Beginning the Snowflake Quilt - Nancy Page Quilt Club 1932

 

A direction leaflet that will aid in making the snowflake quilt will be sent free to any reader sending a stamped, addressed envelope to Nancy Page in care of The Idaho Statesman, Boise, Idaho.

“I’ve tried all week long to guess what kind of quilt you have for us today.  You said it would be cool, so I decided it must be green.  But you had a green and white one in the Tuesday Club – that Road to Dublin – so I didn’t see how you could plan another green one.  Come on, Nancy, tell us what it is. Don’t keep us in suspense any longer.”

“All right, all right.  Are you ready?  Here it is.  A snowflake quilt done in white on blue as soft and cool as the sky when the snowy clouds let us catch a peep of it.  This is really Mother Huldah’s quilt.  You know the people in the old country used to think that Mother Huldah was shaking her feather bed high in heaven when the fleecy, feathery snowflakes came drifting down.  That’s the kind of quilt this is.

“Now let me tell you how it is made.  For a long time I have had people say, ‘Oh, I don’t applique and I get bored with piecing quilts.  Can’t you give me a design to outline?’ And I always have said, ‘It is difficult to make an outline quilt look dignified and weighty enough to cover a bed.  Outline for a small crib cover, yes, because the whole quilt is made on a small scale.  But for a grown-up bed – no, it isn’t satisfactory when finished.

“But still there were some of you who believed I could work out something, and here it is.

“The snowflakes – and there are 12 giant, grown-up, truly adult ones on this quilt – are worked in white embroidery cotton on soft blue backgrounds.  But more than outline stitch is used.  I know, it does not look like it as you see the picture, but when you get the real design you will see places where I use feather stitch, Cretan stitch, chain, cable, Rumanian – oh, all sorts of interesting stitches.  I believe that enough solidity and good design will be possible so that the quilt will have real beauty.  It will be an airy, fairy beauty.  But that’s what we want to work on in the summertime.

“I have planned each snowflake for a 15-inch square of soft blue fast color gingham.  I’d like to see a rather dark blue, but so many modern bedrooms are done in pastel colors that I am afraid to work it out.  But imagine this is embroidered in white on a deep blue background with lighter snowdrifts in the border and then put it in an early American bedroom.  I think it would be enchanting.

“But I’m not scorning the softer blue at all.  In fact, I think that is what most of you will use.

“Since the blocks are only 15 inches square you can tuck one in your work bag and take it with you on your motor picnics.  Each week when the paper is delivered to your summer address you will get a new flake pattern to be embroidered.

“I have planned the quilt for a twin bed size.  It will be 75 inches wide and 99 inches long.  It may be made larger by repeating some of the snowflakes.  It may be made longer by using five rows instead of four.  Or the border may be made deeper.

“That border has white snowdrifts at the edge, then a winding, snowy road and then more snowdrifts deep blue in the shadows beyond the road.  And then comes the horizon and the rift of blue sky and last the snowy flakes.  It will be such easy pick-up word for summer and so pretty when finished that I know you will want to start at once.  Next week I will give you the various stitches use in embroidering the snowflakes.”

Idaho Daily Statesman; Boise Idaho; Sunday, July 10, 1932

Knitting Anxiety? Try Glove Making

Are you familiar with the Farm Life Quilt competition that was run in Australia in the 1930s?  The Adelaide Chronicle printed a weekly pattern from Ruby McKim's Farm Life quilt and the finished quilts were judged at the Adelaide show.

I was browsing through the online newspaper looking for the Farm Life patterns when I got distracted.

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GLOVE MAKING A HOBBY 

Change From Fancy Work; Handy Gift For Motorist

All women, no matter how busy they are, rather like having a small piece of "fancy" needlework on hand which they can pick up at odd moments when a friend calls in for a chat. Busy women do not always feel inclined to bring out the family mending basket on these occasions yet they are not happy if their fingers are idle.

Winter afternoons and evenings are more conducive to industry than the summer days. The woman who loves knitting is never at a loss - there is always a half-finished sock on hand to click accompaniment to friendly chatter about "the sponge (cake) that would go blistery" or "the jelly that refused to jell" and "What can I do about it?"  But there are many women who cannot knit because the ceaseless working of the fingers or the anxiety in fear of dropping a stitch affects their nerves. These women prefer the soothing plying of needle and thread. 

Today I am giving you a suggestion for odd moments when you do not always feel inclined to finish that corner of the drawn-thread design in the tray cloth, or perhaps the light is not quite good enough for shading the wools for the half completed tapestry square.

 Ingenuity And Practice 

Try your hand at glove-making. The pattern shown in the sketch is simple and with a little ingenuity and practice the average needlewoman can evolve her own paper pattern from the sketch. I saw Miss Maude Priest, the artist, making a pair for herself the other afternoon, and she very generously told me how it is done. The pattern is in three pieces—the band, fingers, and wrist in one piece, the gusset (for joining the fingers) and the thumb. The last named looks a funny shape, but it fits easily and neatly into the scheme of things.

These gloves are made of chamois leather or doe skin. A whole skin is required to make one pair, costs from five to seven shillings, and can be purchased at any of the large shops. When choosing the skin, be careful to pick one that is of even texture throughout; many are apt to be thinner in some places than others. Do not cut out the pattern until you are ready to make up the glove, otherwise the skin is liable to stretch out of shape.  When cutting the pattern on the skin, be careful to get the “pull” going across the hand, or you will find that the fingers will stretch to twice their length.

It is quite easy to make one glove in an afternoon or evening, for when once the pattern is cut out the rest is simple sewing, and there is only one seam at the side.  The hand and fingers being cut in one piece requires that the pattern has to be reversed for the left hand.

Black Thread for Smartness

The stitching is all done by hand on the right side, using a good black linen thread to give a smart touch. It has the appearance of ordinary running stitch, although each stitch is worked through and back again singly, and best results are obtained by using a tailor's needle. 

The make-up is all plain sailing - there is nothing to remember, really. Before folding the pattern to join the one side seam, stitch the thumb first, and secondly do three lines of stitching on the back of the hand, about three inches in length. Then stitch in the three gussets between the fingers, and after that sew a narrow piece of elastic on the inside of the wrist, and then join up the side seam.

It is not absolutely necessary to have the decorative fringe as shown in the sketch, but if you like the idea, cut two strips of skin about one and a half inches wide and sew in when joining the seam. Cut the fringe after you have inserted the strip in the seam. 

These gloves are ideal wear for motorists, because they are soft and warm, and will not stick to the driving wheel. Furthermore, they are splendid for night driving, being of a light color, which makes the hand signals easily seen by the motorist behind. Ordinary wear and careful washing will give several years of service.

What more do I need? Homemade gloves and crocodile shoes.