The book was published by Platt & Munk Co. and is undated, but if I compare it to my other old paint books, I would guess it’s from the 1920s or maybe even earlier.  Unfortunately, the illustrator is uncredited, which is sad because I love these drawings.  Of course, the Tenniel illustrations are fabulous, but these are easier to embroider, they’re very cute, and I had never seen them before.  I scanned and cleaned up the actual pages which are located in my Flickr set, in case you’d like to print them.

Only five more pages to go, but I’m going to have to come up with an additional block to make 12.  I’ll probably just make up something with the title of the book and maybe add my name and date.   There’s an illustration on the cover, but it is a different style than the pages meant for painting.  UPDATE:  Apparently I don’t know how to count.  There actually are 12 painting illustrations in this book.

Here are the four previous blocks.

From the listing pictures I could tell that these blocks were not constructed using separate pieces, but rather from one printed novelty fabric.  I saved the listing photos anyway, because I wanted to draw new patterns and try these in some combination of applique, crayon and embroidery.  I loved the idea of the shadow.

I drew all the patterns, and put them in my huge “To-Do” file where they have been languishing ever since.  Then a couple of weeks ago, I saw this photo included in an ebay listing for almost 5 yards of vintage 36″ wide fabric, and I freaked.

There are 11 repeats of the 10 toys, which is more than enough for me to make a quilt and also a little book similar to the one on ebay.  I think it was so clever of the original maker to turn this fabric into a book.  The fabric itself is some kind of cotton blend; it’s a good weight (not heavy like a drapery fabric) and is tightly woven, but the weave itself is unusual and it has an almost linen-like feel to it.

Here are my first 6 blocks which will be about 8″.  I used the amazing glue technique on the fabric edges, cut them out and blanket stitched them to the background fabric.  I think I will save the tiny alphabet blocks for the book, but I plan to use some of the wooden bead strings in the quilt.  Although I really like the background color in the fabric, I decided to use an off white because I want to set this quilt with scrappy alternate blocks in primary colors.  Oops — I forgot to stitch the little dog’s tail.

Years ago on ebay I saw a vintage scottie quilt with a similar diagonal set with the striped setting triangles, and I always wanted to try it.  I think it turned out pretty cute.

A couple of people asked me about the glue technique and I wanted to answer their questions.  The glue I use is Aleene’s Fabric Fusion which I thinly paint on top and just inside of the cutting line (1/8″ or less).  The glue is to prevent the fabric from raveling and to avoid having to turn under the edges of the piece; not to adhere the scottie to the background fabric.  Once the glue is dry, the piece is appliqued in the usual fashion using a blanket stitch (or buttonhole if you prefer).  These stitches work best because the needle does not have to pierce the glued edge of the piece.

The top finishes at 18″ x 23″

The butterfly and dahlia blocks are traditional applique using the baste-pin-stitch method (although needle turn would also work).  For the scottie quilt,  I’m using a technique I developed for the Charley Harper Water Drop Quilt.  First I trace the finished size template on the wrong side of the fabric, then I paint a tiny bit of permanent fabric glue on the penciled cutting line.  The function of the glue is merely to prevent the edges of the piece from fraying.  After the glue dries, I cut out, press, and hand stitch the piece to the fabric with embroidery floss using a blanket or buttonhole stitch (no turning under required). These stitches work well with the process because the glue is only on the very edge of the fabric and it doesn’t interfere with the hand stitching.  The glue technique maintains the intricate outline of the shape, but the piece itself remains soft and flexible.  I don’t like using fusible web in my quilts because of the stiffness factor, and it’s hard to push a needle through.

It occurred to me that the cap probably needs to be printed in its original size.  This is tricky because there are many magnification levels when I am taking screen shots of these scans, and it’s not clear what percentage they are of the original newspaper.  I have tried to calculate this by measuring the size of today’s papers and comparing it to the scans.  If my calculations are correct, the back circle piece of the baby bonnet should be 4″ across, so that was my guide.  Of course, little babies have different sized heads, so this is just a suggestion.  Update:  Laura mentions in her comment below that her newspaper has been downsized a couple of times, so the 4″ suggestion may be a little small.

The scans of these old newspapers are not great, so I have cleaned up the illustrations, and retyped the instructions to make them easier to read.  Click on the images to enlarge.

Anyway, this time I tried using the stitch and flip method (not sure if that’s the right term).  It took some getting used to, but I finally think I have the hang of it.  Still, I wish I could do curves.

Marjorie’s Cottage Quilt was what I had in mind, but for a kit quilt top, I wanted something with a simpler design and easier embroidery.  The bunnies in the center were copied from an old embroidered baby quilt I saw on ebay several years ago.  It was a whole cloth summer quilt with no piecing — just the bunny motif in the middle.  Initially, I was going to set this quilt like Marjorie’s, but after I embroidered the bunnies, I changed my mind and decided make it diagonal.  Because of this, the square in the middle is cut with bias edges, which was kind of a drag, and something I will certainly correct in the kit.

Vintage Double Wedding Ring quilt pieces form the patchwork sections of the quilt.  The pattern is super easy; it’s like a strippy quilt in that you don’t have to pay much attention to how many little pieces are in each section.  The original DWR pieces are close enough to the size I need that I didn’t have to trace and cut.  Because the pieces are slightly wider on one end, I just flip them one way or the other as I’m sewing to keep the strip fairly straight, and then I trim it down.  I like the look of the uneven seams.

For the tinting on these small quilts, I like to use Prismacolor colored pencils.  They can get into smaller spaces, they don’t crumble, and because they are soft and slightly waxy, they apply really well to fabric.  I plan to purchase pencils to put in the kits, although I’ll probably cut them up since they are sort of pricey and only a tiny bit of color is required.

The top measures about 23″ x 23″, and contains approximately 200 of the print pieces.  I would definitely quilt this with black embroidery floss, probably similar to the quilting on the finished Cottage Quilt.

The pattern reminds me of Kansas Dugout (here is mine — also made with feedsacks), but Kansas Dugout has many set-in pieces and is usually hand sewn.  Little “O” is pretty simple to sew on the machine, even in this reduced size, because you only have to sew one partial seam (Thanks, Dottie!).  I drew several different layouts, but finally decided on this one with blocks in vertical rows separated by sashing; then vertical rows offset and sewn together without sashing.   To me, this mixes up the blocks and makes the quilt more interesting, but it’s still relatively easy to put together.

The quilt has 46 blocks made with 184 different feedsack prints, plus a feedsack border.  For the background fabric, I used a vintage muslin with a slightly coarser weave, which is very similar to the feedsacks.  The blocks finish at 2″ and the top measures 17″ x 21″, although it’s actually 1/2″ bigger all around than this photo because I like to add extra to the border for ease in quilting.  I’m happy with the way this turned out, because I love the scrappy look of it, and the scale of the blocks is pretty good.

This is my newest quilt kit, and I had a lot of fun selecting all the feedsack prints.  I have so many scraps now that I will probably design another doll quilt using feedsacks.  Right now, I have to go round up all the photos I took when I was making this top, and write the stupid directions.

There are certainly similarities between this quilt, and the Brother-Sister quilts I posted yesterday.  They both use several of the same toys (although the designs are somewhat different), and the trees are repeated the most, just like in the Brother quilt.  On this quilt, I like the addition of the child’s name on the top of the quilt.

This quilt reminds me a lot of the KC Star Happy Childhood quilt from 1932, which I will post next.  Instead of duplicating blocks on these quilts, I think I would borrow some of the Happy Childhood blocks and also mix up some of the blocks in the brother-sister quilts.  Although a boy might not want dolls on his quilt, any of the brother blocks would also work for a girl.  Click on the gallery images to enlarge.

The plan for this Scottie quilt top was to make kits, but I wasn’t happy with it because the scale was all wrong.  I was concerned about the number of pieces, and not making it too difficult to sew, but I think it would have looked much better with smaller scotties.  The top below is 19″ x 22″ and the square pieces finish about 3/4″. Because of the size problem, I decided to go ahead and sell this as a kit with a finished top and the other fabrics necessary to complete the quilt.  It sold right away, so maybe I’ll try cutting a version with smaller dogs (1/2″ finished squares), and probably change the pattern to remove the tiny printed triangle under his neck.

This might be a larger problem for me, as many of the quilt patterns I would like to make into beginner or intermediate kits (a house, for instance), and which have easy straight seams, become much more challenging when the pattern is shrunk to doll quilt proportions.  I’ll just have to keep working at it.  If they don’t seem kit worthy,  I guess I can always try to sell the tops.

I was so nervous, but I finally pressed the “publish” button on my Etsy shop.  You’ll notice if you visit the shop that I never did manage to get 24 items made; I only have 15 aprons and one measly quilt kit.  It’s actually pretty time consuming to put those kits together, but (with the exception of writing instructions) I love working on them.

The snowball instructions are almost complete, and I’ve drafted several new doll quilt patterns I’m pretty excited about — a heart quilt based on Emily’s bride quilt, a couple of adapted Anne Orr grid-type patterns using the vintage fabric from the barely started Anne Orr quilt top I purchased last year,  and a feedsack quilt using a variation of the Kansas Dugout pattern.

So, here is the one and only quilt kit for now.