On this day in 1834, Catherine “Kate” Furbish, the first botanic artist in the “Garden of Maine,” was born in Exeter, New Hampshire. Furbish lived to be 97 years old and in her lifetime she collected over 4,000 sheets of dried plants and ferns she discovered around the state of Maine. The collection is now housed in Harvard University’s Gray Herbarium.

A unnamed quilter hand pieced this Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt around 1875 in Maine. The current owners documented the quilt in 1986 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina as part of the North Carolina Quilt Project. They purchased the quilt when they lived in Maine and although they do not know the name of the quiltmaker, they know that she was a neighbor of a woman named Clara Bowen.

View this quilt on The Quilt Index to find out! Read more about its history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view or click the “See full record” link to see a larger image and all the data entered about that quilt.

Source:
http://maineanencyclopedia.com/furbish-catherine-kate/

Posted by Amy E. Milne
Executive Director, Quilt Alliance
amy.milne@quiltalliance.org

How To Trim Flying Geese Without A Specialty Ruler

If you don’t have a Bloc-Loc ruler, you may find trimming these flying geese challenging. But by following these steps, you should be able to get four accurate geese in each color!

First, line up your ruler so the point of the flying geese unit will be trimmed exactly ¼” above the point. Try to line the unit up as straight as possible on the other three sides.

Next, flip the unit over. Line up the edge you just cut on the 2” line of the ruler as shown below, and trim the excess from the top.

Flip the unit right side up again. Line the lower left corner up with the 3 ½” mark on your ruler as shown above. Trim the excess on the right.

Finally, flip the unit over again so the point is pointing towards the 2” line. Align the left edge of the unit with the 3 ½” ruler mark as shown above and trim the excess on the right. Your flying goose unit is now ready to be pieced into your block!

Quilt Documentation Tip

Andrea’s block story is all about the importance of quilt guilds. Quilting can feel solitary, but guilds bring us together. It’s a topic of conversation that was discussed with two Birthday Block of the Month Designers in a recent Textile Talk where the participants all shared emotional stories about their love for their guilds.

Did you know that your guild can document your quilts as a group? Consider hosting a quilt documentation day in your guild! Follow these instructions and have members share three minute stories about one meaningful quilt in the Quilt Alliance’s signature Go Tell It documentation program. You could even host a screening so all of your members can see the videos! Get in touch at: qsos@quiltalliance.org

See You in October for Month Seven!

Thank you so much to everyone who has participated in the Quilt Alliance’s Birthday Block of the Month so far! Our designer for next month, the seventh block we’re making together, is Bonnie Hunter herself!

Be sure to tag @quiltalliance and @3rdstoryworkshop on Instagram with your block photos this month, and use the hashtag #QuiltAllianceBOM. And leave any questions about this month’s block in the comments below!

2 Comments

Pati Shambaugh on May 19, 2014 at 12:57 pm

Are we sure this is the right picture for this description? I believe I can see 1930s fabrics in the top.
Reply
- quiltalliance on May 19, 2014 at 1:15 pm
  
  Pati, you could certainly be right, but this is the date that the contributor, the NC Quilt Project, entered for this record.
  Reply

Quilt Documentation Tip

See You in October for Month Seven!

2 Comments

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