I finally finished the quilt for Marjorie Claire, daughter of my niece, Jennifer, and her husband, Cyrus. I think Marjorie was about 10 days old in the photo below, taken in December. We are all excited to have a sweet baby girl in our family, and I am pleased that she has my mother’s name. I think she looks a lot like her grandmother (my sister, Sally) when she was a baby.
This is a Ruby Short McKim pattern from the 1930’s and it is available here. I’ve even seen it offered as a machine embroidery pattern, but I just do not understand the appeal of machine embroidery. Although there were lots of nursery rhyme patterns produced in the 30’s and 40’s, this one is my favorite. I love the lettering and the cute little characters. Of course, I had to change the name Margery Daw to Marjorie Daw for this little girl. The blocks are lightly tinted with Crayola crayons and hand embroidered with two strands of DMC. It is both machine quilted (in the ditch) and hand quilted.
Rhyme Land Quilt
Martha Dellasega Gray, 2009
hand embroidered, machine & hand quilted
50″ x 60″
Marjorie Claire Krohn
In my opinion, embroidering by machine just takes all the fun out of it.
The quilt is gorgeous!! Lucky little girl. And such a darling little girl, at that! Awwww. 😀
Very beautiful! I think I will look for this pattern to use for the next grandbebe quilt. I agree about the machine embroidery – ok for a corporate logo on a shirt or sweater, but not for handmade things!
Martha, you inspire me.
Aren’t these blocks just so cute?!! I hope this generation of babies learn the nursery rhymes and stories that have been our tradition in past generations.
The lettering reminds me of Evelyn Foland’s font — one that I have cherished for a number of years.
Marjorie has a wonderful and sweet little quilt to grow up with. How precious she is.
Where can I find this pattern? I’ve googled for it but have had no luck.
I am a beginner quilter. Can you tell me how to color the squares and what you need to do so they will be colorfast? I do have prisma colored pencils…don’t think they are the watercolors.
thanks.
I just found your link. My mother embroidered these quilt blocks when she was a teenager in the 1930’s. She gave them to me when my son was born in 1979. I wasn’t yet a quilter, and so made them into a comforter, which was used by both of my children. When they outgrew it, I put the comforter in my cedar chest. Last year, I pulled it out, took it all apart and made a proper quilt out of it, which I just finished this morning. You can see it on my blog at:
http://catpatches.blogspot.com/2013/02/hoo-ray.html
Someone contacted me with information about the original design and the designer, and I happened on your blog. I love your version, and I thank you so much for providing the pdf of all the original blocks. I’m thrilled to have this information about my quilt and to find the patterns. Thank you.
Thank you so much for posting this! I am working on 12 of these blocks to make a quilt for my SIL and her baby that’s due this week.
My grandmother passed away a few years ago and we found 24 of these colored nursery rhymes. She had colored all of them and stitched 2. I finished stitching them and now am contemplating breaking up the set to make 4 crib sized quilts for my 4 children. Would you keep the set together, or break it up so they can all have something from their great grandmother? It could be used as a wall hanging in a child’s room. My squares are quite elaborate as my grandmother was very artistic and added many details to her pictures.
Also, how do I prepare them for sewing? Can they be washed?