The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 30, 1906, Page 9

MAGAZINE SECTION PART XL S T SHRC By Saral h Williamson Weaving Memories The old-fashic t has historic beautiful mem- bits of the gown HIM for the first time; h rst 1 ; her wed- aing dres s > silk that formed “his” wedding tie; a plece of the baby's first frock; a ribbon that the little in her hair; little-Jack’s and so on, every bit of story attached. viggin's “Rebecca” h Randeall was working a white qullt, with the central design surrounded by borders of rings, the outside marked with a teacup or tumbler, and the others, each smaller: until the last, which was the size of ber thimble. Sometimes families con- tinued the making of one quilt through the mother's lifetime, each adding & plece until & most elaborate affair-was produced quilt may be a mon- r a work of art. The average osit It is the most bination of armonjous at could possibly be imagined Greens and ellows and reds hout any regard fle in the dainty nd white or ue and pink interwoven in dlamonds pattern is most jar g Inhar- the rainbow gone mad. abin quilts eye in spite of being to all rules of art. I see a quilt that one of rtists migh Old Patterns g the designs in w h the were, placed in the t were rising sun, goose chase, pleced rhomboid, honeycombed 5 thiehem, dlamond trap and nine avement, oakleaf ase, willow chai et of fruit, plain basket, nine _patch, diamond, double swallow, even- trap (usually with alternate ‘patches), sunlight friendship center, devil's ar and circle, star and compass and Roman stripe. " patchwork .came a good later, rather in our own time, and one still finds women devoted to this form of plecing silks and satins. he willow chalr, log cabin and Roman etripe, also the rhombolds, were gener- made of woolen and. silk pleces, and were only lined and bound, not quilted. The others, those patched of small pleces, were quilted in diagonal lines crossing at right angles or in waves, but the showy patterns like the Star of Bethlehem, star and compass, rising sun basket . (sometimes with fruit In it, sometimes not), had very elaborate patterns worked in the white spaces between, Some of the [1%4 blocks 1ike the stars were put together with white. They used concentric cir- acles, orange, clover leaves and conven- tional designs.. Another popular pateh was a square of silk with side-pleces of velvet worked over the seams in cat stitch. The Roman .stripe had three. strips of silk or “cloth, about four inches wide. This pat.ern, with black satin of the same width between the stripes, makes a pretty sofa plllow. In Canada I saw ‘more patchwork quilts than I had ever beheld in my life before, and at-a.village fair.in Ontarlo - FIECED” o HOPIGOTD I saw an immense qullt on exhibition for a prize. Prizes are still offered at some country fairs in the United States for the best patchwork quilts. - In:Con- necticut, among the old familles, I saw mgny collections of ‘quilts, handed down from the great-grandmothers’ time. 'The craze 'for antiques prob- ably brought the patchwork quilt-again into favor. There are-a few familes in San. Francisco in-whose ‘houses. I have seen patchwork guilts—evidences of ‘the possession of a ‘great-grand- mother. - The majority ' that owned them, however, regarded them as they do country cousins, not for axhlbltl; to their smart friends. Thelir resur- rection as ‘“objets "de virtn” will doubtless cause a change of sentl- ment. “In the skies the bright stars glit. . tered, On the grass the moonlight shone, And ’'twas from Aunt Dinah’s quilting 1 was seelng Nellle ho-o-mie,." 1 was seeing Nellle homae. Nyl It. was from Aunt Dinah's quilting LDURTE CTION > QQQ < °0°