Thank you everyone for your kind words regarding Jack’s death. It is hard to lose a pet, but I am feeling much better now. This embroidered block was very enjoyable to stitch — the tiny outline work really appeals to me, although I did struggle with Alice’s face. The whole piece is stitched with one…
One might think this blog should be called B is for Book. I am working on several quilt projects now and should have photos soon — including a mourning doll quilt suggested by Kathi — sort of a strange idea, but I like it. Anyway, these Alice images actually are quilt related since I have…
This Platt & Munk book is not dated and no illustrator is credited, but I am sure it is quite old. It’s smallish (about 7″ x 10″) and printed on very heavy stock. There are only 12 pages, the first 9 of which have been colored with wax crayons. It’s a very laborious process to…
The Big Paint Book Whitman Publishing, 1930
Because I am still working on the embroidered Christmas quilt top, the Baby Doll quilt top and the latest Ann Champion block, I don’t have any photos right now — hopefully very soon, though. While we’re waiting for me to finish something, here are some cute illustrations from one of my old copies of John…
This is the largest coloring book I own — 492 pages and only a few are colored. Coloring books from the 30s and 40s rarely have a theme, and the drawings are usually done by several different artists. It seems like Whitman and other publishers would just combine a group of pages by various artists,…
This is one of my very favorite vintage paint/coloring books — I love the subject and the style of the drawings by Mary Alice Stoddard. The best pictures are of boys and girls doing everyday activities — like quilting! Because there are 20 girls and 20 boys, you could make two darling little quilts. I…
This is one of the best alphabet books I’ve ever seen — a 1929 Art Deco ABC book by the fabulous Peter Mabie. I don’t own this one (it’s prohibitively expensive), but over the past year I have slowly managed to find photos of the inside pages on library and auction sites. Because I know…
My Paint Book Samuel Lowe Company, 1941 (I added the “Happy New Year” text)
Animal Friends Merrill Publishing, 1939
These are pages from a late 1930s paint book. The 128 pages appear to be drawn by several illustrators, which was not usual in these very old coloring books. I think these Mother Goose pages have a unique and interesting style. Of course, I was also thinking they would make wonderful quilt blocks, but I…
Saalfield Publishing, 1944
Big Big Paint Book Whitman Publishing, 1936
I love everything about these old magazines — the stories, illustrations and advertisements are all charming. 40¢ seems expensive for 1926, but they are pretty wonderful — more like a soft-bound book than a magazine. This one is just a little larger than a National Geographic magazine — my copies from the 1930s are larger…