Our Charming Thursday this week features Aunt Purdy's Parlor fabric collection. Sometimes, one piece of fabric inspires an entire line. As a little girl, I was blessed to have my Gramma (Dad's mother, Ethel) live in the same town. She was born in the 1890's, lived without indoor plumbing until adulthood, grew and canned most of their own food, baked the best bread ever and sewed her own cotton house dresses. I only remember seeing her in pants once when she was riding a horse. She was a classic Kansas farm wife of the depression. As a rare treat, I was allowed to accompany her to The Aunts' house for tea. Her mother's sisters had lived together, unmarried, in a wonderful old Victorian-inspired house with a sprawling wrap-around porch, gingerbread trim and a round turreted 2-story room. Everyone in town knew them as Aunt Dode (Dorothy) and Aunt Purdy (Prudence). When company came to visit, they served tea in the round room filled with velvet-colored chairs, lace curtains and tons of breakable curiosities. It was such a treat to wear a dress during the week with my patent leather Mary Jane's click-click-clicking on their gleaming wood floors. Tea was served in beautiful cups with saucers along with tiny biscuits or cookies. I was served milk in my tea cup and sipped as gracefully as I could, hoping not to slurp and have it echo in the round, high-ceiling tea room. I tried to sit perfectly still while Gramma and The Aunts visited about the weather, their gardens and the latest news in town. I felt so grown up. Mom claims The Aunts both died within a couple months of each other in their late 80's when I was only 4 or 5 years old. When I saw a swatch of vintage fabric with a viney floral print that reminded me of the wallpaper in the round tea room, I could almost smell the lavender and roses that permeated The Aunts' home. It brought back such strong memories that I felt compelled to assemble a fabric collection to pay tribute to these wonderful women. Isn't it interesting the little things that make such a strong impact in our lives? Somehow, as a very little girl, I recognized the strength and unique characters of these women and have carried that with me thru my life. Is there a strong female role model from your childhood that has influenced you?
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Both of these projects are in the booklet, Aunt Purdy's Parlor. Both are pieced using the same block - Spinning Stars is a 9" block on point in red/tan/navy while Aunt Purdy's Petals is a 12" block with tan centers and a little raw edge applique to make them look like tulips. Too fun!
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One of my favorite sayings is:
Here's to Good Women - may we know them, may we raise them, may we be them.
Here's to all the good women out there who quilt and give of themselves every time they share a quilt with someone they love or someone in need. Quilters are the best women I know!
Both of these projects are in the booklet, Aunt Purdy's Parlor. Both are pieced using the same block - Spinning Stars is a 9" block on point in red/tan/navy while Aunt Purdy's Petals is a 12" block with tan centers and a little raw edge applique to make them look like tulips. Too fun!
One of my favorite sayings is:
Here's to Good Women - may we know them, may we raise them, may we be them.
Here's to all the good women out there who quilt and give of themselves every time they share a quilt with someone they love or someone in need. Quilters are the best women I know!
Both quilts are very stunning! And what sweet memories.
ReplyDeleteWhat a sweet story (and such pretty quilts)!
ReplyDeleteI've also been blessed to have many strong, positive female role models in my family (starting with my own mother)-- not to mention several others (such as some of my favorite school teachers).
What a wonderful experience you have as part of your history. I grew up close to my grandparents. My grandmother never drove. I remember staying over night at her house and roller skating (I skated, she walked) to the bus stop to ride the bus to the store. I got to buy something at the dime store.
ReplyDeleteI think Aunt Purdy's Parlor is the line that was out when I first began to notice Kansas Troubles fabrics in the quilt shop. It holds a special place in my heart. I might have a few pieces of it left.
Kathy in MI
Such a great story - can you imagine not having those great memories? I had a lot of great role models growing up...my mother, aunt, grandmother, a couple of wonderful teachers and an awesome employer. Funny how different people touch our lives in different ways...
ReplyDeleteI love the memory you shared. Reminds me of a great-aunt we visited in south eastern Idaho when I was a child. We spent the night and as my great-aunt was making up the beds, she ironed the sheets first! That was new to me. Their home was filled with little treasures collected over a long, full life and I loved exploring, carefully, the knick-knacks on the shelves and end tables. There was a wonderful cottage garden where I could get lost in the tall perennials that surrounded the house.
ReplyDeleteThat is a great quotation about good women.
Love your remenicience (sp?) of the old aunts. I know how smells can follow you into adulthood. I've only been to my paternal grandmother's once in my young life..she died when I was 7, but when dad took me to the house many years later, the smell instantly brought back that memory! Amazing how our brains work!
ReplyDeleteWonderful memories, I think that is what we like about quilts, it reminds us of the simpler times and home.
ReplyDeleteDebbie
What a precious memory! I'm envious that I never had the opportunity to meet your aunts and have tea in that wonderful room. Thanks for sharing - I'll be carrying that story around with me for days, I know.
ReplyDeletesunshdws at yahoo dot com
That is such a neat memory to hold near and dear to your heart. Really special. I grew up near both of my grandparents--Italian immigrants on one side in the city and English immigrants on the farm. I remember them fondly and still consider myself a "Nebraska Farm Girl".
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely memories! My mom is still with us, but at 93 with advanced Alzheimer's disease, she's a different mom than the one that raised we four kids. That mom was my Campfire Girls leader, a quilter and garment-maker, a basket weaver, spinner of wool from our sheep Sunflower and Lamb Chop, maker of bobbin lace and tatting projects, fabulous cook and so much more. She's almost blind now, but loves to feel the quilts I make, and can almost see them if there is enough contrast between light and dark. Pat(dot)Chubb(at)me(dot)com.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wondeful story and an inspriing post!! Yes, I have had some wonderful women in my life. My Aunt Bob and Aunt Myrtle come to mind. Love Purdy's Petals. Thanks for sharing your wonderful aunts with us!
ReplyDeleteWhen I started quilting my mentor suggested that I would like Aunt Purdy's Parlor - and I love all the Kansas Troubles line now. Would be so pleased to win the fabric. thanks - Lana
ReplyDeleteStar quilt is very nice...love how it reminds me of an braid around the border. Colors are wonderful. Karin E :)
ReplyDeleteGreat story. Thanks for the chance to win.
ReplyDeleteMary
What a great story. I hope I can someday be a grandmother that can create such lasting memories; like those of my grandmother. Janet H.
ReplyDeleteI loved your story and it brought to mind my great Aunts and great grandmothers. Thanks for the chance to win some of this sweet fabric.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great story~ and wonderful memories. I love the Great Women quote! Have a happy day!
ReplyDeleteLovely story, thanks for sharing. Love both of those quilts too. Linda
ReplyDeleteWe were blessed to have our grandmother (mother's mother) live with us as we were growing up. I learned so much from her, especially her love of fine handwork. She taught me to embroider, hem with invisible stitches, etc, and the time spent with her was precious. Your quilts remind me of some of her quilts. Lynn
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful experience for a young child, obviously they made a great impression on you. You were fortunate to have them in your life.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great memory! I had a two gr,gr,gr,gr,grandmothers named Prudence --- one on my father's side of the family and the other on my mother's side of the family. Don't know why I didn't make a quilt with Aunt Purdy's Parlor.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing such a wonderful memory. I had my great grandmother live with my family and she was the one who taught me some hand quilting. I have her sewing box and cherish it! The two quilts are lovely!
ReplyDeleteOh, what a lovely story and a such a wonderful way for you to honour your aunts. My mother is now 84. Her two sisters who are 78 & 80 never married and have lived together all their lives. They recently came to visit my mother and the moment they walked in the door the years melted away and they stood hugging and laughing like school girls once again.
ReplyDeleteHi Lynnne~
ReplyDeleteThis has to be one of my all time favorite fabric lines. It might have something to do with getting to take a workshop with you & working on Aunt Purdy's petals. It's nice to hear the inspiration behind the fabric line. Please don't include my name in this week's drawing because I was lucky enough to win already.
Have a wonderful day~Becky
What a lovely memory. My Grandmother never went with her apron, I never seen her walk around the house without one. She made them all, might have even made her dresses. She was a quilter, both of my Grandma's were. One loved to hand quilt the other loved to cut and piece. She alway had fabric and her cardboard templets on the dining room table. She even let me help by drawing lines around the templates so she could cut them out. I only wish I had my Grandma that loved to hand quilt teach me how. She was a beautiful quilter. Memories... what a wonderful thing!
ReplyDeleteOnalee
What a wonderful story!
ReplyDeleteI was fortunate that I had several strong women in my family as I was growing up. I vaguely remember my Great Aunt Anna and I always associate pretzles with her. My great grandmother was her sister and she was also a strong influence. Then there was her daughter, my grandmother who wing walked on bi-planes in the early 1920's and could sew better than most tailors. Then of course my mother and my aunt.
Hopefully, I'm carrying on the tradition and passing it on to my daughter and to my son who will hopefully marry a strong capable woman.
Cynthia
Great story and quilts. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful post, Lynn! Your Aunt Purdy reminds me of my Lithuanian grandmother, born in 1878. She never rode a horse or wore pants, but did all of her own sewing. She was a tailor by trade and gave me my first sewing lessons -both hand and on her treadle sewing machine in her classis broken English. I can still hear here speak in my mind and it brings tears to my eyes!
ReplyDeleteCheers!
What a great family memory and story Lynn, your Aunts must have been amazing women. I guess my Mum has always inspired me to achieve the best I could. She was a young adult during the 2nd world war, lived through the blitz in Northern England, was a Land Army girl and has always had a needle and thread in her hand. Until the last couple of years anyway, now Alzheimer's has robbed her of those memories and the ability to sew anything, but she's instilled a wonderful legacy in me and for that I'm eternally grateful...
ReplyDeleteLizzie
xxx
I LOVE Aunt Purdy's Parlor. I used alot in my big quilt and I wouldn't mind having more. My MIL was an inspiration to me. She taught me how to knit and crochet and was a great grandmother to my children. Thanks so much for another great give-away
ReplyDeleteWonderful memories,beautiful quilts..
ReplyDeleteJulia ♥
I love your favorite saying. You have some great memories to hold on to.
ReplyDeleteI just love your story about your aunts! They sound wonderful and what a joy to have known them! I'm sure they would both be thrilled that you named this fabric line after them (gorgeous by the way!).
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your special memory. I've enjoyed hearing what inspired you to design your fabrics. Aunt Purdy's memory will live on in that beautiful quilt.
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome tribute to the inspiring women from your childhood!! I love listening to stories from the past--when simplicity was just the way of life. I wish I had recorded some of the stories my great grandmother shared with me as a child.
ReplyDeleteWow Lynne, what an awesome story, it was wonderful to read and to be reminded of amazing, strong women who have influenced our lives. One of the women in my life was my Great Aunt Polly. She lived at the edge of a tiny town in upstate NY. I used to spend summers there as a child. She also always wore cotton dresses, did a lot of canning and grew the most beautiful gardens, both vegetable and flower. She had an amazing patch of Lily of the Valley right by the front porch. I was always amazed that such a tiny flower could have such an intense smell. To this day they are my favorite flower. Heres to Aunt Purdy's Parlor!!!
ReplyDeleteI didn't have an Aunt Purdy but my Gran's place was simple with no indoor plumbing or electricity. Reading your story about your Aunts, made me almost feel I was watching a Walton's episode.(one of my favourite tv shows)
ReplyDeleteI have not seen this line of fabric, but then I don't have a local quilt shop. The closest full service quilt shop is almost 3 hours away for me.
What a sweet tribute to someone who obviously meant a lot to you.
A beautiful story! Thank you for sharing it. I will be thinking of that story all day now and remembering what I can of my great grandmother. Too many miles kept us from visiting her often, but the memories are sweet and lasting.
ReplyDeleteLoved your story about your "Aunties" - thanks for sharing - brought back memories of my Granny who lived in town and I got to go in from the country and stay with her and Papa often. I rember the most wonderful smell in her home and wish I could have captured it and open it up every so often. Granny died in February of this year, at the age of 102. Miss her! But have lots of fond memories. I also love the: "Here's to Good Women" saying. I am going to adopt that as one of my favorites. Thank you so much for sharing, and for the chance to win. HUGS... and stitches
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your story about your Grandmother and the "Aunts". It reminded me of my sweet Grandmother, Hannah, who had a very hard life. They lived in a tiny one bedroom home, but it was spotless! The table was set just so, with a nice cloth and also cloth napkins, always home cooked scones or shortbread or little pancakes, and no-one dared to start eating until Grandma said Grace. She was always dressed in one of the cotton frocks that my Aunt sewed for her, and a full apron, stockings, house slippers, and her only jewellery ever, was her wedding ring and a small strand of pearls. If she needed to go out to the shop or such, she just had to remove her apron and put on her shoes, and she was ready!:)
ReplyDeleteI loved your story about the Aunts. I spent many summer days at my grandma's house and we often went to call on her friends. She did not drive, so we always walked when we went to visit. Such a great bunch of memories you stirred up.
ReplyDelete