It's Almost Spring--Flowers!

Last Friday a friend and I went to the New Jersey Flower & Garden Show where we saw beautifully landscaped gardens and prize-winning flowers. There were ten Movie Classics-themed gardens, competitions, and lots of vendors. It was a nice "pick-me-up" for this time of year. I once made a quilt, Whispering Woods, featuring appliqued wildflowers and lots of pink and purple fabrics. And, I treasure two large floral applique pictures that my mother made--Violets and Black-eyed Susans.

 This Cyclamen was a blue-ribbon winner. It was absolutely gorgeous!

"Gone With the Wind" landscape.

 Lots of cotton! Can you imagine creating all these cotton plants? 

 

"Spy Pollinators Out the Rear Window"  featured a lovely garden of spring-flowering bulbs.  

This one is "Polar Expression: A North Pole Garden" with primroses and hyacinths. And lots of polyfil for snow.

A section of the "Willy Wonka" landscape with a pond. 

I made Whispering Woods specifically for Dreamscapes: The Patterned Imagery of Quilts, Works of 9 New Jersey Fiber Artists in 1989. I wanted to focus on the four wildflower blocks instead of the center of the quilt.

This one is Rose Mallow. My own challenge was to use at least one plaid and one decorator fabric to see if I could make them work together. The plaid fabric frames the floral applique and the curved decorator fabric surrounds the block.    

My daughter and I like to go on walks and hikes in search of wildflowers. A sweet little flower, Hepatica. 

 

This one is Purple Trillium found in Wilmington, NY.

My all-time favorite wildflower, Lady's-Slipper. Seen in the Adirondacks.

My mother appliqued "Black-eyed Susans" for her sister, Midge.

And "Violets" for her sister, Leila. Note the little lace rosette with a velvet bow.

Appliqued Heart Blocks and a Heart-shaped Gravestone

I realized I had quite a few photographs of quilts containing appliqued heart blocks so thought I'd post them for Valentine's Day. Also, there's a gravestone in the shape of a heart at a local cemetery with no information other than a last name.

The 4th block down on the left is my favorite in this c. 1857 Applique Sampler Quilt. It has naturalistic leaves and four-hearts in the center. The quilt is owned by the Historical Society of the Plainfields.

Here is a detail.

This is my version of that block which I turned into a small wall hanging. I named it Tulip, Sassafras and Maple. I literally picked the maple leaf off a tree to use as a template. 1994-1996. 

There are two heart blocks in this 1864 Bride's Album quilt in the collection of the Newark Museum.

Detail. Top row third from left. 

Detail 5th block down on left, Hearts and Crossed Sassafras Leaves. 

 

Rhinehart Album Quilt, dated 1852, Newark Museum. This is a huge quilt (121 blocks) and I was only close enough to photograph the blocks at my end of the table.  

This block displays an assortment of  symbols including the familiar heart-in-hand. "Mr. E. Rigby" in cross stitch.

There are three heart blocks in this quilt top which is in the collection of the Montclair Historical Society.

Oak Leaf and Reel with Hearts.

Double Hearts with signature "E. Duncan" in cross stitch.

Four-heart center with hearts in corners. Initials "M C S" in cross-stitch.

I'm calling these "musical hearts." This quilt was shown at one of the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Study Group meetings last summer.

Here are four simple hearts in a lovely Turkey red print. Note the block just above it that has a heart within a heart. This quilt was made c. 1850 in Mannahawkin, Monmouth, NJ, and is owned by one of my quilting friends. Isn't she lucky? 

 

I've always liked this crude heart-shaped gravestone with its inlaid stones at the Whippany Burial Ground. In the 1930 census there is a Thomas Daven, 54, widowed, living on Troy Hills Road, Hanover Twp. I wonder if this is his gravestone. 

My Great Grandmother "Odie"

My maternal great-grandmother, Henrietta Friederike Wesler Strubbe was born in Bremen, Germany in 1861. She emigrated to the United States in 1876 and married Heinrich Wilhelm Strubbe in 1881 in NYC. They had five children, three lived to adulthood. The Strubbe plot is in Hoboken Cemetery in North Bergen, NJ. I've only been to this cemetery once but am about to go again. Last year a distant cousin contacted me after she found my "Another Davis Family Tree" on RootsWeb. We shared our Strubbe stories and photos and now we are finally going to meet each other for the first time. Where? At the cemetery, of course. She wants to give me a photograph of my William that she's had for 30 years. I can't wait! 

I created a photo book for my brother's birthday and put this picture of Odie on the cover.  

Henrietta and her mother, Juliane Johanne Dietzmann Wesler.
 

Henrietta made this cross stitch sampler when she was twelve years old. It is signed and dated 'Henrietta Wesler 1873.'

My gr-grandparents ran the Kroger & Strubbe eating house in lower Manhattan from about 1884-1890. Henrietta did all the cooking. I believe that's William on the left with their daughter, Lilly, who actually died of meningitis at the age of 3-1/2 in 1885.

William with his daughter (my grandmother), Elizabeth Henrietta Louise. Family lore is that Etta wanted to try out for the Follies but her father would not hear of it. Hmm......

My gr-grandmother spent hours sitting in her rocking chair crocheting. Among the many items that she made were tablecloths for each of her granddaughters when they got married. 

After my father died, I actually found Odie's afghan tucked inside his hide-a-bed sofa. What a surprise!

And here I am sitting on the afghan with my Aunt Midge--many years ago:-)