Saturday, October 26, 2013

Tell Me How You Like Your Tea


"Ladies All I Pray Make Free.
And Tell Me How You Like Your Tea."

If my china cabinet wasn't full of quilts here's what I'd collect.


Women's Suffrage china.


Saucer

Another version

Cup bottom

The Victoria and Albert Museum has a black saucer in this series, which they credit to Thomas Fell & Company in Newcastle, England, about 1850, lead-glazed earthenware, transfer-printed in underglaze.
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O149287/saucer-thomas-fell-co/

Here's a later cream pitcher
John Carr , Low Lights Pottery, about 1870
North Shields, England

Angel of Freedom 
Designed by Sylvia Pankhurst
Bone China
H. W. Williamson, Longton, England



In the early 20th century the British Women's Social & Political Union commissioned china for Suffragette tea rooms. The WSPU Angel of Freedom was used at a tea room at a fundraising fair in 1909.


Angel of Freedom and Scottish Thistle
Commissioned from the Diamond China Company for 
a WSPU Exhibition held in Glasgow 1910

Read more about British china here:

And in this book preview

Votes for Women demitasse cups
Bavarian China commissioned by 
National American Woman Suffrage Association 

American suffrage organizations also commissioned china. Kenneth Florey characterizes this gold trimmed cup and saucer as the most widely distributed suffrage china. It says "Votes For Women" in the gold band.


Votes For Women

This original on this blue and white version is thought to have been commissioned by American Suffrage leader Alva Belmont in 1913 for a tea house at her Newport, Rhode Island, mansion. She had English pottery John Maddock and Sons do a rather extensive line of dinnerware.




Reproductions are available today.

Read about American and British china here:

Here are two sites that offer reproductions of the Belmont china:
1) Washington's Sewall Belmont House Museum

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Jo's Top

Grandmother's Choice
by Jo Tokla
68" x 79"

Jo has finished her sampler top---Blocks on point with striped edge triangles and a checkerboard border.

She used grays and yellows.
And kept up with the weekly block.

With a few improvements by her.

She couldn't do a Sunbonnet Sue so here's an adaptation of an old Nancy Page design
for the Brother/Sister Quilt

Her coffee cup is positively 3-D.

Read her blog post here:
jotokla.com/2013/10/05/block-forty-nine-an-arc/
Her layout sketches from EQ7 are here.
http://jotokla.com/grandmothers-choice/layout-ideas/

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Suffrage Memorabilia

Kenneth Florey has a book out this year called Women's Suffrage Memorabilia: An Illustrated Historical Study, in which he frames the history of the women's rights movement in posters, pins, photos and cartoons that illustrated the fight.


He also has a webpage on the topic:
http://womansuffragememorabilia.com/


I just ignored the sign-in pop-up by clicking on the X.
Check out the various topics. He has the subject of knick-knacks, graphics and propaganda covered.



Florey is a retired English professor at Southern Connecticut State University and a long time collector of Suffrage ephemera. He also keeps a bibliography of other books on the topic on the right.

And here's a blog post with more books on Women's Suffrage:
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/printers-row/2010/08/books-womens-suffrage.html

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Sets & Color

Rosemary used white to pull together a lot of color.

This week: Finished tops in alternate color schemes with
suffrage imagery. I've Photoshopped some of the pictures,
squaring them up and adding some parts missing from the photos.



Karen in Tucson
Bright colors side by side anchored with browns.


Ed 
Color complements blue-green and red-orange in
an on-point set.

Artist Duncan Grant won a British poster contest
with Handicapped!


Honas52
Color pulled together with a high-contrast check in
the cornerstones.

A 1916 Calendar


Quilting Piece by Piece
Icy blues and subtle golds



Coloring Outside the Lines
Jo Morton repros with an emphasis on muted greens
and warm browns.


Charlene's All Plaid
Red, white, blue and grayed shades.