Lovely Ideas For January

I have so many projects in the works now but I really enjoy looking through the old magazines. Today's favorite was January's subscription to Arthur's Illustrated Home Magazine 1859. There are so many wonderful items in there to take note of. Here are my favorites:

I'm in love with this woodcut that opens the number. It is titled "These Are My Jewels". I can relate to this image of a mother in the presence of her darling children. They are her most precious possessions.

Since quilting has become my new long term project, this quilting pattern was very interesting as well. I really love the heart shapes. They really don't stand out as hearts so I think they will go well, or a version of this, on my Baby Blocks Quilt.

Being a lace maker, I was immediately drawn to this crochet imitation Honiton cuff and collar pattern. I wasn't able to find the instruction for this so I will need to go back and scour the issue again later. Most likely it will read that it can be made up easily from the illustration given.

And then there comes a cute story for parents about allowing their toddlers to learn to climb the stairs. I've read it before but skipped reading it today. However, it did bring a ready smile at the recollection.

Now that is something that I didn't remember from this issue. The Self Supporting Tournure. The main difference between this and our more recent cage supports is that the steels are represented by the vertical stripes and the horizontal are tapes. This is very interesting.

A tatted trim on chemise, petticoat, and children's clothing always looks lovely. The pearl is call a picot in recent times and this arrangement is very nice. Perhaps when I am bored of stitching my quilt pieces, I could work on some tatting. After all my shuttle is kept in my sewing box and is very convenient to take when visiting.

Speaking of my sewing box. This little needle book would look lovely in there. It makes my current needle book pale in comparison.

And of course there were other little project and nice stories to read but these were the ones that I wanted to note here, sort of as a reminder to myself. Perhaps I should start a notebook or two. One for quilting patterns and one for tatting patterns that can be kept in my sewing box for reference.


I have a bit of velvet, some bugle beads, cardboard, and ribbon. Perhaps I can take some time and put together that needle book some evening this month. We will have to see.

The Story Of A Baby Blocks Quilt

First Update - 12/9/2014
So far I have only been able to log 6 hours on this quilt. It seems that starting a big project just before the holidays makes for a very slow start. I also didn't realize how long it would take to cut all of those diamonds out of newspaper and scrap fabric and then baste the two. I'm actually having a lot of fun with this project, I'm just glad that I hadn't expected to complete it until next April.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Original Post - 11/24/2014
I am finally starting on an endeavor in quilting. I have fallen in love with a pattern and have been lent the instruction on creating it. I have some documented, period correct fabric with which to start. So, the next logical thing to do is get started.

This quilt will be a small child's quilt and done completely by hand. Here is an example of what I am going for:

The National Museum of American History also calls this pattern "Cubework" and "Boxes" and this particular quilt is made from 4" cotton diamonds. The overall measurements are 47 in. by 41 in.

I am very excited to get started on this project. I will be using the paper piecing method to construct this. It starts with creating a template and cutting out a lot of paper diamonds. Then the fun really gets going when I scour my stash scraps for pieces big enough and varied enough for this project. I'll just keep adding to this post for updates. So stay tuned.

Here's more quilting inspiration:
Follow Wrapped In Scarlet 's board Quilts on Pinterest.

Fishing Creels For The Boys

I saw the cutest little baskets, weeks ago, and knew I wanted them for the boys. They were a bit high in price and I wanted to do some research before I purchased them so we just got them recently. They are the cutest little oblong, lidded baskets with leather straps. They make perfect junior sized creels, except for the missing hole in the lid.

We picked up one for each of the boys. I'd love it if no fish ever was put in these but I'm not holding my breath on that one, these are boys after all. My intention for getting them was for packing lunches and toys for day trips to local events.

My biggest issue was in finding period examples in painting, woodcuts, fashion plates, stories, etc. I found plenty on fishing for grown men but very little for boys. As it turns out, fishing creels have not changed much in the last several hundred years. So the shape is correct.... I'm just stuck on how common they were in miniature size.

June Meals According To Mrs. Beeton

Plain Family Dinners for:
Sunday - 1 Salmon, trout and parsley and butter, new potatoes. 2 fillet of veal, boiled bacon, cheek, spinach, vegetables. 3 Gooseberry tart, custard.
Monday - 1 Light gravy soup, Small meat pie, minced veal with rolled bacon, spinach and potatoes. 2 Raspberry and currant tart.
Tuesday - 1 Baked mackerol, potatoes. 2 Boiled leg of lamb with young carrots. 3 Lemon pudding. Wednesday - 1 Vegetable soup. 2 Calf s liver and bacon, peas hashed lamb from remains of cold joint. 3 Baked gooseberry pudding.
Thursday - 1 Roast ribs of beef, Yorkshire pudding, peas, potatoes. 2 Stewed rhubarb and boiled rice.
Friday - 1 Cold beef and salad, cutlets and peas. 2 Boiled gooseberry pudding and baked custard pudding.
Saturday - 1 Rump steak pudding, broiled beef bones and cucumber, vegetables. 2 Bread pudding.

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Sunday - 1 Roast fore-quarter of lamb, mint sauce, peas and new potatoes. 2 Gooseberry pudding, strawberry tartlets, fondue.
Monday - 1 Cold lamb and salad, stowed neck of veal and peas, young carrots and new potatoes. 2 Almond pudding.
Tuesday - 1 Green pea soup,2 Roast ducks stuffed, gravy, peas and new potatoes. 3 Baked ratafia pudding.
Wednesday - Roast leg of mutton, summer cabbage, potatoes. 2 Gooseberry and rice pudding.
Thursday - 1 Fried soles, melted butter, potatoes. 2 Sweetbreads, hashed mutton, vegetables. 3 Bread and butter pudding.
Friday - 1 Asparagus soup. 2 Boiled beef, young carrots and new potatoes, suet dumplings. 3 College puddings.
Saturday - 1 Cold boiled beef and salad, lamb cutlets and green peas. 2 Boiled gooseberry pudding and plain cream.
 
 Things in Season
Fish - Carp, crayfish, herrings, lobsters, mackerel, mullet, pike, prawns, salmon, soles, tench, trout, turbot.
Meat - Beef, lamb, mutton, veal, buck venison.
Poultry - Chickens, ducklings, fowls, green geese, leverets, plovers, pullets, rabbits, turkey poults, wheatears.
Vegetables - Artichokes, asparagus, beans, cabbages, carrots, cucumbers, lettuces, onions, parsnips, peas, potatoes, radishes, small salads, sea kale, spinach, various herbs.
Fruit - Apricots, cherries, currants, gooseberries, melons, nectarines, peaches, pears, pineapples, raspberries, rhubarb, strawberries.

Boy's Brown Holland Pinafore

I have used my daughter's hand-me-down white cotton pinafores for my boys.... but now I know better. I can't say if mothers in 1860 did or didn't put white pinafores on their sons but according to the book and magazine instructions of the time, boys pinafores were to be of brown Holland.

Research on this fabric told me that I was looking for a utilitarian brown linen. Another period use was mainly furniture covers. I went with a beautiful mid-weight 100% linen that I scavenged from the thrift store for a dollar.

Here's my first attempt at a boy's brown Holland pinafore:

He really likes that he can play and get dirty and not ruin his clothes. I like that too. I've posted images of boys in pinafores here and boys with drums here. I couldn't help but add my new image to those posts as well.

Strawberries

This information about strawberries is taken from A Dictionary of Modern Gardening, 1847:

Varieties
Hudson or Scarlet - Grown almost exclusively for the supply of the Philadelphia market. It is distinct from the old Hudson in New York. It is undoubtedly the best.

Methven Scarlet or Keene's - Very large variety, sometimes exceeding five inches, it is but indifferently flavoured, but much admired for preserving.

Hovey's Seedling - A newly developed strawberry that is among the best. However, it needs to have other varieties planted alone with it.

Ross's Phoenix - Much praised in New York. A new variety that is hurt by drought where others are uninjured.

Cushing - A new variety from Philadelphia or Boston. (I'm not sure)

Myatt's pine - will grow profusely on light, rich, sandy, alluvial soils, near the sea. In such situations other strawberries are apt to throw out too many runners; and for such Myatt's plan is well adapted.

Others Listed but not described:
White Alpine, Old Scarlet, Grove End Scarlet, Roseberry, Garnstone Scarlet, Myatt's Eliza, Old Pine, Myatt's British Queen, Large Flat Hauthois, American Scarlet, Downton, Elton, Coul's Late Scarlet, and Turner's Pine.

The chief bearing time of these is from the end of June to the middle of July, but the White Alpine produces successive crops until November. I have even gathered from them a dish late in December.

If Alpines are planted on south west, east, and north borders, they will give a succession of fruit from June till December.

Beds, four feet wide, should be marked out with a foot alley between each, which is highly necessary to prevent those who gather the fruit from treading between the plants, and lastly, the runners are planted two feet apart. A bed thus made will last three years, without requiring anything further, not even so much as a top dressing.

The surface of the soil should be covered with straw, or the mowings from grass plots, during the bearing season, to preserve moisture to the roots of the plants, and to keep the fruit from being dirt splashed.

Colored Eggs For Easter

In The Every-day book or The Guide To The Year there is a very interesting history of the colored Easter egg. I especially like the part about the eggs being played with my young boys in the grass or thrown. These boiled eggs were marked with tallow and then submerged into dyes to add the color or they were dyed and then the dye was scraped off to make the design. Names of children, along with their ages, was marked on the eggs and the eggs were then given to then as gifts for Easter. To begin the reading you will want to go to the bottom of the first page where the title reads, "Easter Eggs".

Pictures With Santa

 

After we watched the parade in Gettysburg we decided to take a trip to the Wax Museum. While we were there we decided to look for Santa..... and we found him.

 

This is the Confederate Santa from the 1860s. Can you tell who was the happiest to make his acquaintance?

 

 

Starting On Winter Wear

It's still very nice outside but the cold weather will be here before too long so I think that I should start on some warm garments for my children. After the cold temperatures have arrived is not the best time to start on these things. I'd rather be well on the way with only a few finishing touches when Old Man Winter starts blowing in my door.

I am still planning on finishing my tan and burgundy dress for use at the Remembrance Day Parade, November 23rd in Gettysburg. My bonnet is acceptable as it is now and I only have a few touches to add to the jacket that I made last year. Mostly, I would like to make crochet closures for down the front of it.

I love lists so here goes:

~ crochet closures and maybe some trim for my blue jacket
~ red wool petticoats for myself and my older daughter
~ long sleeve tunic and belt for my son
~ short button pants for my younger son
~ pants for my older son
~ wool gaiters for everyone
~ traveling bags for myself and my older daughter
~ finally finish the wrapper for my younger daughter
~ gloves

Here's my list for the year. So far I am not on schedule but it's all fun anyway.

Footed Night Dress

I just love this little footed night dress found in Godey's 1858. This is such a cute project that I think I will add it to my fall/winter projects for this year.

Bags For Boys

I have been wanting to make a bag for each of my boys. They would benefit greatly by having a bag of their own to carry small toys and snacks. I will collect images on this topic and record them in this post.

Woodcut entitled Blessed Be The Peacemakers from Godey's 1858

 

This appears to be a cross body type bag with perhaps a loaf of bread in it.

A Child's Bedroom

Here is a neat peak into the bedroom of a child in 1858 from Godey's, of that year:

I really love all the details found in this woodcut. Starting with the wood floor and small carpet and ending with the exposed beams in the ceiling. Check out the great little horse pull toy tied to the trunk:

 

What fun details on the bed! Are we looking at a double mattress or a single mattress with two pillows? You can make out the stripped ticking on the bottom one. I love the carved bed as well.

 

 

On the table, I can plainly see a pincushion with pins and a box with a spool of thread. I wonder what sewing was being done as Mother tends her child?

 

 

Standing against the wall, behind Mother, is a large wardrobe. Wouldn't it have been fun if the artist would have left the door open so that we could peak in? Do take a moment and examine the window treatments. The curtains are lovely with their ruffled valance at the top. If you look closely you can also see a privacy curtain covering the lower sill. I wonder if the window is open, letting in a cool breeze?

A Balloon?

Is that a balloon that I see? Could it be? The description simply describes it this way: "The lad, edifying his sister and cousin with an explanation of the buoyancy of his new toy, has jacket and trousers of black kerseymere..."

From Godey's 1858

Aquariums!!!

Oh, how fun!! I just came across this, rather long, article entitled Marine and Fresh Water Aquariums. I am so excited! I will be keeping my eye out for a rounded bowl like the one illustrated. (Click Here for the full article)

 

Hair Handkerchiefs

I have read stories in period magazines where ladies would cover their hair with old silk handkerchiefs while they were cleaning the house. I had not given much thought to it until my daughter wanted to do the same. That is, wear a handkerchief on her hair, not clean the house. Here is an example of a working class/rural girl with a handkerchief on her head. She is sitting by water with a little boy who is fishing. They have a picnic basket with them.

Woodcut entitled The Fishing Party from Godey's 1858

Children and Wagons

Woodcut entitled Baby's Ride from

Arthur's Lady's Home Magazine June 1863

 

Unknown woodcut from an earlier post (here)

 

Guinea Pigs

"It is a very pretty little animal, with pretty black and orange-coloured spots on its fur; but the hair of the fur is so coarse that it is of little value. It is easily tamed, but only on account of its stupidity..." 

"A guinea-pig has sometimes a litter of twelve little ones, generally six or eight; this happens several times in the year, and often these little ones, before they are two months old, have little families of their own."

"It is a pretty little animal, with a white and spotted fur, which is useless because it is so coarse."

from Pleasant Pages 1850

Here is a story about the authors experience in having cavies as house pets, allowed to run loose in the house.

from The Leisure Hour 1859

"Guinea-pigs are far less popular now among boys than they used to be, and no wonder, for they are stupid little things, and, as our old gardener was accustomed contemptuously to observe of a specimen on which we lavished much unrequited affection, in our younger days, are "of no use to nobody". All they seem capable of doing is to give a pretty good imitation of a pig, as they run about grunting, from corner to corner. The guinea pig is a native of Brazil; it feeds on grain and fruits, and may be kept in a domestic state on sopped bread and vegetables, with an occasional slice of apple or a similar fruit. In its wild state the guinea-pig is extraordinarily prolific, and a single pair, it is said, might be multiplied so as to produce a thousand within a year. In their native country they would become absolutely innumerable, were it not for the many enemies against whom they have to contend. Among these may be enumerated dogs, cats, and other animals, which greedily devour their young, and inclement weather and damp, by which vast numbers are annually destroyed. In size they are considerably less than a rabbit; the upper lip is only half divided; they have two cutting teeth in each jaw, and their ears are broad and erect. They are of varied colors, white, black, and fawn the tortoise-shell (i.e.), a mixture of three colors, is generally preferred. Some of the white ones have red eyes, similar to ferrets and white rabbits. Their flesh is said greatly to resemble that of the rabbit in flavor; and it is moreover asserted, that these kept in houses contract the flavor of the wild, or warren rabbit, while the guinea-pigs that run about the garden have the more insipid taste of the domestic rabbit; but we do not think our young friends will make the trial."

from The American Boy's Book

from The Illustrated Natural History 1865

Curls and Parts

I'm finding a few images of girls with curls and girls with off center parts. Here is where I will post them for future reference.

This one is obviously from the 1850s but I like the curls.

This is my favorite so far!!

This one has a side part and curls. Love this!!

The little girls standing has no part

Here is an intentional side part. This is not just a little off center.

This last one is just for fun to show that you can have curls at any age.

 

Children - Der Bazar 1862

 

There were other images of children in this issue of Der Bazar but I really like this one, mostly because I have not seen it in other magazines of the time. It would be nice to read German so I could see what the descriptions are.

 

What do you suppose the girls, with bowls, are doing?

Rag Curls Video

We love rag curls but they take so long and come out frizzy. I found this video and we will be trying this technique very soon....