Vintage Follow Up.

I found a photo of Lura Canfield, one of the quilters who had made a block for the quilt I shared last post. I forgot to add too that Fern Canfield is her niece and perhaps they made the quilt for Lura's sister in law, who moved to Chicago for work, after her husband died. I'm sure they never imagined that their work would be rescued and treasured for the glimpse of history this lovely textile provides us. The internet has made it so much easier to access information as well as sharing our connections across continents.
    We have just returned from Melbourne again as we were cat sitting and getting some maintenance jobs done at our new home. I am back working nights again this week and plan to paint another bedroom at the end of the week. We have finished 4 bedrooms now and just have one more to do as well as the main bathroom. We've also ordered new carpet so things are gathering momentum now and we are still decluttering and moving boxes to our Melbourne home but we are making progress. My blog writing is lessening for a little while, as life is very busy, but I hope to have more to share very soon.
Hugs, Jan Mac

A Vintage Rescue.

 I bought these blocks at Houston in 2015 as a memento of my trip and have really enjoyed putting them together and researching the quilters who made them. There were only 5 blocks and were most likely the remains of a vintage quilt which was too worn to survive.
  Luckily some of the names were quite unusual as it made it easier to find them on the US Census data. I wasn't sure if they were from the 1930s or 1940s but I think they are more likely to be pre-1940s. All of the quilters were listed as living in Marion, Daviess County in Missouri.

 Lura Canfield, was  born in 1887 and was 43 in the 1930 census. She was married to Allen W. Canfield and they had 4 children, the eldest DD dying from diptheria when she was 9 years old. In 1939,  Lura took in her niece when she was 2 and the child's mother moved to Chicago for work as her husband had died. This was during WW2 and life must have been hard in the farming areas of Missouri where a young widow might find it hard to find work to support herself and her family.

 Hattie Smith was born in 1852 and was 78 in 1930. She is on the same Census page as Lura Canfield which enabled me to identify which Hattie Smith was correct. Neighbours are usually listed on the same, or adjoining pages, of the Census documents.

 Voncille Otterman was born in 1908 and was 22 in the 1930 Census, living in Marion, Daviess County, Missouri. She does not appear in the 1940 census for this area, most likely because she married and perhaps moved.

 Fern Canfield was born in 1919 and was 11 in 1930. Her mother, Jesasie, was 36 in 1930 and they were living in Marion, Missouri. Perhaps her mother also signed a block which was one of the damaged blocks and discarded. It appears that Fern's block was very nicely signed and I wonder if she had help writing her name.

Laura Snider was born in 1861 and was 69 in 1930, also living in Liberty, Missouri, nearby to the others. She was widowed in 1940 and I have not yet found details about her family.
   I don't know who the quilt would have been made for, perhaps it was to farewell Lura's relative who was widowed at a young age. I really enjoyed piecing the blocks together and I thought it would make a nice wall hanging or a table runner. I hand quilted 2 of the blocks and then removed the stitches as the batting was too puffy for that era. Cotton batting provided a more authentic finish and I used some vintage fabric from that era to bind it. I have a first finish for the year so I need to keep working to get some more done now.
Thanks for stopping by.
Hugs, Jan Mac

A Good Start.

 Yesterday was very productive with lots of packing and furniture moving so we can prepare another bedroom to paint. Each one that's finished looks so nice and fresh that the list of rooms to paint is growing. We have 5 bedrooms and we were originally going to paint 2 but I think now we will do all 5. It would have been a good idea to get them to paint their room before they left home. LOL
    As a break from moving furniture I quilted the first 2 donation quilts for 2017. The second one had been sprayed with glue and quilted, then the quilting had been removed and it was just bound and stuffed into the donation cupboard. When we had the big clean out of the cupboards I thought it was prudent to deal with all of those little jobs that get put to one side so I removed the binding and quilted it. I'm not a fan of the glue spray and I think that was why the project was shelved without being quilted, as the backing had a few creases. I managed to fix them and it's now sorted and ready to donate.
  The first quilt was also a donated top made by one of the members of my Melbourne quilting group and it just needs a binding. I'm going to machine stitch a binding on and leave it for a member to hand stitch it down as we have our Sit and Sew day in March, when we are working on Gift Quilts and many of our members love to sit and hand stitch so I have learnt to stockpile quilts needing some binding stitched for them as there never seems to be enough to go around. I plan to get some more done before then so there will be a big pile for the hand stitchers.

I am still hand quilting and have almost finished another smaller project to share tomorrow.
Thanks for stopping by and also for your very kind comments. My Star Quilt will be finished before I go on to work on another UFO, so many thanks for your encouragement.
Hugs, Jan Mac

Getting Organized.

 I spent most of last week in Melbourne getting things organized at our new home as well as working for two days on organizing for our Gift Quilt program. We have had some donations of fabric and hadn't had time to even go through the current bins of fabric which have been there for a while. Some of it is from the 80s and we are trying to use them up for backings as well as mixing them in with more recent fabric acquisitions. We had some great workers as usual and we got more accomplished than we expected. We matched tops with backing and made binding to match. Also cut batting so we can hand out quilt kits for members to finish.

 I also wanted to sort the fabric by size, with anything less than half a metre going into a scrap bin, then bins of half metre, one metres and then bins of larger amounts suitable for backings. Sorting them into colours also will make it easier when we want to find binding to match a top and will mean that we don't have to open every bin. We've also planned the agenda for our Gift Quilt day in March so we are ready to start the year when our February meeting comes around. I also found a couple of quilts which had been stuffed into the cupboard as they had issues. I have fixed one by removing the binding, quilting it and then rebinding it so it is ready to donate.  I also quilted another top I had pinned so we are starting the year with a clean slate and plenty of quilts ready to donate.
    We are still making progress on the house painting and have another room ready to paint. I'm off to Melb again for a few days this week so we will see how much gets done this week.
Hugs, Jan Mac

Time To Plan.

 This would be my oldest UFO or WIP at the moment. It's a 1930-40s quilt top and no I'm not old enough to have pieced the top. I bought it from a dealer in the US in the mid 90s. I started hand quilting it and chose a fancy flower shape for all the plain hexagons. That might be why it has taken me so long to finish the hand quilting. The fabric is still lovely and not faded as it was never used and the cream hexies show printing on them and they are feedsacks fabrics.

 The Lemoyne Star and hexagons are not uncommon but they still make a pretty quilt. I am hand quilting a 1/4 inch on the inside of the star pieces and the floral design in the hexagons. Luckily I had marked the whole top for quilting as I have packed my templates. I had even marked the border with a cable design. I started hand quilting this using the typical shorter quilting needle and a frame. Now I have picked up the top to hand quilt again, I am trying it with a longer needle and no frame as I find holding a shorter needle makes my hand ache after a while. I have compared my stitches both with short needle and frame and long needle without frame and really can't see a difference. I won't win any competitions perhaps but my stitches are usually uniform and I am enjoying the process.

 I have actually hand quilted about 80% of the top and I am determined to get it finished now. I am trying to add some stitches every day and then she will have a good soak and a label. I was going to plan to finish off 17 UFOs this year but I find I do better if I focus on one and then choose another. Otherwise, I get interested in something new and forget to go back to finish the first piece.

Quilting is my stress reliever so I don't want to add to my stress by making too many deadlines for myself but this one is doable and I still think it's a pretty top so I just want to have it finished so I can enjoy looking at her without thinking of what I still have to stitch on her.
   So that's my plan. Finish this one UFO and then see how I feel. I want to keep hand quilting as I have lots of tops to quilt now and I also have lots of UFOs. I will probably select another one to finish, maybe a cross stitch piece or something which just needs to be made into a wall hanging. Don't hold me to it but at least I have a plan for this month. Can I finish this quilt by February? Time will tell. I'm back working nights and painting bedrooms so really only get time to stitch at night but you can get a lot done in a few hours.
Thanks for stopping by.
Hugs, Jan Mac

Let's Welcome 2017.

 Happy new Year to all of my blogging friends and many thanks for your kind comments and support throughout the years. The census seems to be that 2016 was a tough year and many are glad it's over. I try not to wish the years away but hope that this coming year holds many blessings for us all, including good health, good friends, lots of laughter and many quilts finished.
   I have long held the belief that what you spend time doing on the first day of the year will be what the year holds for you. I'm very hopeful that my days will be filled with lots more hand quilting and vintage quilts so I have finished the cross stitch on a vintage quilt kit I purchased. Working only in the evenings, it's only taken me a week or so to stitch one block and I have 5 more to go. I might make it with sashings or add alternate pieced blocks to make a larger quilt.

 I also have been busy unpicking a damaged quilt with plans to remove the most damaged blocks and remake some with parts from the discards. The quilting was simply 1 inch apart on the diagonal across the quilt and it was a utility quilt so not heavily quilted.
   I also worked on hand quilting this fragment of a quilt and will share that, and the history of the quilters named, in a post very soon. I hope to have more restorations to share very soon as well and I guess tomorrow will see us back to painting another bedroom. Progress is being made but the heat is not helping.
Hugs, Jan Mac