Quilt block #3 for Florence La Ganke’s alphabet quilt. We are finally beginning to learn some of the names in Nancy’s quilt club!
The women in Nancy’s neighborhood had formed a quilt club. Each week they met an appliqued a block in the series of alphabet blocks for the crib or small bed quilt.
When the pattern appeared in their newspaper each week there was great excitement. “I wondered what would be used for the letter “C”. Or “Isn’t the pattern cunning this week! What color are you going to use, Nancy, for this one?”
Nancy usually chose her colors according to her scrap bag. She was using bits of material left over from summer clothes.
She avoided harsh red or brilliant orange, keeping the colors more pastel-like and softer.
When she was in doubt as to the fast color of material she always washed it first because she realized what havoc could be wrought by a piece of a material whose colors ran.
Joan’s quilt was to be white with bands of soft green connecting the blocks. Martha was making a quilt with lavender connecting strips. Dorothy chose pale blue and Jennie had soft yellow. Christine used pink and Charlotte considered a a print in a small pattern for the connecting bands. But they all chose whit for the body of the quilt and all patterns were appliqued on white blocks cut 6 1/2 inches square. These blocks were 6 inches when finished, for a quarter inch seam allowance was made on all sides.
The cat in Joan’s quilt was buff with a blue bow. It might have been made of a figured print in buff or yellow with a bow of pink or blue. The first thing the club members did was to cut the square out of the paper. Over this they laid their square of white material and holding the two against a window pane they traced the outline of the letter and the cat with a sharp pencil.
When this was done they pasted the newspaper square onto a piece of light weight card board and tag board and dried it under pressure.
While they were waiting for the paste to dry they embroidered the initial C in the upper left hand corner.
Nancy used green fast color embroidery cotton. The color chosen for the initial depended upon the color chosen for the strips of colored gingham. All letters on any one quilt were embroidered in the same color, that is, one did not see a green letter, a pink one, a yellow and a blue one on the same quilt.
In embroidering the letters, the members learned that fine outline or chain stitch was best. They used four strands of cotton to make the letter heavy enough.
After the paper pattern was dry, the outlines of cat were cut. The pattern was laid on the cloth and one-quarter inch allowance for turning under on all sides was made.
The members learned that it was best to cut the cat in one piece and later to applique the bow on top of cat. In this way the pattern was not so apt to go askew.
After the cat was cut, then the bow was cut out of the pattern and laid on blue material. A quarter inch allowance was made here also. Nancy put the cross piece of the bow on top of the bow itself.
The edges were basted down and the pieces were pressed. Then they were basted in place on the cloth over the penciled outline and sewed down with fine slanting, invisible hemming stitches.
Three blocks, the apple, the bird and the cat were now ready. What would the fourth block be?
“Nancy Page Quilt Club – Alphabet Quilt – Block #3 – Cat” Newspapers.com, Edmonton Journal, November 2, 1929, https://www.newspapers.com/article/edmonton-journal-nancy-page-quilt-club/81119482/
If you’d like to purchase all of the alphabet quilt blocks as a block-of-the-month-club, you can do that here. This is NOT an affiliate link.
Discover more from On Pens & Needles
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Aww that’s a cute little cat
I think that the cat block is the one that first caught my eye!