Friends Across the Sea

 

A family memento.  Here's the story the quilt owner told:

This quilt was made for us by our friend Shelia in England.  It was given to us as a thank you gift for housing her daughter one summer.  Her daughter, Sally, was twenty years old and wanted very much to work one summer in the Chicago area.  Our youngest son was staying at college that summer, so we had an extra bedroom.  We spent a delightful summer with Sally who quickly became our English "daughter".  We later attended Sally's wedding in Broughton, England.  Sally has made subsequent trips here so that we could meet her children. We treasure the quilt as a reminder of wonderful times.

The dedication is embroidered on a Log Cabin block appliquéd on the back.  It is dated 1991.

And as with any date-inscribed quilt, it's also a fine record of fabrics available, in England, at this time.  

1897 Wool Crazy Quilt

This family heirloom quilt has some unique embroideries and provides a glimpse into the quiltmaker's personality.  (And no, I did not leave my scissors on the quilt by mistake.  They are embroidered with a variegated wool thread, giving them a wonderful metallic appearance!)

Here's what the quilt owner told me about the quilt:
I believe it was made by my great-grandmother, Johanna Gerbracht (born: 1865).  She was married to Henry Gerbracht (born: 1863).  They lived in Chatsworth, IL.  The best record I have online says that she married Henry in 1888.  That would make the quilt (dated: 1897) around their 10 year anniversary.  Online records show that she had three children, one of whom was born in 1898/1897.  You would know better than I, but that quilt doesn't scream baby quilt to me.  So I'm assuming that she made it for her and her husband. 

There are plenty of photos below, and you can see some other views of the quilt and listen to more descriptive information in a short video.

Three Quilts, Three Generations - The Repairs

The family story of these three quilts is at Three Quilts, Three Generations - The Story.  Here, I will descirbe the repairs that I made to them.

The two crazy quilts were made primarily of wool and flannel fabrics.  One of the crazy quilts has an embroidered date and name, as well as more and more varied embroidered details.  The crazy quilts have some fabrics in common, so it's likely that they were both made around the same time.  The log cabin is cotton and significantly older. 

The repair techniques chosen for each quilt were chosen according to the kinds of damage, the age, available fabrics, and the owner's preferences.  We had quite a few long discussions!

Three Quilts, Three Generations - The Story

I recently had the pleasure of repairing three heirloom quilts made by three generations of quilters. Two are heavy, wool and flannel crazy quilts, and the third is a cotton log cabin.  (You can read about the repairs at Three Quilts, Three Generations - The Repairs.)

Here's how the owner describes the quilts:



Quilt for an 1895 Wedding

I love a dated quilt.  I love a dated quilt with a family story (see full story below).  Combined together....well.... it's simply grand.

The fabrics have some preservation issues and staining throughout.  And at some point, a critter chewed a hole in the quilt and almost chewed a second.  The good part of that story is that the critter was polite enough to avoid chewing up any of the embroidered history.

#1

#2

Antique Photo from Melrose, MA

A few years ago, I did a lot of research on a quilt with many names inscribed.  It seems to be fund-raising quilt, and was made in Melrose, MA, in 1897 or 8.  The information and connections made via this quilt just keep on coming...

You can read about the quilt, the research process, and the results - there are 14 blog posts - starting here, if you want to read through the whole process step by step.  There also is a summary of the process, a description of my adventures taking the quilt "home" to Melrose, and downloadable sets of data that I collected.  

But wait - now there's more!

Another Snowflake Quilt

Wonderful coincidences and quilt stories just keep on coming.  I love quilters!  Here's the newest one to arrive in my inbox:

I have inherited this quilt and saw you restored one just like it! Thank you for giving me some history of where this quilt came from. I didn’t know who made it but am a new quilter and really appreciated the work. So, that's pretty exciting!

Of course, I wrote back and asked if I could post the quilt and her story here.  She kindly agreed.  Here's what she has to tell:

A Blast from the Past

The other day, I met up with a quilt I'd made over 30 years ago and forgotten!

I got a text from one of the people who grew up a few houses away from me.  She's been doing lots of sorting and clearing out over these last couple of months.  In amongst her son's childhood items, she found this quilt, and asked if I had made it.  At first, I didn't remember having made a baby quilt for her.  But when I scrolled down further to see the photos, I recognized it immediately.

Wow.  Hee, hee.

I made it in 1986, about 7 years after I learned to quilt.  It was a pretty popular pattern at the time.  A Google search came up with Garden Trellis, Garden Twist, and Around the Twist.  Around the Twist sounds very familiar, so I think that was the name as I learned (and forgot) it. 

And yes, at that time, I signed all my quilts and crafty items with those little name tapes.  The name was suggested by one of my friends, a pun if you will.  "Handmade" becomes "Ann Made" - see?  I ran out of "Ann Made" business cards a long, long time ago, but I still have some of that tape tucked away in a drawer, and I still have scraps of some of those fabrics in my stash. 

It's this kind of color play and geometry play that are a big part of what intrigued me about quiltmaking - and has kept me going all these years.   I still love green and I still love little spriggy prints the best, like the background white print.   So, it was a very pleasant walk down Memory Lane.  And I'm posting about a crib quilt just under the wire, as it's still just barely Mother's Day here. 

When an Old Quilt Needs a New Home

The quilts in my collection are not pristine museum quality quilts by any stretch of the imagination.  Sometimes I've bought quilts that are not, well, very sturdy anymore.  (For example, the stars quilt that I have been gradually replicating.)  And sometimes lovely people give me very, uh, well-loved quilts.

Here's my most recent such acquisition, given to me at a recent quilt study group meeting.  It had been found at a sale at closing time, in the discard pile because no one had wanted it.  One of the quilt study members had rescued it, and when she spread it out to show everyone, my first thought was that I really, really wanted it but didn't want to jump up and down and blurt out "I want that quilt!  Can I have it pleeeease?!  Me, me, me!!!!"  And then, much to my surprise, I was hearing her say that she really couldn't take anything new into her house and did anyone want it!  Well, yes!

Two Quilts that Connect 1635, 1897, and 1998

Well, folks, the 1890s quilt I researched for several years and then exhibited last winter is, as they say, the gift that keeps on giving.  (Check the highlighted links for background on the quilt and it's story.)

Last spring, a woman brought me a rail fence quilt to repair.  It had been made for her by her grandmother.  A few days later, as I was looking over the quilt as part of making an estimate on the repairs, I discovered that the grandmother had signed and dated (1998) the quilt.  Lo and behold, her last name was a name of someone on my research quilt.

Can you guess where this is going?!

Grab your favorite beverage (mine would be a cuppa tea) and put your feet up - it's story time!

My Happy Holiday Sewing

We had just a few holiday plans, no travel, no guests, and so I decided that sewing on all sorts of back-burner projects of my own was The Thing To Do.  It was so fun!  Here are the results.

The farm.
Another (could it be the last?) quilt in my Something From Nothing series.  This one's been in the planning stage for nearly two years, taking tiny steps towards construction.  It entered full-out construction mode during a fiber retreat in October.  And now it's done!  (It's made with plastic produce bags.)

Charm Quilts

Well, I think this is a great topic for this put-a-new-calendar-on-the-wall and make-those-happy-wishes time of year.

Charm quilts, as the name indicates, are made with thoughts of good luck in mind.  I'd heard the folklore that the magic happens because each piece is a unique fabric....but if one and only one fabric has been used twice, the quilt has a special magic.  So that's what I did.  My charm quilts were made for my babies because, as a quilter, I of course had to make them each a very special quilt.

Just Wanna Quilt Blog

I'm starting something new! I've put up my first post as a contributing blogger on the Just Wanna Quilt blog. Just Wanna Quilt is: a research project to investigate all the who-what-why questions of the quilt world, a research project to clarify copyright and other legal aspects of creating art and craft, a super fun quilt adventure, and a great group of vibrant and interesting quilters. There's a podcast (which I've been interviewed on) and sewing challenge projects and lots of great discussions in the facebook group, and etc. etc. Woo hoo!  Thanks to Prof. Elizabeth Townsend-Gard for brainstorming this wonderful adventure!

Here's my inaugural post:

Remember Me

 

There used to be an antique quilt gallery here called the Wild Goose Chase, and I used to work there.  That's where I got my start in repairing quilts.  (Photo from 1980-something.)

 

My mom, though not a quilter, found and bought an intriguing quilt there every time she visited.  This is my favorite of the ones she bought.  I think she was drawn to this one because she did lots of embroidery, and because she loved good novels.  This one has a such sweetness to it and surely held some meaningful stories.

The Melrose Quilt - Statistics and Stories

 

Now that all the excitement and preparations around the exhibit have come and gone, I'm publishing the compilations of statistics and stories I discovered about life in Melrose, MA, at the end of the 19th century.

A previous post describes the exhibit and events.  Links to many chapters chronicling the research process can be found below.  I hope you enjoy the saga as much as I enjoyed it!

Here are links to the data.  (Depending on your browser and browser settings, you may see the pages here or you may find them in your downloads.)

List of Names on the Quilt - Includes names as written and more complete names when found

Census Records Closest to 1895-1900 - Household members, ages, professions, stories

Census Data Used to Date the Quilt 

Summation of Interesting Facts and Stories

Names Listed in Order of Street Name and Number - In case you visit Melrose and want to look for houses where these people lived

Age Chart - Ages from census records closest to 1895-1900 

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 wrote about the little quilt I made that was inspired by the historical quilt. 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. 

Two Family Quilts

Here are two heirloom quilts that came to me in need of some TLC.

   

At some point, someone affixed typed labels that identify the quiltmakers and the quilts' histories.  This is what's called "provenance" in the antiques biz, and is always a good thing!

Quilt #1

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!

Potholder Quilt with Disney Friends

The owner's great-grandmother made this quilt in 1974 for his mother.  It was made from the fabrics of dresses from his mother's childhood.  The dresses were originally handmade by his grandmother and great-grandmother, and then repurposed for the quilt.  So it is indeed a special memory quilt!

Here is the dated label.

 

Twisty Turny Genealogy Research

So, here's how I had fun on a cool, grey, damp Saturday afternoon.

I’m taking the next step in the research into the names on a quilt that was most likely made in Melrose MA, in the late 1890s.  The story of all the previous work is on this blog, starting with Part 1 and linking along for several more posts.  (The full list of links in below.)

Alanna Nelson, a Melrose fiber enthusiast and community builder, has taken it upon herself to plan a "homecoming" for the quilt in December, with all sorts of creative associated programming.  The quilt and I will be there, of course!