1.12.12

 PLEASE SEE THE PORTION HIGHLIGHTED IN ORANGE BELOW!!!!! EDITED 1/13/12


I never showed you one of my favorite gifts. These little deer remind me so much of where we live. It is in my studio right now and I decided to keep it out all year. My Quilty Friend gave it to me for Christmas. It actually has a pretty maple frame but my photography does not show it to advantage, so I cropped it out of the picture.

My Quilty Friend does lovely hand work and two of her quilts have won awards. Right now, she is getting ready to make this. I think this might be a photo of the original quilt top from the American Folk Art Museum in New York. You can see it has a kind of 18th Century sampler feel to it. My Quilty Friend likes primitives, applique, and truly loves the Civil War reproduction fabrics. 

ALERT! EDITED TO ADD:

I believe this photo is from SEWPRIMITIVE, Karen Mowry's new book called a Bountiful Life which she ALSO engineered on the original quilt.

A quote from KAY HARMON about the original quilt:

"The Civil War Bride quilt is an interpretation of a quilt in the American Folk Art Museum in New York City, c 1858-1863. The top was made during the Civil War period and is thought to be an unfinished wedding quilt. A female figure is appliqued in one block but the block next to her is almost empty which leads experts to believe the maker had planned to include a groom but for some reason did not. Their theory is supported by newspaper templates, including one of a male figure, that were found with the quilt top."  Kay used modern fabrics for her rendition. Check out her blog and see some of her blocks.

 Naturally, My Quilty Friend was attracted to this quilt. She bought a pattern released by Corliss Searcy from a shop in Australia called Threadbear.  You can see by the watermark, she says she designed it. I think she actually means that she designed pattern pieces to look as much like the original as possible and did all the math work (believe me, there is a metric ton of math work) involved and included all kinds of instruction for $40.00 Australian. I think she should put Engineered by Corliss Searcey because the designer is a woman long gone.