A Time of Transition

Lowell Crazy Quilt, 1893 - 1904
Blanche Wiggin Staples (Robinson)
Lowell, Massachusetts
72" x 60"
Silks, satins, taffetas, velvets
Appliquéd, pieced, and embroidered.
Gift of Judith Hall, 1989

New England Quilt Museum

Extract from Catalogue:

Victorian Crazy quilts were frequently embellished with commemorative ribbons. Through their study one can learn about the maker and her family. Blanche Staples made this quilt when she was a young woman and signed it in the corner using a multicolored silk floss. A silk bandanna from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair serves as the quilt's central medallion. It is balanced at the four corners by side corners cut from a handkerchief containing the flags of many nations. Someone, maybe Blanche's mother, gave her a souvenir ribbon from the Women's Pavilion at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876 to sew into her quilt. Her father had political leanings, and perhaps offered Blanche the ribbon, which promoted Frederick T. Greenhalge's successful candidacy for Congress. Her parents were active Baptists and probably bought her the Adoniram Judson Centennial ribbon at Malden's First Baptist Church in 1888.

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When I started this blog
it was my intention to write for a year
and then stop.
I knew exactly what I wanted to write
and how it would finish.

But there is one slight problem.
I don't want to finish now.

I had not anticipated
that it would become this important to me;
that I would make wonderful friends;
that I might still have things to write.

And so I find myself starting the second year
but the design is less clear to me.
It is a time of change for my family.

I think that this year will be more like a crazy quilt,
a collection of random pieces that I will sew together
and hope that they make a coherent whole.

I want to share the ups and downs of my new job,
news from MasterM's gap year,
MissM's adventures in South Africa,
MrM's high rise Birthday Celebration.

And so,
if you are prepared to set out with me,
let us go in search of the first piece
for my new quilt of memories.