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This is a photo of little more than a yard of Mikado fabric made at the Cocheco Mills in Dover, New Hampshire in the late 19th century. The same type of cotton print cloth was used in the creation of the Crazy Quilt that is in my collection.

I was lucky to be able to find this loose piece of cloth, that goes from selvage to selvage. The cloth has some small holes in it because it had been used as the backing of a tied quilt. This fabric has shown up, rarely, but in a few places across the country. Of course, it commemorates the operetta called, “The Mikado.” I thought you might like to see the piece of cloth that inspired the quilt.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

First, let us turn to the dictionary for an explanation of the word “angel.”

angel (n): a spiritual being believed to act as an attendant, agent, or messenger of God, conventionally expressed in human form with wings and a long robe.

Yesterday, while antique-shopping near Rutland, Vermont, I found a wonderful old print of “Angel’s Heads,” a famous painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, b. 1723.

My delight in finding a tangible document, that I could reproduce to show you, was about on the same par as finding this image rendered in Redwork, in a Maine antiques shop, a number of years ago. I have re-created a usable line-drawing, for Redwork, for anyone who would like to order it and embroider their own design.

The Redwork version presented a conundrum and was nothing like we’d seen before. It features the words, “Angels Sing Thee to Thy Rest,” derived from Shakespeare’s play, “Hamlet,” of course. If you are interested in ordering this pattern, please contact me at: pat@quiltersmuse.com

Angels are often found as stone carvings in cemeteries. Perhaps, they help to transport a soul on their heavenly journey.

The most interesting point about Reynolds’ painting, held by the National Gallery of London, is that the angels’ head actually represent only one little girl, his model, Miss Frances Isabella Gordon. To him, she looked like an angel.

Looking at the reproduced Redwork piece, one would never guess that the angel represents the same little girl, from different angles and affects.

A question remains: Why was this piece re-created in Redwork? One answer is that the image could be ordered from a 19th century catalog for stamping patterns. The second reason might be the Victorian Era’s preoccupation with Death and the occult. The piece in our collection may have been used within a coffin, or on top of a coffin, at the time that funerals were held in the front parlor. When we purchased it, the white cloth was very dirty, almost as if it had been buried, at one time.

Since then, a few times I have seen this pattern worked with Black embroidery thread, but the angels did not look angelic at all. Rather, they looked demonic, a large sway from Sir Joshua Reynolds’ original intent to paint a beautiful little girl and “save” her for posterity. We are so glad he did, and I hope that you agree that it is fun to see the original work from which derivative pieces in needlework came forth.

We never know what will turn up in the antiques shops of New England. The “hunt” is the fun part of the game. This was a serendipitous find. We hope you will enjoy it.

I will be making the pattern available on the Products Available page on our website, when I can get around to having more copies made, which involves a trip to a copy shop. Hope your day will be a good one!

P.S. – We are making some changes at Quilter’s Muse Publications. The change we made to this blog is to do away with automatic feeds to subscribers. Please bookmark, http://quiltersmuse.com/blog/ to visit our posts. One reason is that too many subscribers had changed their e-mail addresses and every time we posted a blog, we’d receive notices from the Mailer daemon. It was a real pain.

In the future, we will not be posting one word comments that individuals make as a response to posts, just so they can list their own blog’s address. If you don’t have something substantive to say, don’t bother trying to leave a comment. I hope that doesn’t sound just awful. I am sick of being used for everyone’s else’s self-promotion. Whom I choose to promote because of their quality contributions is another matter. Thanks for understanding.

We do our best to bring great information to you and important public notices. We will continue to do so.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

Have you ever heard of a sailors’ Valentine? I knew nothing of this old tradition until I found this letter in my mailbox this morning.

Dear Pat,

I saw your article on the Sweetheart Pillows. My dad was in the Navy and I have a few put away in a cedar chest. I don’t think my mom ever used them. They are very interesting. What’s even more ironic is that I make sailor valentines. If you don’t know what they are, just do a search on them and you will see that the concept was very similar. Except these were octagonal boxes made of seashells. The whalers would bring these home for their sweetheart after being away for almost two years.

Kathy

Immediately, I went to eBay, and one seller, “bouvard15,” from the United Kingdom, is offering a Sailors’ Valentine that was made circa 1860, in Barbados. He notes that it is a “double.” You will understand what that means when you view the photo. This is a beautiful example! There is a heart on one side, and the words, “Remember Me,” on the other side. Boxes like this one are hinged and can be closed for safe transport and to keep the shells clean. I think that the picture says much more than I could. This is auction #200341855951.

Circa 1860 Sailors’ Valentine made in Barbados, photo courtesy of “bouvard15.” Click here to go to this auction.

Oh, my! I keyed in the words “sailors’ valentines” in a Google search and came up with 542,000 entries. Who knew?

The first site I visited was that of Lynda Susan Hennigan, a contemporary artist. Her work has been exhibited widely and she has been written about by the media. In the short history provided on her site, Lynda states that octagonal wooden boxes, made of Spanish cedar (cedrella), were decorated with shells.

According to Shannon Webster, a pair of brothers hired children to make these boxes which were sold in Barbados, a West Indies island, between 1830 and 1860, to English and American sailors. Upon returning home, these decorative boxes were presented to girlfriends or wives. Antique examples, when found, are now highly-prized and collected by individuals and museums, (sometimes whaling museums).

Due to their high prices, some artists today make their own, and it seems that this is a thriving craft, if the Internet is any indication.

The photo above shows just one of the lovely boxes created by contemporary artist, Gregg Roberts.

Gregg Roberts uses Honduran mahogany to create his Sailors Valentines. He sometimes does museum restoration work, and he teaches classes in the Spring and Autumn. He is willing to do commission work. He maintains a small museum (in Cape Cod, Massachusetts) that he opens to visitors, by appointment only. For more information about his work, please contact Gregg Roberts or visit his website.

One site, Sailors Valentines, sells supplies and well as finished boxes. One could spend a whole day, just enjoying the various sites dedicated to this work! There are many listings on eBay for supplies to make new examples of this item. Amazing!

Books about Seashells, shells for sale, examples of finished Sailors’ Valentine boxes, and the booklet, “How To Make A Sailors Valentine,” are available at www.seashells.com.

A DVD video on the subject of Sailors Valentines, by Bill Jordan, is for sale.

Kits for making a sailors’ valentine are sold here.

Hope you have enjoyed this file!

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

Kit quilts were quite popular during the twentieth century. Here is an example of an unfinished kit quilt.

This is “Quilt No. 7352.” I do not know the kit maker. This one came with printed pieces of fabric to cut out to appliqué. Here is a close-up:

A friend sent me this kit awhile ago, and after working on it some, I decided that I have so many other things to do in this lifetime, I would never finish it. I decided to pass it along to someone who would appreciate it.

A kit with Quadriga cloth is responsible for the wonderful green and white quilts of which I have seen several finished examples. The story of this quilt is told in this file on my website.

Not too long ago, Rosie Werner wrote a lengthy article, about kit quilts, for Blanket Statements, a publication of the American Quilt Study Group. I have not yet had time to sit down and totally read the article, but plan to do so in the near future.

Was this made from a kit? This quilt shows up at many quilt shows! Here an appreciative gentleman examines the hand quilting.

I can bet that a lot of quilters began quilting by buying a quilt kit. There is one remarkable appliqué quilt that represents “The Tree of Life.” I believe that was sold as a kit, and it has shown up in a number of quilt shows I have attended, particularly in the Vermont area.

If you have worked on a kit quilt or finished one, or know of someone who has, we’d love to hear your story. Write to: pat@quiltersmuse.com

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

Often, when a special event is coming up, like a wedding, I am asked by a non-quilter who wants to learn how to quilt in a hurry, “What would be the best kind of quilt to make for a gift?” Usually, there is a deadline involved and the person is at a zero skill level or a minimal one. This is such a difficult question!

The obvious, easy answer is to make a “cheater cloth” quilt and have the top machine-quilted by someone else. That involves no pain, no strain, and puts the burden of the quilt’s creation on another person’s shoulders. Even more simple a plan is to buy a quilt that is ready-made, but that, too, gets involved. If a person would like a hand-quilted quilt, they can be purchased in department store, but may fall apart, if ever washed. The low price translates to mean that the quality of hand-quilting is not good. Believe me, two stitches per inch is far below the norm of even “acceptable” hand quilting. Most of those are imported quilts, some made in something akin to a slave-labor situation, in other words, sweat shops that do not treat their workers well, making employees work long hours, for little pay, and with hardly a break.

However, both the idea of a quick quilt or a bought quilt, miss the point. Really, the gift giver wants to craft their own vision and use their own color choices to make something memorable, of good, if not high, quality. The gift giver want to provide something home-y, made with love, in the hope that the gift will be treasured.

If you are limited for time and not sure how well a bed quilt would be appreciated, consider making a wall hanging. Wall quilts can be artistically-expressive, decorative, and will be less of an investment in terms of money, in case the bride does not like the quilt.

That reason may account, at least partially, for the number of unused wedding quilts that have come down through the ages and are now antiques. There are countless antique quilts that were never used. They were tucked away into a trunk, and except for a musty smell, or a few acid stains from wood oils leaching into the fabrics, they are in pristine condition.

People tend to hoard material things and save them “for best.” “Best” comes along when the first wife dies, and the second one throws all caution to the wind, deciding to actually use the item, be it a doily, a crocheted afghan, or … a quilt!

If you decide that you really want to make a bed quilt, enlist help. Make it a community project! Construct blocks that have space for writing in the center, such as the Home of the Brave Block or the traditional Autograph Quilt block. After pressing the back of the block to the shiny side of freezer paper, in order to stabilize the top surface for writing, send a block to friends, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, or church or alumni associates of the bride and groom. Have them add their names and a message, if they wish, but be sure they write it in permanent ink. I like Pigma Pen ink, applied with the size nib of your choice. I find that #1 or #3 Pigma Pens work well. When you get the blocks back, be sure to heat press them on both top and bottom sides of the block, after removing the paper.

This antique quilt, seen above, is a 16 patch. Found in a Connecticut home, it is in pristine condition, in spite of its having been around since the 19th century. It is superbly hand-quilted. Was it a wedding present? We will never know!

Whatever design you choose, keep it simple, especially if you are the mother of the bride. No doubt, you will have to help out in many other areas of wedding planning. “Nine patch” is the block that traditionally was used to teach little girls to piece. If you have never quilted before, that might be a good place to start. Keep the couples’ favorite colors in mind, or the quilt will end up as a bed for their dog, or worse, decorating the landfill.

These are just a few of my ideas on this busy morning. Have a wonderful day today. The sun is shining in New Hampshire and all is right with the world.

We would love to see examples of wedding quilts that you have made or been given. Send photos to: pat@quiltersmuse.com

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications