January 9 – 12, 2004
These restored messages come from the Quilt History List, an online forum where quilt historians, collectors, researchers, appraisers, and enthusiasts discussed antique quilts and related textiles. The archive dates from 1996 through approximately 2016 and is being restored gradually. Sign up in the form at the bottom of the page if you want to know when a new page is added. Original spelling, opinions, formatting, and inactive links may remain unchanged.
Primary topics of this QHL Digest:
- Tracing the Prince’s Feather Quilt Pattern — Members dig into the pattern’s history and share early documented examples.
- Regional Dialect Detour: “Cattywampus” and “Taking the Mickey” — A movie-accent aside turns into a folksy discussion of regional sayings.
- Study Group Meeting Roundup — Several regional quilt study groups announce January meetings and field trips. (see the article on quilt study groups)
- KKK Robe Manufacturing Details — Follow-up research identifies who commercially produced Klan robes.
Date: January 11, 2004 | From: “J. G. Row” <JudyGrow@>
> with a feather in it. Judy Ringo then responded with: << He is remembered in many > parts of the country, and the largest county in Iowa is named after him.
Karen, I just love it!! From now on I will have my own catchy theme music, lifted from the TV western series!
Judy in Ringoes, NJ aka Judy Ringo
judygrow@
Date: January 11, 2004 | From: “Jocelyn” <jocelynm@>
Nancy, I grew up in the Ozarks of Missouri, and there, it was kitty-cornered or catty-cornered when you mean something’s location, but catterwampus when you were describing its condition- that the lines that should have been straight north-south were diagonal. In fabric parliance, ‘cut on the bias’. <G> So you could say something like ,’The house that’s kitty-cornered from mine is all catterwampus because they don’t keep it up right.’ <G> I suspect that there’s lots of spellings, because they were words mainly used in speech, not in writing. 🙂
>
Date: January 11, 2004 | From: “Laurette Carroll”
While I remember the discussion of the origins of the pattern name, I can’t remember if the flower by the name of Prince’s Feather was mentioned. If not here’s some interesting information from a Google search of “Prince’s Feather”. The flower looks very much like the quilt pattern, IMO.
“We find the name Prince’s Feather used in America as early as 1709 when John Lawson described “Prince’s feather very large and beautiful” in his A New Voyage to Carolina. Presumably, this plant is the same as the flower Jefferson planted in 1767.” Quoted from the following site… http://www.twinleaf.org/articles/flowers.html
see also http://shop.store.@/monticellostore/600248.html http://www.nearctica.com/flowers/a/Ahybrid.htm http://www.nearctica.com/flowers/a/Aretro.htm http://www.gardenofedenfloralshop.com/PrincesFeather.htm
Laurette Carroll In beautiful Southern California
Date: January 11, 2004 | From: “Nancy Gibbs” <izannah1@>
Date: January 11, 2004 | From: “Vernon Farms” <vernonfarmssisna.com>
Hi,
Can anyone help my find a book that tells the history of quilt block names. I know the log cabin block history but what about all the other blocks. Is there a book, web site, or some other place where I can find information?
Su Vernon
Date: January 11, 2004 | From: Litwinow@
Good Morning, Just a quick remeinder that the Iowa/Illinois Quilt Studyg Group is meeting Feb 7, at the Grout Church in Kalona, IA. Morning show and share, afternoon documentation of signature quilts. Contact me, Sue WIldemuth: ksandbcwgeneseo.net or or Marilyn Woodin: Woodinkctc.net for more information. Catherine
Date: January 11, 2004 | From: “Celia Eddy”
Sue, you’ll probably be inundated with messages on this subject. The main book which I use is:
Barbara Brackman: Encyclopaedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, which gives dates of first publication of over 4000 blocks. Electric Quilt have all this information on CD-ROM, called Block base. Unfortunately, even this comprehensive listing doesn’t tell us much about the origins of the names.
Some names are fairly clearly inspired by historical events and people: Henry Clay, Dolly Madison and Lincoln, for example, are historical characters so you can find out about them but whether that will provide enlightenment about the blocks named for them is another question.
Other names relate to events, e.g. Burgoyne Surrounded, which commemorates a famous American victory during the War of Independence. It’s great fun and very interesting to follow up on these blocks but the names of many remain lost in the mists of time: who was Aunt Suky, for instance?
I’m looking forward to reading some US replies to this question!
Best wishes Celia
Date: January 11, 2004 | From: “Sally Ward”
Celia is modestly refraining from mentioning her own book on the subject (The Quilter’s Block Bible), which I noticed got a mention in the December issue of QNM as a good Christmas buy. For a book on US blocks written by a Brit I thought that was pretty good going <G>
I too have Barbara Brackmann’s book, but would point out that it is a reference to pattern and names, rather than to the stories, which Celia has diligently collected.
NAYAYAYA
Sally W
Date: January 11, 2004 | From: “Arlene Marin”
Hi Judy, I am planning to attend but will probably be about an hour late. Looking forward to seeing you. Arlene Marin
Date: January 11, 2004 | From: “Judy” <anne_j@>
This is the most common question I get from visitors to my website.
>Can anyone help my find a book that tells the history of quilt block names. >I know the log cabin block history but what about all the other blocks. Is >there a book, web site, or some other place where I can find information?
I have a little at on quilt patterns at http://www.womenfolk.com/historyofquilts/patterns.htm but mostly it tells how little we know. The resources section points to webpages I could find but it’s limited too. If anyone has found a good website with quilt pattern history please let me know.
I haven’t found a book dedicated to this topic. What I’ve written is from searching through many books and a little help from my QHL friends. 🙂
Judy Anne
Date: January 12, 2004 | From: “BOBBIE A AUG” <qwltpro@>
Speaking of KKK quilts with white crosses instead of red, there is a beau tiful quilt with white crosses in Florence Peto’s book, American Quilts a nd Coverlets, 1949. The border is somewhat elaborate and the quilt does not look political – looks religious.
Bobbie A. Aug Author, lecturer, teacher, AQS Certified Quilt Appraiser qwltpro@ www.BobbieAug.com P.O. Box 9654 Colorado Springs, CO 80932-0654
Date: January 12, 2004 | From: “Newbie Richardson” <pastcrafts@>
I had to do some checking to be sure, but did you all know that these robes were commercially made by the same manufacturers who did other ceremonial and fraternal costuming? It was BIG business at the end of the 19th c/early thc. They would have been made by the same manufacturers who made robes for the African American fraternal organizations as well – how is that for ironic? The establishment of fraternal organizations (Knights of Pythius, in particular) were actively promoted by the manufacturers who made the Union Army uniforms and other paraphanalia. There was quite a surplus of uniforms and insignia after the end of the Civil War, so traveling sales men were recrutied to travle around the towns of the mid-west and establish these lodges and sell them the stuff. The boys who had been too young to participate “the glory” of the war, were very susceptible to the sales pitch as young men. So if you want to find Union Army uniforms, look in the storage rooms of some of the older lodges in the mid-west! Newbie Richardson The Costume and Textile Specialists Alexandria and Richmond, VA
Date: January 12, 2004 | From: “Newbie Richardson”
Although I have not yet seen the movie, my partner Colleen Callahan, Curator Emeritus of the Valentine Museum in Richmond, said that although it was a wonderful movie, it took her quite a while to get over her adverse reaction to the women’s costumes. The “wealthy” woman was dressed 5 years ahead of period. She was wearing a hat called a “Eugenie” – named for the Empress of France and dating to 1868. The character’s dress was equally miss dated. (There was a distinct change in woman’s clothing silhouette in 1865/66.) You’d think that all the attention paid to the detail of uniforms, etc would have rubbed off on the other costumes! Once again, “women’s sphere” gets hind tit! Newbie Richardson
Date: January 12, 2004 | From: aol.com
*sigh* Sounds like nothing much has changed since the 1940s. Edward Maeder’s done a lot of work on Hollywood costumes and curated a wonderful exhibit called “Hollywood and History” back in the late 80s (it was in Los Angeles and Boston that I know of; the costumes were stunning, especially one worn by Norma Shearer as Maria Antoinette).
One of the major things Edward found out was that male costumes and hairstyles tend to be much, much closer to the original than the female costumes, hairstyles, and (especially) makeup. No matter how carefully the costume designer may research the period, the results tend to conform in one way or another to the prevailing aesthetic.
If you can find the exhibit catalogue, it’s well worth reading (mine disintegrated years ago from overuse). Some of the funniest examples include frosted lipstick on 18th century doxies (Tom Jones), upholstery fabric Elizabethan (Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall), 19th century nuns in full 1940s glamour makeup and plucked eyebrows (Green Dolphin Street)lifted and separated Renaissance breasts (Diane), space beehives (01: A Space Odyssey), and wool jersey Biblical Philistine high priestess wear (The Prodigal).
Sounds like Cold Mountain is, alas, following this glorious tradition. I wonder how anachronistic the makeup will look in ten years? 🙂
Karen Evans Easthampton, MA
Date: January 12, 2004 | From: “Laura Fisher” <laurafishernetlink1.net>
rushing to set up for the American Anrtiques Show at the Metropolitan Pavilion, which I hope everyone who will be in NYC this week will attend.
Re Princess Feather — I believe it is a derivation of Prince’s Feather, the three feather insignia of the Prince of Wales. Laura Fisher
As we all hunker down with our winter projects, here are some tips for fabric preparation from the nineteenth-century. Notice that the second tip was repeated in three different newspapers over a 52 year period. sue reich
Adams Sentinel Gettysburg, Pennsylvania June 12, 1837
Sewing on Glazed Calico. Passing a cake of soap a few times over a piece of glazed calico, or any other stiffened material, will cause the needle to penetrate without difficulty.
The Ohio Repository Canton, Ohio August 5, 1825
To wash Calico without fading. Put a table spoonful of common salt into the suds, and the colors will remain as bright as before washing.
Adams Sentinel Gettysburg, Pennsylvania April 15, 1839
For the Ladies. — A new way to make calicoes wash clean. — Infuse three gills of salt in four quarts of boiling water, and put the calico in, while hot, and leave it till cold. And in this way, the colors are rendered permanent, and will not fade by subsequent washing. So says a lady who has frequently made the experiment herself.
Gettysburg Compiler Gettysburg, Pennsylvania November 16, 1877
To Wash Calico Without Fading. – Infuse three gills of salt in four quarts of water, put the calico in while hot and leave it till cold, and in this way the colors are rendered permanent, and will not fade by subsequent washing.
Date: January 12, 2004 | From: macdowel@
I am forwarding this message to the QHL list from a person in Luxembourg seeking assistance. – Marsha MacDowell
Subject: quilter from luxembourg Date: Mon, 12 Jan 04 09:04:32 +0100
hello, I am a dutchwoman living in Luxembourg, Europe and I have a daughter who will be graduate in May in Kentucky – Bowling Green, Western Kentucky University. I would like to make a special quilt for that day but I don’t have that much ideas, it is difficult to find someones. I am a member of the International Luxembourg Quild Guilt, but most of this people are “older people” and don’t have experience with your country. I was there too when she graduated from high school, so I know what’s going on. The colours from Western are white, black and the small parts who are hanging down, sorry I don’t konw the right name, is white and red, it can also be application. And if there is something to pas, no problem, just let me know it. S.O.S. Help me, if not forward this mail to other quilters and thanks in advance. To my person I am 52 years young and me be we can keep in touch to change ideas, OK. (if my english is not, I am sorry)
Toos Lux from Luxembourg
Subject: textiles & language From: Judy Schwender <sister3603@> Date: Tue, 13 Jan 04 04:37:35 -0800 (PST) X-Message-Number: 1
This is from the Common Reader website, www.commonreader.com
Curious Word of the Day This word of the day is excerpted from A Second Browser’s Dictionary by John Ciardi. Copyright © 1983 by John Ciardi
sleazy n. Britain 17th-18th centuries. Now obsolete A fine cotton or linen cloth used for linings. Also sleazy holland, in which holland is a generic term for this sort of cloth; sleazy functioning as an adjective. (Cf. shoddy, Vol. I, for a similar noun-adjective evolution based on inferior cloth.) ” adj. 1. Cheap. Worthless. Fine-seeming but inferior. 2. Tawdry. Garish. Put forth as if of true value but obviously false. a sleazy argument. 3. Sleek. Slinky. Imitating elegance. dance hall girls in sleazy imitation satin. [All forms are a corruption of Silesia, earlier part of Germany, now a coal-mining district of western Poland. The 17th-18th century cloth was manufactured there, probably as fine cloth for linings, but deteriorating in quality as it was imitated (keeping the corrupted name sleazy) in other places. Earlier also sleasie, sleasy, sleesy, slesey, slazey.] HISTORIC. Bailey’s Dictionary, 1764, gives: œSleasy, after Silesia, adding: œbut the term is commonly used for a thin slight holland. (Holland, cloth of Holland, first so named because made in Holland, then a generic name for light cotton or linen cloth made in other places and deteriorating as it was imitated.) Bailey also gives, as a separate listing: œSleazy, slight or ill-wrought, as some Sorts of linen cloths are. The Oxford English Dictionary follows Bailey in listing sleasy and sleazy separately, but goes so far as to suggest that the two forms are of different origin. This separation must ultimately have been the decision of the don who worked up the OED’s notes for one section of the words beginning with s. He gave no reason for seeing two separate words here. He may have been thinking of sleeze, which the English Dialect Dictionary gives as a widespread dialect noun (no adjectival form) meaning œloosely or badly woven cloth. One might also look to dialect slay, sleigh, slaze, a weaver’s rod. But all cloth, good or bad, required the use of a reed worked at right angles to the threads of the loom (the warp and the woof). I cannot find a dialect adjectival form slazey, slayzey, and I do not see how an adjective meaning œof the weaver’s reed could mean œillwoven. There is also the fact that all relevant variant forms given by the EDD are of 19th-century dating. As I read the evidence over the ghostly don’s shoulder, I must conclude that all dialect variants are from the 17th-18th centuries, and are based on the original corruption of Silesia to sleasie, sleasy, sleazy, which like holland was originally fine linen or cotton, but deteriorated as it was imitated in various œsleazy mills.
Date: January 12, 2004 | From: “Judy Kelius (judysue)”
Have you all seen the repro of the a Centennial print issued by Baum? It is an excellent copy.
It is the same print that is used in this Centennial quilt from Nebraska now on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2588228219.
This is a great quilt, relisted at a lower reserve – it was on eBay in December and got up to more than $2,300 and still did not meet reserve.
Click on the thumbnails below.
Date: January 12, 2004 | From: Sylvia
I found the first advice especially interesting. This same advice was repeated often in sewing machine manuals in the 19th century to facillitate feeding through thick seams. I haven’t tried it myself–might be fun! Sylvia Adair, quilter and librarian Germantown, Wisconsin
> > >Adams Sentinel >Gettysburg, Pennsylvania >June 12, 1837 > >Sewing on Glazed Calico. >Passing a cake of soap a few times over a piece of glazed calico, or any >other stiffened material, will cause the needle to penetrate without >difficulty. >
One wonders if there was anything left of the fabric after going through this process. sue reich
Nevada State Journal Reno, Nevada October 10, 1872
How to Whiten Linen or Calico. When linen or calico is discolored by washing, by age, or lying out of use, the best method of restoring the whiteness is by bleaching it in the open air, and exposure on the grass to the dews and winds. There may occur cases, however, where this may be difficult to accomplish, and where a quicker process may be desirable. Here the art of chemistry may assist, and the following directions have been given by an eminent practical chemist: The linen must first be laid for twelve hours in a lye formed of one pound of soda to a gallon of boiling-hot soft water; it must then be boiled for half an hour in the same liquid. A mixture must now be made of chloride of lime with eight times its quantity of water, which must be well shaken in a stone jar for three days, then allowed to settle, and being drawn off clear, the linen must be steeped in it six-and-thirty hours, and then washed in the ordinary way. This will remove all discoloration.
Date: January 12, 2004 | From: Vivien
This is a technique my mother used when zippers did not slide smoothly. I used it with my children and now with my grandchildren. It works very well.
Vivien, Acton MA where it is bright and cold with intermittent snow flurries.
>>Sewing on Glazed Calico. >>Passing a cake of soap a few times over a piece of glazed calico, or any >>other stiffened material, will cause the needle to penetrate without >>difficulty. >>
>>
Date: January 12, 2004 | From: “Suzanne Cawley” <ccawleyalleganyinternet.net>
Hi All!
This is not a quilting question….but I am sure someone on the list can give me an answer. When did rick-rack (originally called “waved, corrugated, snake, or zigzag braid”) first come into use? I recently bought a box lot of vintage clothes which included a documented 1847 man’s wedding dress shirt as well as a child’s homespun pinafore with rick-rack trim. I am sure the pinafore is not 1847, but would like to establish an approximate date or window. I do know that rick-rack was used as early as the 1880’s but would like to know the earliest date. Incidently, one dress in “Cold Mountain” had rick-rack….but I wouldn’t use that as date documentation!
Suzanne Cawley In wild, wonderful Keyser, WV
Date: Wed, 14 Jan | From: Margareta.Faustcec.eu.int
The Oxford Dictionnary gives ‘ricrac’ as the older spelling, and dates both to ‘late 19th century’. What about Webster’s ? Margareta
—–Original Message—– From: ChrisA Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 04 7:58 PM To: Quilt History List Subject: [qhl] Re: Rick-rack History
HI Suzanne,
I looked in two needlework dictionaries: one did not give an age first seen, but showed it could be spelled with or without the “k”; while the other was written in 1882 and it did not list rick-rack in either spelling.
Kimberly Wulfert, PhD www.antiquequiltdating.com Email: quiltdating@
From: Kris Driessen <krisdriessen@>
I found it. It’s at http://snipurl.com/3tsr
Kris
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 07:45:27 -0800 | From: “ChrisA” <chrisa@>
Sure Barb, the book is available at Quilt Emporium, which is their website too, .com. They are near me in CA.
Kimberly Wulfert, PhD www.antiquequiltdating.com Email: quiltdating@
—– Original Message —– From: “Barb D” <barbd@> To: “Quilt History List” <qhl@> Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 2:13 PM Subject: [qhl] Re: World War II quilts
Amazon isn’t cooperating with me finding this book. sigh Any ideas? Barb D
——-Original Message——-
From: Quilt History List Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 16:30:08 To: Quilt History List Subject: [qhl] Re: World War II quilts
You may know this Sue, but I’ll post it for the list:
There is a terrific new book out on exactly this topic. It’s called “Women of Grace and Charm- A Quilting Tribute to the Women who served in WWII” by Barb Adams and Alma Allen. It has pictures of the women and their individual story, plus history of times during WWII, and then a quilt or block is designed and made in honor of each, which is pictured in color with instructions.
Kimberly Wulfert, PhD www.antiquequiltdating.com Email: quiltdating@
