December 12 – 17, 2003
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:
- Golliwog Dolls and Their Textile History — An extended discussion of Golliwog dolls, their British origins, and their appearance in quilts and fabric prints.
- Identifying Civil War-Era Reproduction Prints — A member researches fabric prints specifically reproduced from Civil War-period originals. (see the article on a Civil War quilt)
- The “Telltale Textiles” Exhibit Catalogue — Members discuss where and how to order this Historic Deerfield exhibition catalogue.
- Transferring Photographs to Fabric — Members compare printers, papers, and techniques for printing photos onto fabric for quilts.
- Scheduling Upcoming Quilt Discovery Days — A member asks about dates and locations for upcoming quilt documentation events.
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 | From: “Charlotte Bull” <charlou@>
Hey, they called them electric blankets in the 1950s! Our Electric Quilts are now EQ software designs. Not affiliated, just saw the joke hiding in that!
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 | From: “Judy Grow” <JudyGrow@>
One of my clients remembers seeing another client framing a very large piece of vintage wallpaper.
Now she want would like to find an original era/vintage piece of William Morris fabric or paper to frame. She has searched e-bay and can’t find anything. She wants something large.
Can any of you come up with something? Send me the jpg and I’ll send it on to her with your information. She will contact you directly.
I don’t take a commission or finder’s fee. I get to do the framing!
Thanks
Judy in Ringoes, NJ judygrow@
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 | From: “Nancy Kirk”
A couple of people let me know ordering wasn’t as easy as I thought it was — I added a little language to the front page which should help.
Basically, just click the box by the DVD set, then go to the bottom on the page and click the ADD TO CART button there. It will take you over to the secure server to complete your order.
Or if you would rather, just call me at 800-398-2542. I’m out Friday afternoon and evening but will be in the office most of Saturday except for a short run to the bank and grocery store.
Yours,
Nancy Kirk The Kirk Collection www.kirkcollection.com
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 | From: “Sally Ward” <sallytatters@>
> Now she want would like to find an original era/vintage piece of William > Morris fabric or paper to frame.
There is a business here in the UK called ‘Ragbags’ which specialises in recycled fabrics. Actually, its two ladies who live near me who started it as a hobby, and it mushroomed. They have a website at http://ena.brinkster.net/index.html
Much of their stock is everyday and fairly recent stuff, but they do have a personal interest in real vintage fabrics and have some lovely stuff ‘under the counter’ for the enthusiast, as well as a growing network of contacts. If you are looking for something special you could email them and ask them to look out for it.
Sally Ward
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 | From: “avalon”
The name you are looking for is Rob/Cheryl Nettleron, Eaton, New York. I have a pin from the Vermont show and two ornaments as well.
There card says: “The wood patterns are produced from original American patchwork quilt designs. The various wood quilt patterns are constructed by the technique of parquetry. All of the vibrant wood colors are natural wood tones. No stains or dyes are utilized. The finest lumber from the four corners of the world is gathered and fashioned into a particular patchwork motif.
Rob & Cheryl take pride in utilizing an ancient woodworking technique to preserve a truly American artifact.
Mary in Wisconsin
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 | From: Kris
Have you ever heard of a Golliwog? They are dolls of black fabric first made in the 19th century. The jury is out on whether or not they were intended to be racist at the time (see http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/golliwog/) but they are certainly viewed as such now.
I know this doesn’t have anything to do with quilts, but it is a textile. Does anyone have a Golliwog?
Kris
Never owned one, but I’ve certainly seen them in 19th/early 20th century children’s books. This includes two English children’s Christmas annuals that belonged to my father in the 1920s. I didn’t recall anything outrageously offensive about the character beyond its appearance, but I was more concerned with the adventures of Rupert the Bear and Willie the Whelk….
Lisa Evans Easthampton, MA
Kris, Check out any issue of Australian Patchwork and Quilting to see one. Since they are still being produced there, I wonder what their provenance is exactly.
Sharon McQuistion
Another place where golliwogs appear: would you believe Claude Debussy wrote a piano piece called “The Golliwog’s Cakewalk“?
No lie!
Lisa Evans
Regarding Golliwogs in Australia, I grew up with one as my favourite toy. Never in my lifetime were they meant to be racist. I believe the concept is from England, and I also believe there was no more to having a Golliwog doll that there is to owning a doll today that is not coloured PINK.
When the world became PC, Gollys had to change their name to Rascals. It didn’t work though, and as someone rightly said, check the Oz mags and you will find any number of Golly classes, and patterns available.
There was a specific outfit that Golly’s wore. Also that may have some significance.
I am not a Golly historian, and I am sure there will be someone out there who knows better than me.
Sally in the UK, do you have any more to add? I know there is a British Jam (preserves) company (Blackwell’s???) who has, or had, a Golly as their marketing emblem.
Lorraine in Oz
PS and while I have the time, and you are all there, HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU AND YOURS. :o)))
That’s very comprehensive history of the Golliwog. But not at all new to those of us who grew up with English children’s books and Noddy and Big Ears.
here in Oz, they never really had a large anti-racism backlash about Golliwogs. I think it was because we never saw them as representing black people in any way but rather as a kind of children’s loveable toy.
There are many of them still being sold as vintage toys and many who collect them. In the quilting world , we see them regularly as projects on quilts and certainly I know of one or two designers who whole ranges of Golliwog quilts. As an aside, in that link, there was mention of the word ‘wog’, that is a word that was widely sued and offensive. we used it for Italians and Greeks.. even though we believe it originally came from an acronym for Wise Oriental gentleman and was there fore more appropriate for Asians.
But now, the second and third generation of Greeks and Italians seemed to proudly use the word for them. We have had comedy shows and a movie called The Wog Boy. In it they refer to Anglo-Saxon Australians as ‘Skips” from Skippy the kangaroo. Language and images are a changeable thing>
Suzy Atkins
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 | From: Pat Kyser
Re: Golliwogs — I am part of a small local quilt group of whom most of the members (50-60 years) are originally from England. They all have and cherish golliwogs. Pat in Alabama
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 | From: “Sally Ward” <sallytatters@>
The Robertson’s Golly had a high profile in the UK during my childhood. On the label of every jar of jam was a Golly token. Collect a given number and you could send off for your Golly badge…and there were many different badges depicting Golly doing different things. Rather as quilters collect guild pins, British children avidly collected Golly playing tennis, riding a bike, baking cakes…….oh I don’t know, you think of it Golly did it. Along with the badges there were Golly dolls. He was very distinctive with, I think, something like blue jacket and red trousers and a bow tie. It all seemed very innocent.
Then along game the 50s and 60s immigration drive from to bring workers from the British colonies to fill jobs for which there were not sufficient workers here. Shiploads of British citizens with black skins arrived and took jobs which no-one else would. You have to bear in mind that most people in the UK had never seen a black person, and here they were arriving by the boatload and ‘taking our jobs’ (forget that no-one wanted to do these jobs – bus driving, working on the London Underground, nursing…). Suddenly racism arrived on our shores in its ugliest form and the new arrivals who thought they would be welcomed found themselves in a cold and often threatening country. Some of the commonest terms of abuse used at the time (I presume like ‘nigger’ in the US) were ‘Sambo’, from a children’s book depicting a character called Little Black Sambo (who most people forget was actually extremely clever) and ‘Wog’. I think that ‘Wog’ actually originated from a term of abuse for those of Arab descent (see, we have a bad history in that respect) but with the familiarity of the black, afro-haired Golly, it was not surprising that Wog was also used as a shortening of Golliwog to abuse the new arrivals.
I did a Google search on Robertson’s Golly to find out when he was ditched, and was surprised to find it was as late as 2001. There’s an article from the Guardian newspaper at http://www.guardian.co.uk/netnotes/article/0,6729,541371,00.html which credits the creation of Golly to a book written in 1895 by an American. James Robertson brought back the idea of Golly as a mascot after visiting the States. There are a lot of interesting links on this site related to Golly and his history.
Probably more than you wanted to know <G>
Sally W
HI there. Living in southern England, I see the Golliwog dolls for sale in the antique stores and auctions all the time. My English friends tell me the dolls were never intended as racists, just another toy, but the current tide in Politically Correctness has made the dolls unacceptable. The Golliwogs were printed on everything, like the American’s had the Aunt Jemima.
An American Quilter, Lisa Langlais, Marchwood, England
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 | From: Joan Kiplinger <jkip@>
In the late 1890s when the British occupied Alexandria, Egypt, native workers were called Ghuls and wore armbands bearing the initials WOGS [Working on Government Service]. British troops began calling these workers Golliwogs. When dolls began representing them, they appeared as souvenirs and were taken back to England where the name remained. In 1895 Florence Upton begain writing her popular children’s series about Golliwoggs [note double g]; the first book was Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg. Food producer Robinson adopted them as the advertising symbol for its marmalade. 1911-16 — Steiff produced these dolls renamed Gow. This was followed by other commercial toymakers producing similar dolls with similar names. Golliwogs were in production until 1925 though fascimiles continued on. – From Coleman’s The Encyclopedia of Dolls.
I don’t have a Golliwog, but in an issue of an Australian Quilting magazine which I don’t have any longer, there was an advertisement for a pattern for a quilted Golliwog. I was really surprised when I saw it.
Judy White
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 | From: “Maurice Northen” <3forks@>
Leader Joan has come to the front with the historical answers. It isn’t everyday, except on Vintage Fabrics, or Quilt History what we learn such important lessons. Thank you one and all. Joan of the South
Lisa, did you take piano lessons? I had to learn that piece on the piano a hundred years ago.
Judy White
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 | From: Joan Kiplinger <jkip@>
TX Joan — anyone can be knowledgable when they have the right books to copy from 😀 Sally had some great information about these dolls also.
Maurice Northen wrote:
>Leader Joan has come to the front with the historical answers. It isn’t >everyday, except on Vintage Fabrics, or Quilt History what we learn such >important lessons. >Thank you one and all. >Joan of the South > > > >
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 | From: Kris Driessen <krisdriessen@>
Sheesh, I guess I am the only one who had never heard of Golliwogs. I must lead a sheltered life. I did look up the golliwogs cakewalk, though, and found it here: http://www.bellflowerstringquartet.com/clips/Debussy_Golliwogs_Cakewalk.MP3
Kris
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 | From: Jccullencrew@
This is a most fascinating topic. As I recall, at my in-laws house (former British citizens), golliwog was used as a term of endearment when someone was doing something mischevious (not bad) or devilish as in “you wee golliwog”.
In my own house, Little Black Sambo was a favorite book as a child. Fact is, I still have it and feel like I should hide it because of the negative connotation it has taken on today. However, it was just a story back then with no deep, dark sinister meaning to a young child. But as someone has already said, times change and in some ways, not always for the better.
I think I’ll go find my old book and give it a read. Then I’ll give my 10 year old grandson a chance to read it and see what he makes of it. I’m curious to see how and if our perspectives differ after 50 plus years.
Thanks to those of you who found this information and shared it with all of us. This is a great group to learn the many sides of quilting history.
Carol
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 | From: “JG Kane” <jgkane84@>
Yes I had a golliwog as a child, in the 1950’s, and he was much loved! He was traditionally dressed in red, white and blue, with a red tail coat, bowtie, and blue/white striped trousers.His body was a sort of soft cotton twill .There was nothing scary, or racist about the golliwogs I knew and loved. The anti-racist feeling was creeping in in the 70’s,which I found sad, and in 79 I made sure my new daughter had a golly because they are such comfoting, cuddly toys – simply rag dolls, with dark skin.My husband remembers them in the 30’s, although they weren’t around in toy shops because of war shortages. Of course they are the ideal home-made doll, and Tamsin’s was a knitted golliwog. Now they are for sale in shops stocking ‘traditional’ toys, but they are referred to as ‘gollys’. Its rather a shame, I think, that they have lost their full name, which children rejoice in, and never, in my experience, used in a derogative way.( My daughter used to get stuck in the middle, so she had a degolligolligolliwog.)
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 | From: Judy Knorr <jknorr@>
Judy, I looked in some of my old programs from Lancaster and found the is information to contact Robert Nettleton about the jewelry boxes:
Robert R. Nettleton Windblown Square 5798 Main Street Eaton, NY 13334 315-684-9489
Hope this helps. It’s from the 1998 program.
Judy Knorr
Yep, ten years of piano. I don’t play anymore, but I sing in an early music choir….:)
Lisa Evans
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 | From: <mreich@>
We are having the most beautiful snowfall in Connecticut. The Christmas music is playing to set the mood for my cookie baking marathon. On this day when the world is a better place to live, I hope you all enjoy this very sweet poem about the quilt Mother Earth gives to us. Peace to her and all of you. sue reich Trenton Times Trenton, New Jersey January 26, 1886
Four Bedquilts.
Four bedquilts are ready to fold and spread On Mother Earth’s old trundle bed. The first, a brown and white old thing, She puts on in the early spring. The summer one is green and bright, With daisies nodding left and right. And then when winds begin to blow, She spreads a red quilt on, you know. She sews it through with yellow thread; It makes an autumn-leaf bedspread. And by and by, all in a night, She spreads her quilt of snowy white.
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 | From: “Jean Carlton” <jeancarlton@>
Eva, The state ‘search’ or documentation books are another good study tool. Lots of historical and regional information and a wonderful variety of quilts to study – though I must agree that there is no substitute for gazing at the real thing in person. A list of those books is found at http://www.quilthistory.com/state.htm Jean
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 | From: “Candace Perry”
I’m specifically interested in prints that were made during the Civil War period. A note that was attached to a quilt we have says that the print used, which has a cannon, soldier, flag and cannon balls included in it, was sold during the war for $1.00 a yard. I’m curious as to whether CW atribution is good or if it actually might be a centennial piece. It’s a good old Berk CO. PA quilt. Candace Perry Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 | From: <chrisa@>
Hi Candace,
I have that fabric in a Mass. c. 1870 quilt, but it doesn’t have the soldier, just the cannons, with stacked balls, and flags. Barbara Brackman shows the quilt and a close-up of the fabric in her first CW Quilts book. I bought it from a New England dealer who said it was a CW quilt with commemorative fabric in it and Barbara said the fabric was one of only a few made specifically to commemorate the CW. She dated the quilt circa 1870, but the fabric would likely date earlier.
There is a somewhat older book about a PA textile collection or exhibit, but I can’t recall which one, which shows the fabric you are talking about, made into a little girl’s dress. It is pictured in this book.
Wishing happy and safe holidays to all of you. May peace reign over all regions this season.
Kim Wulfert www.antiquequiltdating.com
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 | From: “Candace Perry”
Kim, thanks so much for your quick reply! It is a big help. Candace
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 | From: Kris Driessen
This came up on another list, so I thought I would remind all our members too.
I made web pages for any of our members who taught anything at all having to do with quilts or quilt history. You can see them at http://www.quilthistoryteachers.com
The blurb I wrote for it says, “The teachers and lecturers who are listed here have expertise in one or more areas dealing with quilts and quilt history. You will find those who are qualified to give lectures and/or workshops, including; authors, designers, historians, and more. Each with the love of quilts and quilting, and the desire to share their knowledge with others. Listings are submitted by the teachers themselves and are sorted into categories based on their general geographic area.”
If you feel you would fit into one of these categories and would like me to add your listing, just send me the information. (You don’t have to be a member of the Quilt History list, truthfully.) If you don’t have a web page and would like one, I will do that too. There is NO CHARGE for this, I consider it a benefit to the quilting community. Besides, when people click on the Google Ads, I make money:-)) As long as I break even, I am happy.
Please don’t be shy about sending me your information. Every little iota of information about you and your teaching abilities that is out there on the Internet can only be to your benefit.
Kris
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 | From: macdowel@
I am interested in knowing about dates of upcoming Quilt Discovery Days in order to document the event for a potential major newspaper article on this phenomena. I would appreciate information on dates in the next couple of months in any region of the US. Thanks so much, Marsha MacDowell
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 | From: Judy Roche <jrocheq@>
Have you seen this one? Judy Roche
keep enlarging the quilt until you can see the pictures.
This is truly incredible! Please take a look.
When the quilt comes up, click on it to enlarge it, and then click again and again — each time it gets larger. When you make it big, you will see the faces of people who died at the World Trade Center. Lois Jarvis of Madison, Wisconsin made this beautiful quilt. Imagine the amount of work and planning that had to go into this. It is a labor of great love.
http://www.gzquilt.com/About_the_Quilt/about_the_quilt.html
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 | From: ZegrtQuilt@
I have been asked to write a retrospective article on the quilt project movement for an important magazine in 2004. The most recent and most complete list of all of the projects in the U.S. and abroad was compiled some time ago,to the best of my knowledge. I am seeking your help in putting together the most current list possible. Please let me know what information you have . There are probably some recent projects that we all need to know about . It is so exciting for us here in Kentucky to see all that has happened since the Ky Quilt Project launched the first of these efforts in 1981-2.Pretty amazing!!!!
Please email me at both :zegrtquilt@ and jhawley@. I have been having some problems lately with my AOL account.
Many thanks in advance for your help
Shelly Zegart.
Shelly Zegart zegrtquilt@ 502-897-7566 www.shellyquilts.com www.centerforthequilt.org
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 | From: macdowel@
I am looking for information on dates and locations of upcoming Quilt Discovery Days in order to document the event for a potential major newspaper article on this phenomena. I would appreciate information on dates in the next couple of months in any region of the US. Thanks so much, Marsha MacDowell
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 | From: “ChrisA” <chrisa@>
Candace,
I remembered another source for a picture of the fabric with the soldiers et al. On page 176 of the great book “The Stars and the Stripes” by Boleslaw and Mastai. He dates the textile piece shown it 1862 and says it is from a neckerchief. He goes on to say “This Civil War pattern was until recently known only for a bay’s christening dress in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, but lacked one element:the pyramid of cannonballs that so aptly punctuates it here.”
The little girls dress I mentioned before, is probably this one he mentions. However, I do recall the book it is pictured in being from a PA exhibit. There, they dated the dress to the 1850s, which I had always questioned. Remember the book was written awhile ago, like in the early 1980s perhaps.
To bring this full circle, a couple years back Barbara B. made a Moda reproduction of the fabric print in my quilt. It would be fun to put in the display case with the original you have. I can send you a piece if you need it. Maybe you can show your piece to us when I bring my quilt history tour to Schwenkfelder in June?
Kimberly Wulfert, PhD www.antiquequiltdating.com Email: quiltdating@
Kim, thanks so much for your quick reply! It is a big help. Candace
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 | From: “ChrisA” <chrisa@>
“Telltale Textiles”, the exhibit catalogue for the quilt exhibit held at Historic Deerfield this summer ,was a pleasure to read and a great deal of quilt history is packed into 40 pages! What it lacks in large pictures of the quilts, is made up for by excellent close-up shots that show the quilting patterns and textile prints. This is particularly important, since many of the quilts were whole-cloth or whitework, where quilting makes the quilt! There are small photos of quilts in period rooms at HD, which is a nice touch.
But the text is the best part and reason to buy this booklet in my opinion. Lynn Bassett provides so much detail in a brief space, about the early quilt styles, fashions, and design influences, here and abroad. These worked hand in hand, and she points this out throughout and provides pictures of decorative arts and furnishings to supplement the text.
This will be a reference book for sure. And it won’t take a ton of time to go through. The chapters name the style of quilt discussed. The names are catchy and my favorite is “Woman Power to Water Power” which discusses what else, but the industrial revolution’s impact on textile production. In fact, many of the quilts and topics discussed in the catalogue were topics on QHL this past year, such as:
what makes glazing on wool quilts
quilt history myths
costs of early calicos in America
Marseilles and whitework quilts defined
Is it a wool whole-cloth or calamanco
There were some great quotes and figures from 18th and 19th century records and diaries. I’ll share one that that stood out for me as it’s from 1843. In “The House Book”, Eliza Leslie writes ” Patch-work quilts of old calico are seen only in inferior chambers; but they are well worth making for servant’s beds. The custom of buying new calico to cut into various ingenious figures, for what was called handsome patchwork, has become obsolete.”
I didn’t know patchwork became obsolete in 1843, and thank goodness there were other’s who didn’t read her book either! I wonder if it was this kind of thinking that contributed to appliqué quilts being especially popular from 1840-70.
Kimberly Wulfert, PhD www.antiquequiltdating.com Email: quiltdating@
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 | From: Gaye Ingram <gingram@>
> > > Have you seen this one? > Judy Roche > http://www.gzquilt.com/About_the_Quilt/about_the_quilt.html
This extraordinary quilt prompts a question which has been playing around in the back of my mind as I’ve thought about a commemorative crazy quilt: from the conservation point of view, what is the best way to transfer photographs to fabric? And how does one achieve a soft, pliable fabric (one with a good “hand”) with such transfers?
Gaye
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 | From: Pat Kyser <patkyser@>
Re: NY quilt and Gaye’s question about transferring photos to fabric:
I do not know of any scientific research on this area, but I’ve done a crazy quilt with ancestor’s photos on it and found the best copies were done at a local copy shop, using their marvelous expensive Canon color copier and their big T-shirt press. It gets really hot and has lots of pressure, and I am convinced these will last better than the ones I print on my own computer at home. I take them 200 count white cotton fabric and they make a transfer from my photo and press it on the fabric. However, the ones I print on my own computer ARE softer and more pliable. The professional ones are better than they were in earlier years, but they still have a slight hardness to their surface. Pat Kyser
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 | From: “Lynne Z. Bassett”
Thank you, Kim! I appreciate your kind words about the “Telltale Quilts” catalogue!
Happy holidays to everyone on the Quilt History List!
Lynne
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 | From: “Lynne Z. Bassett”
Hi again,
I received a private message asking me to post contact information for Historic Deerfield for those of you who would like to purchase the “Telltale Textiles” exhibit cataloguette (I still don’t know what to call it!). The main phone number there is (413) 774-5581; you will get an operator and can ask for the gift shop. Their website is www.historic-deerfield.org, but I don’t think “Telltale Textiles” is featured yet. Maybe if you all call the gift shop, they will finally get it out on the shelves and on the website! Unfortunately, against Edward’s and my advice, they only printed 1,000 copies, so the price is going to be higher than we hoped it would be, but I still don’t know what that is. Sorry I can only give you partial information at this point!
Now I am off into the freezing rain to do research for my Mark Twain costume exhibit. Blegh! I hate freezing rain….
Best, Lynne
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 | From: Marthapatches36@
Gaye, I use BubbleJet to prepare my fabric and then print pictures from my computer. The fabric remains soft. First dip fabric in Bubble Jet hang to dry 24 hours . Press on to a backing like freezer paper or I use a sticky paper I buy which is for labels. Place it in printer one piece at a time. Allow ink to dry remove backing paper and press. Now I’m hoping to get a new printer from Santa with a scanner so I can copy photos, for a memory quilt.. I have been told I could scan fabric from an old quilt to use to repair it. Has any one tried that. Will be off line for a couple days, have to a cataract removed. But would like to know about repairing an old quilt with this method. Happy Holidays. Martha near Puget Sound
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 | From: Patricia L
A check with the museum store this morning regarding the availability of the “Telltale Textiles” exhibition catalogue reveals that copies are not yet available. Some people may have received advance copies from the curator. The price of the publication is still being discussed. As soon as it is available to buy as an individual copy, that information will be posted on the website for Historic Deerfield. Since Kim’s apt description of the booklet, I’m sure that many of you are chomping at the bit to see it, as am I. All in due time….
Pat
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 | From: “ChrisA” <chrisa@>
Martha,
I concur with your Bubblejet suggestion. I have used it with success when printing fabric labels, but found the process laborious. (I made 15 for a block exchange the first time I used it- which may have something to do with it:) )Can you say more about the label sticky paper- like who makes it? Bubblejet leaves the fabric totally pliable, like it wasn’t printed at all.
I have printed antique fabric which I scanned also, but it was pre- Bubblejet. This was about 3 years ago, I just used it in a quilt a few months ago. Although it looked good, I noticed a smudge resulted from the iron water drop and that means it isn’t going to take washing. It’s already pieced into the quilt, in 2″ squares, so I’m out of luck I think, this time around. Fortunately it’s wall hanging size and wasn’t intended to be cuddled. What’s most funny about this particular home-made reproduction is that it recently came out on the bolt from Baum!
Kimberly Wulfert, PhD www.antiquequiltdating.com Email: quiltdating@
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 | From: “Christine Thresh” <christine@>
Caryl Bryer Fallert has very good instructions about printing on fabric with Bubble Jet Set. Her page is: http://www.bryerpatch.com
Fabric IS washable after printing. I’ve used BJS following Fallert’s directions. I’ve washed the final fabric and it is soft and nice.
Christine Thresh http://www.winnowing.com
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 | From: “Candace Perry”
Greetings from the rain soaked Upper Perkiomen Valley… Due to my association with the fine folks on this list, I’ve become fascinated with 19th century cotton prints. I’m thinking about an exhibition that would focus on the wonderful variety of prints and their uses in clothing and household textiles among the Pennsylvania Germans. I’m thinking also about a possible symposium and maybe even a little catalog. The exhibit would be in 2005 at the very earliest. I know this is VERY vague but I’m really at square one. Any thoughts? Would something like this be of interest? Candace Perry Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 | From: Kittencat3@
I think that would be a splendid thing.
Lisa Evans Easthampton, MA
Hi, You don’t say where you’re located–what state that is. I’m always interested in area events re quilting and an exhibit about early fabrics would be quite informative since so many people seem to be gravitating to making quilts from old fabrics again. Also of interest in that time frame would be redwork–the patterns used and so on. If you can show old clothing using it, that would add interest too. Don’t know why we’re so fascinated with the old, especially since things I used as a kid are now getting to be considered almost “antique”. Where has the time gone? Good luck with your project. It sounds like fun. Carol
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 | From: “Pilar Donoso” <quiltpd@>
Dear Friends:
Last month I wrote to you because I was going to travel to the North of my country to talk about Quilt History and I needed help. I asked you about tips and received very good advise from many of you. When I came back (12 Hours bus trip each way) I received many of your EMails asking me how was the trip and the lecture. I finished my speech with Pat Cummings letter, and 2/3 of my audience was crying after I finished. But life it is full of surprises and today I received my Birthday (Dic 20th) and Christmas present together. Donald Beld, a great person and member of this list, send me as a present, a Quilt made by him, to show me and the rest of the Chileans, what is a Sanitary Commission Quilt. The Quilt is hand pieced and beautiful and I am overwhelm by his generosity. He has written many articles about the subject, and I hope to pass this new information to the Chilean Quilters. This is the first time I will be able to show something when I talk.
We are planning our First Chilean Quilting Congress on October 9 – 12 and I am very proud to know that I will be able to show something along my talking.
Thank you to all of you, and special thanks to Don, who will be in my thoughts this Christmas. Someone who does not know me gave me a great present like this…. Life is full of surprises.
Merry Christmas to all of you, Pilar
Pilar Donoso I. quiltpd@
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 | From: Jccullencrew@
Hi, I must have missed some e-mails and I’m now curious to know what a Sanitary Commission Quilt is. Can you explain? Thanks so much and I’m happy for you receiving it. Carol
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 | From: “Judy Grow”
Would it be of any interest? Candace, you must be joking! I think you had better get the fire marshall to come out and give the Schenkfelder Museum a new occupancy rating, because you are going to be overloaded. I think people will travel great distances to see a show like that. Why, I think that without too much trouble I could even persuade Mizruz Gaye Ingram to travel all the way up North from Louisiana to see a show like you suggest you may put together.
I’m excited already and counting down the days to 2005!
Judy in Ringoes, NJ judygrow@
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 | From: Gaye Ingram
This is merely to say that Mizriz (It’s “Mizriz,” Judith, not “Mizruz”: You simply must work at speaking and spelling Southern. You did very well with “Y’all.” But it is time to move on.) Gaye Ingram is sitting snug in a sunny landscape, in a house redolent of gingerbread and springerle and lizzies, protected by a noble rat terrier named Thomas J. Jackson and a warm yaller cat named Poo and Mizriz Ingram is more or less immune to any aspersions of provincialism cast her way. And yes, Candace, Judith Kaman Grow is right: this is the sort of attraction that even we in the Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep South would attend. Go for it!
This addendum. Tonight my husband and I entertained 15 students in an honors program course in history he teaches. In the course of the evening a young woman retired to the ladies room and upon her return said, “Mrs. Ingram, I saw those beautiful Pennsylvania quilts on your bed. They are just gorgeous. Are there others?” I asked how she knew they were Pennsylvania quilts and she replied that “the lady” who had spoken at Tech in fall had taught her audience the hallmarks of Pennsylvania quilts. Thereupon, the entire group—male and female—fell into quilt talk. A boy remembered Judy’s stunning red and green quilt and inquired whether she had found a source of the design, another boy said he had never known what a “hand-blocked print” was before October, a girl noted that she had told everyone—in that SIMPLY EVERYONE! tone—that America’s first quilts were the products of affluence, not poverty, and that all were surprised. The first speaker said, “I noted the quilting on the quilt on your bed. It was not the Methodist fan pattern.” “The lady” who taught them these things was Judy Grow, who did a terrific presentation when she was way down here in North Louisiana, and tonight proved beyond question that not merely young women are interested in the subject of quilts.
gaye
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 | From: seater@
How can we buy this catalogue? I didn’t see it on Deerfield’s website or Kris’s.
Susan Seater, Raleigh NC
> “Telltale Textiles”, the exhibit catalogue for the quilt > exhibit held at Historic Deerfield this summer ,was a > pleasure to read and a great deal of quilt history is > packed into 40 pages! … Lynn Bassett provides so much > detail in a brief space
> Kimberly Wulfert, PhD > www.antiquequiltdating.com > Email: quiltdating@
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 | From: Donald Beld <donbeld@>
Needless to say, I am not “great”–I am just a guy who loves history, loves quilting, and loves the tradition of America’s quilters giving of themselves to others.
The U.S. Sanitary Commission was America’s first great volunteer charity organization. Founded in 1862, its stated purpose was to act as a watchdog agency to make sure that the Northern (and Southern, when possible) military hospitals were “sanitary”. It was based upon the Royal Sanitary Commission of Great Britain, founded during the Crimea War in the 1850’s which spawned the likes of Florence Nightingale. The U.S. Sanitary Commission lasting heir is, of course, Clara Barton and the Red Cross.
The Sanitary Commission quickly expanded and began collecting supplies, food, money, and most importantly to us, quilts for the Northern troops. The Women’s Auxillary collected the quilts beginning in 1862 and ending in April 1865. Barbara Brackman estimates that records show they collected in that 2 and 1/2 year period over 125,000 quilts. Virginia Gunn in her definative article on the Sanitary Commission for the American Quilt Study Group estimates the figure at closer to 250,000 quilts.
It was requested that the quilts measure approximately 4 by 7 feet–50 by 84 inches, so that they would fit hospital cots and be easy for soldiers to carry in their backpacks. They were referred to as “long” quilts. Any size quilt was accepted, however. Most were quickly made (obviously) and frequently were signature quilts with the names of the makers on the blocks and messages of support.
Few are known to survive–five that I know of. Soldiers who died in the hospital were usually buried in their quilt and soldiers at the front wore them out. There are two in private hands, one in a museum in New England, one at the DAR museum in Washington, D.D., and one at the Lincoln Shrine in Redlands, Ca. They all are stamped on the back with the words “U.S. Sanitary Commission” as were all their donated items. (The DAR has a Sanitary Commission Fair Raffle quilt, which is a different thing–much like our raffle quilts today it was intended to raise funds for the war cause and never meant to go to the front with the soldiers. It is a duplicate of a quilt made and presented to Pres. Lincoln). A U.S. Sanitary Commission raffle doll was recently shown on Antique Roadshow and appraised at $30,000; but, to me, the thrill that I had when I was able to actually touch the Lincoln Shrine’s (it is on public display) quilt is worth more than any amount of money.
>From the donated quilts of the Sanitary Commission, America’s quilters have continued to make and donate quilts to special causes, hospitals, homeless, fire and earthquake victems, etc. for 140 years. It thrills me to think about how many quilts have been made and given away. That is our heritage. That is the true spirit of humanity and good deeds. That is us, one quilt at a time, carrying and loving each other through times of need. It makes me very proud to be a quilter. Don Beld
P. S. if you would like to see photos of my reproduction quilts, including the one I send to Pilar in Chile, e-mail me privately and I will e-mail photos of them to you. Don
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 | From: “Lynne Z. Bassett”
Dear Susan,
Historic Deerfield has been very slow to make this catalogue available. It should show up on the website sooner or later–keep trying! Or call the museum at (413) 774-5581 and ask for the gift shop. (Boxes of the catalogues have been sitting in their storage room for over a week, so I would think that they’d like to get it out of their way and on their shelves.)
Thanks for your interest!
Best, Lynne
