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Block 18-the Rabbit

I want to leave you with one more block for 2013, before all the holiday craziness takes over! I will not be able to post again until the first or second week of January.

In re-reading the column for this block, I was thinking about how Mildred made her templates. She did not make cardboard templates, but used tissue paper patterns, keeping the original newspaper articles intact. I wonder where she got the tissue paper from? It does not have any printing on it, but I wonder if it was left over from a sewing pattern. Maybe you could buy plain tissue for this purpose? It feels a little heavier than sewing pattern tissue. I told you I had picked out fabric for the borders. Here are my two picks.

The second one is not a 30's reproduction but the colors are perfect. And it's more gender neutral for a boy or girl that the flowers in the first one.

So here you can see my rabbit blocks too. I forgot to add the stitching for the haunches. I will go back and do that (at the same time I fix my queens eyebrow!)

Here is the column. Enjoy reading it. I get a chuckle of how corny they sound, don't you? I want to go back and do some research on some of her other patterns that she wrote for newspapers after this is done. I'll let you know if I find anything interesting!

Merry Christmas to everyone! I will catch up with you in January. 
To the children who know a rabbit only as a bunny this block is going to be a puzzle. Bunny begins with a B and here is a block with the letter R. Nancy was glad that she had taught her young niece that the right name for this furry, jumping, hopping creature was rabbit.
Rabbits are white, white and brown, gray, or black. Nancy chose a white print with soft tan polka dots for her rabbit. She might have used any of the other colors except black. This quilt is too soft and quiet in its coloring to include solid black in its patterns. Of course a white material with black polka dots could well be used if the dots are not too large and heavy.
For the tail Nancy used a small piece of Turkish toweling. She might have tufted a tail right on the white block using candle-wicking in white and bringing the tufts so close together that a fuzzy tail would have resulted.
Then the paper pattern was pasted onto a piece of light weight cardboard or tag board and dried under pressure.
One club member wanted to know why Nancy always advised pasting this onto a cardboard backing. “Because newspaper is so flimsy that I am afraid you will lose the correct outline unless you have strengthened the pattern in some way. Of course if you are sure you can cut it without tearing and can keep it flat on the cloth when you cut your pattern you need not bother to paste it to the cardboard. But I advise it. Then, too, you have the pattern for future use. You may want to make another quilt. With cheap news paper as a pattern you are going to find pieces torn off or creased.
After the paper pattern is dry the rabbit is cut out. A separate piece is cut for the tail if you are appliquéing that. IF you se the back ground material and candle-wicking for tufting is not necessary to cut the round pattern.
But all cloth is cut with a quarter inch allowance on all sides. This is turned under, basted in place and then the pieces are pressed.
They are laid over the penciled outline on the white block and pinned in place. Appliquéing is done with fine, invisible hemming stitches.
The outline of the rabbits haunch is as shown on the paper pattern is made by using fast color gray or black in running or outline stitch.
The letter R is embroidered in the same color fast embroidery cotton as used in the previous letters. This letter may be done in fine outline or chain stitch.
Nancy was proud of the “cotton tail” and Joan loved it. She said she just knew that this was Mr. Peter Rabbit.

Click HERE for the pattern

Posted by The Toothfairy Quilter at 5:50 AM 2 comments: 

Block 17 - The Queen

Wow! we are up to block 17 already! This one is a little more work but still not difficult. As I was photographing the blocks, by ever-helpful 17 year old son pointed out that my queen looks rather angry! Mildred's queen looks much more friendly. I am planning to re-do the embroidery on mine before I put them all together!

Block 17- The Queen

When the king was appliqued on his block the club members had wondered whether the queen would not appear by the time the letter Q came by, and sure enough she did. Such a perky little queen Joan wanted to know whether she was the queen who ate the bread and honey while the king counted his money. Aunt Nancy said she thought so, for this queen looked as if she had had many a meal of bread and honey.
For this block the choice of materials is wide. Of course all colors and materials chosen must be fast. One member made the queens face pale pink. She made her yellow hair, and a crown of white and yellow.
Another member made the hair soft brown with a crown of yellow.
A third member made crown and hair in one piece. She chose yellow and then worked a star pattern in lazy daisy stitch on the crown itself. This is the easiest method because the hair and crown may be cut in one piece.
The ruff can be any color at all. One member outlined it and made diagonal lines in lavender on the white block itself. But most of the ruffs where made of a separate piece of cloth appliqued and then trimmed with diagonal lines in simple running stitch.
The eye is embroidered in fast color blue and the mouth is pink or soft red. The letter is outlined in fine chain or outline stitch with fast color embroidery cotton similar to that used for all the letters in the previous blocks of the quilt.
The members made the block as follows: the paper pattern was first cut from the paper and held against the window pane.
Over this was laid the fine white gingham square cut 6 ½ by 6 ½ inches. With a sharp pointed lead pencil the letter and queen were drown onto the cloth.
Then the paper was pasted onto light weight card or tag board.
After the paper pattern was dry the pieces were cut. The face and neck was laid on pink material. The hair and crown were laid on yellow or brown. The crown may be cut separately from the hair of course.
The ruff was cut.
In cutting an allowance for turning under was made on all sides of all pieces. The allowance was one quarter inch.
The face was laid in place over the penciled outline on the white block.  When this had been appliquéd with fine, slanting invisible stitches, the ruff was put on. Following this came the hair and the crown, separately or together.
Then the eye was embroidered in satin stitch, as was the mouth. The ruff was stitched with the fine running stitch. The crown was worked with lazy daisy flowers unless a figured print had been chosen for the crown.

When finished the queen was a joy to look at. Joan hugged the block and wrinkled it so that Aunt Nancy had to press it all over again.

Enjoy! You can download the pattern for the queen HERE.
Posted by The Toothfairy Quilter at 3:47 PM 2 comments: 

A little detour....

I had planned on working on some top secret Christmas gifts this afternoon. But I got distracted by a free tutorial I came across as I was blog hopping (always a dangerous pasttime!)

Check out this adorable coffee cup sleeve: I can't wait to try it out tomorrow!
I got the tutorial from Crafty Staci. She has lots of different coffee cup sleeves.

I'm so easily distracted!

Posted by The Toothfairy Quilter at 6:37 PM 4 comments: Labels: coffee sleeve, fox, mug hug
