BACK TO PUBLICATIONS

The New-Old Fancywork (New Idea Woman's Magazine, 1905)

October 1905
Wilene Smith Legacy Project
New York City, New York, United States
"The New-Old Fancywork" is a one-page article from New Idea Woman's Magazine, October 1905. It illustrates uncommon and unusual examples of the Double T, a modified Double T, and Ocean Wave. Saved from another page in the magazine is a Ladies' Art Company ad for their catalog containing 420 quilt designs with other items all sent together for 12c.
THE NEW-OLD FANCYWORK
By Ella True Conner

NOW that piecing quilts and patchwork of many and varied patterns is again coming in as the fancywork of the hour, it is well for us who have a mother or grandmother with a quilt-chest of dainty but worn and faded "covers" to select from. Not so faded as the years might indicate are these reminders of the industry and patient handwork of the long ago. It is surprising how the reds and blues and greens--yes, and beautiful buff shades of those days--have stood the ravaging hand of Time. Oil blues and reds they called them, and whatever the process, their brightness is wonderful when we think of their years of hard service, on the beds in the old cabins of the then New West or the farmhouses, to which many of them came with the bride whose hair is now silver. There is a mist of tender memories around their quaint patterns and tiny stitched "quilted" borders, but we are looking for a pattern now, and must not pause for sentiment. The "nine-patch," the one all the little seamstresses learned first to piece as they tell us, is not without a simple charm of its own. Cut in nine tiny squares of alternating light and dark, and set together three in a row, forming the block--it is simple enough for the beginner, and if neatly done and set together with a dainty white or light blue or pink print, made a good start for the little lady's collection of quilts, such as every well-taught little maid was supposed to own before she left her father's house as a bride.

More complicated and fanciful is the "Irish chain" or "wild-goose chase," consisting of squares of contrasting colors, say red and white, cut diagonally in two, and so arranged that the "wild geese" or "chain" could be traced across the bed in uninterrupted rows of diagonal reds and whites. The "double Irish chain," the "double T" and many others, still the recreation of winter evenings in far-off farmhouses or simple country hamlets "far from the madding crowd," can best be described by those who manufacture their gorgeous intricacies, for they will not down on paper; but all require careful cutting and exact fitting together, as well as a good eye for effects. With these the variety of patterns and really good results is almost endless.

Certainly there is no way so likely to preserve for posterity the pretty and cherished reminders of other days, and these a mother may well gather up and "keep for the children," even if she cares little just now for them herself. Baby's first little dresses, grandma's aprons and wrappers and mama's dainty tea-jackets as well as sister's numerous ginghams and pretty summer novelties--to save from each a generous "patch" and lay it away in the scrap-bag till time to "piece the quilt" is a wise provision for both profit and pleasure. Such a quilt is almost a family history in itself, and one not properly appreciated till long after. How we delight to look at them when baby is a big boy going to school, and sister is married and away, and Bob in college, and the dear grandma long gone to rest! How they looked when they first wore this, and the party we gave when Sis came out in that--how the old times almost come back again! Oh, yes, it pays to piece quilts, aside from its being the fashion-- a sensible fashion and one that did not come from Paris! And then the quilting--so many beautiful designs can be evolved, and here is a chance, new and untried, for the ready pencil of the artistic sister. The plain blocks with which the quilt is set together, or the strips between the "pieced" parts, give place for the display of elaborate patterns as well as fine needlework. The plain diagonal stitchings in rows and the fans and shells drawn with a bit of chalk and a string in the old days, these were often followed by fine quilting in stuffed wreaths and flowers raised above the surface by filling in with cotton, making dainty embroidered effects in pure white. The famous oak-leaf pattern, brought from England for use in the bride's quilting party in "The Minister's Wooing," was in all its sacred exclusiveness an example of high-art fancywork of those days. What an illustration of simple enjoyment is that which the little dressmaker describes in that afternoon gathering, and the "early tea" that followed it, when the husbands and sweethearts arrived for a share in the fun and good things.

Book of 420 Quilt Block PILLOW and PIN CUSHION Designs, worth 25c, also complete patterns for making our pretty Butterfly Block, worth 10c. All sent for 12c, stamps or silver, to introduce our quilt, perforated patterns and circulars of fancy work. LADIES' ART CO., Dept. 1, 404 N. Broadway, St. Louis, Mo.

Contributor's note: Mrs. Ella A. (True) Conner, daughter of Cyrus True, wife of Arthur F. Conner, was born May 8, 1862, in Iowa, lived in Colorado Springs, CO, died March 10, 1913 (or 1914), buried Graceland Cemetery, Pottawattamie Co., IA (1870-1910 censuses; Find A Grave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=77437848).

Load More

img