Photos of Block 22 - Rosebud Bouquet

CCCQ Block 22 - Jesse Jackson Smith

 I haven't found out any more about these 'odd botanical' blocks in the Chester Criswell Quilt.  I was hoping for some photos of similar blocks in similar quilts but nothing has appeared.

I've noticed a few finished blocks, if you put your link here we can all enjoy them.


1. Write your blog post. Publish it on your blog.
2. Copy the link of the specific blog post. This is not just the link to your blog itself (www.chestercriswellquilt.blogspot.com), but the link to the specific post: (http://chestercriswellquilt.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/hows-it-going.html)
3. Click the blue link up button below and paste your link into the box.

An InLinkz Link-up

I had my own bouquet of roses last week for my birthday.  Flowers don't appear very often in our household, I was very surprised and very pleased. There is just something special about roses, isn't there.

National Sewing Machine Day

13th June is National Sewing Machine Day. That's all the information I can find, but it's enough for a blog post.

This is my machine. It's a Janome 1600P.  Unlike many Janomes it only has one straight stitch, forward and reverse; no zigzag, no fancy stitches.  I cannot make a buttonhole or put in a zip (hooray!) I can quilt a queen sized quilt with it.

 I call her Miranda, after the British actor Miranda Hart (Chummy in Call the Midwife).

Last week's finish was a little quilt for new grandbaby Ryan.  Ryan was two weeks early so it wasn't quite done for his homecoming, but it was finished by his due date.  The pattern is called Hunter's Star and I bought the hand dyed fabrics from Dyed and Gone to Heaven.

I like pieced backs.  The two colour ranges I purchased are Mocha and Peppermint.  When I was ordered the fabric I had to decide between Peppermint and Blue Skies.  When the green fabric arrived I wished I had bought the blue.  I felt a little frustrated at my choice until I went to my stash to find some fabric for the back.  The first fabric I found was the hand print.

Hope you have a chance to get to your machine on National Sewing Machine Day.

Those Odd Botanicals

Block 22 is another one of the 'odd botanicals' in the Chester Criswell Quilt.

Jesse Jackson Smith CCCQ Block 22

Block 5 was the Crazy Nasturtiums block.

James Carlile CCCQ Block 5

This block is yet to be numbered, it has ivy leaves, daffodils and carnations.

Maria Criswell CCCQ

Other blocks in the quilt have the symmetric, stylised flowers and leaves that you find on other quilts from the 1850s.  These three blocks pictured have all been cut from a single piece of fabric; the leaves and stems have not been cut as separate pieces.  Crazy Nasturtiums is an exception - the large piece of material has been 'made' by piecing smaller bits together, and then the whole pattern was cut out - the joins are all in unusual places.

The patterns look like dried pressed flower arrangements.  I can imagine the seamstress putting a sheet of tracing paper over the pressed flowers, tracing around the whole arrangement and then cutting out the paper pattern.  My other thought is that the designs may be a silhouette, with the shadow from a floral arrangment traced onto paper.

Have you seen blocks like these in other quilts?  Do you have blocks like these in your own collections?  I would like to find examples in other quilts, if you can share some photos or some links I will follow them up in another posting.