McHenry Illinois Historical Crazy Quilt Block #5

I'm moving right along on my McHenry Illinois Crazy Quilt.  If you're new to my blog, I started this project to take my mind off of worrying about my husband who's being treated for cancer.  And for worrying about how I'm going to pay all the bills on my income.

This is block #5:

The building is the North Western Hotel.  It was built in 1901 and sits right next to the Train Depot. 

Here's a screenshot of it now.  I grabbed this off of Google Earth.  In was in the process of being repainted:

It's called, "Apartments" now but it's really public housing.  At least it's well kept and maintained in it's original era style.

I don't know about anyone else, but sometimes I wish I could go back in time for just a day and walk around my little town and see what it was like back then.   Thankfully we have old photos!

Here's a couple of close up photos of the stitching:

I have some more stitching to do on this and then I'll post another photo.

McHenry Crazy Quilt - A H Hanley House

I'm working on Block #4 of my McHenry Crazy Quilt.  There is a particular early settler that I'm rather fond of.  Why?  I have no clue!  I've just been compelled to read everything about this man that I could find.

Perhaps it's because he owned such a huge piece of property in McHenry, close to where my parents live.

The man's name is Alexander Hamilton Hanley and this block represents his house:

This is the oldest photo I have been able to find of the Hanley house.  Sadly, this was taken long after it was abandoned.  The house was actually destroyed by fire in 1975 by (supposedly) vandals.  There are those of us who aren't so sure of that verdict.  Anyway, the house is long gone now and a bank now sits on the location where this house once sat.

Anyway, the house was built in the 1860's.  I'm trying to find the exact year to embroider on this quilt.  It had 14 rooms and a full basement.

Alexander Hanley was born in 1816 and died in 1891.  He was born in New York and came to Illinois when he was around 20. 

Here is a the 1872 McHenry map:

Most of you probably don't care but for references purposes (because there will be other blocks devoted to Hanley), he owned the land in the red area.  If you click on the map image, you can see the red dot where this house was located.

My parents live in the green area at the bottom of the map and I live in the green area up  north near the lake.

I will tell you more about AH Hanley in future posts.  For now, here are some closeups of the block:

This little bluebird doesn't show up well on the block but I'm not going for perfection with this quilt.  I'm trying to keep it traditional and Victorian looking.

Any lace that I use on this quilt is antique.  This piece is from the late 1800's.  I'm highlighting the lace pieces on this quilt with some stitching.  I don't want to hand-paint any of it.  They didn't do that in the old days! 

And this piece too is from the late 1800's:

I'm not sure that I care for the way this piece looks on the block but I'm not going to take it out.  Again, this isn't about visual balance or perfection.  It's about tradition and keeping the style within the time frame of the history that I'm trying to share.

I still have to add the little button spider and then the text.  I hope to have an answer on the actual year that this house was built by tomorrow.

McHenry Crazy Quilt Block #3

I pieced Block #3 of my McHenry Crazy Quilt this morning:

This is the McHenry Train Depot.  The Railroad came to McHenry, Illinois in 1854 thanks to a man named George Gage.  He owned much of land on the West side of McHenry.  Back then it was called Gagetown. 

The original Train Depot, according to my research, was built in 1856.

In 1908, the worst train wreck to ever happen in McHenry County Illinois happened on March 30th.  There is a curve just south of the depot.  The train hit the curve to fast and jumped the tracks.  The wooden platform was destroyed but the depot didn't suffer any major damage.  The trains fireman was killed by scalding hot water but everyone else was okay.

This photo is courtesy of the McHenry Public Library. Click here if you're interested in reading more about the McHenry Train Wreck of 1908.

This is our train station today:

I don't know how much if any of the original depot is still there.  I haven't done enough research yet to find out but once I find the info, I'll let ya'll know.

So that's the story behind this block.  One more photo for you:

This is a very old piece of lace.  I've been saving it for something special and I believe this quilt will be very special.  Why?  I've pretty decided, upon it's completion to donate it to our McHenry Public Library where everyone can enjoy it. 

I started this project to take my mind off of worrying so much about my husband and his cancer treatment.  I already feel that it belongs to the city of McHenry.  But first, I have to finish it and that's going to take awhile!

McHenry Illinois Crazy Quilt Update On Block 1

Here's a progress photo of my McHenry Illinois Crazy Quilt project:

My plan is to keep this project as Victorian in style as possible.  No beads or sequins and the only lace I'm using is antique.

I stitched the name of the church in the upper right hand corner using 14 count waste canvas.  I also added the year that St. Mary's was built, 1898.

In the above photo, you can see how I embroidered over the lace.  I simply followed the pattern in the lace and highlighted it with some stitching.

I may use a little bit of metallic gold and/or silver thread to create some spiderwebs on this.  I love spiders and spiderwebs and the Victorians loved them too!  They were considered good luck!!!

A New Crazy Quilt Project

Well, I feel a little bit better today because I slept a little better last night.  We had a little scare with Scott's port this morning.  He must have slept on it wrong and when he woke up, it had been bleeding.  I think the way he was sleeping was pushing on it.  Anyway, we called the nurse at the cancer center at Loyola hospital and after asking him a bunch of questions, she determined that it was okay and it would be okay.  He didn't have to go in.  Which was good because it's a 2 1/2 hour drive from our house to Loyola in Chicago.

So, I ran my errands this morning, got him everything that he needed, filled my gas tank because we're expecting 10 tons of snow tomorrow (can't wait to push that around - NOT!) and I just made myself a cup of tea and turned my computer on to print up a few pictures.

I decided to start a new crazy quilt project.  After reading Betty Pillsbury's new book:

Crazy Quilts - A Beginners Guide, I was inspired to create something kind of different from anything I've done before.  Betty's work is a little more traditional than mine.  She pieces her blocks by hand which I've never done.  And she uses a lot more embroidery than I do.  And by the way, this book is awesome!!!!  You can order it from Amazon.  It's loaded with gorgeous photos of Betty's work!!!

Okay so here's my plan:  I love history and always have.  Especially the history of where I live, McHenry Illinois.  Like most small towns, we still have a lot of old buildings that have been put on the county register and protected by the McHenry County Historical Society.  Many of them have been beautifully restored.  I have been collecting historical photos of my area for years and years and thought it would be nice to take some of these old photos and work them into a crazy quilt. 

After reading Betty's book and seeing all the awesome photos of her work, I decided that this would have to be very Victorian and traditional looking.  So I plan to hand piece my blocks.  There will be 9 of them.  So far, I've chosen 8 photos and still have to pick out one more.

I'll be focusing on embroidery more than do-dads.  Embellishments will be kept to a minimum - my antique lace and some of my vintage Mother Of Pearl buttons.  I'll be giving the photos a sepia tint in Photoshop and using darker, more Victorian fabric colors and lighter colored threads for stitching.  The embroidery should pop!

As I work on each block, I'll share the story behind the building in the photo so here is my first:

This is St. Mary's Of The Assumption Catholic Church.  It's the church that I go to and where Scott and I were married.

St. Mary's was built in 1898.  In 1917, tragedy struck.  The church had a fire that started in the rectory.  The steeple and roof were destroyed.

Notice the piano in this photo down and the left!



It's always sad for me to see these photos of St. Mary's but thankfully, the main part of the church was saved and the damage was repaired.

Notice the difference in the steeple compaired to the first photo at the top.  The new steeple is much shorter now!

Anyway, this is St. Mary's today:

Anyway, the photo that I'll be using is the first one and it will be in the center block.

I thought this project, along with the Never Ending Sampler Stitch Along would help to get my mind off of worrying about things so much.  Hopefully, but the time I get this quilt all done, my husband will be free of the damned cancer and he'll be healthy again and driving me crazy like he used to!  LOL!!!

Scott really is the center of my world and because we were married here at St. Mary's, I chose to use the church on the center block.  I'm going to start printing a few photos and start piecing my first block so I'll share progress pics as I go along.