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The Midwest Fabric Study Group met last weekend in
Shipshewana,
Indiana, home of the 3rd largest Amish community in the US. We
gathered at the Farmstead Inn late in the afternoon on Friday, with
many having gotten a jump on shopping at Yoder's General Store,
Lolly's Fabrics, Rebecca Haarer Art, the bulk foods store, and the
antique mall next to the Inn.
At the Farmstead we were introduced to the evening's speaker who gave us some advance
information on what to expect at a dinner in an Amish home. Then we
formed up a caravan and headed into the dark to find the farm house.
In Amish areas there are few streetlights, mercury vapor yard lights,
or other signs of "civilization" once evening arrives, and the narrow
roads are shared with buggies marked only by battery-operated safety
lighting.
We found the barn lot at the Amish farm an interesting place to fit
in about 15 cars, and were ushered into a "shed" where long tables
were set for all 35 of us. The shed was actually a new multipurpose
building where dinners, or church services, or weddings might be
held. We were welcomed and ably served by a young Amish man whose
mother had prepared all of the food but had then left to meet her
sisters for a family event. Family-style, we passed bowls of fried
chicken, mashed potatoes, noodles and gravy (to go over the
potatoes), green beans, slaw, hot loaves of bread, butter, Amish
peanutbutter, and apple butter. For dessert there were 3 kinds of
pie, nicely cut into small wedges so we could sample one or more
without feeling too gluttonous - apple, pumpkin, and pecan. And ice
cream with home made caramel sauce!
Following the dinner, we were treated to a thoughtful and
far-reaching program on the nature of Amish quilts, delivered over
the quiet hiss of gas lamps and well illustrated by Amish quilts from
her collection. The quilts dated from the late 19th century to the
present, each accompanied by insightful descriptions of the
importance of family and the process of quiltmaking among Amish
women. Another interesting insight offered by Rebecca was the way
Amish women began to look at their quiltmaking and quilts as
outsiders collected and published them, with interpretations,
objectifying the culture.
Then we were fortunate enough to meet our hostess and to discuss with
her the quilts she had made that adorned the walls; she has been
replicating Amish quilts, now found in books, that were once owned by
Amish families in the area. We could also buy Amish peanutbutter and
small leaflets of her recipes; then home again, home again, jiggety
jig over the same dark and buggy-laden roads.
Saturday morning found us 15 miles away at the Elkhart Co. Historical
Society, housed in a re-purposed school building, where we were
introduced to the new young curator. He showed us, one after
another, quilts from the museum's collection - some fragile, some
"gaspers," many without any provenance, most from the 19th century,
and all interesting to us. He may have wondered that we found
construction details and fabrics in some of the most ragged of the
quilts exciting, while expressing only polite interest in some of the
crazy quilts. We hopefully offered him constructive information on
the history of many of the pieces, based on internal evidence, and
felt we and he were well-served by our cooperative look at the
collection.
Afternoon had us scattering for trips to antique shops, fabric
stores, and other places of interest in the area. After dinner at
the famous Blue Gate Restaurant, we convened once more in a
conference room at the hotel for some intensive show and tell,
beginning with Amish quilts. The hit of the evening (among the Amish
offerings) must have been a dark brown and tan quilt on which our hostess quickly found an undiscovered name and the date
January the 1ce ("once"), AD 1883 worked into the corners in quilting
stitches. In addition to whole cloth quilts with simple inner frames
and elaborate quilting, several embroidered Amish friendship quilts,
made for both men and women as they left home to move to other
communities, or as wedding gifts or teacher gifts offered a different
view of Amish quiltmaking.
Other show and tell involved quirky quilts, which were many and
decidedly odd, and projects in progress or finished quilts by the
members. Linda P shared her silk quilt, fresh from a major
award at Houston, and I showed my only contest entry, made in turkey
red ("Quaker") prints, that surprisingly won first at a show in
Scotland.
Highlights of the quirky quilts included one that had been split into
thirds and reassembled with the center strip back to front, matching
tops with oddly shaped and appliqued animal and plant figures
enhanced by unusual fabric choices, a quilt of rickrack pots of
blanket-stitched lilies with real shrinkage problems, and others. We
saw a beautifully pieced Pine Burr all in one color (!) and deduced
that original color loss had spurred to maker head for the Rit dye.
A Sugarloaf (BB #201) in red, black and gray had oil painted flowers
resembling 3 peonies in the large black triangles, and matching odd
motifs in the 3 smaller red triangles; a good concept, but the paint
was not equal to the job.
After a catered hot breakfast Sunday (nothing is open in Shipshewana
on Sunday), several of us accepted one member's offer to attend her
Amish-Mennonite church and to go home with her for dinner at noon,
and the rest wrapped up more show and tell from the previous day's
shopping excursions, and headed home. We all agreed that as a
"reward" for our work as the local committee at the October AQSG
seminar in Columbus, the weekend was a real treat! |