This is the beginning of Memorial Day weekend, and in honor of “The Greatest Generation” - who were not only veterans of World War II but also those greatest users and savers of cloth feedsacks - we are featuring feedsacks made to commemorate the war. Of course, the most prominent among these is a sack we’ve mentioned before, known as Kent’s Cloth of the United Nations and made by Percy Kent & Co. This popular and collectible feedsack is printed with numerous vignettes of famous incidents, battles, locations, allied countries and more. Shown here is the full width of the sack, the pattern repeats every 14 inches along the length.
You may note above that the feed mill’s label is still evident on this sack, though it’s been partially washed out. Some of the individual images:
The Kent feedsack was featured in an exhibition of WWII textiles called Wearing Propaganda that we visited at the Allentown, PA Art Museum in Oct. 2006. Absent from this exhibit, however, and much less often seen but still as pertinent is the V for Victory feedsack, that repeats the letter V along with its Morse code equivalent - both in patriotic red, white and blue and also in purple!
These feedsacks are but a few of those that remind us of historical events; and they serve also to help us remember those who gave their all for our country this Memorial Day.
As gardeners, around here we’re a rather laissez-faire bunch. Though the garden in front of the house is still referred to as the rose garden, there are but two hybrid tea roses and a wild red rose sprung from another’s rootstock. Instead we’ve been working allowing the garden to go back to a wildflower (They are NOT weeds!) and perennial garden that needs a bit less time and care, but still delights. One of the plants that’s become naturalized there is the Lunaria. Also known as money plant, honesty plant, and silver dollar plant, it’s a biennial, producing only a small two leaved green plant the first year. In the second, it produces a tall shoot of lovely purple blossoms in early spring.
At this time of year, between the early daffodils and pinks, and slightly later iris, it’s our most profuse bloomer. Later, it will bear its flat green seedpods that fade to pale tan, then nearly white by fall. When the seeds are shed, the remaining membrane is silvery, whence arises the silver dollar (and therefore money) name. Not sure where the honesty plant name comes from, but I guess we like people to be honest where money is concerned. No doubt you’ve seen these in dried arrangements. I have none to show in a photograph now, so we have to wait for fall.
This morning we awoke to frost, after setting a record low temperature last night. Late for a frost, but we were ready, with all the tomato plants covered. Beautiful warm sun today, and the iris are indeed beginning their showy season. We always seem to be just a little later than many of our neighbors in the garden - many had iris in bloom a week earlier - even as near as a mile or two away. That’s ok, though, as it seems to prolong our favorite season, spring.
Also beginning to bloom now are the periwinkle, lilacs and wild phlox.
Today’s feedsack Friday subject is flying - not as in birds; we’ve already covered them. While rare, there are feedsacks with images of airplanes. One that we found includes all modes of transportation, but has a picture of an early 20th century airplane:
While this feedsack also depicts everything from trains and boats to early motorcars and carriages, we thought it deserved inclusion in the flying topic.
There are other sacks, however, that concentrate exclusively on aircraft. The first one we found, early in our feedsack-selling career, was the American Airlines feedsack that shows 1940’s planes along with airport and regional scenery and is captioned in script with place names and with the name American Airlines. We have no idea why a sack would exist that concentrates solely on one company, and we’ve not seen a sack for any other airline.
We also found another sack that shows a variety of 1940’s aircraft, shown below. And of course, the well-known World War II feedsack shows aircraft in wartime.
Finally, there’s another sack that fits todays topic of flight, but this one’s out of this world:
A weed, indeed!
Dandelion is a wildflower, providing us with some of the earliest available seasonal produce in the form of very nutritious crowns and leaves. We generally collect dandelion from beneath a layer of last season’s fallen leaves that have collected in corners of our yard. Those leaves are often blanched for lack of exposure to sunlight, and among the tastiest, tenderest and least bitter of all dandelion. Vitamin and mineral levels are at least twice those of fresh broccoli, and of course there are few calories. Never fear, though, because we live in Pennsylvania Dutch country, where the standard dressing for dandelion is hot bacon dressing, made with bacon, eggs, milk and vinegar, with some sugar added. So you’ll still get your quota of calories and cholesterol!
Foraging friends tell us that they eat dandelion all year, that the bitterness is not overly bothersome if cooked with an ameliorating salty flavor. By now, of course, we’re on to spinach, arugula and other garden greens. Meanwhile, the lowly dandelion, at this point in its season, has also become a great toy, in it’s way - who among us has not enjoyed the perennial childhood pleasure of contributing a puff or two to help spread and propagate their downy floating seeds?
This morning we attended a quilt show at the Kutztown (PA) Area Historical Society, Pennsylvania’s Quilt Treasures: The Art of the Needle. Consisting of 32 19th century quilts from the collection of Arlan & Pat Christ, the show features a broad spectrum of eastern Pennsylvania quilts, both patchwork and applique. There’s something for everyone, from early chintz-bordered Rob Peter to Pay Paul quilts, elaborate Whig Rose and less vivid but beautifully quilted lily and tulip appliques. And there’s a lovely book available to accompany the show, so you can revisit the show after it ends.
Some of my favorites may be less extolled than some of the earlier quilts, but in the room devoted to post Civil War quilts there was a wonderful pinwheels quilt that had layers of pattern on pattern, the central four blocks forming a sort of medallion surrounded in trip around the world style by coordinated blocks in three more color combinations, all sashed with a striking striped shirting fabric that really set off the entire design. Also notable was an ocean waves quilt featuring stars in the blocks between sets of waves, and a glorious lone star, from the collection of the late Richard and Rosemarie Machmer.
Arlan and Pat have been seriously collecting antique quilts for a relatively short time, but have a well developed eye - Pat has been quilting for much longer than she’s been collecting. The richness, variety and overall quality of the show does much to reinforce the impression that eastern Pennsylvania still is fertile ground for the serious quilt collector, especially one who loves vivid color. The show continues tomorrow, and Sundays through May 24th, noon to 4 PM.
