A Happy Tale: Returning Lost Quilts to Their Family

 

 

My friends are very good to me.  Every time they see or hear something about quilts, they forward it on to me.  Thanks, y'all!  It always brightens my day. 

A friend sent me the link to a story one of his friends had written.  It's a heartwarming tale of family quilts lost and found.  I asked for permission to share the story with you all.  And she said yes!

Studying the Quilts
Quilts Go Home

The author is Suzanna Leigh.  The internet surely has become a marvelous tool that makes this kind of story possible.  I hope you enjoy the story as much as I do.  Brava, Suzanna for finding and caring for these family treasures!

Ancestor Quilt

So, as I mentioned in the post about all the quilt fun last month in Melrose, MA, the library hosted an exhibit of quilts inspired by the historical quilt I've been researching.  The exhibit was cleverly titled “Red, White, & Words,” referring to the antique red and white quilt that was inscribed with 222 names of Melrose-area residents at about 1897.  (The full list of links about the quilt and the research is below.)

I figured I wasn’t going to have time to make a quilt alongside all the prep I was doing for the exhibit and lecturing and traveling, but then an idea did just pop into my head…. you know how it goes.... and it wasn’t a terribly difficult idea….. 

So I made a tiny 3-block version of the Melrose quilt, inscribed with the names on my own family tree.  It was small, easy to piece, and tied, and I did indeed get it finished and submitted in time.  I even managed to find a red on cream polka dot fabric for the back, just like on the original!

The center block has myself and my husband in the middle, our two children on the sides, and my father and mother at top and bottom.

The top block connects to my father's name.  His brother is at the bottom, and their parents, my grandparents, are in the center.  My great-grandparents are on the left and top.  On the right my grandmother's siblings are memorialized, all but one of whom were killed, as were my grandparents, in the Holocaust. 

The bottom block connects to my mother's name.  Her parents, my grandparents, are in the center.  My great-grandparents are at top and bottom.  My great-great-grandparents are left and right. 

It was a surprisingly powerful feeling to write my ancestors’ names on a quilt!  They are now recorded in a way that is very near and dear to my heart.

Here are all the previous posts:
Part 1 describes the quilt and the initial research.  Part 2 details how I narrowed down the dates, and relates some of the interesting family stories I began finding.  Part 3 tells the story of the Phinney, Dyer, and Hersey families.  Part 4 has general observations on life in the late 1890s.   Part 5 sums up my research.  Part 6 shares the first information from librarians and historians in Melrose.  I wrote a little aside about the fun of being able to look at original records online.  And, since the quilt did initially come to me for repair, and I did eventually stop reading census forms and do the repair work, and wrote up the techniques and choices involved.  And then I went back to the research, and continued to find lots of great information.  After the events, I described the homecoming experience and the exhibits. And a set of summaries of the data and stories that brought the quilt to life. 

I've Had an Incredible December!!

Firstly:

While on my trip to Massachusetts and New Hampshire, my lecture "Quilt Repair Tales" was filmed for the Melrose, MA, local access cable.

Yep.  So now, I'm on TV.   (Right now, it's listed as a Current Video.  Eventually, I suspect it'll just show up on the Videos tab.

Secondly:

As if being on TV wasn't cool enough!  I got interviewed on a podcast!!!

I joined the facebook group associated with a wonderful podcast called "Just Wanna Quilt".  And when I wrote my little intro to the group, I guess I caught the eye of the woman whose brainchild this is, and she asked if I'd like to be interviewed about a project I'd mentioned in my intro.  Turns out, she didn't just want to talk about that, she'd checked out my website etc., and the interview is wide-ranging and about....me.  Whoa.  I don't know if my feet will ever come back to ground.

(As well as being a quilter, she's a lawyer, and designing all sorts of projects to learn about the whys and hows of the quilt world and quilt businesses and how copyright works in the quilt world, and also to create community.  In other words, she's being a quilt anthropologist.  So cool!) 

Yep.  So now, I'm on a podcast.

Somehow, I managed to keep breathing and sound pretty calm and rational in both cases!

So.....
I guess right now my mood is more like Happy Old Year rather than Happy New Year.  Wow.  Who knows what will happen next.  Grin grin grin!!!

Winter Visit to Sugar Hill, NH

In addition to all the goings on in Massachusetts that I described in the previous post, I spent several days up in Sugar Hill, NH, visiting our cousins.  We traveled north on a dark grey and rainy day.  It wasn't much for taking glorious photos from the bus, but I like the moodiness of these.

 

 

One day was devoted to quilty events.  My cousin is not a quilter, but she loves old things and pretty things.  They live in a house built in the 1820s that is chock full of pretty things collected as they traveled and lived around the world.  She volunteers with the local history museum and is great friends with the museum curator, and she has a good friend who quilts.

So between them, they devised a quilt day.  I gave the same lecture that I gave in Melrose - Quilt Repair Tales - which combines information on quilt repair philosophy and techniques with stories of interesting quilts that have passed through my studio over the years.  Participants brought quilts to show and discuss.  And we had a most scrumptious potluck meal.  All this transpired in a wonderful family home with incredible winter mountain views.

The Melrose Quilt Returns to Melrose, MA

Since my previous post, the events I described then have come to pass.  A 3 1/2 year project had its milestone event.  I’m not going to say that the project reached its conclusion, because I really want the research and storytelling around this quilt to continue.  There are plenty of loose ends left to be tied!

In that previous post, you can read the process leading up to this exhibit.  And at the end of that post, there are links to other posts that I wrote along the way during that 3 1/2 years.

In a nutshell:
The quilt magically found its way to me. The names on the quilt were researched.  And researched some more with the help of Melrose community historians.  The results were nicely typed and formatted.  By happy happenstance found myself in contact with a woman in Melrose who was excited about the quilt and about creating an event around it.  She found a venue.  She planned several associated events.  Descendants contributed stories and photos.  I repaired the quilt.  I put on a temporary backing to help support and protect the quilt while hanging.  And finally, 120 years after it was dedicated and stitched, the quilt and I flew off to Massachusetts!

Melrose History Quilt, December 2018

 

Way back in spring 2015, I received a query for information on repairing an inscribed quilt.  And as they say, the rest is history.

Just for fun, I looked up some of the names on Ancestry.com, and the owner ended up deciding to leave the quilt with me so I could fully research it.  That was magic #1.  My research points to Melrose, MA, as its home, and 1897-8 for its creation.  See History Comes to Life on a Quilt on this blog, to read lots more details about the quilt and about Melrose.  At the bottom of this post are links to the whole set of posts about this amazing saga.

Magic #2 was receiving an order for my book from Alanna Nelson who lives right there in Melrose.  Magic #3 is that she is an avid quilter and knitter and event planner.

So for the last several years, I've been continuing the research, with the help of a Melrose librarian and contact with some of the family members and descendants, and Alanna has been creating a celebration focused on this quilt.  Oh, and I also did finally do the repair work.  Soon I'll be taking the quilt there, and participating in two weekends of events!

You can read about these upcoming events on the Melrose History Quilt website.  And down at the bottom of the home page, you'll find a space to sign up for the newsletter to keep you abreast of the plans.

I'll be there on Saturday December 1, Friday December 7, and Saturday December 8.  During the intervening week, I'll be in New Hampshire visiting family, and holding a workshop/get together on December 3.  You can contact me for details about that.  The quilt will be on display in Melrose on the other Saturdays in December, but I'll be coming back home.

In preparation, I've been solidifying all my lists.  I also wrote to people who have public trees for these families on Ancestry (where I've done the bulk of my researching).  Several people responded with some wonderful stories, some gorgeous family photos (a few of which are included below), and some new info, through which I've identified a few more people.  Here are the "final-for-now" results.

There are 227 names on the quilt.  I have located information on 184 of those people, and there are 43 that I couldn't find.  The quantity of information ranges from family contacts with stories and photos, to many links to census pages and other records (marriage, death, enlistments), to nothing more than a one-line entry in a Melrose directory.

The quilt was likely a fundraising project.  All the names are written by the same hand, so it is not a signature quilt.  Fundraiser quilts are known from this time and other decades.  People paid to have their name included, and then usually there was also an auction or raffle to sell the quilt in the end.  Often, date, place, and event are also included on the quilt, but not in this case.  Town histories include the incorporation of Melrose as a city and a renovation of the Methodist Episcopal Church around this time.

As I try to narrow in on the date that the quilt was made, I'm realizing that there will likely never be anything more definite that a range, unless some new source comes to light that actually describes the quilt and tells why and when it was made.  For one thing, there probably was a year or so during which the quilt was being made, and the names list may or may not have been updated during that process.  Also, for example, people may not have donated to have brand new infants added or may have added names to the quilt in memoriam. 

I'm pretty sure that names of new infants and married surnames of women couldn't have been entered on the quilt before the events happened.  The latest such incontrovertible dates on the quilt are the birth of Grace Everson on March 21, 1897, and a fairly large gap until the marriage of William and Jennie Howes on June 28, 1898.  In that gap though, there are three marriages and two births that transpired in families that are named on the quilt.  But those new infants and married names are not written, in fact one of the new brides is written with her maiden name next to her husband-to-be.  So I'm assuming that their names were put on a list before the wedding.  There is no indication of births or deaths that happened later on in 1898 or in 1899.

I'm hoping to see lots of New England friends and family while I'm there.  And I'm hoping to meet new friends, too!

Part 1 describes the quilt and the initial research.  Part 2 details how I narrowed down the dates, and relates some of the interesting family stories I began finding.  Part 3 tells the story of the Phinney, Dyer, and Hersey families.  Part 4 has general observations on life in the late 1890s.   Part 5 sums up my research.  Part 6 shares the first information from librarians and historians in Melrose.  I wrote a little aside about the fun of being able to look at original records online.  And, since the quilt did initially come to me for repair, and I did eventually stop reading census forms and do the repair work, and wrote up the techniques and choices involved.  And then I went back to the research, and continued to find lots of great information.  After the events, I described the homecoming experience and the exhibits, and wrote about the little quilt I made that was displayed in Melrose.  A set of summaries of the data and stories that brought the quilt to life.  And a very astonishing coincidence with another quilt and a family tree.  I was given a photo of one of the people named on the quilt. 

The Fine Art of Fiber

It's that time of year again!

Next weekend is the annual Fine Art of Fiber show at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Thursday 11/1, 6:30 - 9 p.m.
Friday 11/2, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. + fashion show at 11 a.m.
Saturday 11/3, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. + fashion show at 11 a.m.
Sunday 11/4, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

As I say every year, it's a great show every year!  The show is presented by the North Suburban Needlearts Guild, Illinois Quilters Inc., and the Weavers Guild of the North Shore.  Soooooo many kinds of fiber art are represented, and soooooo many styles and ideas.  In addition to the exhibit itself, there are a boutiques of items made by guild members, a silent auction, and fiber art and quilts for sale.

The Garden is lovely at all times of year, so if the weather is good, plan for an enjoyable walk while you're there.

Admission is free, but the usual Garden parking fee applies.  Make it easy on your budget and come with a few friends - the fee is per car.

I'll have two little quilts on exhibit, both in the Something From Nothing series.  You can catch a glimpse of them both (and my Egyptian camels) in the photo.  One was seen in June at the EvanstonMade show, and one is hot of the presses, completed last night.

All the details are on the Garden website or the show website.  The show website also has photos from previous shows, so you out-of-towners can have a virtual visit.