Zanna and Isabeau have asked Cloe to help them get ready for today’s party. They may have gotten a bit more “help” than they anticipated…
“I think the rug would look nice outside the kitchen.”
“Is the rug nice and flat?”
“What should we do first to get ready for the party?”
“I could help set the table.”
“Here is Izzybelle’s little cup.”
“How many spoons will we need?”
“Hmmm, the parlor looks clean and ready for company…”
“The table is almost ready.”
“We’ll need to heat the iorn so that we can press our party dresses.”
“Here Isabeau, let me help you get more comfy in your chair.”
“Salt, we’ll need salt for dinner.”
Click on any photo to see it enlarged and to read the caption.
Don’t worry! In spite of the sound effects, no dishes were harmed in the making of this video. As Isabeau always says, “there is a reason that babies only get to use the everyday china”! 🙂
Thank you for coming!!! I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into some of our party preparations. Here is the schedule for today’s celebration events, I will have additional posts at 11:00 am, 1:00 pm, 4:00 pm, 7:00 pm, and 10:00 pm Eastern time. My 7:00 pm post will feature several dolls for sale, because what would an Izannah Walker Birthday Celebration be without at least a few new reproduction dolls for sale? 🙂 The dolls will only be posted here on my blog. If one or more of them tugs at your heart strings and you’d like to purchase her, you may email me at paula@asweetremembrance.com. If more than one person is interested in buying the same doll, the email with the earliest time will get preference. ❤
Don’t forget! Only 3 more days until it’s Izannah Walker’s 199th birthday. My dolls and I will be hosting an all day online celebration 🙂 Please come join us! We’ll be sooooooo sad if you can’t come 😦
At 10:00 a.m on Sunday September 25th stop whatever you are doing, run to your pc and come right over to http://www.izannahwalker.com for the beginning of our birthday fun!!! ❤
The dolls have taken over my kitchen to bake honey cakes for this afternoon’s birthday tea party. It’s time to get out the cookbook!
This is one of our favorite cookbooks. America Eats by William Woys Weaver. It is no longer in print, but if you search you may still be able to find a copy here or there…“Isabeau will you find the page with the honey cake while I get out the honey pitcher?”“Here it is, Honey Tea Cake.”
“Hannah, Isane and I will get out the ingredients, and you can measure them into the bowl.”“Alright, I can do that Isabeau” “Can you please hand me the flour?”“Zanna, do you think I should add some lavender to part of the batter?”“I think that is a wonderful idea Hannah!” “It will taste so good with the wild flower honey!”“Does this look like enough lavender?” “Or should I add just a smidgeon more?”“I love lavender! Let’s add more!!!”“Ismay, is the oven hot enough?” “I think the tea cakes are ready to bake.”“Yes it’s just the right temperature.”“These smell devine” “The first batch is ready to come out of the oven right now.”“Izzybelle, let the cake cool a bit so you don’t burn your mouth, and then you can be our official taster.”“Is it good?” “Oh yes! Everyone is going to love them. Maybe we should make more!”“Let’s hurry and get the last of these out of the oven. We still need to get the chairs set up in the parlor and change clothes before the guest start arriving…”
Please come back to join us at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time for tea. ❤
A few years ago I ran a Civil War era friendship quilt block exchange amongst a far flung group of friends. We had a lot of fun shopping for fabrics, choosing block patterns and trading our finished blocks.
This is my quilt from that friendship block exchange. This photo is before I added the borders to the top.
Now whenever we look at our finished quilts we remember the good time we had creating them, and think of all of the people that came together to make each of our quilts.
This is the top with the borders on.
One of the blocks in my quilt.
When I was thinking up ways to celebrate my 25th anniversary in business, it occurred to me that an Izannah Walker doll sized friendship block exchange would be a great activity to mark the occasion and share something special with all of the people that make me love doing what I do.
This is the quilt that came with one of my antique Izannah Walker dolls.This is the reverse side of the same quilt. It is pieced on both sides and tied rather than quilted.
Friendship quilts were all the rage in the 1840’s. They were an outgrowth of the practice, in earlier decades of the 19th century, of keeping albums containing the signatures of friends and relatives. The signatures on the quilt blocks were a remembrance of the individuals who signed, and often made, the blocks. Friendship quilts were most frequently made for people who were moving away from their communities, or to mark important occasions such as weddings and births.
So pull out your scrap bags, thread your needles and help me commemorate my own important occasion by joining in my friendship quilt block exchange.
Even if you have never quilted before, I think you will find this to be an enjoyable, easy project. If you don’t want to quilt your finished coverlet, you can hand tie it instead. I’m sure your Izannah will love it either way. If you can manage to sneak the quilt away from your doll, it would also look wonderful hanging on your wall.
The rules are simple:
1. All fabrics should be roughly Civil War era material, either reproduction or the real thing (if you are lucky enough to have antique fabric in your stash). That way the quilts will be just right to keep your Izzys warm at night.
Please make sure all of your fabrics are pre-washed, so that they will not shrink if they are washed after the quilt is made.
2. We are exchanging 3 inch blocks, that means that the finished size of the blocks, when pieced together to form a quilt are 3 inches square. The blocks that you send in should measure 3- ½ x 3 – ½ inches, which includes a ¼ inch seam allowance all around the block. Please make sure your measurements are exact. It is unbelievably frustrating to try and piece together quilt blocks that are all slightly different sizes.
3. Your blocks may be of any Civil War era design you would like, either pieced or appliqued. You may piece blocks as simple as a four patch, or log cabin, or get crazy and do more elaborate blocks. The only thing I ask is that you make blocks that you would be happy to have someone else give you. 🙂
4. Use a Micron Pigma #08 black pen and your best handwriting to write your name, the date and the city you live in on the front side of each of the blocks you send in to the exchange.
5. You may send in as many blocks as you wish and will receive the same number of blocks in exchange.
6. Please send a self addressed postage paid return envelope in with your blocks. Include a note with your name, mailing address, email address and the number of blocks you are sending in the envelope. Make sure that the return postage is enough to cover the cost of mailing your blocks back to you.
7. All blocks sent in to the exchange must be post marked no later than July 1, 2011 (please mail your blocks earlier than 7/1/11 if you live outside of the United States).
Mail your blocks to me:
Paula Walton
A Sweet Remembrance
172 Aspetuck Ridge Road
New Milford, CT 06776-5611
You will receive all of your exchanged friendship blocks back in time to stitch together a wonderful doll size quilt before fall. Did you know that in days past, most quilting was done in the warmer months to take advantage of the additional hours of sunlight to sew by? The majority of the quilting in New England was done from May – November, with May and October being the busiest quilting months.
If you email me photos of your finished quilts I will post them here for everyone to ohhh and ahhh over.
Happy Quilting! I’m looking forward to trading blocks with you 🙂
Just call me "Patchwork Paula" like my youngest son, an editor at Topp's, did when he named this Garbage Pail Kid after me 🙂 You can see more at http://www.colinwalton.com
* if you would like to read more about friendship quilts I recommend Northern Comfort New England’s Early Quilts 1780-1850 by Lynne Z. Bassett and Jack Larkin
Need More Inspiration?
Here are a few more photos from my previous full size Civil War Block Exchange.
Gail and her finished Civil War friendship quilt. Isn't it gorgeous? My sister Marisa quilting her Civil War quilt as Jan looks on and gives tips.Marisa's finished Civil War friendship quilt.
One side of my small Civil War Friendship quilt.The reverse side of my small friendship quilt.
Izannah Walker Journal 