Women's Rights Quilt

I was just browsing through the Met Museum quilt collection and happened upon this quilt.  Boy, did I get excited!

Photo: Hearts and Hands: Women, Quilts, and American Society, 1987.

Just to toot my own horn a tiny bit:  When I first started teaching quilting in the early 1980s with little 6-week beginner classes, one of my students brought in an old quilt that was in her family.  I didn't know then nearly what I know now about quilt history, but I knew enough to be utterly amazed and urged the owner to treat it like the incredible piece that it is.  It did get exhibited and then published a couple of times (including in one of my all-time favorite books, Hearts and Hands: Women, Quilts, and American Society by Elaine Hedges, Pat Ferrero and Julie Silber, Quilter's Digest Press, 1987).  And now, oh boy oh boy, I see it's become part of the collection at the Met!!!  I feel like the beaming godmother!

The quilt was made in Illinois c. 1875.  It has both botanic appliqué designs and unique and detailed pictorial blocks showing the social history of the time.  There are some pictures that refer to the Civil War and some to the question of women's rights that sprouted during the war years.  Along with the quilt, the family had a piece of paper with captions and sometimes comical commentary for the pictorial blocks.  Such an incredible treasure!

You can read more and take a closer look at the Met collection entry.  The quilt is also described on the Quaker Quilts page in an article titled "Quaker Causes and the Women's Rights Quilt."

Enjoy!

Mending, Mending, Mending

Well, if you have visited my blog before, you know that what I do is a whole lot of mending.  For those of you are who new here, my profession is repairing antique/vintage quilts and clothing. For example:

I mended this unfortunate tear in a mid-19th century tulip appliqué quilt.

 

I replaced missing beading on a gorgeous wedding dress. 

Just For Fun Embroidery Projects

Tablecloth update:

Having finished embroidering and doing the cutwork in all but one corner, the tablecloth is on hiatus.  My daughter is going to finish up the last corner so we will end up with an heirloom stitched by three generations.  The whole story of the tablecloth is elsewhere on this blog.

Next project:
I always like to have some carry-along needlework at the ready to fill tedious waiting times and to doodle away on when watching some show with loads of commercial breaks.  So.....

A Tale of Two Dresses

My buddy Julia over at Basya Berkman Vintage finds the best stuff!  In the last couple of weeks, she's given me two really delightful dresses to mend.  They are from different decades even though they are similar in style.  Both prints are great, and they are really what inspired me to share the dresses here.

The older one is rayon, probably 1940s.  I absolutely love the color combo in the print!  The dress has shoulder pads, self-covered buttons, and - my favorite detail - velvet covered piping at the collar and sleeves.

Stitching Our Stories

Stitching Our Stories is an exhibit currently running in Santa Fe through October 20.   It's at the Santa Fe Arts Commission’s Community Gallery, 201 W. Marcy Street.  The use of needlework to express  family and social history is one of my favorite topics.  I'd go for sure if I was anywhere close!

The subtitle is:  Connecting Immigrant and Local Communities Through Story Cloths and Conversations.

The programs and exhibit were created by Art and Remembrance, an organization founded around the needlework panels made by Holocaust survivor Esther Nisenthal Krinitz.  The panels illustrate her memories of her early life in Europe and her escape from the Holocaust as a young girl.

Art and Remembrance has created a program called HeART and Story which guides recent immigrants to create their own story cloths about their journeys.  Their work is also on display. 

You can see the lovely Esther Krinitz panels in a book, Memories of Survival, and a video Through the Eye of the Needle (which you can also purchase).

Seminole Patchwork

 

 

Here is my good friend Julia of Basya Berkman Vintage.  She usually is behind the camera photographing her models, but this time, I took the camera and photographed her in this great Seminole skirt.   As an anthropology major way back when who long ago became a quilter and then much more recently took on vintage clothing, mending this skirt was a real treat!

This is a patchwork style created and stitched by the Seminole Indians of Florida.  After the sewing machine and cotton fabrics were introduced to the Seminoles in the late 1800s, they developed their own patchwork technique by the 1920s.

Great-Great-Grandma and Her Great-Great-Grandson

Well, I have another story to tell about quilts and needlework in my friend Debbie's family.  Debbie's Grandma loved to sew and craft, and made so many useful and pretty things for her family.  These have become much treasured heirlooms.

Last weekend, at our annual day at the Fox Valley Folk Festival (always a wonderful event!), and I got to meet the newest addition to the family, Debbie's first grandbaby.  Debbie had brought along the quilt her Grandma had made in the 1980s for her daughter Emmie was she was a little girl.  And now, here is baby Will, the first member of the next generation, in his jaunty little hat, sitting on his great-great-grandma's loving needlework.  How cool is that!

Sunbonnet Sue Spent Her Summer Vacation at My Quilt Care Spa

Hello, Sunbonnet Sue!  It was great to spend part of my August with this little girl, all decked out in her summer frocks and bonnets.

Most of her problems were with the embroidery thread giving out.  The fabrics by and large are hanging in there, although a few are starting to get weak.

Her spa treatment included restitching the loose appliqués, replacing a couple of missing sleeves, and re-embroidering the ribbon bows hanging down from her bonnet.  It's always fun to see a well-loved pattern like this with an extra little flair like those ribbon bows.

Favorite Quotes #13 - What is Art

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.

Edgar Degas

I found this quote in just about the most difficult spot ever to photograph!  It's on an overhang, with a brightly lit ceiling just beyond and a dark tall wall above....  But I loved it.  And I love that it's in a high school, seen by budding artists every day.

I do think successful art has two parts:  first, a sharing of what the artist sees (in the broader sense of feels and experiences), and second, what that touches and brings forth in the viewers' sensations and inner knowledge. That's why good art feels timeless and magical.

Here are two favorite stories:

Heirloom Cross Stitch Quilt

Isn't this a lovely quilt?  Sometimes the simplicity of a two-color design can create the most impact of all.

This cross stitch quilt is a family heirloom, made by the grandmother of the current owner.  She was living in Columbus, OH, at the time she made the quilt in the 1970s.

Summer Sewing

Sitting out in the back, beading and buttoning on my FFF (folded fabric flowers) project.  This will be another little quilt in the Something From Nothing series. 

It's quite thematic for a summer's day, don't you think?

And then I started looking for other things to photograph....  I love the freedom and the possibility of excess of digital photography!

100-Year-Old Christening Gown

      

This christening gown is a family heirloom with a full pedigree.  The left photo is the front, right photo is the back, third photo is the matching slip.  Here's what the current caretaker knows about the gown:

LeMoyne Star Plus 9-Patch Equals a Great Quilt

This quilt is signed and dated, one of my favorite kinds of quilts.  It was made in 2002 in Intercourse, PA, by Esther Martin.  Sign and date all your quilts, folks!  Quilt lovers of the future will thank you!

Repairing fairly recent quilts like this one is very different from repairing quilts of the 1800s or the early 20th century.  It's so easy to find patching fabrics!  All I have to do is go into my sewing room and look at the piles of fabrics I've bought over the years for my own quiltmaking.

Shopping Spree

I'm sure many of you know how easily this happens....

I was sitting down to repair this lovely Victorian silk and velvet log cabin quilt. 

And lo and behold, I discovered that I somehow had let my supply of black thread run completely dry.  And then somehow, my thread order ended up with just "a few" more spools than just the black.  The pages and pages of yummy colors were just more than I could resist!

This, by the way, is 100% cotton size 60 thread.  It's what I use for repairing quilts, especially ones like this log cabin with very fragile fabric.  Regular sewing thread is larger, size 50.

Close-up photos of the fabrics in the quilt and of the conservation work I did on the fragile old silks are in the previous post.

Lovely Victorian Log Cabin

 

This quilt exemplifies why people are drawn to the silk and velvet quilts of the Victorian era, don't you think?  Rich glowing colors and shiny fabrics.  It's all about the fabrics!

The counterpoint of the black vs. color makes the strong visual impact that quilt collectors love to see.

The logs are mostly silks.  They are about 1/2" wide, though you can see that it's not precision piecing - they do wobble a bit.  This makes me happy.  It says to me that a quilter doesn't need to lose the fun of fabric and color by stressing over precision (unless precision makes her happy) and can still make a stunning quilt.

An Amazing Day at an Auction ~ Quilt Rescue!

 Beautiful Windmills, 1930s;  lovely, fine quilting.  

Tried hard to win, but lost to the antique dealer.

What follows is a guest post by one of my readers.  I think of it as a cautionary tale about what wonders can be lost without a bit of research into the proper care of antiques.  She had the good luck and good sense to help rescue an amazing and amazingly mistreated quilt collection.  I am grateful to her for the time she has taken to share her story here.  (The photos were taken when the quilts were on display, before the "disaster".)

After reading this sad tale, I hope you'll join me in thanking her for giving it the happiest ending possible.

Cycle of the Seasons Quilt

Long, long ago (early 1980s) in a design workshop taught by Nancy Halpern, I designed a pieced tree block that I called "Timberline."  I made a set of 4 small pieces, one for each season. 

A bit later, I redrafted the trees to make an octagonal quilt that can rotate as the seasons cycle through the year.  It's been hanging in my upstairs hallway and turning to mark the seasons for nearly 30 cycles.  In this format, I call it "To Turn, To Turn."

My Magical Magic Vine Quilt Is Done!!

So here's the story of a UFO (UnFinished Object) that on Sunday June 12, 2016, officially became a Finished Object......after about 8 decades!

I bought the 1930s top at an antique store in the 1980s.  It was quite a find!  The applique artistry is amazing, it came packaged with more of the same green fabric that was intended for the back, and green is my favorite color.  I decided to do a bang-up job of quilting to honor the wonderful work of the anonymous woman who started the quilt.  Since the 80s, it has been the quilt I take with me when I demonstrate hand quilting and talk about antique quits. 

So I've worked on it just a few hours at a time, just a few times a year.  In the meantime, I've raised two kids and done tons of other quilting and sewing.  A couple of years ago, I decided it was time to actually put some focused hours into it, quite honestly, so the poor thing wouldn't end up for sale again as a UFO....

Stories of Migration: Contemporary Artists Interpret Diaspora

Robert Bein, "Boat Travelers" (detail), 2015.  The George Washington University Museum.

This exhibit sounds great! 

Stories of Migration: Contemporary Artists Interpret Diaspora
https://museum.gwu.edu/diaspora

"In this timely exhibition, forty-four artists share personal and universal stories of migration—from historic events that scattered communities across continents to today’s accounts of migrants and refugees adapting to a new homeland. Co-organized with Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) and with assistance from George Washington University’s Diaspora Program in the Elliott School of International Affairs."

Here are the exhibit details:

Through Sept 4, 2016

The George Washington University Museum and
The Textile Museum

701 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
Phone: 202-994-5200
museuminfo@gwu.edu

The artworks from this exhibit shown on the website are very powerful images. They are inspirational on both levels of creating art and of celebrating the human spirit in the midst of trauma.

Over the last couple of years, I have been gradually gathering information on my father's and uncle's escape from Germany in 1939 and on the other members of my family who were killed in the Holocaust.  I'd never considered making a quilt about them all!

The photo below was probably taken about 1915.  The little boy on the left is my dad.  In September 1939, he sailed out headed for New York City on the ill-fated British ship the Athenia, which was torpedoed by a U-boat on the day that England and Germany declared war.  He was rescued from the ocean the next morning by a merchant marine ship.  Neither of my grandparents were able to leave Germany in time, and most of their siblings perished as well.

Time To Celebrate!

Last night at about 11:30pm, this happened:

A great, excitingly, BIG number of pageviews!

Thanks to everyone, from my offspring and good friends who urged me to start blogging, to all the folks who visit and follow my pages!  I've ended up really enjoying writing and sharing about the quilts and quilt history that come across my path.  

Redwork

This redwork embroidered quilt needed a bit of repair and a vacuuming after many years on display.

The binding had torn away at the bottom.

I mended that by patching on the back, and then reattaching the binding with a herringbone stitch that went through to the new patching fabric.

New Quilts

I'm so excited!  Over the last couple of months, I've finished 6 new quilts for my Something From Nothing series.  And I have 4 more in varying stages of design and stitching.  I am bound and determined to get this series to a place that feels like completion.

The series is made mostly with decorator fabric samples, plus other bits and pieces of otherwise unwanted fabrics.  You can see the whole series on my website and the stories of making some of the quilts here on the blog.

Here are the newbies:

4 By 4

14 1/2" x 14 1/2"

Formal Wear Quilt: BowTies and Tuxedos

This quilt combines many of my criteria for a wonderful quilt - it has a creative design, a great story, and it's signed and dated!

Dressing Downton

 

My friend Mary and I had the absolutely best day at the Dressing Downton exhibit.  We saw costumes from the series on display at the Driehaus Museum.  The Driehaus is in a huge stone mansion just off the Magnificent Mile in Chicago.  It provided the wonderful, wonderful clothing with the perfect setting - an American counterpart of the upper-upper crust life that was showcased on the series.  Mary and I treated ourselves to the scrumptious high tea served in a most amazing hall within the mansion.  I just can't find enough superlative adjectives for the day we had!  Honestly, I just can't stop looking at these photos.  Wooooo!!

The gowns on the left and right in this photo were worn when the Downton ladies went to court and curtsied to the King.  There were strict rules about what was to be worn, such a headdress with three white Prince of Wales plumes and a short train.

Favorite Quotes #12 - Essence and Limitation

 

"Objectivity is of the very essence of photography, its contribution and at the same time its
limitation...."

I found this quote in the description of the current retrospective of photographer Paul Strand's work at the V&A Museum in London, and love the connection he drew between essence and limitation.

I consider this to be a very magical photo.  I took it for the marvelous sunset sky.  Only later did I see that in that little triangle of light between the bushes at the center there is a man sitting on a park bench, also enjoying the view.  The objectivity of the camera lens created its own essence!

For me, I really enjoy the challenge of working within limits.  I know some artists don't do commission work because of the size or design limits that customers can require.  Not me.  And I always love a great collection of challenge quilts or a show requiring a clear theme - the amazing variation within limits is a real testament to creativity.

History Comes to Life on a Quilt - Part 6 - Delving Deeper

The amazing saga of this quilt continues.  My research into the names inscribed on this quilt showed that it was made between 1897 and 1898 in Melrose, MA.  Reading between the lines of the census records has built up a fascinating glimpse into the era.

The first five chapters of the saga are:
Part 1 - background and start of my search for the details of its history.
Part 2 - how I narrowed down the dates, and some of the interesting family stories. 
Part 3 - the story of the Phinney, Dyer, and Hersey families. 
Part 4 - general observations on life in the late 1890s. 
Part 5  - research summary.
I've written 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.
And also, a summary on the occasion of the exhibit about the quilt, December 2018, in Melrose.
After the events, I described the homecoming experience and the exhibits, and wrote about the little quilt I made that was inspired by the historical quilt.  And 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. 

During the height of my research process, I received an order for my quilt repair book (link to the book is on the right, by the way) from a woman who lives in Melrose!

I sent a surprise note tucked into her copy of the book, and we have since talked about the quilt.  She sent me a link to book about Melrose that was written just a few years after the quilt was made - The History of Melrose, County of Middlesex, Massachusetts, by Elbridge H. Goss, published 1902.

Not Too Shabby

From my last couple of weeks of sewing!  

I ended up by chance using lots of nearly empty spools, so my little collection here looks super good!

A couple of these indicate quilt repair quantity and progress.  Also, I will soon be unveiling some new Something From Nothing quilts, once a couple more are done and we have a photo session. 

What do you do with your empty spools?  I always think they could build a nice futuristic city model. 

Vintage 1950s Fabrics

Every now and then, the most exciting thing about a quilt is on the back!  This collection of fabric prints and colors could be considered iconic of the era.

A 1950s string quilt came to me for repairs.  The back was also pieced, using rectangles of many sizes and shapes.  Some of the fabrics are totally iconic of the 1950s.

Here's the full shot of what I'm calling "The Liberace Print":

Hands All Around

Something like 10 or 12 years ago, I cleared out lots of my old creations with a giveaway to friends and family.  One friend took a pillow, one of the first I made way back when.

She has used that pillow so much, even taking it along in her camper on a cross-country trip, that it has faded away until the navy print is a super pale grey.  Time for a new pillow, I figured.  (The block on this one is Single Wedding Ring.  And in case you're curious, the semi-circles quilted around the border were traced around the inside of a roll of masking tape.)

Here's the new pillow I made for her.