Patchwork

“ Patchwork depends for successful effect upon skill in cutting out the several pieces which are to be stitched together. Patchwork is a sort of mosaic work in textile materials; and, far beyond the homely patchwork quilt of country cottages, patchwork lends itself to the production of{397} ingenious counterchanges of form and colour in complex patterns. These methods of appliqué and patchwork are peculiarly adapted to ornamental needlework which is to lie, or hang, stretched out flatly, and are not suited therefore to work in which is involved a calculated beauty of effect from folds. ”

“ But give the picture a chance—step back and view it from the far wall, and like as not you will find that these chaotic colours have blended and commingled, have ceased to exist as individual items and become merged in a single statement of meaning the artist intended to convey.
It is not always want of a single material that persuades the fashioning of a patchwork quilt. Patchwork, in its way, is as complete as are the green plush curtains that hang so soberly from the lacquered pole in your neighbour’s parlour. ”

“ At first I couldn't think what to make her of, but finally in searching through a chest I came across an old patchwork quilt, which my grandmother once made when she was young."
"What is a patchwork quilt?" asked Ojo.
32"A bed-quilt made of patches of different kinds and colors of cloth, all neatly sewed together. The patches are of all shapes and sizes, so a patchwork quilt is a very pretty and gorgeous thing to look at. Sometimes it is called a 'crazy-quilt,' because the patches and colors are so mixed up. ”

“ Of the Materials.—The materials necessary for patchwork are such portions of wearing apparel, whether cloth, calico, linen, holland, silk, velvet, cotton, &c., such as would otherwise be thrown away, or saved for the rag-man. No matter how small the portion, every scrap has its use. ”

“ They are used on occasions like the one now described for purposes of hospitality; but in the state bed, overshadowing so large a portion of the floor, the births and, as far as may be, the deaths, of the household take place. At the Corneys', the united efforts of some former generation of the family had produced patchwork curtains and coverlet; and patchwork was patchwork in those days, before the early Yates and Peels had found out the secret of printing the parsley-leaf. ”

“ Another economical bed-covering is found in the patchwork appliqué. In this bedspread there is no lining required, and cheap cotton material serves for the foundation, or old sheets, casement curtains, bolton sheeting, etc., that have served their purpose can be utilised. They can be tinted any shade desirable and, of course, must contrast with the colours chosen for the appliqué. A deep border turned up on the foundation in the form of a hem is attractive, as seen in the “Fleur-de-lis” design on page 81. ”

“ Patchwork.—Many improvements may be made in patchwork that most of us have been accustomed to see for years. It is a kind of needlework very interesting for little girls; and old ladies frequently resort to this for amusement by their cosy firesides, during the long winter evenings, when tired of reading. ”

“ Another beautiful piece of crazy work was a band for a portière in which two or three colors were so arranged as to shade from dark at the ends to light in the centre. The ornamentation, in this case, was extremely rich, and gold thread, etc., was lavishly used.
This patchwork can also be made from nice woolen pieces worked with crewels, and the latest attempt at it which I have seen was a bedside rug, made of odd bits of Brussels carpet, arranged smoothly on a strong foundation of hemp carpeting or ticking, and the seams covered with worsted braid worked with crewels and silks. ”

“ The feminine love of color, the longing for decoration, as well as pride in skill of needle-craft, found riotous expansion in quilt-piecing. A thrifty economy, [271] too, a desire to use up all the fragments and bits of stuffs which were necessarily cut out in the shaping, chiefly of women's and children's garments, helped to make the patchwork a satisfaction. The amount of labor, of careful fitting, neat piecing, and elaborate quilting, the thousands of stitches that went into one of these patchwork quilts, are to-day almost painful to regard. ”

“ Take a piece of thin muslin or cheese-cloth for a foundation, and on this baste your pieces, turning in the edges as in log-cabin patchwork. If you wish your work to be artistic have a plan or motive in laying out your work. ”

“ Carpets form a mosaic of small squares of worsted, or hair, or silk threads, tied into a coarse canvas, which is made as the work progresses. Owing to the comparative coarseness of the work, the designs should always be very elementary in form, and suggestive merely of forms of leafage, flowers,{26} beasts and birds, etc. The soft gradations of tint to which Tapestry lends itself are unfit for Carpet-weaving; beauty and variety of colour must be attained by harmonious juxtaposition of tints, bounded by judiciously chosen outlines; and the pattern should lie absolutely flat upon the ground. ”

“ All needlework, whether to be used on the table or on a bed, must, in a beautifully finished house, be fine rather than striking. Coarse linen, coarse embroideries, all sorts of Russian drawn-work, Italian needlework or mosaic (but avoiding big scrolled patterns) , are in perfect keeping—and therefore in good taste—in a cottage, a bungalow or a house whose furnishings are not too fine. ”

“ We are, as regards the main field of the wall, still unavoidably, though not disadvantageously, influenced by the tradition of the textile hanging or arras tapestry, no doubt; and certainly there is no more rich and comfortable lining for living rooms than tapestry, or, at the same time, more reposeful and decoratively satisfying. ”

“ Passing through a street, we look into the interior of a carpenter-shop, with its simple tools, its little pile of new lumber, its floor littered with chips and shavings, and its air full of the pleasant smell of freshly cut wood. ”

“ The outside of walls of houses, &c., are now frequently covered with stucco, a kind of plaster made with a lime that resists the action of water, when set, and which, if well managed, causes the wall to look as if built of stone. The mode of stuccoing walls is exactly the same as that of covering them with common plaster.
Origin of Paper-hangings.
In early times, wealthy people were accustomed to have the walls of their rooms covered with tapestry, which was a combination of woven cloth and needlework, somewhat mid-way between the sampler work and the carpet work of our own day. ”

“ Interior surfaces of buildings, textile hangings, carpets, all kinds of pottery, and almost every kind of object that presents a surface for decoration is treated with naturalistic transcripts of flowers, birds, animals, the human figure, as well as copies of landscapes and architectural views, all represented in a pictorial manner with more or less merit, but all misapplied work. ”

“ It need scarcely be said that tiles have rather increased in value than deteriorated in the eyes of the connoisseur, that the ornamentation of metal-work, wood carving and inlaying, gem and seal engraving, are exquisite of their kind, and that the carpets manufactured by skilled workmen, when left to themselves and their native patterns, are to a great extent unrivalled. Of the above-mentioned articles, carpets, shawls, woollen and cotton fabrics and silk stuffs are the more important. ”

“ The principle governing the treatment of main and lower wall spaces or fields, which teaches the designer to preserve the repose of the surface, may [241] be said to rule also in all textile design, and textile design has, as we have seen in the form of tapestry, and hangings of all kinds, a very close association with mural decoration. ”

“ Timber and plaster belong to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The oak turns hard as iron and is perhaps more enduring than iron, for the latter is eaten through in time with rust.
That which is destroying the old cottage is not the tooth of time, but the insurance office, which imposes heavy rates on thatched buildings, and when the thatch goes and its place is taken by slate, the beauty of the cottage is gone. ”

“ The matter of brick or mud floor and the amount of plaster laid on the walls depends on the wealth of the householder; but even a poorly-built house, such as our hotel, will show a good coat of plaster and blue or white wash to the street. ”

“ Diminutive, trim farms, like little gardens, give the appearance of a general carpeting by Turkish rugs of vivid and diversified design; each has its whitewashed cottage roofed in thatch or tile and set in orchards hedged with box and hawthorn. ”

“ It is curious to add that some of the tiles which have been found tell a silent tale, which they were never intended to carry, of the dress or hand or foot of the maker, which have become accidentally impressed upon their surface while in a soft state, and are afterwards rendered imperishable by firing in the kiln. One example of this kind of accidental ornamentation (Fig. 207) , which exhibits the impress of a man’s feet, or, rather, shoes thickly studded with nails,—like the “hob-nailed” boots of our own day,—will suffice as an illustration. ”

“ The houses are built—with a certain amount of substantiality, though with wonderful rapidity—of a species of rubble, which is plastered over and sometimes neatly ornamented with stucco mouldings. Internally, they are in general nicely finished with abundance of decoration, particularly at the painter’s hands; though one is sometimes annoyed to find that the plaster work is of such inferior quality as to be full of cracks, and even to give way and tumble down. ”

“ When everything is in readiness to commence work, a portion of the rough wall surface should be thoroughly saturated with water, and the plaster ground, or intonaco, should be laid on with a wooden trowel, beginning at the top and at an angle of the wall, and large enough in area to constitute a day’s work, or, rather, as much as can be done in about five hours ”

“ What beautiful arabesques might be taken from our forests, when in brilliant color, for frescoes or paper-hangings! What patterns for the dyer, and weaver, and printer; what models for the artificial-flower makers and embroiderers; what designs for the richest kind of carpeting! Before long, those beautiful models which fill the land every autumn, must assuredly attract the attention they deserve from manufacturers and mechanics ”

“ The very means that have been taken to preserve it seem almost a sacrilege, the fresh paint upon the wood-work outside, that shone in the spring sunlight, the new braces, plaster and repairs here and there, give the old building the air of an old man, an octogenarian, say, who had discarded his old-time rags and tatters for a suit of new cloth cut in old style ”

“ Wood carving, both inside and out, is such a feature of the houses as well as the temples that it deserves mention here. At the entrances to fine places and also on the slanting roof over the doorway of the house itself superb carvings are often seen. ”

“ Even after the plastering is dry, the floors laid, the windows in, and perhaps the greater part of the interior woodwork in place, the actual labor of finishing is but fairly begun.
Changes always cause delay more or less serious. Whoever makes alterations in his house builds four houses. ”

“ Houses are easily made from boxes by cutting out or drawing on doors and windows, with slanting or flat roofs of pasteboard or corrugated board. Porches, lean-tos, extensions, chimneys, steeples, gables, can be added by gluing or sewing on additional pasteboard. ”

“ This flower carpet is invariably made in the centre of the clean strip of yard in front of the neat house. Often it is a beautiful work of art, accomplished with a delicate touch and a highly artistic sense of tone and blending. ”

“ Your economical arguments are always worth considering. I think the happy compromise for us will be to use hard wood in the first story and painted pine in the chambers, with various combinations and exceptions. The bath-rooms, halls and dressing-rooms of the second story should of course be without paint, and we may relieve the solid monotony of the hardwood finish with occasional fillets or bands of color, painted panels or any other irregularities we choose to invent. ”

“ This wood carving is most intricate and of endless variety of pattern, but, owing to the great facilities which these picturesque windows afford to the rapid spread of fire, they are being disused in most modern houses, and glass and stonework substituted. ”

“ Diminish the size of a room, add a foot to the width of the house, do anything rather than cramp the stairway.
As far as possible paint should be kept off the inside woodwork. There are but few varieties of wood which may not be made smooth; and by the use of hard oil, which is really oil and varnish mixed together, all woodwork becomes beautiful and can be easily cleaned. It appears almost sacrilegious to cover the fine grain of our native woods with cheap, adulterated paint. ”

“ Plain walls give a wider scope in the matter of decoration, for, beside the possibilities of plain stuffs, chintz and various striped silks and linen may be used which would be quite out of the question with figured walls, more flowers may be used, and lampshades, always a bit assertive, take their proper place in the scheme, instead of making another distracting note. ”