Collection of "Silks" sewn together

[Chris Counts]

I just picked up this collection of "Silks" that were sewn together. I'm curious how common such sewing projects were. Does anybody else have photos to share? I was thrilled to acquire it from a seller at Mark McRae's recent show in San Leandro (Thanks Alan!). It looks like someone spent a lot of time putting this together ...

There are 15 baseball players (s74s), and the rest are actresses (s72-1s I believe). Curiously, a number of the silks depict the same actress, Elsie Ferguson, whom I had never heard of. I Googled her up, and she's routinely described as "the most beautiful woman to ever appear on screen" Sadly, all her silent films are lost today ...

[ctownboy]

I have owned a few pieces that had silks sewn together. One had actresses while the other two had mostly flags.

I have seen more tobacco felts sewn together than anything. Most have been of flags. There was one that had two B - 18's sewn together like a small pillow.

I currently own a pillow cover that has B - 18's on one side including a Joe Jackson. In the mid 1990's, I bought a full size blanket that had about 175 B - 18's around the outer edge with various other felts on the inside including a large American flag in the center.

I paid $600 for it and then sold it within three months for $3,500. I would have liked to have kept it but, unfortunately, college bills.....

I have always wondered what happened to that piece.

David

[steve B]

It was very common.

The style is called crazy quilts when it's a quilt, and ones using all manner of silks in different arangements are not unusual.
The quilt museum has one made entirely of yellow cigar bands, and another with a few hundred miscellaneous silks including the foil printed ribbons from event badges. (But no baseball)
Those two are really impressive.

I bought my wife a chair upholstered in that sort of sewing, including a couple silks and a few handpainted panels. It's some really beautiful work.


Steve B

[drc]

I believe the silks were designed to be sewn together. Sewn together items exist but are scarce.

[birdman42]

I believe the sewn pieces were not uncommon. Look at the different stitches at the various seams, Chris, and you'll see that overall it looks almost like a sampler

I wonder how many of these sewing projects have been taken apart by someone in the business, vs by someone at home? There are many BF2 pennants out there with needle holes all the way around. A couple board discussions from years ago indicate that at least two large blankets of BF2s were broken up by dealers and sold as individual pennants:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=78123
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=65258

Bill