Family Black Eyed Susan Doilies
Identifier
2025.011; 2025.012
Title
Family Black Eyed Susan Doilies
Creator
Thompson, Charles Etta Dunlap and Thompson, Suzann
Date
1950s and 2020
Format
Doily on green background: 12 3/8 inches in diameter
Other doily: 18 1/2 inches in diameter
Other doily: 18 1/2 inches in diameter
Description
My grandmother Charles Etta Dunlap Thompson (1898-1958) enjoyed crochet, quilting, tatting, and embroidery. Her son and my dad Alan, the youngest of her seven children, marveled at how Charles Etta worked so hard all day and still found energy to do needlework and crossword puzzles in the evenings. She died a few months before I was born.
Charles Etta crocheted the Black Eyed Susan Doily, shown here on the green background, sometime in the 1950s. It looks like she used size No. 30 crochet cotton, with a tiny steel crochet hook.
The Black Eyed Susan Doily pattern was among other flowery doilies in the booklet:
Floral Doilies
Book No. 258
J. & P. Coats ⋅ Clark's O.N.T.
The Spool Cotton Company
Original Copyright 1949
In April 2020, the Center for Knit and Crochet hosted a Vintage Make Along. It was the incentive I needed to crochet the delicate Black Eyed Susan Doily like my grandmother made all those decades ago.
I used No. 10 crochet cotton and my treasured Susan Bates beveled-tip crochet hook the size of a number 3 or 4 steel hook. The larger thread size made my doily about 6 inches wider than Charles Etta’s. I had to add stitches to Round 4, to completely cover the yellow chain loops between petals.
The instructions for the black flower centers resulted in a dome shape. I followed the directions, but Charles Etta did not. Her flower centers were flat. Maybe she knew what a pain it would be to sew the crocheted domes in place. Or maybe she wanted to put items on top of the doily, which the domes would hinder.
The photo of live Black Eyed Susan flowers was taken in June 2021, in Comanche County, Texas, very near where Charles Etta lived with her husband and children in the 1930s.
In 2025, the Black Eyed Susan Doily pattern was available for free download from
https://freevintagecrochet.com/free-doily-patterns/coats258/black-eyed-susan-doily-pattern
The 2020 Vintage Make Along was discussed on Ravelry.com in the Center for Knit and Crochet’s forum.
Charles Etta crocheted the Black Eyed Susan Doily, shown here on the green background, sometime in the 1950s. It looks like she used size No. 30 crochet cotton, with a tiny steel crochet hook.
The Black Eyed Susan Doily pattern was among other flowery doilies in the booklet:
Floral Doilies
Book No. 258
J. & P. Coats ⋅ Clark's O.N.T.
The Spool Cotton Company
Original Copyright 1949
In April 2020, the Center for Knit and Crochet hosted a Vintage Make Along. It was the incentive I needed to crochet the delicate Black Eyed Susan Doily like my grandmother made all those decades ago.
I used No. 10 crochet cotton and my treasured Susan Bates beveled-tip crochet hook the size of a number 3 or 4 steel hook. The larger thread size made my doily about 6 inches wider than Charles Etta’s. I had to add stitches to Round 4, to completely cover the yellow chain loops between petals.
The instructions for the black flower centers resulted in a dome shape. I followed the directions, but Charles Etta did not. Her flower centers were flat. Maybe she knew what a pain it would be to sew the crocheted domes in place. Or maybe she wanted to put items on top of the doily, which the domes would hinder.
The photo of live Black Eyed Susan flowers was taken in June 2021, in Comanche County, Texas, very near where Charles Etta lived with her husband and children in the 1930s.
In 2025, the Black Eyed Susan Doily pattern was available for free download from
https://freevintagecrochet.com/free-doily-patterns/coats258/black-eyed-susan-doily-pattern
The 2020 Vintage Make Along was discussed on Ravelry.com in the Center for Knit and Crochet’s forum.
Provenance
Suzann Thompson
Collection
Citation
suzannthompson, “Family Black Eyed Susan Doilies,” Center for Knit and Crochet Digital Repository, accessed August 31, 2026, https://digital.centerforknitandcrochet.org/items/show/41027.
Added by suzannthompson
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