecing the Seasons, by Stephen Seifert and Liz Schwartz, I have been a fan of their work. In April 2000, I began making a wall quilt that they call, “Country Roads Quilt.” I finished the quilt and gave it to my niece in California for her birthday in October 2000. I thought she’d enjoy the autumn scene in this quilt that I called, “Covered Bridge in Autumn.”

Design from the book, Paper Piecing the Seasons. Pieced by Patricia Cummings. (The photo shows this piece when it was still a quilt top, – and although you can’t tell from the photo, the quilt does have even borders).

I remember the fun I had making this quilt! Not as many landscape fabrics were available, compared to today. The hunt for the perfect fabric to represent tree colors, the stones, and other elements, was a joy!

Today, I discovered that the singular pattern for this quilt is still available at eQuiltPatterns.com, along with many other tempting designs for those who love paper piecing. To see a larger view, click here.

I have made only a few foundation pieced quilts but have always enjoyed them. This one was particularly fun as I made it with love and with the expectation and hope that it would be enjoyed by the recipient.

Whatever you do today, take joy in your work. We pass this way only once.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

Autumn Maple Leaves, collage by Patricia Cummings

A saying goes like this, “A good woman gives you shade in the summer and warmth in the winter.” A tree will do the same. The Maple tree is awesome! Not only does it provide shade, firewood, and wood for fine furniture, the Maple yields sap that is boiled off to make a wonderful pancake syrup. (”Ain’t nothin’ like the real thing, baby!”) As if that were not enough, the Maple tree yields leaves of many colors, some orange, some red, some dark red, and some yellow, and sometimes more than one color in the same leaf!

We have some ancient Maples in New England that are thick in diameter. A hardy tree, they appear to be disease-resistant. On the farm where I grew up, my Dad made a tree swing on one old Maple tree. Struck by lightening in later years, it is no longer there, just its memory. Near the porch on the front of the house, there were three very large Maple trees, home to birds, and tapped by neighbors who were collecting sap, in the spring. What beautiful, cool breezes those trees provided.

I have lived among the Joshua trees of the high desert in California, and among the Saguaro cacti of Arizona. Vegetation has its beauty in other places, but New England is home for me. So today, I salute the mighty Maple trees of New Hampshire, and share some beautiful leaves with you.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

Today, we did something that is always fun to do. We walked through a small country cemetery. I love to read epitaphs. Often, there is some endearing tribute or religious sentiment on very old stones. On several that we saw today, the words simply said, “Gone home.” It is amazing to see that only a rock marks some graves.

Walking through the cemetery, I paused to squint at one inscription when all of a sudden, the song of a chickadee in a nearby shrub, pierced the air, startling the silence. Some of the stones had been laid flat by the force of wind or weather. A couple of the fragile marble stones had broken into two pieces and had been hinged back together. Lichen growth was heavy on many granite stones, to the point that any writing, including names, was obscured.

Jim discovered this stone that is a tribute to a Civil War soldier.

Rufus L. Leavitt died …
in consequence of inhuman treatment during an imprisonment of 5 mo. in Salisbury, NC – 26 yrs, 1 mo.

Jim walked through one half of the cemetery and I walked through the other. I found exactly what we were seeking, to follow up on a most interesting story of humor shared recently by New Hampshire’s own humor writer, Rebecca Rule. I hope that it will be in her next book!

This particular 50 year old man may have earned the right to be called a “pillow” (of the community).

I was so pleased that Jim found the headstone of the town minister about whom I’d read so much. Likewise, I was elated that he located the headstone of the grandparents of an important woman (Ellen Emeline Hardy Webster) whose life I have chronicled. Their names are Ichabod Packard Hardy and Emeline Mary Webster.

This is the gravestone of Ellen Emeline Hardy Webster’s grandparents. Ellen’s middle name is the same as her grandmother’s first name. I wrote a 355 page biography of Ellen last year. Ellen’s married name was Webster, and it only coincidental that her grandmother’s maiden name was also “Webster.”

So much history to be found in New England, which is why I love it here. I can’t imagine going anywhere else to live. In being able to view the actual gravestones of once-living people, I realize how important (and nice) it is to have a final resting place. Somehow, it proves that you were “here.” For me, it makes the names of people I’ve read about in print seem like old friends. Yes, I do love old cemeteries!

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

Today, a reader sent us this image of an Egyptian wall hanging. The person has owned this for fifty years and is now wondering how old it might be, and seeks any other information about it.

If anyone here is an Egyptologist and would like to comment, please write either a direct comment to this e-mail, or write to me privately at: pat@quiltersmuse.com and I’ll pass along the message.

We always enjoy seeing other people’s textiles and certainly answer any questions, as we can.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

“The Calico Garden,” a reproduction (crib size) quilt created by Patricia Cummings.

Florence Peto was a New Jersey quilt historian and a quilter, too. She is the person who created the original design that you see re-created here. “The Calico Garden” quilt of hers is in the collection of the Shelburne Museum in Burlington, Vermont. I was amazed to view the original. For some reason, I thought the coloration to be quite different, based on photos I had seen.

My quilt is not “exactly” like that of Mrs. Peto who used much smaller Broderie Perse (appliqué) pieces in floral swags for the borders. I needleturned most of the appliqué work, and hand quilted this quilt, which took about a year.

When I was finished, I filled out some paperwork that came with the pattern I had purchased from Hoopla Designs, and I sent it along to the Shelburne, with a photo, for their records. They are attempting to keep track of reproductions of quilts in their care.

I hope you enjoy seeing this cheerful quilt as much as I enjoyed making it, perhaps as long as five years ago.

There are references to Mrs. Peto, and her words as a quilt historian, in my book, Ellen Emeline Hardy Webster (1867-1950). If you are not familiar with this book, yet you claim to like quilt history, you don’t know what you are missing if you do not own a copy of this book on CD. (355 pages/ 340 photos) – available only from Quilter’s Muse Publications. pat@quiltersmuse.com

Here’s to Beauty! May it ever be.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications