Ruby's
Legacy
Cross-Stitch Patterns
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Ruby's
Legacy
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MOTHER GOOSE QUILT
MOTHER GOOSE QUILT
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1916
Ruby Short McKim's
first published quilt pattern was The Bedtime Quilt, also sometimes
referred to as The Quaddie Quiltie. These 20 blocks were designed to
represent the small woodland creatures created by Thornton Burgess in his
children's stories centering around Smiling Pond. While he had a
regular illustrator for
his books, those pictures were not suitable for
translating to a quilt pattern. The Kansas City STAR selected
Ruby to adapt these animals in order to design a quilt around them and
offer them to readers as a promotion with the Burgess books. Ruby
considered carefully how to translate these small, wild animals into
something that would not be scary to a small child who might awaken in the
middle of the night. She deliberately chose a "quaddie"
approach...very angular, to make them non-realistic. They were also
published in 1921 in the Omaha WORLD-HERALD.
1916 Another Kansas City STAR pattern that was very popular involved the wonderful nursery rhymes learned by children through the ages. Ruby chose 20 of her favorites for this series. Later, the series was also know as The Mother Goose Colonial Quilt. They are redesigned here with Ruby's original comments about each rhyme and in her signature angular style. 1922 Chosen as the original children's art editor for the newly created CHILD LIFE MAGAZINE, Ruby selected 20 characters from Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass" to be the subjects of her quilt offering--Alice in Wonderland. The pattern ran from the initial magazine in January 1922 through January 1923. It was also published in 1923, in the Omaha WORLD-HERALD. 1924 An exclusive pattern was design just for CHILD LIFE MAGAZINE and to the best of my knowledge, was never published anywhere else. Known as The Child Life Quilt, it featured 20 patterns of children of that day in various forms of work or play. This pattern is probably the most controversial for today's standards as it is not totally "politically correct" for our era. However, it is presented here, just as it was in it's original form--except in cross-stitch format, of course. It, too, was originally designed in an angular pattern. 1931 Little Boy Blue and Little Bo-Peep are the two charming Bonnet Children used in this small child's quilt pattern. Called Mother Goose Folk Quilt, it was first published in May 1931 in HOUSEHOLD MAGAZINE and later in September 1932 in GENTLEWOMAN INSTITUTE. Ruby offered many alternate suggestions on using these charming children: curtains, seat covers, pillow covers, etc. We think they make adorable framed wall-hangings for the nursery. 1937 The Three Little Pigs pattern was originally published on February 15, 1937, in the Omaha-WORLD HERALD. It featured 15 patterns, two of which were joined in the center to form a large, Big Bad Wolf. This was suggested to be done in appliqué format, but easily adapted here for cross-stitch. It was also reprinted in 1978, in QUILT WORLD MAGAZINE.
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Cross-Stitch Patterns Copyrighted 2004 by
Christina F. Jones--All Rights Reserved. |