A Look Back

I was on a blog the other day and saw a button for NewFO's, well now I thought that was a good idea because I wouldn't want to get my sewing room out of balance by finishing too many things without starting new ones so I clicked the button and was taken to the blog of Cat Patches.  http://catpatches.blogspot.com.
I almost forgot to grab the button because I saw a quilt she was posting about, her "Two Grandmother's Quilt."  Always intrigued about the finishing of a quilt started years earlier, I browsed through the posts and knew her quilt to be "The Rhymeland Quilt" by Ruby S. McKim.  Ruby McKim was a designer who had many, many patterns in newspapers throughout the country. I will be posting about her in future posts.
While going through my research materials in an attempt to find information for Barbara at Cat Patches....

I came across my copy of the Modern Priscilla from September 1918, which combined Home Needlework Magazine and Everyday Household.  The publication had a woman Managing Editor but the editor was male.  A subscription cost $1.25 a year and was published monthly. The gentleman you see on this page is the Head of the Home Service Department of the American Red Cross.  The article in the upper left corner commends a lady for knitting 419 pairs of socks in the last two years for the war effort.

Of course the most interesting to me was the page on quilt making, the title "Calling The Quilts Into Service For Our Country"  encouraging the use of scraps and declaring that the other fibers are as warm as wool.  Further in the magazine you have the opportunity to purchase the embroidery pattern for 75 cents. I considered that a bit pricey when the magazine was $1.25 a year.  I have a pattern magazine from the 30's that sold for 10 cents and has several quilts with templates.  More about that later, I'm rambling again.

There were a couple of color page ads in The Modern Priscilla, one of the other ads was selling Bon Ami the rest are of course just black and white, but still fun to read.

.How about a silk dress for $7.98, The dress photos are illustrating how to conserve fabric when making garments.  There were lots of other very interesting information but these were a few of my favorites.  I have several old publications that contain quilt making, but  I believe this is my oldest.
In future posts I will talk about some of the others plus my collection of the Kansas City Star patterns, to whom Ruby McKim worked for and made many contributions.
Well, this has been my day, watching the big snowstorm outside, finishing only one block, and browsing through some wonderful quilt history....I better go sew something.  Enjoy your journey.