Pandemic Porch Quilt Show, Days 54 - 55: Hands for Grandma, Grandma's Hands

On Day 55, I hung two baby-related quilts that date back to the 1990s - and the one on the right was inspired by a quilt 140 years older than that! 

First, a nap quilt I made for my son, when I'd done very little applique, and wanted to dip my toe in the water. The flowers are raw-edge appliqued, with zigzag stitches to contain the fraying. The leaves were straight-stitch machine-appliqued, so their edges are nicely frayed.

Amazingly, the flowers and even their hand-embroidered centers have held up well over the years.  

The second quilt was made from my son's handprint, when he was about 3. It was a gift for his grandparents, who hung this quilt proudly in their home. 

The next photo shows the simple quilting. 

Don't credit me for the striking design - it was inspired by a red-and-white hand-print quilt I saw at a 1997 exhibit at Los Angeles' Gene Autry Museum, called, "Quilts in the Machine Age." That quilt, made in Kansas circa 1878, was an early machine-quilted masterpiece. Find a photo at the Kansas Historical Society archives, HERE. Warning: You will probably want to make your own version! My 2013 blog post with more info about this quilt is HERE.

DAY 55 I didn't make this quilt - it was one of my greatest thrift shop finds! I'm guessing it was made in the 40s. It's been well used-  there are threadbare spots - but it is still charming. 

The fabrics are faded but still fascinating. 

In the next photo, note that the pink/white/orange checkerboard hexagon (with puffy white flowers), just right of center, is made of two pieces of fabric joined! She must have been working from very small scraps!

The back is just as impressive, thanks to the exquisite hand quilting. (By the way, the big light splotches below are sunspots, not necessarily worn spots, though the quilt does have those, too.) 

Next installment: A lot more color! 

Simple Quilting With Hand Embroidery

It's amazing what a difference a little hand embroidery can make, even if, like me, your embroidery skills are very basic. And if the embroidery also serves as quilting, the whole piece won't take that much longer than machine quilting. Especially if  you're making something small.

As I've blogged about many times, I've been going through a major squares obsession - dealing out tiny colorful squares like cards from a deck, then arranging them in ways that give them movement. It's soooo therapeutic. Although I machine quilted most of the resulting pieces, I also hand embroidered some. Here's one - a modified hashtag/tic-tac-toe board. The squares are 1" (finished). This is how it looked before finishing:

 Below - after using embroidery floss to add "rice" stitching in the central areas, running stitches around the outside, and in the ditches...

A closeup of the rice stitches. (Learn more about it here.)

Rice and running stitches:

Imperfect is fine! I did the quilting/embroidery after the whole piece had been put together and pillowcase-turned.

 For the next piece, I did the embroidery through just the top layer and the batting. I don't necessarily recommend this approach.

Here's the batting side. The problem was all those knots around the edges. They got in the way when I stitched the right sides together (leaving a turning gap.)

In hindsight, I should have waited until it was turned outward, with the backing in place, before the embroidery.

The last step was to stitch a bit of hand-dyed lace trim around the edges....

...and put a button in the middle (of course.).

Just for comparison's sake, here's a machine quilted piece from this series.

I won't say the machine quilting is worse than the hand quilting (it's okay if you say it), but it is a very different mood. (The glass eyeball bead in the middle also helps set a different mood.) 

Whether hand or machine quilted, these pieces have made good gifts from the heart and the hands! (And the eyeballs.)

Help Solve a Vintage Thrift Shop Embroidery Mystery!

I have a bona fide textile mystery, and maybe you, or someone you know, can help me solve it.

In my many years as a vintage fabriholic (modern fabric, too), I have found many stitched treasures in thrift shops. But nothing compares to this one. And, in fact, this one didn't even  happen to me, directly. My Arizona cousin Nina  found it in a thrift shop (for $2), and she sent it to me for my birthday last month. 

The more I look at it, the curiouser I get, and I think you will, too. It's about 12.5" x 24" single layer, with raw edges. The backing is a coarse red linen, almost burlap.  Here's the overview.   

All the stitching is done by hand. There's a big sun, the words "happy birthday" chain-stitched across the top. There's a couple on the right side. The woman is wearing a glorious gold print that has a French Provincial look. She's probably awaiting limbs.  The man holds what appears to be a golf club in his right hand,

and an eggplant in his left. No, I'm not kidding: 

If that's not an eggplant, then I don't know what.

At the center left, there's a floating appliqued blue linen shape that looks like it was meant to be a dress for another, buxom figure.

The outfits are appliqued with a dense, remarkably even blanket stitch. The skin is executed  in a chain stitch.  These stitches look big on your screen, but they're actually tiny. 

Pretty darn cool, no? This stitcher had talent. 

 Down along the right side, there's what is probably a date, chainstitched in Roman Numerals. 

It reads 9-7-38. Was that the birth date of the giftee, or the birthday at which this textile was to be presented? Or the date of an eggplant-themed golf tournament? Or something else entirely?  

Because the mystery is about to deepen. Down the left edge, there's a large beige silk rectangle:

At the top of the rectangle, there's a purse or treasure chest, executed in incredibly tiny stitches, with a single elongated diamond shaped rhinestone sewn in it. It's a very old-fashioned rhinestone, not shiny at all, with a black metal backing and tines.

Below that, there's a sort of cross of dark and light purple and rose. I can't even guess at what this was supposed to be. Crossbow? Esoteric Masonic symbol? Weirdly dissected eggplant with pink smoking pipe hidden inside?  

Below that, there's something that looks like a mug with an unfinished brown handle, and a sign or a teabag hanging down from it.  And now it gets really good: 

The hanging sign says: USSR!!! 

USSR?!? Are you KIDDING me? Could this be, like, a SPY textile? Is there a secret message? Will the FBI be knocking on my door soon? Should I run from my house like Alan Arkin, screaming "Egermancy!  Everybody to get from street!"? (Thanks, Howard.)

As if to acknowledge the ignition of my burning questions, two inches below the cup, there's this:   

A purse with a question mark, hanging from a tree. Is this like Whittaker Chambers' microfilm pumpkin patch? Except it's an eggplant patch? 

Don't laugh: There's more agriculture coming. To the right of the question mark suitcase, the word "if" is  executed in purple cursive. After the 'f' comes something that is almost but not quite a dollar sign (brown borders with white stripes); and the black cord looks like a hose, with a gold nozzle, spewing out silvery blue bugle beads. 

The hose appears to be watering crops. And there's foliage with delicate 3-D green leaves that appear to be remade from green ribbon.

And that's it! The only other information is that the back is a little messy, but not too bad. Did a talented child  or teen make this?

So I'm throwing this mystery open to the world! What do you think? Have you ever seen anything like this? Does it ring a bell? Do you know anyone who might have an idea?