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:-)

Fabric Diary

Some of my fabric scraps I throw into a wicker laundry basket and others I have "catalogued" by decade and stored in ziplocs. Sounds crazy, I know. So when I decided to make a quilt to celebrate the Millennium in 2000, I thought it would be a great way to use some of the fabrics in my collection. It took me seven months to make Fabric Diary.   

In 1999, I had repaired a quilt for a friend and really liked the design. I was so inspired that I decided to make a quilt that featured rows of 25-patch blocks with fabrics from different decades. The sashing is Millennium fabric which I purchased and the strips in the border are scraps from a quilt that I made for my daughter in 1995. 

 

The earliest fabrics are in the top row. They are ones that were given to me by a friend of my grandmother's when I was a sophomore in high school. Alice worked in the fabric department at Macy's in NYC and one day she dropped off a big box of samples because she knew I liked to sew. Now these fabrics are considered VINTAGE :) Oh, my!

 These '70s fabrics seem to multiply. I still have some, just in case.

The last block in the lower right has reproduction conversational prints and Millennium fabrics from my dear friend, Natalie Hart. We used to swap fabrics.

 

I'd been saving orphan blocks and rejects from other projects and decided to put them all together for the back of the quilt. It really is a conglomeration. Note the hanging sleeve at the bottom of the back. I sent the quilt out to be quilted and it was returned to me with the back on upside down.

I made this block at a workshop years ago. I never could figure out what to do with it.

And, here's a row of Album blocks that were totally rejected for another project.

There are fabrics in this quilt that will always remind me of the days when I was the family seamstress: a blouse or two I made for my mother; dresses, skirts, and tops for me, and coordinated outfits for my daughter.

18th c. Ledger-style Gravestones and Epitaphs

The Hanover Presbyterian Church Burial Ground in E. Hanover, NJ, has some very interesting ledger-style gravestones dating to the late 1700s. Each is set on its own base and each contains an interesting epitaph.

In Memory of

Mrs. Katharine Eckley

who, by a sudden Accident

died August ye 18th A.D. 1772.

Anno AEtat 46.

To this sad Shrine the Reliques we commend,

Of once the tender Mother, Wife & Friend,

Too soon, alas those tender Tyes were broke,

Friends, Husband, Children, felt ye fatal Stroke:

Yet cease fond Grief--no murmring Sigh arise,

Heav'n struck ye Blow--and Heav'n is just & wise.

Think dying Passenger: Life's final Date

Steals on thee, heedless of impending Fate,

While Pleasure courts thee with her smiling Charms

Prepare to meet thy God--the Tomb alarms:

Man cometh forth like a flower and is cut down.

                                                      Job. 14. 2.

The incised signature in the lower right corner of the stone is that of Ebenezer Price, a prominent carver from Elizabethtown, NJ. 

Next to Katherine lies her husband, Thomas Eckley, Esq., and their daughter, Susannah who died in 1791. Katherine and Thomas had emigrated from London to East Hanover by 1767.  

 

In Memory of
Thomas Eckley Esqr
who departed this life
the 15th July 1793
AE 72
We shall not all sleep
We shall all be changed
Then shall be brought to
pass the saying that is written
Death is swallowed up in Victory.

Reverend Jacob Green was the pastor of the church from 1746 to 1796.

Under this stone are deposited the

remains of the Rev,d

Jacob Green A. M.

First Pastor of this Church; who

died May 24th 1790 Aged 68 Years

of which 44 were Spent in the

Gospel Ministry in this Place.

He was a man

Of temper even, firm and resolute;

Of affections temperate, steady,

And benevolent;

Of genius solid, inquisitive

And penetrating;

Of industry, active and unwearied;

Of learning, various and accurate;

Of manners, simple and reserved;

Of piety, humble, enlightened,

Fervent, eminent.

As a preacher he was

instructive, plain, searching, 

Practical;

As a pastor, watchful

Laborious: ever intent

On some plan for the

Glory of God & the

Salvation of his flock.

And by the divine blessing

Happily & eminently

Successful.

 

Captain Robert Troup gained a reputation during King George's War in the 1740s and later during the French and Indian War.  

Here lies Interr'd the Body 

of Capt Robert Troup

Who died Dec'br 28, 1760

aged 60 Years

Tho Boreas Blast & Neptunes Waves

Have cast me to & fro,

Yet in spite of all by Gods Decree

I anchor here below.

Where I do here at anchor ride

With many of our Fleet

Yet once again I must set sail

My Admiral Christ to meet. 

 

The Rev'd 

Mr. John Pierson 

died Aug. 23d 1770 

AEtat 81

Who was a Minister of the

Gospel about 57 Years.

He was an eminent Divine

An excellent Casuist;

A Faithful searching Preacher,

A devout steadfast christian,

An undaunted Reprover,

A peculiar Oeconomist,

Stern in his Behaviour,

Yet benevolent & kind.

He past the meny Scenes of Life,

Without a Blemish in his Character.

The Memory of the Just is Blessed.

Abigail Green was born c. 1750, married Hezekiah Broadwell when she was about 19 years old, and died at the age of 31.

  Her gravestone has floral and tree motifs as well as a soul effigy with folded wings in the shape of a heart.

Here lie's ye Body of Abi

gail Broadwell, Wife of 

Hezekiah Broadwell

who departed this Life 

July ye 18th A.D. 1781

Anno AEtat 31 & 4 Mon's.

Love to her God her Friends her Country shon

In her, who lies entombed beneath this stone

Go passenger like her your utmost try

To live to some good end for you must die.

At some point I hope to do another blog or two showing more early gravestones in this cemetery.