I’ve written several times of Nina F. Hardy, the Wayne County cousin who came to Wilson around the same time as Jesse and Sarah Henderson Jacobs. In a way, she was returning home, as her grandmother Catherine Boseman Aldridge likely was born just below Elm City in what was then Edgecombe County.
Many years ago, I connected with J.M.B., the great-grandson of Jefferson Farrior, the man for whom Aunt Nina worked for decades as a cook and nursemaid. He shared dozens of photos of her at work at the Farriors’ enormous house on Woodard Circle. Last week, he sent another rare treasure — a crazy quilt Aunt Nina made shortly after his mother was born in 1945. Pieced from bright bits of synthetic fabric in florals and geometric patterns, it features intricate contrasting stitching in bold threads.
Any sewing or quilting or fabric experts out there? I am correct that these are synthetic fabrics? From the 1930s and ’40s? And the neat embroidery stitches were hand-sewn?
I appreciate J.M.B.’s return of Nina Hardy’s handiwork to her family. He has been a generous source of information about our beloved cousin.
The embroidery is hand sewn, yes. And the fabrics look to be yes synthetic maybe rayon. I think the brown floral in the second photograph is 1930s. Floral prints were very popular in the 1930s. The other prints look early-mid 1940s so 1945-1946. Often they made quilts with fabric that was left over from earlier projects so 1930s-early 1940s would fit. And I am following you because I’m admin of a southern american history group but I, my mother and both grandmothers sewed a lot is where I’m getting the fashion history.
Thanks for the insight, Sarah! My guess was rayon and that they are scraps from a dress or blouse making.
I cannot claim to be a quilt expert, but I can say that Nina Hardy’s hand stitching is beautiful. It is difficult from a photo to determine if these colorful shapes were machine stitched together first or hand stitched for the initial joining, but the top stitches are definitely hand done embroidery using a variety of threads, some of which appear to be metallic. I clearly see some feather stitching (between the paisley and floral shapes) and some couch stitching (between the solid pink and purple) as well as maybe some fern and fly stitching. I also see what appears to be some lazy daisy stitches (between the purple and floral) that are placed in such a way that they criss-cross each other at regular intervals creating a beautiful vine-like stitch.
I have definitely seen that floral motif on some of my paternal grandmother’s quilts. This shape looks like brown, olive, orange, and ivory. I think I have seen this same design with a deep mauve where the brownish part of this motif is located. If I remember, that was part of a baby quilt Grandmother Smithie Price made for me. It felt like a bit of flannel and was very soft fabric. Most of her quilting was done with fabric from old clothing and feed sacks. Synthetics were rare in her fabrics, but there is certainly a possibility that Ms. Hardy’s quilts contained synthetics as well as cottons.
I’d be interested in knowing whether these fabrics are thin or thicker–and of course in any other information you gather about them.
There is a nice guide to embroidery stitches at the website below. Perhaps it will help in identifying some of the other sections that are not in the detail photo.
Thank you for sharing this–brings back lots of memories of quilts of times past!
https://www.dmc.com/US/en/sbs-embroidery-stitch-diagrams
Hi, Debbie! None of the fabrics are cotton. They’re all of a very thin fabric with a weave so tight as to be invisible. Many have a slightly textured surface. I’d guess material used to make dresses or blouses. The quilt is in good shape generally, but dry rot has set in in some of the “squares.” Thanks for the guide!