Ye Crazy Fan and Kursheedt's Standard Silk Appliques

Ye Crazy Fan Started it All

Just recently while studying the patents for Kursheedt's embroidered silk appliques, I found an intriguing Design Patent by Fanny Gillette that was granted on July 1, 1884.  The stitch designs looked very familiar as I had seen them on MANY different ads, trade cards and in books and booklets.

The book Fancy Work Recreations by Eva Niles had a several pages of the stitches.  Singer offered 100 Crazy Stitches for Patchwork on a trade card with the Patented on July 1, 1884 date on it, using the same stitches.

T.E. Parker, Weldon's, Brainerd & Armstrong, Sapolio, Durkee Select Spices, plus others offered stitch guides using the exact same stitches.

Yale Silk Works, Weldon's, T.E Parker, Strawbridge & Clothier, Hanington, and others offered crazy block layout designs that used these stitches as a guide to embellish the seams. 

And it all started with Ye Old Fan.  The stitch designs ended up on crazy quilts.

FYI:  Fanny Gillette was the sister of King Camp Gillette of the Gillette razor fame; and daughter of Fanny Lemira (Camp) Gillette who in 1887, at nearly sixty years old, published the White House Cook Book: A Selection of Choice Recipes Original and Selected, During a Period of Forty Years' Practical Housekeeping.

Kursheedt's Standard Silk Appliques

Did you ever wonder how some magnificently stitched designs on crazy quilts did not seem to match the stitcher's ability to stitch the seams?  Were there multiple people involved?  Yes, and probably some machinery too. 

Back in the 1860's embroidery machines were developed and in the 1870s, Kursheedt imported several and started tinkering with them; and by the early 1880s started patenting some embroidery designs and machine modifications.

In the winter of 1883 and into 1884 Kursheedt started an advertising blitz across the country offering samples and trade sheets of their Fashionable Specialties.  Their designs were prominent in many of the ladies' fashion magazines of the day - Delineator, Demorest, Godey's, Ladies Home Journal, etc.  They even offered a quarterly magazine of their specialties.  By the end of 1884 and into 1885 - the height of the Crazy Quilt Era - ads and articles showing images of the Standard Silk Appliques were in many periodicals.  Godey's even offered one in color.   

In several articles involving fancywork, the Kursheedt appliques were mentioned as being "exceedingly handy for ladies neither the time nor taste for embroidery" with "hundreds of beautiful designs" to "finish tides, scarfs, mats, and toilet sets."

No mention of using them on crazy quilts, but we all know they were, as I have numerous examples on crazy quilts in my collection. 

 

All the Techniques, Patterns and Materials used in Making the Quilted Book

Presenting the Completed Book to the Elmira Piecemakers Guild Meeting in Feb 2023

Here I am presenting the book to my guild.  I wanted to reflect on all the patterns, series quilts techniques and materials used in making the book - there was a LOT!

Louise’s “Scrap” Book of Quilts

Series Quilts Represented:
Quaddy Quiltie / Bear Paw – Ruby Short, 1916
Roly Poly Circus / Churn Dash – Ruby McKim, 1923
Memory Bouquet – Eveline Foland
Old English – Margaret Techy, Cleveland Plain Dealer
Golden West – Mary Erckenbrack
Flower Garden – Ruby Short McKim
Grandmother’s Flower Garden – Nancy Page (Florence LaGanke, Ann Kerven)
Modernistic Flower – Cecil B. Mullen, 1933
Flowers of Fort Worth / Log Cabin – Lois Clayton DeRaine
Nursery Rhyme Quilt – Philadelphia Inquirer, 1920-21 (Helen Baxter, Jeannette McDowell)
Quilt of Birds – 1938 Nancy Page (Florence LaGanke, Ann Kerven)

Other Patterns Used:
Bear Paw
Churn Dash
Log Cabin
Wagon Wheel with Rooster and Cat from Hide and Seek – Feeding Bib Design by Grace. B. Cross, 1908
Cluster of Lillies – Kansas City Star, 1934
1862 A Comic Patchwork – Arthur’s Home Magazine and The Family Friend
Sunbonnet Sue – Eveline Foland
Ladies Art Co – Letter “C” for Cat
Crazy Quilt Block:
  Horn Blowing Rooster – John L. Salter Trademark, 1883
  Grasshopper – Mrs. Farnham’s Home Beautiful, 1884
  Owl and Moon Man – J.F. Ingalls Stamping Patterns Catalogue, 1886
  Initial “L” – Peterson’s 1880
  Spotted Fish – Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine, 1861
The Calico Tree – Nancy Page (Florence LaGanke, Ann Kerven)
Tittens the Curious Kitten (Cat Fishing in a Fish Bowl) – John S. Piper Stamping Patterns Catalogue, 1892
Flower Initials – Ruby Short McKim
Rainbow Quilt Block Company – William Bray Pinch
Patchy Gus – The Patchy Zoo by G. Selma Sauer, 1931
Mouse – Louise D. Tessin, The Beatsie Party (illustrated poem), 1922
1948 Graduation Quilt – designed by my Grandmother, Yvonne Charlebois Welburn
Random Faces – designed by my son Walter
Plus my own designs

I was nearing the end (page 34+) and still had a lot of things I wanted to include. One thing they had in common was elephants, hence, a Basket of Elephants:
  A Jolly – Circus Ruby Short McKim, 1921
  Slumberland – Lockport Batting Co
  Patchwork Zoo – Prudence Penny (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), Bernice Redington and Maxine Buren
  Circus Quilt – Detroit Press (big elephant in center)
  Big Top Circus – Omaha World Herald, Harry Rasmussen
  Patchwork Circus – Spring 1928 McCall’s
  May Day Baskets – Hurbert Ver Mehren

Techniques Used (in addition to standard machine piecing):
Hand and Machine Applique
Hand and Machine Quilting
Mud Cloth Painting
Hand Embroidery
Beading
Fiber Couching
Seminole Piecing
Needle Felting
Random Piecing
Shaving Cream Dyed Fabric
Bobbin Embroidery
Paper Piecing
English Paper Piecing
Sashiko
Fabric Markers
Crazy Quilting
Water Color Effect with Sharpie Markers
Yo-Yo’s
Wool Applique
Ribbon Embroidery
Tatting (vintage piece)
Crochet (vintage piece done by my mom)

Materials used:

Used both vintage/antique fabric/blocks along with new ones.
Cotton - Fabric, DMC Floss, Thread

Blue Jeans
Silk - Fabric, Floss, Thread
Huck Towel
Wool - Fabric, Roving
Linen
Various Content – Home Dec Fabric Samples
Digitally Printed (Text and NYS Map)
Fabric and Ribbon from a box of Valentine’s Chocolate
Poly Batting, Fusible Interfacing, Thread (including poly/cotton blends)
Tractor Cab Packing Felt