Flora's Dutchman's Breeches
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The Quilt Top
When my Grandmother (Lura Rakes Dove) moved into Assisted Living in the 1990’s, her daughters cleaned out the house. Some of the things divided were quilts made by my Great Grandmother Flora. We always called her Grandma Rakes. I was lucky to receive one completed quilt – a Lone Star with a bright fuchsia background. My Aunt Edna, Lura’s oldest daughter saved Flora’s quilting supplies. There were 3 finished quilt tops, blocks for about 4 quilts and her sample blocks and paper templates. This quilt is the first, and prettiest, of the 3 tops. My Aunt gave me all of the quilting things when she moved from her house. It has taken me a few years to get up the nerve to quilt it for her. I wanted to be good enough to do it justice. The top, as I received it, was just the blocks and the sashing between the blocks. I added the “border” of blue sashing and yellow cornerstone blocks. I found the blue fabric at a vintage dealer but the yellow is contemporary fabric. Adding the border really helped calm down the scrap fabrics of the blocks. This top was made in the mid-1960’s. There are fabrics in the quilt that my Aunt recognizes from clothing made in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. One pink on white leaf print is from one of Grandma Dove’s favorite dresses (see the far right close up photo below). |
I really struggled with the quilting on this. I knew that the block was called Dutchman’s Breeches but that’s it. I posted for help on a longarm message board and that’s where I found out that DB is a flower. Next I found photos and drawings of the DB flower on the web and had a starting point for the quilting.
I started the quilting with SID along the sashing and cornerstones. This quilt was not square and some of the blocks were a little “baggy”. After stabilizing the quilt with the SID I started in on the breeches. I did SID around each which was very difficult since they are not all straight. Then I did 3 echo lines within each flower. This represents the veins on the flowers. I used a circle template to move from flower to flower in the center circle to create the 4 pumpkin seed shapes at the bottom of the 4 flowers. Next I worked the sashing. I had a lot of trouble coming up with a plan but settled on the pumpkin seed motif to mimic the unopened flower and it gave me some freedom to adjust the “seeds” to fit in un-even spaces. I finished up with free-motion Victorian feathers in the background spaces of the blocks. This represents the frilly leaves of the plant. I used Superior So Fine Thread in color 402.
I started the quilting with SID along the sashing and cornerstones. This quilt was not square and some of the blocks were a little “baggy”. After stabilizing the quilt with the SID I started in on the breeches. I did SID around each which was very difficult since they are not all straight. Then I did 3 echo lines within each flower. This represents the veins on the flowers. I used a circle template to move from flower to flower in the center circle to create the 4 pumpkin seed shapes at the bottom of the 4 flowers. Next I worked the sashing. I had a lot of trouble coming up with a plan but settled on the pumpkin seed motif to mimic the unopened flower and it gave me some freedom to adjust the “seeds” to fit in un-even spaces. I finished up with free-motion Victorian feathers in the background spaces of the blocks. This represents the frilly leaves of the plant. I used Superior So Fine Thread in color 402.
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When I knew her she would split her year living in the winter with my Grandmother (Lura) and the summer in Galax with Lura’s twin sister, Lillian. One day in Galax she was sitting in her chair piecing, she stood up, lost her balance and fell. When they found her she was lying on the floor but still had her sewing pieces together! She died 2 weeks later in the hospital with a broken hip.
Lura (on the right) had 3 daughter and one son. Each daughter had 1 daughter. My Mother also had 3 sons. Lura passed away August 2004 at 95. This is my favorite photo of my Grandmother in the 1920’s. |
The Label
I designed the label in Microsoft Powerpoint and printed it on fabric. It includes a photo of Flora and a diagram of the Dutchmans Breeches Flower. The back of the label is fused with a very light weight interfacing so that the backing fabric will not show through. I decided that it needed something to make it more special so I designed a mitered frame to go around the label. Basically I decided the size of the frame and cut 4 mitered pieces from interfacing the exact size of the frame. I fused the interfacing pieces to the back if the yellow fabric and cut it our ¼” larger all the way around. I machine stitched the miters, press up the ¼” edges, positioned the frame over the label on the back of the quilt and then hand-stitched it all down on both edges of the frame. It was awkward to sew but I like the end effect. About Flora I don’t remember much about Grandma Rakes. She died when I was not quite 8 years old. My only memory of her is seeing her at my Grandma Dove’s house sitting with her tin box of quilt pieces and hand sewing them together. I remember being a bit intimidated by her but fascinated by that box of quilt pieces. Her husband was a sharecropper died young (my Grandmother was about 13) and she raised her family in a small house in a “holler” near Galax, VA. This is the old family home as photographed in the 1960’s. 
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