Poison Bottle Quilt Along

I was asked by Misty Cole of Pick Your Brain Designs to be a guest artist for her Poison Bottles Quilt Along. I met Misty through Facebook and met her in person at the International Quilt Show in Houston in 2015. She had twelve of her quilting friends interpret her designs each month. She chose July for me to share my version of her quilt along. Anyone is invited to go to Misty's website www.mistycole.com to download the FREE poison bottle patterns to make a full quilt.

 I knew nothing about poison bottles so Misty gave me some insight which I will share with you. Glass poison bottles came on the scene between the 1870s-1930s. They were used to store cleaning products, insect killers and other liquids that are needed in the home but harmful to people if ingested. The biggest reason people accidentally drank poison was because many people were illiterate and couldn't read the labels and, oddly enough, dimly lit rooms (no electricity just candle light?) 
The poisons were stored in glass bottles because at the time glass was cheap enough to produce. The poison manufacturers began making their bottles in distinguishing colors such as cobalt blue, emerald green, honey amber (beer bottle color?) and black to help people separate the safe and non-safe products. The bottles had textured finishes on them such as dots, ridges and diamond. Words were added to state POISON, DEATH and NOT TO BE TAKEN INTERNALLY. 
I assume as these glass bottles were replaced by other cheaper materials they became collector items because of their beauty. This may be Misty's fascination with poison bottles!

This is my first bottle which looks like an old fashioned perfume bottle. I ran with my portrait quilt theme and added lips to the bottle. I chose a color theme or red/silver/black with a multi-colored stripe. I added red glitter nail polish to the lips for more bling.

This is the second bottle which seems odd laying on it's side horizontal. Currently no bottles are made like this because of the practicality of shelf space. I used one of my portrait quilt patterns and added eyes and hair to the bottle. I used some green sparkly nail polish on the eyes. I envisioned my bottles perhaps being some weird skin lotion sold by a snake oil salesman in the 1920s-1930s from a traveling wagon for women to dip into the fountain of youth!

I again invite you to www.mistycole.com to download the free poison bottle patterns to make an entire quilt with bottles!! Thanks Misty for inviting me to be part of your party!!