Honey Rose -

…the 2nd pattern in Eye of the Beholder’s Victorian doorknob series.

I can taste the sweetness of the honey from the hives.  I can smell the fragrance from the flower. It is indeed good. 

 There’s a continuity and completeness to this piece, depicting flower to hive.  It implies the bee that hovers and buzzes to collect the pollen and make the honey.  Honey has so many wonderful properties of an antiseptic nature as well as nourishment and a refreshing sweetness, reminding us of goodness.  It conjures for me phrases like, the land of milk and honey. Thoughts of abundance, blessing and plenty. And the beauty and fragrance of the flower does the same for the soul. The design itself makes a circle, a continuous flow of life. And the fleur de lis also means flower, quite literally a lily. It symbolizes royalty, power, honor, grandeur, faith and unity. 

And when I first set eyes upon the Vincent’s Garden collection by Island Batik I also tasted it with my eyes and could see that it was good for my design Honey Rose.

 Vincent’s Garden is my friend and fellow designer Karen Overton’s, The Quilt Rambler, 1st signature collection by Kathy Engle of Island Batik.   I was thrilled when she asked me to design a pattern just for the collection. Who doesn’t like to play with fabric, color and design? And I love working with my friends.

The fabrics in Vincent’s Garden represent all the elements from the color wheel, making it imminently easy to design in. It balances the warm and cool colors, having primary, secondary and tertiary colors and values, from light to dark to pull from, providing both color and value contrast, an element that’s important in my work.

 After looking at the fabrics I knew immediately that I was going to make the 2nd pattern in our Victorian doorknob series, Honey Rose.  These designs are all inspired by doorknobs found in the 1878 opera house Hubbard Hall in Cambridge, NY.  In my dancing days, Hubbard Hall was my home theatre, complete with raked staged and magician’s trapped door. The theatre hall is on the second floor, which was typical in the late 1800’s, as storefronts were downstairs at street level.  And in true Victorian fashion, there is beautiful attention to detail everywhere you look.  I love that attention to detail…that touch of beauty everywhere you look. There are three entrance doors to the upstairs hall, and they each had a different and exquisite doorknob. These doorknobs are the design fodder for these 16” quilt block designs.

 The 1st in the series May Day, released spring of 2019. And the 3rd and final Victorian doorknob design, The Crowns, will release late this summer 2021, in The Quilt Rambler’s 2nd signature collection.

The doorknobs themselves are amazing in the intricacy of detail and I wondered how they were made. The average doorknob is 2.25“ in diameter. In 1870, a compression casting method was introduced that accelerated ornamentation of hardware. Decorative hardware, including knobs, emerged after the Centennial Exposition of 1876.  Before this time 95% of door hardware was imported. Many of the Victorian doorknobs were made of brass and cast bronze with ornamental patterns. Interesting to note that brass is self-disinfecting as long as it’s not coated with anything. During this period hundreds of patterns of ornamented hardware were created.  When you think back to the meaning of the images on this doorknob, there’s so much meaning packed into a little 2.25” doorknob, and now an 18” quilt piece.  The Victorians did not design by accident, but were very cognizant of the meanings of design; it’s a large part of what I love about the era. But by the turn of the century, doorknobs started becoming plain and simple, and by 1920 interest in decorative hardware had largely disappeared. So sad.

In Hubbard Hall, Honey Rose was the doorknob for the back door entrance/ exit to the hall. As a quilt block I transcribed it from the brass design into reverse applique with spots of under-coloring and applique.  It can be made by hand or machine.  The pattern comes with complete directions for both methods, and a full-size pattern piece. With the borders the piece measures 18” x 18”. 

 The 18” piece can be finished as a table décor piece.  I have narrow tables and like to keep my decorative table linens on the table when we eat, having the beauty always in front of me, so a small piece is perfect in my home. This 18” size is also perfect for finishing as a pillow or making into a tote bag.

 Honey Rose is a great foray into our technique, whether you make it by hand or machine. You get to learn under-coloring with reverse applique and applique. You’ll be interested to know that Margaret will be teaching this pattern in-person at the Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival on Saturday June 19, 2021. Sign up at kcrqf.com and get your kit and/or pattern on our website. The wonderful fabric collection along with these techniques gives you an end product with multi-dimensions once you’re all quilted. So much luscious texture colored in and stitched in.

 I had fun playing with this design and ended up creating a bonus pattern, the Beehive and Tudor Rose Mug Rugs. These cute 8” Mug Rugs are fun to make by hand or machine.  You can make them as 2-color reverse applique, 3-color reverse applique with applique or 4-color reverse applique with under-coloring and applique. I first designed them in the Vincent’s Garden collection by Island Batik, but then expanded into different colorways. We offer kits in several colorways on the website.

 Here, to the right, I combined Honey Rose with the Beehive Mug Rug set on point on the ends to make a 16” x 40” table runner. I haven’t finished quilting it yet, but soon the “how-to” will be in a blog, so check back in with us and be sure to get some Vincent’s Garden fabric from your local quilt shop.

The Quilt Rambler, Island Batik and I hope you love Vincent’s Garden and feel as inspired by this collection as we were.  Patterns are all available on the website in print and pdf digital download. If you are a shop owner we would love to talk with you about stocking our patterns.

The 16” block is also a springboard to create with. Look for my blog in the near future about creating table runners and quilts with Honey Rose and this fabric collection. There are endless possibilities. Happy Quilting.