Photos of Eliza Whiteside's Block

Have you finished Eliza's block?  We'd love to see a photo!


1. Write your blog post. Publish it on your blog.
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A Finish and a Winner

I finished my shirtings quilt in time for our patchwork group's biannual show.  I'm very pleased with it.

I had about seven quilts on display, this is another one of my favourites.

The pattern is from Maxine Rosenthal's book One-Block Wonders.  It took a bit of planning but was fun to make.

The giveaway has a winner!  It's Susan of www.sneedlemagic.blogspot.com .  Send me your snail mail Susan, and those fat quarters are on the way.

Block 10 is being prepared for release next week.  If you are signed up for The First Year you will see it in your inbox, otherwise you can check the website after May Day.

Australasian Quilt Convention

I was at the AQC last Friday.  It was my first visit and I enjoyed the venue and the quilts.  The Royal Exhibition Building is a magnificent Melbourne landmark.

The quilts were superb, of course, and the shopping wasn't bad either <G>.  I bought my usual reds and greens.

I also bought some 1930's prints for my next project.

I also bought a bundle of beautiful  fabrics from the Pomegranate range by Blue Hill Fabrics.  No photo yet, I have to wait until Mothers' Day.

Even better than shopping was meeting Sue and Miriam and Sue-Ann at the show. They are all Chester Criswell Quilt followers and I am pleased they recognised me and said hello.  Miriam shares her CCCQ photos here quite regularly.

The Giveaway 25 is still open, you have until the evening of the 25th April to leave a comment.  Good luck!

Giveaway Time 25

I am pleased to announce that this blog has just received its 25,000 visit, and I've done twice twenty-five posts.  Hooray!

My online shop is called Two Bits Patches.  Two bits is a quarter, 25 cents, and I started selling fat quarters on eBay in 2007.

Two bits of a dollar - 25 cents

So it is very appropriate to have a fat quarter prize for this giveaway - three fat quarters in fact.

From left to right - Judie Rothermel's Quaker Quilts; Jo Morton's Lucinda's Needle; and Howard Marcus' Friendship: Collections for a Cause.  Just right for your next few blocks of the Chester Criswell Quilt.  If you are the winner, I will send you a fat quarter of each fabric.

To enter - post a comment on this post about what you are doing today, or what you wish you were doing today.  The winner will be chosen at random; if you link to this giveaway on your own blog you can have a second chance to win.  You may post a comment anonymously, but I can't get in touch with you if you win.  So I will choose someone else to win.

Closing date is 25 April.  In Australia that's ANZAC Day when we remember our involvement in the First World War.  In our family it's also my granddaughter's birthday.  I will spend the morning marching in two parades and then home to sew.

I'm in the back row far corner - I'm the drummer.

Swap Blocks Across the Seas

I got a special package in the mail last week.  I received a Royal Palm block.

It's a swap block made by Wanda of Scrap Happy AKA Blended Quilter.  It's flown all the way from Oklahoma to Gippsland.  What's really special is Wanda's signature - she drew it freehand.  I'm impressed.

Of course, there's another block that flew from the Southern to the Northern Hemisphere.

I signed my block, but I didn't trust my calligraphy abilities.  I traced my name.

This is my light box.  I typed my words on the laptop, picked a nice font, then inverted the image.  After I turned the laptop around, the image was right side up again, ready to trace.  It wasn't quite as easy as it looks, but it did the job.  Different tools to Elizabeth Clendenen's inked stamps, but we both use the materials at hand.

Wanda and I are both pleased with our blocks, and we're ready to swap again.  Are there any takers?

Eliza's Story

A few people have said much how much they enjoyed Eliza's story, so I thought I would show you how her story took shape.

The 1850 Federal Census for Chester County is a good location for starters.  The quilt was made two years after the census and farming families didn't move much.  Eliza Whiteside was living  with Eli and Mary McKissick, whose names are on another block in the quilt.

Eli and Mary McKissick are in their 40's.  Eli McKissick, age 9, is their son; John Criswell, age 11, is a bit of a mystery person, and lastly is Eliza Whiteside.  At this stage I don't know how Eliza relates to the McKissicks.  The household is in Lower Oxford Township, and the previous page has the Criswells' details so I know the two families are neighbours.

Next I moved through the censuses for 1860, 1870 and 1880.  In the 1880 census I discover my next useful piece on information - Mary McKissick, widow, is the head of the household, and Eliza Whiteside is her niece.

There is a servant and two boarders living in the house, so Mary McKissick isn't wealthy. She is still living in Lower Oxford, most likely in the same house she moved to as a bride.  Eliza is aged 50 and still single.

After searching for Eliza's name and year of birth I found her baptismal record.

Name of child, Eva Elizabeth Whiteside; name of mother, Sara Whiteside; name of father ________.
The church was St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, not the local church in Chester County.  Sara was on her own in a big city with a new baby.  I know nothing else about Sara Whiteside.

So the facts of Eliza's story are an illegitimate birth, living her whole life with aunt and uncle, being a neighbour to the Criswell family and remaining single.

The next fact was the Eliza's block in the quilt.  I am certain that the pattern was symmetric and the maker forgot to 'Measure twice and cut once'.  The maker went ahead and used the slightly unbalanced applique to make her block; the block wasn't rejected but was included in the quilt.

The next part of the story telling is the magic part.  I go through all the factual details, I get an image of the block in my head, and then I go away and do something else, usually weeding the garden.  As I keep busy with pulling up weeds the bits of information swirl around, assembling into a pattern and then dissolving again.   The characters develop personalities, not in great detail, but enough for me to imagine how they would behave and what they might think.

And that's how I write a story.

Eliza Whiteside
died 19 October 1895

Eliza Whiteside's Block 9

Eliza Whiteside's Block 9

Eliza's block is up and ready for you to download here.  It's an interesting block, a bit of an ugly duckling perhaps.  (My brother has just looked over my shoulder at the screen and wonders if I'm sewing seaweed now.)
Only three blocks left to finish The First Year.  How time flies when you're having fun!

Photos of Vincent Stubbs' Block



Vincent Gilpin Stubbs

I am late getting this post up - I have already seen photos of three finished Block 8s!  I did think this block would take longer; it certainly slowed me down when I made it.  Well done to those who are up to date - you know who you are - and all the best to those who are nearly current.  If you are working on Vincent's block please consider posting a link to your blog or putting it on the Flickr group - we all love to look at everyone else working!
P.S.  Vincent's middle name is Gilpin - not one I'd chose for my son, but it does make it easy to search for on Ancestry.com.



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 (eg. www.chestercriswellquilt.blogspot.com), but the link to the specific post: (eg. http://chestercriswellquilt.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/whats-your-favorite-block.html)
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Sneak Peek - Shirtings 1895

I have a day at home today.  I am celebrating Johann Sebastian Bach's birthday * by listening to a CD of organ works while I pin baste my recently finished quilt top.

Shirtings 1895

The old sampler quilts appeal to me.  I love the randomness of the different size blocks, the filler blocks and the not quite straight edges.  I had collected some shirtings here and there (as one does) and looked for blocks that were in quilts from the late 1800s.  I copied some of the blocks in my own collection.  To get the random feel I made each block in a size that suited the pattern, and used the ends of strips to make flying geese and half square triangle filler blocks.  When I had 12 big blocks I put everything on my design floor.

It wasn't very easy to arrange the multi-sized blocks.  In was, in fact, very frustrating.  I was trying to do the whole top at once and it just didn't come together.

Finally I choose four blocks that did fit and sewed them together.  Then I added a row of flying geese, and that looked okay.  I kept adding blocks of blocks that pleased me, and made a few more as necessary.  I filled in gaps with leftover strips without worrying about the colours.

I am pleased with the result.  I'm getting it finished to put in my patchwork group's quilt show next month and I will be interested to see what the reaction of my fellow quilters will be.  Not everyone likes random.

More on shirtings - Barbara Brackman's Material Culture blog has a recent posting on shirting prints.  Shirting fabrics were very popular for men's shirts, and become a fad for women's shirts in 1910.  There's a link to Moda Fabric's blog with a post on today's equivalent of shirting prints - low volume prints.

I bought this shirt in an op shop last year.  It's black on yellow and I thought of shirting prints when I saw it.

The design is ... interesting.

* Wikipedia states that J S Bach's birthday is 31st March.  I have been certain for years that his birthday was 21st March. I still enjoyed the CD.

Almost Too Many Sewing Machines

On the long weekend we visited Maryborough in central Victoria and discovered the Flour Mill Gallery - home to an amazing sewing machine collection.

The Flour Mill Gallery at Maryborough

The collection is five years old and still growing

The museum entrance - retro rather than vintage

Industrial Singer machines - still in working order

A set of Featherweights

Italian sewing machines

German sewing machines

Japanese sewing machines - copies of the Singer E15,
made in any colour  your heart desired.

Australian machine - made in Bendigo

For sale machines.  I didn't bring one home, although
the gold coloured Singer in the top row was very tempting.

Vincent Stubbs; and a day with AQA

If you are a part of The First Year you will have received your pattern number 8.  The pattern is Cockscomb, which is a type of flower.  Or, as in the Georgette Heyer novel I've been reading, a conceited young man.

Block 8 - Vincent Stubbs

It took me quite a while to finish this block.  I was still just getting the hang of needleturn when I started this block. It got the better of me, I couldn't get those petals to behave, and eventually I put it aside and started another block.  When I got back to it about four months later, I was surprised that it wasn't as difficult as I remembered.  Practice does make perfect (almost....)

If you haven't seen your block please let me know.  Honestly, I do send the block to everyone on the list, no one gets left out, but sometimes the attachments go astray in cyberspace.  Sometimes they go to the Spam folder. I don't mind if you email and ask where your block is, but please don't assume that I have neglected you on purpose - I haven't!

Last Monday the CCCQ and I traveled to Surrey Hills in Melbourne to the Australian Quilters Association meeting.  I spoke about signature quilts in general and the Chester Criswell quilt in particular and we had a great time. Thanks to Shirley L. for suggesting me as a guest speaker, it was fun!

Jan Mac checks out how many blocks to go

 

All the best with Vincent's block, hope those petals aren't too conceited for your needle.

Photos of the Clendenen Block

I know several of you have finished the Royal Palm block already because I've seen your photos.  You can share your photo blogs here, we all love to get a peek at someone else's work.

Block 8 is ready to roll on March 1st.  It's not one of the easy blocks, but it does look great finished.  If you live in Australia you should receive your block in the evening, if you are in the US it should make an appearance in the morning. 



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 above and paste your link into the box.