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The Bermuda Triangle---Lost in Confusion
 Bermuda is east of the Carolinas.On the point of the "Bermuda Triangle."Well, there is something about the Bermuda Triangle where planes & shipsare thought to disappear into another time...
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Annual Bird Count
My friends who count the birds in their neighborhoods at Christmas report fewer flocks this year. I've noticed this too. The lack of birds in my yard is due to the lack of bird food in the usual spots....
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Kamala's Star: Thanks for Running!
Kamala's StarCutting patriotic fabric to thank a candidate.Lady LibertyWe can celebrate the U.S.'s second viable female candidate with a quilt pattern.The inspiration in a file from an auction a while...
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Black & White & Color: William Morris Prints
 A few people from the Kaffe Fassett Collective with a new member.Liza Prior Lucy, Kaffe Fassett, Brandon Mably & PhilipJacobs joined by William Morris.Classic Morris Prints from the late-19th...
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Pop-In Applique Source Books
 Variations of the Ladies' Dream or PomegranateSketches of similar designs from my Encyclopedia of Applique  I've had a pleasant early winter here working on my Photoshop skills by digitally drawing...
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Pop-In Applique: Cutting Paper & Creating New Traditions
 I'll show you how I cut paper---resized---to design a block.Found a simple image in Volume 1 of Pop In Applique to stitch a basketof Morris Manor fabric (in shops in March)Vase fabricResized the...
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Digitizing Photos for Pop In Applique Books
 Here's how I've been digitizing the applique designsfor my Pop In Applique source books.Original photo of a detail from an applique samplerdated 1851. Pattern is regional yet common, found in New York...
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Specialization in Commercial Textile Production: Spinners, Weavers & Printers
When reading textile history one is struck by the early specialization in manufacturing processes in America and Europe. Cotton from boll to yardage involved many steps and fabric mills often focused...
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Specialization 2: Charles Swainson, Calico Printer
 Popular chintz furnishing fabric probably printed atBannister Hall printworks near Preston, Lancashire, EnglandIn the last post we looked at early specialization in cotton manufacturing, focusing on...
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Specialization 3: South Vs. North
 The Waltham Mills of Waltham, Massachusetts about 1815About 1813 Francis Cabot Lowell, Patrick Tracy Jackson & Nathan Appleton purchased a paper mill and began cotton mill operations, introducing...
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Specialization 4: Why Do I Go On So?
I'm concerned when I see poor scholarship displayed as textile history by museums. The decades-long completely inaccurate "history" of coded quilt patterns as part of the history of slavery may be a...
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Reels, Hickory Leaves and a Soul Knot
 A popular pattern both pieced and appliquedAs a pieced design the pattern's been published oftenwith a variety of names as shown in my Encyclopedia ofPieced Patterns& BlockBase. Ruth Finley called...
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Early Silk Quilt
 Center panel in a silk quilt signed Catherine BradfordBelow her name: an eagle?The panel may have been finished years before the patchwork field of triangleswere added.Catherine Penniman Bradford's...
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Valentines
 I've been drawing patterns with hearts.Folded paper designs to stitch in red for Valentine's Day.The puns on these mid-20th-c valentine cardsmade the most of sewing terms.Hearts & Doves, popular...
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Uh-Oh!
 Quilt from the mid-20th-centuryPattern published long before that.Hexagon Diamond PatternA reader of the Prairie Farmer magazine told Mrs. Munson that she'd been piecing this design for a long time,...
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Silk Quilts in Kentucky: Source of the Silk
 Kentucky quiltSilk in Kentucky seems to have been rather abundant as one characteristic of the state's quilt history is many silk patchwork extravaganzas from about 1840 on. Despite the mountainous...
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Emma Wolfe's Tessellating Quilt
 Silk Quilt by Emma Jane Seipt Wolfe (1855-1922)Like other silk designs pieced over foundations this oneprobably dates from about 1875 to 1910. Documented by the Massachusetts project & the Quilt...
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Time Travel 1938
  Time Travel---Back to 1938Not the best year everbut a good one for the textile collectionat the National Museum at the SmithsonianThe museum in the early 20th centuryAccording to their 1938 annual...
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Unusual Pattern in a Silk Quilt
 Found this quilt dated 1897 a couple ofweeks ago in an online auction. A greatexample of the silk fashions of the late 19th century.It looks like A.P.B. saw a lot of possibilities in the 60 degree...
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Pineapples & Myth Busting
 Pineapple applique quilt in standard red and green colors, about1850.Number 9.74 in my Encyclopedia of Applique was quite popular in album samplersand as a repeat block through the end of the 19th...
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Lena Himmelstein Bryant---Fashion Innovator
  Illustration of clothing designer Lena Bryant by Jauna Martinez-Neal for the children's book A Perfect Fit by Mara RockcliffLena Himmelstein Bryant Malsin (1877 – 1951),perhaps a wedding picture for...
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Morris Manor: Best of Morris from Moda, Denniele & Me
 County Roads by Denniele BohannonShe used prints from my latest line of William Morris reproductions......which should be in your shop soon.Denniele, who loves a complex pieced design, hasstitched...
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2025 Raffle Quilts
 Northwest Suburban GuildBarb Jolley QuilterInspired by Lisa Leatham MasonLooking for a quilt show on your phone? Do a search for Raffle Quilt Guild 2025.Forsyth Quilters GuildI like to view what...
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Annette Gero's Show in Australia
 Detail of an English wool quilt, mid 18th centuryDr. Annette Gero, who's been collecting quilts stitched from British soldiers' uniforms for many years, has curated an exhibit at Queensland's Cairns...
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Morris Manor: Arts & Crafts Embroidery or Applique
 Inspired by this antique Arts & Crafts textile I thought I'd do a simplifiedversion for a pillow using my new Morris Manor printsMuch simplified....Sunflower in Morris ManorSee an earlier post in...
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