Block #20 ~ Tree
Flowers that bloom in the spring may appear on trees as well as in gardens. This was Nancy’s thought in designing the tree block for the letter “T” in the alphabet quilt.
In making the tree she planned to use up strands of the various fast colored embroidery cottons she had chosen for stitchery in earlier blocks. As she explained the pattern to the club members she thought a polka dot material could be used for the tree.
Then the small flowers could be centered about the dots, using the lazy daisy stitch to make the petals.
As many or as few flowers could be worked as desired, and as many or as few colors could be selected as wished.
Nancy granted that her finished tree with it’s pink, blue, lavender and yellow blossoms was closer to a decorated Christmas tree than any actual tree she ever had seen. But what did she care, since everyone exclaimed in pleasure over the effect.
The members cut out the paper square and then cut a 6.5 inch square of white Peter Pan gingham. Holding the gingham over the paper pattern and pressing it close to the window pane they were able to trace the design with a sharp-pointed lead pencil.
Nancy suggested that they omit the tracery of the flowers, since they could put the blossoms in wherever they chose and could, if they wanted to do so, use the paper pattern as a guide.
That meant that they traced the letter “T”, the tree, its trunk and its base.
After tracing the pattern they pasted the paper square onto a piece of light-weight cardboard and dried it under pressure.
The letter “T” was embroidered in fast color embroidery cotton. As usual the members chose the color used for the previous letters and decided upon their choices by the color of the connecting strip of material which would be used to put the embroidered alphabet blocks together.
Nancy used green and worked the letter in a fine outline stitch. Some members used a fine chain stitch.
After the pattern was dry the pieces were cut out and laid onto the cloth chosen for the tree, trunk and base.
Nancy used a white material with green polka dots for tree, a brown for trunk and a soft rose for base.
In cutting the cloth an allowance of one-quarter inch was made on all sides. This allowed for turning under raw edges.
In cutting the trunk the material was cut on the bias and was made twice as wide as finished piece. The raw edges were turned under until they met. All turned under edges were basted down and then pressed in place. The trunk was appliqued first. Over it was laid the tree, and then at the bottom was placed the base.
Appliqueing was done with fine, slanting, invisible hemming stitches. The base had a line of running stitch put in as indicated. This gave the base the effect of a top and sides, and made it seem less cumbersome and box-y.
The quilt was getting near the end. What would “U” stand for? A picture of the maker, or a unicorn? Let’s find out next week.
“Nancy Page Alphabet Quilt block #20, Tree” Newspapers.com, The Idaho Statesman, May 25, 1930, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-idaho-statesman-nancy-page-alphabet/159203212/
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