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Thursday, December 16, 2021

Holy Family in Bluework

 Greetings, my friends! I just finished embroidering and quilting a miniature quilt that was inspired by an antique wall splasher in my collection. This intricate quilt took a long time to embroider due to its tiny details and overall size. It measures only 12 1/4" tall x 16 3/8" wide. I really had fun making it though at times I thought I'd never finish! I am calling it "Holy Family in Bluework." I just have to add a sleeve to the back for hanging and it will be all set!


I hope that all of you are enjoying the holiday season. I like listening to the selection of Christmas carols available through the Alexa device that plays amazon music. Soon I will be making Stollen, that wonderful Austrian/German sweetbread that was so favored by some of my ancestors. It is an all-day affair to make it between preparing all of the ingredients and letting the dough rise several times before baking it. 

We are enjoying our (artificial) Charlie Brown type of Christmas tree which we have had for at least 10 years now. Every year, more and more needles grace the living room floor and one of these years, we will have to buy a new one. Real trees are in short supply this year due to farmers selling off their land about 10 years ago now in lieu of keeping Christmas tree plantations. With the supply chain issues, I heard that artificial trees are also more scarce than usual.

We drove around the other night to look at Christmas lights. They were few and far between but the ones that were up were very nice! I was happy to see that Concord, NH still has a nice creche downtown and a tall holiday tree.

I am wishing you the very best Christmas ever (or whatever other winter holidays you celebrate)!

Patricia Cummings

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Bill Staines, NH Singer/Songwriter, Passes

 I was very much saddened by the news that Bill Staines, NH folksinger/songwriter, passed away on 12/5/2021. Without knowing it until three weeks ago, the pancreatic cancer from which he had suffered for 20 years had metastasized in a very aggressive way. He was 74 years old. I was lucky enough to have attended two of his concerts in my hometown, summers ago. Bill was internationally-known and was a well-loved musician, a gentle soul.



In 2003, I was so inspired by his song, "Redbird's Wing," that I designed a quilt based on the lyrics. I contacted Bill and he graciously allowed me to print the words of the song on the back of the quilt. You can probably hear this song, if you Google it. It begins:  "Oh, I have left the ground behind/ On windy whispers, I am climbing/ past the spruce and spindly pine/ where winding waters sing..." He was, of course, referring to riding in an airplane over Alaska. The lyrics are full of imagery and led themselves well to visual interpretation. I call my quilt, "On Windy Whispers."

What a joy it was to know Bill's music. I also enjoy the music of his talented son, Bowen Staines, and have his CD-ROM. The apple did not fall far from the tree. Bill is perhaps best known for his song, "All God's Critters Got a Place in the Choir," the basis of a book for children, and published in the Rise Up Singing songbook. The people who love folk music in New England have certainly lost one of the greatest folksingers of our time. Rest in peace, Bill Staines. We are going to keep on singing and playing your music!

Patricia Cummings



Thursday, October 21, 2021

German Language Learning

 This autumn I have embarked on a course offered through The Great Courses:  "Learning German - A Journey through Language and Culture." The professor, James Pfrehm, is well-versed in the German language. He has studied in Germany and is a professor at Ithaca College who writes German textbooks. There are 30 Lessons in all, offered with a textbook (with explanations and exercises) and DVD discs. The lessons are also viewable online.

I am half-way through. I just finished Lesson 15 which concludes the use of the past participle forms in German. The professor is very entertaining and the texts offered of like-real conversations and stories are very enjoyable. He includes facts about present day Germany such as how garbage is sorted. It seems that Germans take recycling very seriously!

In high school, I studied German for two years but that was a long time ago. I followed up with one semester of German I at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain. That was also a while back. In both instances of studying German, I got "A"s but over the years have forgotten most of what I had learned. I find myself remembering a stray word, here and there!

I want to learn German so that I can better understand written materials like the book I have about Redwork embroidery that was printed in German. Also, I have brochures from Germany, sent by a friend, as well as her autobiography which, before now, I have been unable to read. So, I am looking forward to putting my newfound skills to use, eventually.

We are never too old to learn and I find it very satisfying to study German for an hour or so each day. It is a building blocks process. The professor is making it very easy to learn and I look forward to each new online lesson. I would highly recommend this class!

Bis gleich und Auf Wiedersehen!

Patricia 

Saturday, September 11, 2021

Autumn is in the Air!

 The nights are getting chillier and if one looks closely, one can see the change in color of vegetation. The goldenrod are blossoming and the leaves of the blueberry bushes are turning crimson. The grapes are now ripe and while I am writing this my industrious husband is making grape jelly from our grapes. All while I study and practice the German language! 

It is said that learning a foreign language stimulate brain cells. I thought I'd start at a good point, having studied some German in the past, albeit 49 years ago since I was last in contact with the language. I am finding it logical and sometimes difficult to remember long vocabulary words. But, "practice makes perfect," as my German professor reminds us.

Below is a quilt that I made about 20 years ago. It is an appliqued quilt (needleturn technique) and is a Piecemakers' pattern. I sent it off to a friend of mine but I remember the fun I had in making it! I especially enjoyed hand quilting the swirls in the sky, representing the wind. If I remember correctly, I used a piece of felted wool for the girl's jacket and tiny buttons that would be used in doll making. The broom was fun to applique, too, and I enjoyed using Pigma pen markers to bring "her" facial features to life. The swirling leaves reminded me a New England day in autumn with the various colors of leaves, some still green but blowing off of the trees anyhow. Luckily, I had the "brick" fabric in my stash! All in all, this was a fun project and it brings a smile to my face to recall the joy I had in making it and sending it to a special friend!



Patricia Cummings
9-11-2021

Saturday, August 21, 2021

Rubia: An International Outreach Project

 "Helping the Women of Afghanistan - Rubia: An International Outreach Project" is the name of an article I wrote for The Quilter magazine that was published in January 2007. The Afghan woman I interviewed, whose name I will not share here now (for her safety), was in the United States to promote the organization called "Rubia," a group comprised of needleworkers who sold embroidered pillows to raise money for literacy and health programs in their country. 

I was lucky enough to hear one of the four talks the woman gave at New Hampshire libraries between August 21 and 26, 2006. She was the assistant director of Rubia, at the time. She had 12 years of schooling, unlike most Afghans. In fact, only five to fifteen percent of Afghan citizens can read or write. At that time, children (mostly male) attended school for about two hours per day in crowded classrooms doing rote work, but not exercises involving creativity or critical thinking.

Rubia encourages the individual artistry of program participants, who embroider traditional motifs from various Afghan regions, such as Kyrgyzstan, Uzbek, Uzbek Lakai, Tajik, and Turkomen. Some of the women even draft their own designs and they are encouraged to embroider their own logo, often a flower motif, on the back of the pillow, and sign their name or initials in Persian.

Life in Darkness

Safety for women and girls is always an issue, and they generally do not go out by themselves, even to attend school. In this male-dominated society, everything a woman does must be approved by her father, brother, or husband.

Living in windowless rooms, engineered that way for safety, and wearing burqas when they leave the house, the lives of many Afghan women have traditionally been ones of isolation and darkness (on more than one level). Even before the Taliban occupation in 1996, women wore burqas in public. These over-the-head garments limit vision and have only a small opening through which to see and breathe. The burqa is usually viewed by westerners as a symbol of oppression, so it is surprising to learn that Afghan women actually like to wear them, since they provide a sense of security and anonymity.

Political Events

In 1996, the Afghan government, which had been backed by the Soviets, was overthrown. With the financial backing of the United States, competing warlords or so-called "commanders" from the Mujahideen emerged. When the Taliban, a militant Islamic group, subsequently took over the country, they were viewed as having restored civil order. However, it was not long before the Taliban occupation was seen as a violent regime that enforced a strict version of Islamic law. 

When the Taliban entered her town, the woman I interviewed and her family raced into the streets and ran until they reached neighboring Pakistan, a country where they lived as refugees for seven years, before they eventually returned to Afghanistan.

Today, the country of Afghanistan is in turmoil. The whereabouts of all of the women of Rubia is questionable. Their motto was "Mending Afghanistan Stitch by Stitch" and, with any luck, the organization will be able to continue to bring literacy, hope and the celebration of artistic expression to the women and children of Afghanistan, in the future. 

This article was excerpted from one previously published in The Quilter magazine. In the original article, many photos of Afghan pillows were shown, as was a 41" square piece of Afghan patchwork, possibly circa 1960, comprised of silk, cotton, and linen fibers, probably of Chinese or Soviet origin.

Our hearts go out to the people of Afghanistan for all that they are now enduring.

Patricia L. Cummings

8/21/2021

Thursday, July 22, 2021

Billings Farm & Museum's Quilt Exhibition 2021

Contemporary Quilts made by Windsor County Quilters and Challenge Quilts by the Heart of the Land Quilt Guild are featured in the 35th Annual Quilt Exhibition at Billings Farm & Museum in Woodstock, Vermont. The display is open daily from July 17 - August 22, 2021.

Here are just a few of the quilts that currently hang in the exhibit.

"Farm Friends" made by Lynne Weatherill is machine-pieced, paper-pieced, hand-quilted, and tied. It is her first paper-piecing project and she found it challenging at first. There are as many as 57 pieces in just one animal.


"Berkeley" by Linda Diak is appliqued and machine-quilted. It is a portrait of a Berkshire pig and is based on a photo posted to the Billings Farm & Museum website. Berkeley is no longer "on the planet" but he lives on in memory. The quilter was able to use supplies she had on hand during the pandemic to create this quilt.


"Timeless Ties" by Sue Cass is a memory quilt made to honor the deceased husband of her friend, Patricia. Seventy ties were used in its creation. The quilter chose to make Dresden Plate and Fan blocks and used leftover scraps of ties to create the borders. The quilt is machine-pieced, appliqued and machine quilted.


As always, we enjoyed seeing the fine work of Windsor County quilters! There is always a lot of variety in this show. We especially liked the farm-related quilts this year and we like quilts that come with a "story." 

The Billings Farm & Museum  is located at 69 Old River Road in Woodstock, Vermont and is well worth the trip. Check out their website at www.billingsfarm.org


Thursday, July 15, 2021

Christmas in July

With sweltering temperatures outside, my thoughts turn to ice cream and Christmas, maybe not in that order. I am thinking of a quilt I made in 2014. It features a Redwork embroidery motif of birds and holly. The design is a very enlarged version of a line drawing that was published in the Cunnings catalog, a late 19th century catalog from which one could order designs for outline stitch embroidery (another name for Redwork). The catalog features thousands of designs or so it seems! There are many monograms, flowers, owls, Japanese-themed motifs and other designs.



Anyhow, this particular image of birds appealed to me, being a bird-lover and all. I enjoyed hand-quilting this quilt. Anything to help me dwell on the delights of cooler weather and the coziness that Christmas holidays bring when it is snowing outside and we do not have to go anywhere. At that time, it is fun to listen to Christmas music and do some quilting in the den. As humans, we always want something else. In winter, we long for summer but when summer arrives, it is often overrated because of torrential rains, thunderstorms, and high temperatures. For now, I am dreaming of Old Man Winter visiting again as Jack Frost coats our windowpanes in frosty designs!


Monday, June 7, 2021

Quilt Finished

 The "Woodland Creatures" quilt that I designed is now finished. I asked Janet-Lee Santeusanio of Woodland Manor Quilting in Hampton Falls, NH to machine-quilt it for me. I think she did an outstanding job! This is a just-for-fun quilt. I chose Hobbs 80/20 batting. Here are some photos.





 



Tuesday, May 18, 2021

New Exhibit to Feature Sweetheart Pillows

 According to the Wright Museum of World War II's website, that Wolfeboro, New Hampshire museum will feature a special exhibit from August 17 to October 31, 2021 which will include sweetheart pillows from World War II. "Shaped by Conflict: Mementos of the WWII Era" is a much anticipated exhibit that was supposed to have been presented last year but was postponed a year due to the pandemic.



For those of you who are unfamiliar with these once ubiquitous textiles, sweetheart pillows and mother pillows were commercially-produced during World War II and were mostly rayon or acetate, except for those silk-screened pillow covers made during World War I (also featured in my book).  I donated the World War I pillow covers to the National World War I Museum & Memorial. 

In 2018, I donated all of the pillow covers and other related WWII textiles I had collected to the Wright Museum as the Patricia Cummings/Lyell D. Henry, Ph.D. collection. When I was writing the landmark book Sweetheart & Mother Pillows, published by Schiffer Publishing in 2011, Dr. Henry sent me 103 of the pillow covers he had collected over a 40 year span. To those, I added the many pillow covers I acquired which, in all, amount to a hefty collection! Included is a quilt made of pillow covers; and a silk pilot's map of China, as well as other small assorted items. I enjoyed the two humorous ones I collected the most!

I thoroughly enjoyed the research I did on these textiles and my book is the first and only one so far published on this topic. Included is a chapter about the Civilian Conservation Camps, the C.C.C. Pillow covers were available for the recruits to purchase and send home and I found some dandy ones to show in the book. I have since donated all of those pillow covers to the C.C.C. Legacy Foundation.

Mark your calendars now. You won't want to miss this exhibit, if it is possible for you to attend. The museum closes on October 31 so the display will be up until that date.

Saturday, May 8, 2021

Woodland Creatures Quilt

 I have just completed a quilt top that I am calling "Woodland Creatures." Each hexagon in the hexagon rosettes is fussy-cut and represent various animals. There are bunnies, deer, bears, owls, chickadees, hedgehogs, etc.  In person, the quilt is very colorful!



The hexagon rosettes are appliqued onto various brown print fabrics. The alternate blocks are pink fabrics that I had in my "stash." The border is a batik brown print. I really enjoyed putting this quilt top together. I planned it as I went along. I kind of outsmarted myself. Initially, I cut the brown blocks at 8" square. By the time I had appliqued on the hexagon rosettes, I needed to square up the blocks to measure 7 1/4" which leaves me with blocks that are 6 3/4" square when sewn into the quilt. I have always enjoyed seeing quilts that have a combination of brown and pink squares. I'll be happy to put on the binding and label, once I get it back from the machine quilter. This "snuggle" quilt measures 58" long x 45" wide.

Patricia Cummings

 

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Quilt History

 The history of quilts is a fascinating one. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate class "History of Quilts" that I participated in when the class was newly-minted just touched the surface of the topic. The American Quilt Study Group with its publications "Blanket Statements" and its annual journal "Uncoverings" is constantly expanding our awareness of the subject of quilt history, in general, and it also highlights individual quilts and quiltmakers. State project books, of which there are many, further elucidate the study of quilt history. And, individual museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Colonial Williamsburg have published their own books to show off their quilt collections.

I have been studying quilt history for years now and there is always more to learn. Quilt collectors share information about their quilts which adds to a greater understanding. Online, the Quilt Index shows quilts as does the International Quilt Study Center. Sometimes new information trumps older information which needs to be updated. There are those who study and try to keep up with current data and there are those individuals who may base their information on one source that is not reliable.

Myths have circulated about quilting. These "stories" which are nothing more than "feel good" attempts are spread by well-meaning but deluded people. Before sharing information of a historical nature, it is best to document it using multiple sources.

One of the two biggest myths that I have taken on in the past is twofold: the story that slaves used quilts as signal devices on the Underground Railroad and that quilts were hung on clotheslines to denote "safe houses" for slaves. Both theories have been discounted as not plausible and with no evidence to support either one.

The second myth that comes to mind is the mistaken name of Ellen Emeline Hardy Webster about whom I wrote an extensive e-book in 2008. A previous researcher thought her name was Emily Webster. In my book, I describe the association between Ellen Webster and her non-related friend, Emily. Once a statement is in print, it is hard to rectify an error as people will continue to seek out source material and sometimes seize on the first reference they find, not looking any further, which is why multiple references are always a good idea. I gathered "proof" and know for certain Ellen's true name. She was a wonderful teacher, researcher, quilt chart maker and deserves to be known by her actual name.

New quilt discoveries and connections are being made all the time. It's an exciting time to be involved with quilt history. For those who are interested, I urge you to read all that you can and try to get the "big" picture of when quilting started, the many examples of types of quilts made for various purposes, the years when quilting was most popular, and so much more! It is a rich field! 

For those of you who are interested in block history, there is a new book out, actually the 3rd edition of The Encyclopedia of Pieced Patterns by Barbara Brackman. Color has been added to this volume and more blocks than the 2nd edition. To accompany the book, there is a software program that can be purchased separately called Blockbase+. This program is useful for printing out templates for blocks of various sizes.

There is always more to discover. Happy Quilting!

Patricia L. Cummings


Thursday, April 8, 2021

Knitting: The New Craze

 Crafts seem to come and go in phases. During the 1960s Crewel Embroidery was "big." Then came a wave of Counted Cross Stitch and Needlepoint. I have works in all of those mediums. Then, in 1985, I made my first quilt and was "hooked." I wanted to know anything and everything about quilting and I tried many techniques. At first, machine quilting as it is practiced today by longarm quilters was a new thing. Most people who quilted in the 1970s and beyond were actually making comforters for not a quilting stitch by hand was in sight except by those who had learned the art of quilting from their mothers or grandmothers.

I made hundreds of quilts in all sizes ranging from miniature to queen size. I'll admit that many of the bed quilts were tied to secure the three layers together, not quilted by hand or by machine. As time went on, I took on a few large hand quilting projects (quilts) that took me a year each to quilt (like the Calico Garden quilt hanging on the wall in the photo below). Lately though, I have succumbed to the ease of having quilts quilted by a longarm artist. There is something gratifying, after all, in having a project finished and not hanging around as an unfinished object.




Today, the latest trend in "crafting" seems to be knitting. I belong to one circle of knitters. I find that I need to choose projects in which I don't have to think or count because I am too distracted when people start talking. So, I have taken to making winter scarves for needy children. I donate them to the Retired Senior Volunteer Program at the local Friends organization and they distribute them. Since March 2020, when the pandemic set in, I have made six scarves to donate. I use the knit stitch only for the scarves and leave the ends without fringe, per the organization's request. Fringe can get caught in zippers.

It seems that others, including some famous people, have taken up knitting, too. I learned to knit when I was about 12 years old through 4-H, about the same time I was taking 4-H sewing lessons. My mother neither sewed nor knew how to knit. I managed to make some sweaters for myself and family members but I did not knit for many years. I was too busy participating in the master craftsman program for quilt making and completed that certification in the year 2000 (after 9 long years of submitting projects to be judged).

As a quilt historian now, I find the field to be very rich with information. There are less details available about the history of knitting but I did find one book with some interesting facts about the topic. I shall have to sit down with that book soon and enjoy learning what I can from it. 

For now, quilting projects have taken a back burner to my knitting. I am sure I shall make more quilts but this has been a nice interlude. I like to make useful articles that people can enjoy and it cheers me to think of "forgotten" children enjoying my colorful scarves and hats!