World War I Poppies - Finished!

Here it is, my own mixed collage interpretation of the World War I poppies:

Image and design copyright RPS

Here is a detail of the letter:

Image and design copyright RPS

The letter is actually a note on a postcard (copied onto fabric) that came with one of those wonderful scrapbooks that I found earlier this year.  There is no doubt that they came from a local family.  The postcard is a double length one:

The sender was apparently training at Camp Sherman in Chillicothe, Ohio.  The card is postmarked August 22, 1918 to a resident of Quaker City, Ohio.  Judging from the message, it was before the devastating influenza outbreak that occurred that year.  I wonder if the sender made it through the epidemic, and if he ever made it overseas.  The message reads:
        "Hello Rodney - How is the pike job coming?  We had some try out on Liberty trucks like they            take through there last Friday.  We will be driving trucks in France within a month from today if          we get over all OK.  We have a dandy pair of driving gloves & we get a Norfolk overcoat at the          port of embarkation wherever that will be we don't know.  But we can get a few shots of good              French wine, ha ha.

World War I Challenge Progress

Sadly, I am missing the entry deadline for this quilt, it is still not finished.  I'm not upset by missing the deadline, I will still finish the quilt and since I am going to be a vendor at the show it was to be entered into, I will have it on display (and for sale) in my booth.  I have a few more things to add to it, but here are a couple of detail images of the quilting and the very cool stamens in the poppies (hand stitched - straight stitches with French knots).  Enjoy!

images and design copyright RPS

This week is quieter than last, so I really have every intention of posting on Thursday... will it be about the finish of this quilt, or something else?

More Cigarette Silks

In an earlier post this year, I lamented the lack of cigarette silks in my collection of vintage textiles.  I have corrected that now, with this recent antiques mall find:

This is an unfinished project, done in the crazy quilt assembly style.  Most of the pieces are true cigarette silks, printed with flags of various nations.  The silks are larger than the two that I have already, these are about 3 X 4".  Two pieces are commemorative ribbons from social club events with a European ancestry requirement.  These identical ribbons are dated 1927, and I have no idea yet what language they are imprinted with... will have to investigate "Kesajuhlet."  The world of old social clubs and secret societies is a whole areal of study on their own, a fascinating study.... for someone else!

The silks are machine sewn to a piece of muslin backing, then lengths of satin ribbon were machine sewn over the seams,  The maker hand stitched over almost all of the ribbon with a herringbone stitch.  What I want to know (and never will) is why the yellow herringbone stitching on the top horizontal row stops half way across, and why four of the silks are upside down.

What is fun for me is making connections with these vintage objects,  I'll never know the maker or the answers to the above questions, but I am certain that the hand stitches are done in Glossilla Rope embroidery cording ("Brighter than Silk").  I found a stash of new-old-stock Glossilla at a recent quilt show:

I have found it to be impossible to pull through regular cotton fabric, but it works well for couching or for the weaving thread in whipped and threaded back and running stitches.  Someday soon I will try it through silk.

Collectible Textiles

For a few years now, I have been working on a freelance art history project that necessitates looking through a major city's  newspaper page-by-page (the papers are not indexed by subject).  One of the perks of this project is finding pieces of other puzzles along with what I am supposed to be searching for. 

Over the past few years I have bought a few of these:

They are printed cotton flannel, and they were given away with packs of cigarettes.  That was all I could glean from price tags at antiques shops and markets.  Thanks to an accidental research find, I now know a bit more about them.  I recently found ads for these flags in the 1913 Cincinnati Times-Star.  Mecca brand cigarettes offered the flags as premiums, and Omar brand offered printed flannel Navajo blanket designs, like the one in the lower left here:

The ads were quite large, taking up one quarter to one third of a newspaper page.  I cannot confirm if 1913 was the earliest appearance of these flannels (also called "felts" by antiques dealers).  Later on, I noticed that on April 1, 1914, Cairo cigarettes was promoting two flags with each 5 cent package; "One packed regularly in Cairo and an extra blanket given with each package for a few days only.  Flags of all nations in brilliant colors."  This ad also noted that the flags measured 5 1/2 X 8 1/4."  In the May 6, 1914 Times-Star, an ad appeared for a "Free 8 X12 [inch] American Flag Blanket with a 10c oval package of MECCA cigarettes."  On May 20, 1914, also in the Times-Star, another ad touted, "Beautiful National Flag Blankets are packed with Egyptienne STRAIGHTS." 

These flags were made quite cheaply.  I have found that most of them have faded over the decades, and almost all of the ones in my collection show varying degrees of dye bleeding, especially the red dye.  I have seen a couple of quilts made from the national flags flannels.  Since smoking was nearly taboo for women at the time, it is fascinating that the premiums for a men's product were targeted to women for sewing projects!  I think that the concept of a series of small items given away in cigarette packs goes back earlier than 1913.  Small cards with various printed subject series (military ships, sports, colleges, etc.) can be found.  Harder to find are the silks:

I've only been able to secure these two.  These silks were sometimes stitched into crazy quilts.  I'd like to look into crazy quilts that have dates stitched into them and include cigarette silks.  That would give a fairly good indication of when the silks were made.  However, that is a project for some other time.