August 21 – 23, 2006
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:
- Southern Quilt Collections — Members name places to see quilts in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Texas, and Mississippi for Gail Ingram’s dream road trip list.
- Levy County Quilt Museum — Opinions on the small Florida museum range from a warm welcome and a potluck to a blunt warning not to go. (see the article on quilt museums)
- Gee’s Bend Exploitation Debate — A magazine article and the coming stamps lead members to ask whether the quilters and their work have been exploited.
- Stab Stitching — Sandra Millett describes her punch and poke method, and Velia Lauerman asks about a 1930s quilt with very close outline-stitch quilting.
- Study Group Reports — The Studio Quilt Study Group in New Jersey and the Wisconsin Quilt Study Group share meeting themes, photos, and exhibits they visited. (see the article on quilt study groups)
- New Hampshire Documentation Days — Members point Linda Heminway to the state’s quilt documentation schedule for her grandmother’s quilts.
- Quilts Made in Iowa — Marilyn Withrow asks for Iowa quilts for her book Potatoes to Patchwork and gets offers of leads.
- Book Praise and Quilt Trivia — A member praises the Darwin Bearley Amish quilt book, and Laura Robins-Morris guesses that the quilt a Chinese table tennis star carried was a comforter.
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 01:41:44 -0400 | From: J. G. Row (JudyGrow)
I can’t do as well as Cinda does with words in describing the quilts that we saw at our July meeting. But we do take photos. There is a link to the photos from that meeting at our page on Quilthistory.com, or click here ———
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=47145541/a=18493438/t_=18493438
Our theme was fourfold: 1.Have you ever finished an antique quilt top? Please bring it. 2. Have you put antique blocks together into a new quilt? Please bring it. 3.Have you ever reproduced an antique quilt? Or drawn inspiration from one, even if it isn’t an exact replica. Please bring that too. If you don’t own the original, can you bring a photo of it? ( I promised, and didn’t, pull out the Bowmansville “Ringoes” star again.) 4. There are so many antique quilts I want to reproduce; bring a photo of the quilt you’d make in a flash, if only you could (A) screw up your courage to start, or (B), gain the skills necessary to finish. Maybe someone in the group has already had the same craving you have and can help and give encouragement.
And of course, bring anything else you want to share with the group.
The notes are in spreadsheet format, in QuattroPro 12, which I am told is compatible with Excel. The notes follow the photo numbers. If anyone wants them I can send the notes as an attachment — to you personally, not to the list. But the photos really tell the entire story.
J. G. Row Flemington NJ judygrow
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 06:11:48 -0500 | From: Catherine Litwinow (litwinow62)
Dear Chris, It’s been awhile since I’ve joined QHL. I want to share this wonderful opportunity with my quilt friends. Send me the “how to join information.” Thanks. Catherine Litwinow
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 07:19:14 -0400 | From: Linda Heminway (ibquiltn)
Hi there! I know Julie Crossland in away in Paris (lucky here!) and was wondering if anyone else on this digest might know of the current schedule of documentation days that are upcoming in New Hampshire. I was just sent two of my grandmother’s quilts and am very excited about having them. I think they are worthy of documentation. I am so excited to have a few examples of my own grandmother’s work and cherish them. These quilts, though made in Boston MA, are now residing here in New Hampshire. The quilts have travelled from Boston to California and now are nearer to where they were originally made. Linda Heminway Plaistow NH
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 05:34:56 -0700 (PDT) | From: Mary Anne R (sewmuch63)
Nancy Roberts asked: Anyone else been there? (to the Levy County Quilt Museum).
Yes, I have been there. Very friendly, very welcoming people. A friend and I visited there (unknowingly on quilting day) and were invited to share their potluck lunch with them and then sit around the frame and quilt with them. We did. It was my first visit and there was much to see. Some very old, interesting quilts. Lots of vintage and more contemporary pieces.
Certainly worth the trip, especially on quilting day!
Mary Anne
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 08:04:36 -0700 | From: Laura Robins-Morris (lrobins)
I believe it was most likely a comfortor. I saw many of these in China in the markets – usually brightly-colored comfortors, made of shiny polyesters, not pieced or maybe just a border of a different fabric, and very often with ruffles all around. But that was 10 yeards ago – don’t know if those have changed. Laura
Karen asked, about the Chinese pingpong player:
>>…The young man brought three items with him (besides his clothes, >>I assume): an MP3 player; his cell phone; and his own QUILT from home. >>Now wouldn’t you just love to know what the quilt pattern is? >
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 06:20:18 -0500 | From: Nancy Smith (nancykunstsmith)
We just had our quarterly meeting for the Wisconsin Quilt Study Group. It was held in Wausau, WI at The Quilting Workshop. Our theme was Crazy Quilts. We had lively discussion and participants shared beautiful quilts. The field trip for this meeting was a quilt show at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum. They had two exhibits, Potluck Quilts and The Music Quilt Project.
Potluck Quilts was done by the Peacemakers of Boulder, Colorado. These quilts were made with the following three stipulations:
1. Each quilt had to be 24″ square.
2. Incorporate red-and-white checks somewhere to symbolize a tablecloth, and
3. be accompanied with a corresponding recipe, all included in the exhibition catalogue-cum-recipe book Potluck Quilts.
The exhibit was great fun for quilters and non-quilters alike.
The Music Quilt Project was an exhibit of 90 small-scale works that represent the work of artists from Germany, Japan and the US interpreting 30 musical approaches from rap, to yodeling, to classic, to gospel. The interpretations were great.
If either of these exhibits come to your area, it is well worth the effort to go and enjoy them.
For more information on the Wisconsin Quilt Study Group, please see our webpage at http://nancykunstsmith.com/study_group.htm
Our next meeting will be in Oshkosh on November 18th. Additional information will follow as we get closer. The study theme is “Quilts from 1850-1880”. Hope you can join us. 🙂
Nancy Kunst Smith
3725 Simonis Street
Stevens Point, WI 54481
(715)340-1029
nancykunstsmith
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 19:21:10 -0700 (PDT) | From: Sandra Millett (smillett)
I’m not going on-line much, so am playing catch-up. Regarding stab stitching, my first book, Quilt As You Go and its second edition have a whole chapter, plus close-up photos on how to do it. My term is punch and poke. Great for those with arthritis as no pressure is required. Have demonstrated and taught this method of quilting since 1975. Think my book is the only one that gives extensive detail. It’s always fun to find an antique quilt with this type of quilting–ties me to a special quilter. Yes, it takes more time, but stitches and spaces are the same length on the front AND the back–with some practice, of course.
Since the book is out-of-print, I am the only one selling them, below retail. If anyone is interested, contact me off loop at smillett.
Sandra Millett
ltiemann wrote: Barb, I would very much like a copy of your Stab Stitching handout. I did my first hand quilting this spring on a c1930’s double wedding ring top I got at an estate sale. I was all hand pieced with tiny 1/8 inch seams. It begged to be hand quilted, but I didn’y know how. After a few years, I found a group of ‘little old ladies’ at a local churh (one of them is barely 4.5 feet tall, and several had oxygen tanks). They hand quilted to raise money for their church. They met every Thursday to work on it and let me sit in on the frame and work on my quilt too. It was a lot of fun. I couldn’t get the hand of rocking, but did like the stab stitching. I would like your handout to learn more about the technique. I think I will have them do another quilt this fall for me. They are a great group and a lot of fun to be with.
With kindest regards, Louise
Louise A. Tiemann ltiemann
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 08:46:30 -0500 | From: Gail Ingram (gingram)
Several days ago I posted to this list asking people to suggest sites to see southern quilts—every place from The Valentine to the little museum that houses 5 good quilts.
So far, there have been three responses (thanks Nancy and Karen).
I know August does not engender ambition, but it would be nice if, at the very least, members from each state or region in the south sent what they know and described its contents generally, the way Nancy did.
I will keep a list and share with all who desire it.
Where, e.g., does one go to see the vintage quilts of TN? WV? MS? GA? SC? TX? AL? NC?
Please?
Gail Ingram
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 10:12:29 -0500 | From: Marcia Kaylakie (marciark)
> Gail, > I would suggest the Wtiie Museum in San Antonion, the Dallas Musuem of Art > and the Squarehouse Museum of Panhandle for quilts. but, hey, why don’t we > all go see Carolyn Miller’s collection? <Just kidding, Carolyn!> Marcia
Yes, we should put Carolyn on the list.
Tell me about the San Antonio collection. And where is the Squarehouse Museum?
I cannot recall: are there quilts in the Ima Hogg place in Houston, Bayou Bend?
Thanks Marcia for adding to list, Gail
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 11:12:17 -0400 | From: Julie (quiltappraiser)
Linda Hemingway wrote “I know Julie Crossland in away in Paris (lucky here!) and was wondering if anyone else on this digest might know of the current schedule of documentation days that are upcoming in New Hampshire.”
The link for the NH doc days is www.nhquiltdoc.org
This Saturday we will be at Keepsake Quilting. Call and get an appointment or two.
I’ll be leaving the 5th of Sep for 3 weeks for France. I won’t be in Paris but on the southern coast. This time I’ll be with my husband and will miss Debby Robert’s fantastic tour. We will be arriving in Zurich and stay a few days on the way in and out. Mulhouse isn’t that far away and I want to visit them again and maybe schedule a printing there. That was one thing Debbie added this year that I wish we could have done last year. Here’s a link for your enjoyment http://www.musee-impression.com/gb/default.html
Julie Crossland
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 12:56:06 -0500 | From: Andi (andi0613)
Hi Gail,
I’m sure MESDA (Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts) is on many people’s list for a great Southern quilt stop. Winston-Salem is an interesting destination place, especially seeing Old Salem’s living history gardens, architecture, culture, bread shop, etc.
Andi in Keota, Iowa
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 07:15:35 -0400 | From: Janice (freitas)
Headed for Florida next week for a quick visit with my brother and his wife. However, they are very accomodating as to my quilt passion. Where is Levy County Museum?? I’ll be in the Homestead/Miami area and we are going down to the Keys if you know of anything in that area. Or, flea markets, etc., where I might find a treasure!
Enjoy the list immensely, rarely post, but print a lot 🙂
Janice in Marion, Indiana Home of the Quilters Hall of Fame
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 10:17:42 -0400 | From: Velia Lauerman (velialive)
About 15 years ago at a show at United Methodist Church on Eureka Rd, Taylor, Michigan I saw an unusual, beautiful large bed quilt from the 30’s. The quilting was very very close and quilted with floss in an outline stitch.The quilting must have taken years to complete (not saying quilting it now and then ) If anyone has heard of such a method or the quilt please let us know.I didn’t record the owner which was a real big mistake for me. The ladies of the church have since disbanded and sold me their wonderful quilt frames. I am acquainted with the veterans and the new group but there was no record of that quilt and the stitching. What a find. I had entered a preprinted Amish print wall hanging. The quilting on it is very close but I did it just for whatever. Well, the ladies loved it and displayed it next to that elaborate one. Didn’t notice it until someone asked me about mine and thought the outline embroidery stitch one belonged to me.Now reading about your punch and poke, stab method and sew many types of quilting stitches really comes to a wonderful study. Methodist quilting was of a mystery too. Finally discovered that it is also called seed quilting. My students like that technique as it is invisible and used where you want to to show more of the pattern and on an appliqués or busy fabric. There is no end to this journey. How nice. Velia
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:42:44 -0400 | From: Sharon in NC (patchworksecrets2)
The last time I was up in Mt Airy, NC they had a few really nice crazy quilt examples and a few civil war era quilts on display. I thought I had pictures somewhere but can’t seem to find them right now.
http://www.visitmayberry.com/detailsnorthcarolina.asp?BusinessID=277&BusinessCategoryID=88
You can even see part of one under the Back country heading here… http://www.northcarolinamuseum.org/ncexhibits.aspx Click on permanent exhibits… They also have the one hundred counties quilt on temporary exhibit currently.. Guess I need to take a trip up there in the next week or so….. http://www.northcarolinamuseum.org/northcarolinaexhibits2.aspx?LinkID=2492
Many of the area historic sites have quilts in them. They can be seen about anywhere. I did run across a few in Sparta, North Carolina this weekend at some antique shops but nothing that really screamed at me “buy me”..Most of them seem to be tacked quilts.
I did see a neat little Museum on Ocracoke Island back this summer than had several nice 30’s quilts on display. David Williams House/Ocracoke Preservation Society Museum. I even purchased a Small baggie with a simple quilt pattern and some modern reproduction fabrics. The title of the pattern is “Ocracoke “Cracker Quilt” Pattern. There is a small paragraph at the beginning of the pattern … “For many years it was thought that this was an original Ocracoke pattern but it was discovered to be from colonial times. During the documentation of quilts in North Carolina it was found only on Ocracoke Island.” It goes on to tell a bit more about fabrics brought to the island etc…
I dare say you can see quilts in about all the buildings in and around Old Salem as someone else suggested… They had some beautiful examples displayed during Christmas Tea last year but I am fairly certain they rotate.
Last time I was over at the NC School of the Arts they had several contemporary pieces on display that were interesting but that has been a while back.. Always worth a call and drop by since it is so close to Old Salem..
The Museum of NC Handicrafts at Waynesboro also has several nice quilts on display last time I was by there.. http://www.mastgeneralstore.com/msledger/may2004/commhilitehandicraft.php3
I doubt you can find a historical area in NC that DOESN’T have a quilt or two hanging somewhere..lol…
Sharon in NC
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:58:26 EDT | From: JHACALA
Just wanted to send a “heads-up” on a new book by a QHL member, The Darwin Bearley Collection of Antique Ohio Amish Quilts. This is the most beautifully photographed collection of Amish quilts that I have ever seen. I am just amazed that the photos of the detailed quilting on the dark backgrounds came out so vividly. I have a few Amish quilts in my collection, but nothing like this! Great eye candy to drool over. Check the Eboard for ordering information. Julie Hacala
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 04:17:11 -0700 (PDT) | From: stephanie drake (gsadrake)
I’ll step in for Julie..the NH Quilt Doc.Project Phase II has a website that lists our schedule for documentation days. We will be at Keepsake Quiting in Center Harbor on Sat., Aug.26. Appt. info is at the website: nhquiltdo.org Also that day, there will be a quilt show at Weirs Beach, quilts draped over the railings of the Victorian era buildings overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee and at the Winnipesaukee Historical Society. Start at the Weirs and you can motor up Rt.3, see quilts and end at Keepsake and buy more fabric!! Stephanie in Laconia, NH
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 06:27:43 -0500 | From: Pat Kyser (patkyser)
TWO REPLIES: 1. Gail: I don’t know of public quilt collections in Alabama. Robert Cargo is a collector in Tuscaloosa and a lot of his things are in Lincoln, NE. Huntsville Museum of Art owns a gorgeous, well documented crazy quilt but it hasn’t been on display for several years. We might be able to arrange a private showing for you if you have a specific date in mind. Sorry to be so useless! Pat 2. Julie Hacala: > Just wanted to send a “heads-up” on a new book by a QHL member, The > Darwin Bearley Collection of Antique Ohio Amish Quilts. My German friend Gini Curtze took this quilt collection to Europe for display at her large quilt symposium this past spring. She said it was spectacular.
Pat Kyser in north Alabama
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 22:54:58 EDT | From: JLHfw
Dear Mitzi, I, too, had the chance to read the article. I think that if you try _www.life.com_ (http://www.life.com) you may be able to get a copy of the article. I read it in the Santa Fe New Mexican while there visiting my son. Wish I could send you a copy, but I left it behind. Janet in Fort Worth
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 09:35:55 -0500 | From: Kathy Moore (kathymoore)
There’s a quaint little town between Houston and Austin–Roundtop, Texas–that is a bit of a living history museum in its own right. It also has a living history museum and they have a collection of quilts. The museum is Winedale. You can google it and learn a lot about the museum from their webpages. Appointments can be made to see their quilts and they put some quilts out on beds in the houses of their exhibit during the tourist season. For antique lovers this is a great place to go treasure hunting. There are lots of antique shops around. It is very pastoral. A good day trip kind of experience.
Marcia Kaylackie, what can you add to this???
Kathy Moore Lincoln, NE
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:07:33 EDT | From: Mitzioakes
I got a copy of the Life article on Gee’s Bend quilts thanks to Joan K. of Ohio. Many mixed thoughts on the whole affair. Wonder how the stamps that are about to be issued will fare? Fall is showing its colors already in Vermont – can snow be far behind? Mitzi
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:18:11 -0400 | From: joan kiplinger (jkip)
If quilters are anything like doll collectors, get in line early. About 10 years ago a 15-stamp commemorative sheet was issued on classic American dolls. Doll clubs bought these sheets in quantities for members and to sell at doll shows for a profit. Later, some company was licensed to reproduce the whole set on a couch-size tapestry throw. There are doll collectors today who would pay the earth both for stamps and throw. Maybe the quilt guilds might consider mass purchasing for its members; also as a resale item for Ebay and at shows. Good to know the article arrived safely, Mitzi.
Mitzioakes wrote:
got a copy of the Life article on Gee’s Bend quilts thanks to Joan K. of Ohio. Many mixed thoughts on the whole affair. Wonder how the stamps that are about to be issued will fare? Fall is showing its colors already in Vermont – can snow be far behind? Mitzi
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 09:41:39 -0600 | From: JESSICA VAUGHN (vaughn8047)
Mitzi, Do you think the stamps won’t fare well? What are your mixed thoughts on the whole affair? Inquiring minds want to know….
Jessica M. Vaughn Aurora, CO – no fall here, still hot, hot, hot…. vaughn8047
Make yourself familiar with the angels, and behold them frequently in spirit; for without being seen, they are present with you. – St Francis de Sales
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 12:11:07 -0400 | From: Nancy Roberts (aquilter)
Janice, it sounds like you’ll be a loooong way from Levy County. It’s in an area of Florida known as “The Nature Coast”, along the Gulf side (western) between Tampa and The Panhandle. It’s quite rural, not any big cities, different from the sandy beach areas of the state. Try a map search for Chiefland, FL. The museum is east of that community, just off Alt. Rte. 27. In a web search I found this info for the number and address plus director’s name: Levy County Quilt Museum, 11050 NW 10th Avenue Chiefland, FL 32626, Mrs. Winnelle Horne (352) 493-2801 Nancy
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 10:00:13 -0700 | From: Marilyn Withrow (marilynquilts)
I hope someone on the list can assist me. I’m finally beginning my book, “Potatoes to Patchwork,” which deals with quilts and their travels. I’m looking for quilts made in Iowa, whether or not they’re still there — beginning with the Revolutionary War (and no, I don’t expect to find these! ) Photographs or referrals to any museums would be of great help. I’ll be traveling to Iowa next year and will be able to visit some museums and do more personal research. I was born in Des Moines, raised in Albia, then came to California in 1956……….some of my family quilts came with me; others have disappeared into the Iowa countryside, I guess. If anyone has Iowa contacts or knows of Iowa quilts, please let me know. Yes, I know about Kalona — I’m planning a trip to that shop. Thank you. Marilyn Maddalena Withrow Professional Quilt Appraiser, Judge, Historian, Designer and Speaker Oregon State Coordinator, Home of the Brave Project Sponsor of the Giltner-Moore Award for the Most Meaningful Quilt
www.marilynquilts.com www.footscreekfarms.com
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:42:53 EDT | From: Mitzioakes
Hi! Do you want your issue of Life returned? I would be happy to get it copied and send your original back… I certainly appreciate your sending me this too, by the way. I really am getting immersed into Quilt History (good and bad)…Spent most of yesterday being a referee at the Shelburne Museum where the story of the UGRR and Quilts came up between tour buses of ladies (and men) from the South and from NYC….guess there will always be things like this. Even had people ask about the purposeful mistake put into every quilt….but it is fun working there. Will be in touch – let me know if you need your copy back ok Mitz in Vermont where the leaves are starting to turn already…
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:45:14 EDT | From: Mitzioakes
There are a lot of quilting friends who feel that the Gee’s Bend quilts and the makers have been exploited by people trying to make money off of them. I am mixed as I have never seen one of the quilts and have only listened and read about them. Mitz
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:33:26 -0500 | From: Gail Ingram (gingram)
Is anyone familiar with the Rogers, Arkansas museum? I have a booklet from its collection.
Gail
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:56:13 -0500 | From: Gail Ingram (gingram)
Spent most of yesterday > being a referee at the Shelburne Museum where the story of the UGRR and Quilts > came up between tour buses of ladies (and men) from the South and from > NYC.
Inquiring minds want to know; who took which side?
This is sad, when they might have been looking at those gorgeous quilts up close and personal.
Gail
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 16:00:18 -0400 | From: Judy Knorr (jknorr)
I remember that someone of this list reported on the trip to Mississippi to deliver some quilts after Hurricane Katrina. Was it you Cinda? I am looking for some information for my quilt guild and would like to have someone who has information about that project to email me off list. Thanks.
And, Gail…..I like your idea about listing small out of the way places to view quilts, but why are you limiting it to the South?? Oh all right, I know you live down there where it’s hot and sticky, but some of us try to spend our hot summers in cooler climates! We would love to visit some small, out of the way places to see quilts and stay cool at the same time! Just kidding and I will definitely keep your list for the times I venture south. Judy Knorr
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 15:17:03 -0500 | From: Gail Ingram (gingram)
> > And, Gail…..I like your idea about listing small out of the way places to > view quilts, but why are you limiting it to the South??
I limited it to the South because I was particularly interested in seeing quilts from this region. And I had hoped it would not be only “small out of the way” collections.
When you get into the Deep South, these places are less well known.
Judy, you need not call attention to the low IQ of some of us or low something that caused our forebears to just keep moving west after the first summer. At this time of year I in particular review my genealogy to seek out slow learners.<g>
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 16:21:44 -0500 | From: Marcia Kaylakie (marciark)
yes, this is part of the UT collection and the quilts that were housed at the Texas Memorial Museum went there as of 2002. I remember seeing some gorgeous calimancoes in the collection: gold and eggplant (aubergine). I would call ahead for sure to make an appointment. Marcia
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:25:32 -0700 | From: Alan
This is my take on the Gee’s Bendquilts. I’m one of the ones that think the ladies of Gee’s Bend have been exploited. I don’t remember the man’s name, but he collects AA “artifacts” – his term, which is suspect in my book. He happened across the ladies and decided that the quilts they made were ART. In doing so he assigned an importance that was never intended. And in doing so, he declared the ladies artists. That is a disservice to the ladies, because they are not Artists, but purely creative women. The main thrust of the quilts was utility. These are definitely quilts made for the bed, to be used and used up. Sometimes they were especially pretty, most times not. I have seen them at the de Young, and aside from 3 or 4 of the pieces, none are particularly remarkable. Several were in terrible physical condition. All but one I would have looked at in a shop and quickly passed by. The one I’d kill to have, it is so abstract. Honestly, it makes me sad because I know the ladies aren’t making the same money that the collector and everyone else are. Granted, this has become a boon to the ladies, since they are now able to sell their quilts. But you have to wonder – now that they are making them for profit, what have the quilts lost in terms of the innocent charm they once had? I’m sure they’re now purchasing fabric, rather than as much recycled materials. And how has the fact that they’re considered ART changed the way the ladies approach what they do? And now that they’re doing this for money, how much of their enjoyment in the past-time has been lost. So much has been changed for these ladies. So yes, I do feel that the ladies have been/are being exploited.
Alan
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:02:40 EDT | From: JLHfw
Dear Kathy, Winedale is part of the University of Texas Living History program. It is a few miles outside of Round Top. The quilt collection is very nice and worth a day trip from Austin or Houston. Avoid Round Top the first week of April and the first week of October unless you are interested in the twice yearly Antiques Festival. During these events the roadsides, all available buildings, and dance halls are filled with dealers selling everything from fine antiques to junk. I bought an excellent 1861 New Jersey quilt there a number of years ago, a simple scrappy square in a square. If you intend to go to the Antiques Festival you will need reservations of lodging in the area. Brenham is the closest town of any size. While in the area make a stop at the Antique Rose Emporium at Independence just north of Brenham and enjoy the beautiful gardens and restored buildings. Regards, Janet Henderson in Fort Worth
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 16:48:39 -0400 | From: Lucinda Cawley (lrcawley)
Nope. Not me. Never been to Mississippi. Cinda on the Eastern Shore where the weather is PERFECT (this week at least)
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 17:44:40 -0400 | From: Nancy Ray (nancy.ray)
Gail, If I were choosing, I’d like to go to the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville. It’s a long time since I lived in Tennessee, and I haven’t been to the museum since I was a small child. I’m a recently retired Army officer, so I followed the Army around for 31 years. Maybe someone on this list has been there recently? I do not know how many of the quilts are on display, but the following information came from the museum website (www.tnmuseum.org). “The museum’s collection of more than 200 quilts consists of examples spanning most of Tennessee’s history. From the earliest known Tennessee quilt, dated 1808, to quilts made during the last decade of the twentieth century, the collection is as varied and diverse as the women who made them. Most quilt styles and popular patterns are represented, such as pieced, appliquéd and stuffed work. Patterns such as Whig Rose, Irish Chain and Confederate Rose give us a glimpse into the culture and political climate in which these quilt-makers lived. The Tennessee State Museum’s collection features many fine examples of quilts made in Tennessee during the 1800s.
Pieces include: The Rebecah Foster quilt This quilt is signed and dated: Rebecah Foster/ Nashville/ October 5, 1808. The central element, a stylized eagle, symbolic of the United States is a patriotic and logical motif for the maker to have chosen. The white ground holds floral and grape designs executed in stuffed work. The appliquéd areas are composed of indigo printed cotton, finished with a blanket stitch, while the four medallions feature cross-stitched poems. The seventeen chain links around the medallions and seventeen stars above the eagle’s head represent the states that had entered the Union by 1808. The quilt is expertly stitched and in excellent condition. It is currently on exhibit in the Frontier area of the Tennessee State Museum.”
I’m a transplanted Tennessean–now in wild, wonderful West Virginia (and it is wonderful)–so I’ll travel there with you in spirit. Nancy Ray
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 18:38:21 -0400 | From: Anne Datko (datkoa)
The Regional Museum of History of Spartanburg County (SC) has a strip-pieced star quilt which is pictured on their website: www.spartanarts.org/history/Regional_Museum/Museum_text.htm
When I visited there several years ago I also saw a quilt made from the Matthew Henson prints (as described by Merikay Waldvogel). The fabric was very beautiful but the quilting was on the diagonal by machine and the lines were not straight. I assumed the quilter was the proud owner of a sewing machine. I believe that quilt had been rescued from a garbage heap. And there may be other quilts there.
As well, there is information on, for example, the history of the textile mills (spinning, weaving, dyeing) which have in the last two decades or so closed as this industry has moved overseas.
Anne Datko
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:06:13 EDT | From: Mitzioakes
Pretty easy to figure out – the south is STILL fighting the Civil War.
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:11:37 EDT | From: Mitzioakes
My feelings are your feelings. Mitz
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 20:35:58 -0500 | From: Gail Ingram (gingram)
> Nope. Not me. Never been to Mississippi. > Cinda on the Eastern Shore where the weather is PERFECT (this week at least) > Pity you, Lucinda Cawley.
Yes, yes, I know about PERFECT. From books. And Roy Rogers’ movies.
Down here we are wrapped in IMPERFECT. Can’t get away from it. Mosquitos, snakes, noticeable idiots, mamas that would not claim our bodies at a morgue if they were told we did not have on nice undies when we hit that freight train while working on our hair. IMPERFECT is just all over the place. You can’t move for running into it.
And that is one reason we have Wm. Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, Robert Penn Warren, Cormac McCarthy, Richard Wright, and a whole host of other folks who wrote everybody else in America off the map in the 20th century. It’s mostly what we talk about: IMPERFECT, IMPERFECT, IMPERFECT.
And a lot of the best talk came from Mississippi, right next door to me. As did many of our forebears plus Craig Claiborne, Oprah, and a real variety of interesting and sometimes odd folks.
For instance, I live in a university town in a state that has been so completely imperfect in the past year that we would get a medal for it, were such given. And in our local newspaper, what headline do I see front page, top left, above the fold? Well, this one: “IS DEATH INCLUDED IN YOUR FUTURE PLANS?” In that article, all of us we are assured it is “a good thing” to take pictures of the deceased in his/her coffin because (I swear this is true) “it shows they are resting.” Having picnics in cemeteries is also rated high. The interviewed person, sort of a Morticia for a local funeral parlor, reminds us that planning our funeral is also “a good thing” and adds, “I don’t want people to be caught off guard.” See? We get warned about imperfect. Front page of the paper.
As for Mississippi, all of us down here have our prejudices about folks from other states, much preferring our own mosquitoes to others’ mosquitoes.
But I’m going to rise above my prejudices and say something nice about Mississippi. There is more creativity in that place than seems fair. That includes quilts and other art forms, many housed at the Center for Southern Studies in Oxford, Ms, home of Wm. Faulkner, and more housed in the state capitol collection. I don’t know why, unless it is that so many Mississippians stay in Mississippi, face up to themselves, while the rest of the world is skipping about the map looking for a home.
And while my automobile automatically turns east when I head out on vacation, I think we get a deep and deeply needed sense of the vastness and great diversity of our nation by visiting places like Missippi (that’s how most natives pronounce it). Of course, I am a person who has actually traveled TO, not THROUGH, Kansas, southern Indiana, Nebraska, so be aware of my prejudices. Lots of off-the-beaten path trips. Lots of wonderful discoveries. (Who would expect to find a Russian Orthodox Church on an unpaved road in Kansas? Or an architectural gallery in Columbus, Indiania?)
One weekend in the dead of a hot, dead July, my former husband and I drove up to Oxford, MS, to spend the weekend. There’s a good bookstore, there are good restaurants, there is Faulkner country and Mississippi, a world apart. On our way home Sunday afternoon, my husband suggested we go see Itta Bena, MS, the home of the writer Lewis Nordan and his wonderful stories. So we turned west near Batesville where, to the east you see the steep plateau rise up from what was once untouched woods and swamps and before that, the old River itself. Went west to Greenwood, an old river town, and then headed south through the heart of the Misssissippi delta.
It was a dream world. On a two-way highway, we drove through bean and cotton fields as far as we could see on either side of the highway. Here and there, the woods would encroach, along some stream often, or perhaps a fencerow. Sometimes off to the west, you would see woods, probably along a river or big creek leading into the Mississippi. Itta Bena turned out scarcely to be a town, one “sort of” street and some houses, a gas station, and then the fields again. It was but a dot to our left in the middle of fields. But I could imagine Sugar Mecklin, Nordan’s little hero, growing up there, surrounded by that vastness.
Miles and miles beyond it was the little town that is “the Catfish Capitol of the World,” a place I had always wanted to see, simply because it was The Catfish Capitol of the World. Belzoni, MS.
And finally, not far south of it we came into Yazoo City, an old Southern river town near the confluence of the Yazoo and Sunflower rivers and the home of “My Dog Skip” and Willie Morris. We’d never been there before, so we got off the highway and its inevitable fast-food strip and drove around in the old part of town, the residential section. It was a lovely place still.
We had planned to eat there, and since it had been such an extraordinarily wonderful day–really: “full of wonder” at the vastness and isolation of the unending fields of the delta–we wanted to eat at some place nice, not at some Taco Bell. The Presbyterian Church was dismissing after its evening service, and a friendly looking woman dressed in a fresh looking cotton dress was crossing the street, Bible in hand. We stopped, rolled down the car window, and my husband explained our situation, that we wanted to eat in a “real” place, “real” Yazoo City. She paused, then looked him sharply in the eye and asked, quite seriously, “Do you want to EAT? Or do you want to DINE?” He assured her we wanted to dine.
Satisfied with our motives, she sent us back to Belzoni, the Catfish Capitol of the World, where we dined, of course, on catfish at the place she had described as the best in the region. We dined on Catfish in Belzoni, the Catfish Capitol of the World. Who could want more? When we left, the cashier gave us a handful of chocolate mints saying, “Y’all seem like such niice people.” As, indeed, we were.
By the time we got to Vicksburg, it was dark, and we slipped over the Mississippi River bridge and down into the low land of Louisiana, again fields on either side of what was now an interstate highway and darkness–but so different from the world of the afternoon. That day is one of the enchanted days of my life. And I owe it to Mississippi.
All the way to Yazoo City, we were in what would have been wooded land that flooded before the levees were built. The Big Woods. I imagined the world of Faulkner’s “Go Down Moses.”
Many years earlier we journeyed to Sebastapol, Ms., which is located near Kosiosko and Moscow, Ms. We went seeking a Prudent Mallard bedroom set, rumored to be located there and to cost a mere $500. Gassing up on the outskirts of beautiful downtown Sebastapol, my husband turned to the boy washing our windshield and asked about the name, mentioning Moscow also. “Old Indian names,” he was told. “Lots of Indians around here. Old Indian names.”
And then there is Natchez and the Natchez Trace in azalea time, when Natchez opens its historic homes for tour. Nothing like a room at the old Eola Hotel facing the river and watching a big thunderstorm come across the low-lying lands of Louisiana.
If only because their people can still distinguish between mere eating and dining, I love Mississippi, freckles and all. I just wish I knew where more of its quilts were located.
That is all the good I’m going to say about Mississippi which, like much of the Deep South has enough poverty to share with our northeastern friends, and like Louisiana is still clearing out from being on the wind side of Hurricane Katrina—but doing it more expeditiously than the city of New Orleans, which I feel inclined to add, is in many ways a separate world from Louisiana.
Writing of the poet Wm. Wordsworth’s unrealistic view of the world, George Orwell said Wordsworth wouldn’t have thought nature was so beneficent had he lived in the American South, where there were poisonous snakes.
In Louisiana alone we have five major varieties of poisonous snakes.
Imperfection.
Home.
And still scorching hot.
Gail Ingram Louisianian by birth and residence
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 22:13:33 -0400 | From: Teddy Pruett (aprayzer)
Regarding the Levy County Quilt Museum in FLorida:
DONT GO.
DONT ASK.
Andi Reynolds took me to MESDA once – she knew people. We got into the storage facilities with quilts to die for – if I remember correctly, even some Broderie Perse beauties.
Teddy Pruett Beam me up, Scotty – Outta this swamp and into the Rockies www.teddypruett.com
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:36:07 -0400 | From: Sharon in NC (patchworksecrets2)
I actually have a quilt that was made in Iowa. It was made by my husband’s great-grandmother. They lived in Des Moines. When his father passed away this year it was one of the few treasures we managed to bring home with us. It is nothing spectacular, needs lots of TLC of repairs and such but I would be happy to take a picture and pass it on if you would like.
Sharon in NC
