When I Really Fell in Love With Quilts

After I graduated from college in 1977, I stayed on campus, working on the data base of one of the profs.  I spent most of my days on the computer, editing transcribed field notes on monkey social organization.  

At that time, the state-of-the-art was the big mainframe computer to which we submitted jobs and waited, and waited, and waited, for output.  I really needed some color and handwork in my life.  My mom was always saving sewing scraps and talking about making a quilt.  We never did do it, but that's what gave me the idea to try quilting with a little, 6-week, just-for-fun class at the student union.  

After a few years of pillows and placemats and my first big quilt, I was in San Francisco visiting some friends, and decided to hop over to Oakland and see the quilt exhibit there.  The exhibit was curated by Pat Ferrero, Linda Reuther, and Julie Silber.  It was life-changing for me!  And I guess it was life-changing for lots of folks, since it became a landmark exhibit.  

I recently discovered the out-of-print catalog on a used book website.  I was so excited!

This exhibit came 10 years after the famous Whitney Museum exhibit in 1971 that first hung quilts on the wall and discussed them as art.  The curators in Oakland had an additional theme, and gathered period photos and artifacts and family stories and arranged them alongside the quilts.  They presented the quilts as windows into women's lives.

One story that always has stayed with me is this:  There was a set of beautifully made and unusually colored quilts, interesting dark purple-ish and maroon colors.  Turns out, these pieces had all been dyed black, by the quilter, while she was going through a deep depression.  I was struck both by the incredible sadness that she expressed so eloquently, and by the thoughtfulness of her descendants, who kept the quilts and her story to honor her.  

The catalog has wonderful essays by several historians about quilts as objects that express everyday history and the lives of everyday people.  This concept has become a big part of my love of quilts.  It's one of the reasons I feel so good about repairing and preserving quilts.  I wrote about this in two of my previous posts: Thoughts About Repairing Antique Quilts and Textile Stories.  And I like the idea that today's quilters are creating this same kind of history for future historians to enjoy.

The three curators also produced some of my favorite books and videos - and I am deeee-lighted to add this one to my collection.  (I have no connection with their business, just spreading the word, especially for newer quilters who may not be familiar with their work.)

Schoolhouse Quilt

This Schoolhouse quilt has the kind of lovely and graphic look that for many people simply means "American quilt."

This poor old thing was is pretty bad shape, especially the lower row and edge.  I did both repair patching on the worst places, and a goodly amount of conservation backing and stitching where rips and tears were less dense.  You can see both in this photo:

Glowing Pineapple Quilt

This is a lovely silk Pineapple quilt.  There are lots of wonderful colors, still bright and clear.  This quilt definitely puts to rest the view of antique fabrics as drab and basically brown!  In the 1700s and 1800s, the pineapple was often used as a symbol of hospitality.  I've also sometimes heard this pattern called Windmill.

It's super large - about 81" x 92".  Older quilts, meaning earlier on in the 19th century, are sometimes quite large because they were made for very high bedframe with trundle beds stored underneath.

Most of the fabrics are silk, with a few velvets in the mix.  They are in pretty good condition.  All I did for the quilt was to vacuum it to clear out old dust and freshen it up.  Visit this post for instructions for vacuuming quilts.

Scrappy Bow Tie Quilt

Here's a 1950s era Bow Tie quilt.  I'm getting in a lot of quilts from the 50s and 60s now.  I guess that's a data point on the longevity of cotton fabrics.  The colors are still quite bright and happy.

There were a couple of fabrics that had really fallen apart, like this solid brown.  

Ancient Roman Mosaics

My friend Shauna recently spent several weeks in France.  Amongst her wonderful travelogue of photos, this one really caught my eye.

Crazy Quilt Saga - Repairs

This crazy quilt provides a good example of the different techniques that I use to help maintain aging silks.  It also had a special problem - a silk ruffle on the edge, some of which was in really bad shape.

I used three different techniques, depending on the type of damage in each patch:

Prize-winning Quilts of 1947

While poking around on the "interwebs", I found a fun vintage photo.  It made me smile, and I hope you'll enjoy it, too.

It is captioned:
"Two women examine the award winning quilts on display at the 1947 Illinois State Fair."

The four prizewinning quilts are:
Double Wedding Ring, Cathedral Windows, Grandmother's Flower Garden, Irish Chain

These are not at all unexpected as favorite 1947 quilts.  Wouldn't it be fun to be able to see them in  color?!  The photo also provides a fun little glimpse of ladies' dresses, hats, and bags of the time.

The photo is in the extensive collection of the Illinois Digital Archives.