August 2 – 6, 1999
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:
- The 1869 Photograph Debate — Members scrutinize an eBay photo purportedly showing an 1869 quilt, debating whether the women’s clothing and photographic paper stock fit that date or point instead to a later centennial re-enactment.
- Imported and Reproduction Quilts — A long-running thread on telling imported or reproduction quilts from authentic American-made ones, covering batting, binding style, fabric prints, and a widely discussed knock-off of the Harriet Powers Bible Quilt.
- New Book: Quilts and Quiltmaking in America — A member flags the release of a new reference book on American quiltmaking history as worth checking out.
Date: Mon, 2 Aug 1999 23:50:45 EDT | From: KareQuilt@
Wow! Thanks for your responses. I was so pleased to discover there are at least three quilters doing research on the imported quilts. Now I don’t feel so “silly” for having saved all those catalogues. [I kid you not; my quilt, genealogy and folk art books and files take up one whole room, not including fabric, quilts, or sewing machine. I still have to find room for those somewhere else and still have a guest room for when the kids come visit!] I obviously had begun to save the catalogues because I thought I might do a research project myself, but one can spread one’s self only so thin. Having heard from individuals and institutions, my preference would be that they would eventually wind up in a research center where many researchers could access them. I’ll keep you posted. One question that has been on my mind since they first began appearing was, “I wonder whether being exposed to American quilt patterns in this manner will cause the women/men who make the “factory made” quilts want to make similar quilts for their own personal use?” Where have most of these quilts been made? In countries that already have a tradition of quilting? China? Elsewhere? Has anyone actually traced them down to the actual city and factory in said country? Is there any possible way of finding out if the workers are going home and making similar quilts for their own families?
Karen Alexander
Research Focus:
The Quilts of Page, Shenandoah, and Rockingham Counties of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia
Documenting the Family Quilt
Press Secretary, Quilters Hall of Fame
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 13:08:14 EDT | From: Chyral@
I in no way meant to convey the impression that I believe the photograph is a “hoax” of some sort…. only that, based on my fair-to-middling hands-on knowledge of both 19th century dress and photographs, the dating of the photograph to 1869 was perhaps 10 years or so on the early side. In the parlance of the antiques trade, I do think it’s “good”. Mea culpa, for my lack of clarity.
Allow me a bit of anecdotal meandering, if you will….. per Judy’s information, the date of 1869 was derived by the seller solely from a notation on the reverse of the photograph…. My husband and I are “the keepers of the family history” and thus possess a large number of family photographs, dating from the mid 1860s or so; many of these photographs bear penciled notations as to the date or subject, and most of those notations are worthless…. the “identifications” were “best guesses” made in the 1970s by a relative who never knew any of the subjects, and most of the “dates” are simply a number most likely assigned by the photographer to identify his filing of the negative, should reprints be desired….. (What I’ve been trying to figure out is what the other three women in the picture are doing…. the ones who don’t have the quilt blocks. The one standing at the rear left seems to be knitting, but what are the other two ladies up to??? Perhaps the image should be titled “Busy Hands are Happy Hands”…… )
In a message dated 8/3/99 11:56:33 AM Eastern Daylight Time, jocelynm@ writes:
> > he clothing is “right” for about 1880-1885 (slim, draped skirt & cuirasse bodice on woman at front left, those peculiar sleeves on woman at front right). The caps, those silly “Puritan” collars (!!!!!!)
> > Amazing indeed. 😉
Photographic images of the purported date are almost
> > always ferrotypes, or of Carte de Visite size; cabinet cards, such as
the
> > image in question, did not become common until the early 1870s.
> > For my part, I am curious as to where the exact “dating” of these items
of
> > 1869 derives from….. are the blocks signed, or is there some sort of documentation?
> Soooo…we have a photo that’s been ‘adjusted’ in some way. The women are obviously not in mid-to-late 19th century everyday clothing. But…that doesn’t mean they’re not mid-to-late 19th century women. It could be that they were celebrating a centennial, and were costumed according to their abilities. (I’ll never forget the time that I was costuming a Renaissance group, and one woman volunteered, ‘My daughter already has a costume- she was in the centennial last year!’ ) They may just have been really lousy costumers– figuring that if they put Puritan collars and mobcaps on over their regular dresses, that that would be all the effort required. For that matter, they may have figured it would be a waste of time and money to make up a real Puritan dress to wear just for the celebration. So…they may have started the quilt in 1869, and then, a few years later after the larger photographs became available, had the portrait made then. Maybe they happened to know a photographer who was really on the cutting edge of his art, or maybe, the blocks were made in 1869, and 10 or so years later, someone stumbled across them again and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be a hoot to get our picture made, in our old centennial costumes?’
> I’d think that someone who was deliberately trying to create a hoax would have been smart enough to have created a picture without any anachronistic elements in it…but then, maybe I’m just an optimist. <G>
> Jocelyn
> Jocelynm@
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 18:37:52 EDT | From: EllynLK@
I looked at the photo and wish it was clearer… however, I don’t think the photo is from 1869.
At that time, each photograph taken had its own “wet plate” which was coated with light sensitive emulsion, placed in the camera and exposed to light by removing the lens cap and focusing on the subject (in the late 1860s this would have been a period of less than a minute). Lens cap was replaced, the wet plate was removed and immediately developed into a negative before it was dry. The photos you see of that period were small– because * you could only take a photo the size of your wet plate. * The uncommon size of the photo would have meant an uncommon size of wet plate and uncommon size of camera. There WERE larger photos taken; some of you may have seen an old picture of a gigantic camera perched on a building in preparation to take a panoramic shot of some city. This was a specially-built camera camera with a huge specially-sized wet plate for a huge photo– because there were no blow-ups back then. The photo was the size of the wet plate. Therefore, for the photo to be authentic, it would have had to have been taken with a special camera. Since the photo isn’t spectacular, the question would be “why bother”? Since many “photographers” were barbers or dentists with a photographic studio upstairs for extra money, not many people would have had specially-sized cameras. And if they did, they likely wouldn’t have taken ordinary photos with them, but special pictures (like the city panorama).
Without passing judgement on whether the photo is of the quilt pieces in question, I just question an “1869” photo of that size. Not impossible, but curious.
Lauri Klobas
Date: Tue, 03 Aug 1999 21:54:39 -0500 | From: Karen Bush <Birdsong@>
Maybe the same reason ‘we’ would…I’d have my pic taken with an Old quilt,…and in costume. Maybe that’s what They were doing?? Just for the fun of it? kb
— > Why these women chose to be photographed with quilt pieces much
> older, or why they chose to look “Colonial” I can’t fathom. Anyone else have any ideas?
“Quilt As Desired” the Basics and Beyond of Hand Quilting…Karen Bush, http://www.idahoquilt.com
COME SEE my quilt, getting ready for it’s November Drawing!
Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 11:06:05 -0600 | From: Jocelyn <
Anne,
It may have to do with exchange rates, and tariff laws between the US and the other country.
Or perhaps it has to do with missionaries. For awhile here in Lawrence, there was a store run by the Mennonites, where handcrafts made by women in other countries were sold. Not just needlework, but all sorts of things. The missionaries encouraged the women to use local materials and to build on local themes, but also guided them in selecting patterns that would be likely to sell to Americans. For example, I have a set of cats carved by an Indian woman. Somehow I doubt that Indians decorate their homes with statues of cats. <G> But apparently a missionary told the woodcarvers that Americans liked cats, and it would probably sell better than a statue of Shiva. <G>
Jocelyn
Jocelynm@
Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 12:38:26 -0400 | From: “John Cawley” <cawley@>
Patricia Keller curated the exhibit of Quaker quilts at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford a couple of years ago. It was outstanding; the captions on the exhibits were particulary good. The museum had a nice catalogue, not much color, but valuable text.
Cinda on the Eastern Shore
—–Original Message—–
From: Judy Grow <Judygrow@>
To: Quilt History List <QHL@>
Date: Monday, August 02, 1999 12:32 AM
Subject: QHL: Good article
>There is a very nice article in the current issue of the Magazine Antiques on Quaker Quilts. It is by Patricia Keller. Lots of good illustrations, most I’ve not seen before.
>Judy in Ringoes, NJ judygrow@
Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 15:50:47 -0400 | From: “Judy Kelius (judysue)” <judy@>
The thread about documenting imports has been very interesting . . . and what just happened to me shows that it is not too soon. A man who gives me items to sell for him on eBay just sent me a folk art quilt that he was told was made by blacks in Appalachia. I’m almost positive it is an import because of the shabby workmanship and materials – it is probably no more than ten years old. The quilt has appliqued primitive figures alternating with house blocks – I’ve posted two photos at http://www.chesco.com/~judy/FAKE/import.htm. The quilting is a long running stitch, the batting feels like flannel, and the fabrics have major bleeding. If any of you can verify that this is an import, I’ll let him know just in case he doesn’t want to take my word for it. I will refuse to sell anything like this since I don’t want to compromise my reputation. I think he was taken big time – at more than $250. This thing probably sold for $39.99 new! (That’s about $39.98 more than it’s worth IMHO.) Too bad since I have also received some excellent antiques from him.
–_2336907_.ALT
<font size3D3>The thread about documenting imports has been very interesting . . . and what just happened to me shows that it is not too soon. A man who gives me items to sell for him on eBay just sent me a folk art quilt that he was told was made by blacks in Appalachia. I’m almost positive it is an import because of the shabby workmanship and materials – it is probably no more than ten years old. The quilt has appliqued primitive figures alternating with house blocks – I’ve posted two photos at http://www.chesco.com/~judy/FAKE/import.htm
The quilting is a long running stitch, the batting feels like flannel, and the fabrics have major bleeding. If any of you can verify that this is an import, I’ll let him know just in case he doesn’t want to take my word for it. I will refuse to sell anything like this since I don’t want to compromise my reputation. I think he was taken big time – at more than $250. This thing probably sold for $39.99 new! (That’s about $39.98 more than it’s worth IMHO.) Too bad since I have also received some excellent antiques from him.
–_2336907_.ALT–
Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 17:14:11 -0400 | From: “John/Karen Finck” <finck@>
I am replacing batting in an old (probably 50s) quilt for someone. When I took this eyesore apart, inside was another quilt that in looking in my books has fabric from the early 1900s. This quilt has disintegrated and so did the batting. Anyway the woman doesn’t care about the integrity of the quilt, just making it look nicer. My question is this: I have warm and natural here and Hobbs Heirloom 80/20. The fabric is very thin on the top and backing. Which batting would you suggest to use? She just wants it retied.
Karen in nh finck@
Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 18:02:54 -0400 | From: Alan Kelchner <quiltfix@>
I wrote this yesterday, but because the phones were out, this is the first chance I have had to send it.
“Kelchner, Alan” wrote:
> Well, just got back from lunch. Did my periodic foray through the nearby thrift store, hoping against hope that there’s something like a quilt on the racks. Not bloody likely, but it helps to pass the time. So I checked the blanket rack. Nothing. Then perused the needlework-supply-castoffs bin. Nothing of interest. Turned around, and there on another bin (suitcases?) was a quilt top. Trip around the world in bark cloth, of all things. Spread that sucker out on the floor, and I’ll be dipped if it isn’t actually attractive (bark cloth quilts in this area are typically very ugly utility quilts!!). For only $8.99. Plus, it’s “Super Tuesday” so everything that doesn’t have a blue tag is E off (this doesn’t have a blue tag, oh joy!). So now I’m looking at $4.50. Standing in line, there’s another sign that says “All Orange-tagged Linens – $.99” The joy increases even more ’cause this silly top has an orange tag!
> So I paid $.99 for it. Shows what diligence can do for you.
> Also, the lady in line had debated buying it, but didn’t since she had thought it was full price (she wasn’t looking at the signs, doncha-no).
> So I’m having a good afternoon.
> Alan
Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 21:33:23 -0600 | From: Larry Orr & Hanna Witte Orr <witteorr@>
You should distinguish between what is made in low wage factories in India and other countries in SE Asia, is sold as cheap quilts at probably all major department/discount stores and those that are made by people working in a Fair Trade program (sponsored among others by the Mennonite Central Committee, SERRV, Ten Thousand Villages, Oxfam etc) who get paid a decent amount for the fact that they are producing craft items. In either case the quilts are designed by those that import them, never by the people who sew them. There is some traditional Indian patchwork, not really quilted, which is colorful and nice, and one of the above mentioned organisations is selling it (cant’ remember which one). I haven’t seen any quilts made for Fair Trade markets recently, and I think that the FT organisations realized that quilting has more a North American tradition. They usually try to import things that are based in the crafter’s traditions and can be useful for us Westerners. Here’s a link to a Fair Trade organisation, you can find members from there: http://www.ifat.org/ The discount store variety of imported quilts are in my eyes a very bad twist of global marketing:
something that *should* be handmade by an experienced person in her/his tradition (i.e. here in the US or in Great Britain) and therefore *should* be priced accordingly is instead assembly-line made under bad working conditions (there is an article in August’s Consumer Reports on sweatshops and I guess that those conditions apply to cheap import quilt manufacturers as well).
Anyway, this topic has been bugging me for quite a while, so I thank everybody for the opportunity to say something !!
Hanna, in Iowa where the weather just turned wonderful.
>Anne,
> It may have to do with exchange rates, and tariff laws between the US and the other country.
> Or perhaps it has to do with missionaries. For awhile here in
>Lawrence, there was a store run by the Mennonites, where handcrafts made by women in other countries were sold. Not just
Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 22:43:27 EDT | From: CGLIEBER@
Gloria on August 1 wrote “what did Caroline teach at the College”. I teach Older Adults (the program is geared for 50 years and older) but we do not discriminate on age and I have had students as young as 25. The Older Adults is a wonderful program in San Francisco and my understanding is we are only one of two colleges that has this kind of program in the state of California. In addition to Quiltmaking (and I have three classes each 2 1/2 hours long), the program offers a variety of art classes, sewing, journal writing, current events, a major program in Tai Chi exercise, health and wellness classes and now computer classes. These classes are scattered throughout the city in Senior Centers, churches, rec centers so it is easy for students to attend close to their neighborhoods. My classes are beginners to very advanced students – it is non-credit and there is no charge. I run a beginners group each semester to teach basics and the rest of the students work on another project or do their own thing. My Friday morning class has done a number of special group quilts and it and the quilts were recently featured in “The Quilting Quarterly” – the journal of the National Quilting Association – It was the Winter 1998 issue. That class did the letters on the California Sequicentennial Quilt which is now touring the state has been shown in several of the quilting magazines. They are very good appliquers! I have a hobby I love and it became a vocation – I feel very lucky.
Caroline in San Francisco
Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 21:37:35 -0500 | From: Mary Waller <mswaller@>
In a ‘turn lemons into lemonade’ mode, a friend uses the cheap imported quilts for cutters for jackets, vests and other crafts. And she wrote and performs a poem titled “Ode to Smithsonian” about it, in honor of (ahem!)the Smithsonian’s sale of designs from their collection.
Mary Waller, Vermillion, South Dakota
Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 22:21:24 -0500 | From: “Barry and/or Tammy Sikes” <bsikes@>
charsetISO-8859-1
As a proud seller of import quilts, antique quilts and American made quilts (all clearly labeled) I have seen hundreds of import quilts and do believe the one in your photo is an import. I have to admit I’ve never seen the one in your photo but the fabrics and style of quilting leave little doubt in my mind that it is an import. (Too bad I haven’t seen it b/c it’s quite cute) We’ve been in business for four years and have approx. 500 quilts+ in our inventory. Judging whether a quilt in an antique shop is an import is something that becomes second nature when you’ve seen and handled as many as we have. I would advise that size could be a clue. Imports are most often 86 x 86 or 90 x 100 (or 68 x 86 in a twin). Of course, the size may have changed because it has likely been washed as you say there is fabric bleed. (This is not an import issue; have had $1200 American quilts get a little water on them and run.) Hope this helps
Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 22:31:38 -0700 | From: Barbara <qwhiltr@>
Does it have binding? My experience has been that few import quilts have a bound edge. Can you see any evidence of a tag that was torn out of a seam?
Barbara
Date: Thu, 5 Aug 1999 10:52:29 EDT | From: Lynbr20601@
working with 30s repro fabrics…it’s not hard to imagine why the prints, produced during that dark economic period in the USA, are so bright and whimsical….everytime i work with them…they make me smile inside and out….i think the adjective for the prints and the feeling i get is playful.. Heaven knows it must have been hard for people in the USA to feel good when jobs were scarce and the farmers had to deal with the dust bowl weather .. sewing has always been a source for joy in my life..fabrics not only delight my sense of sight and touch…but they really can affect my mental health… no wonder the amish had to relieve all of that black with bright solids…
jean
Date: Thu, 05 Aug 1999 08:34:58 -0700 | From: Marilyn Maddalena <marilyn@>
I’d hate to state as fact an opinion on the origin of a quilt just from looking at the pictures. However, I have yet to see an imported quilt with applique — all the ones out here in California are patchwork. The ones shown in the throw-away catalogues are also patchwork, as are the ones at Target, Wards, WalMart, etc. Maybe there are imported quilts out there somewhere that have applique and I just haven’t seen them. I recall a statement made by a black quilt artist regarding so-called “black quilts” — all the quilts made in her family in former generations were pastels and didn’t look any different than “white quilts.” I hope someone is able to identify this accurately and add to my knowledge, as well as others’.
Marilyn Maddalena
Date: Thu, 05 Aug 1999 08:39:25 -0700 | From: Marilyn Maddalena <marilyn@>
For all you Northern California quilters, the PBS station in Redding, KIXE-TV, Channel 9, is having one entire evening of their pledge week devoted to quilting. It’s next Monday, August 9th, from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. The station has been interviewing and taping North State quilters and will have segments all during the evening featuring these quilters demonstrating different techniques. Also featured will be a tape of the CA Sesquicentennial Quilt and some live interviews. I’m honored to be co-hostess for the evening and will be interviewed live on the care of antique quilts. A tape will be made of the show — MINUS the pledge breaks — and will be available as the premium for joining the station that evening. I’ve requested they make it available to the public also, and have been told this is possible. I’ll keep you informed as to the availability of this video. If you’re in the viewing area, tune in!
Marilyn Maddalena
Date: Thu, 05 Aug 1999 13:23:53 -0500 | From: Laura Hobby Syler <texas_quilt.co@>
Marilyn,
You must not be receiving Lands End, Orvis or Pottery Barn catalogs. Not to mention the 8-10 new applique quilts that I saw at Foley’s and Dillards just this past week. As she stated in a previous post, Tammy Sikes family owns several quilt shops across the state of Texas, and I have visited at least two of them and they have a very good inventory of imported applique quilts. (And I must say, the first time I saw their shop in Childress TX they were very up font that they were imported. I own a Bob Timberlake New York Beauty with applique (which must be repaired every time it gets washed and several times inbetween) Got it when XH moved out and just didn’t have time to make a replacement. Rose of Sharon is another popular applique import style, as is a leaf motif.
As to the “black quilt thing”…. I’d hate it if we were responsible for starting another “black centered log cabin” thing…..romanticism should be kept in it’s place and not be turned into “fact”. I work with Pat Campbell and when we design a new quilt with a black or dark background it is to showcase the other fabrics, nothing more. no secret adgenda here.
Any other opinions?
Laura
AQS Certified Quilt Appaiser
Pres & Co-Founder Vintage Quilt & Textile Society Teacher, Lecturer, Judge
Restoration Specialist
Date: Fri, 06 Aug 1999 02:50:59 +0400 | From: Xenia Cord <xecord@>
Another import applique is the Harriet Powers “Bible Quilt,” once licensed by the Smithsonian – one of the quilts that caused all the welcome uproar over the licensing of replicas (and poorly executed replicas at that)of our textile treasures.
BTW, somewhere in this thread was mention of cheap imports not having binding. True; in addition to sometimes “off” fabrics and large stitches, edges finished in knife edge with a running stitch are another clue to the lesser-priced imports (“$39.95, any size”). Apparently somewhere in the import/export “rules” there is something that puts a quilt with binding in another (and probably more expensive) import category.
Xenia
Date: Thu, 05 Aug 1999 16:18:13 -0400 | From: “Judy Kelius (judysue)” <judy@>
I am off to UPS soon to return this quilt to its owner, who hopes he will be able to convince the dealer who sold it to him to return his money. Thanks for all your input – after closer inspection, I realized that even the large applique stitches which look like a loose buttonhole stitch are done by machine. The binding appears to be put on both sides by machine – I think it may have been sandwiched right sides together and then turned and pressed before giving it to some children to put the only hand stitching there is on the piece. The filling feels like a flannel, also typical of many import quilts (not enough stitching to hold batting in place). I get sick when I look at something like this, not only because it may have been intended to deceive but also because it takes advantage of other people who are given pennies an hour for their work and it threatens to degrade the American tradition of quiltmaking. I applaud all you who are trying to document these for future collectors.
–_4454427_.ALT
Date: Thu, 5 Aug 1999 16:43:46 -0500 | From: “Lisa Erlandson” <erland@>
I know that most of you have as large (or larger) a collection of quilt magazines as I do – but …
in the effort to clean out – I have about 4 – 5 years of quilt magazines including Quilters Newsletter, Quilt, Patchwork & Quilting and a few various craft magazines that I would love to give anyone who feels a need for them.
Please contact me if you would like them.
Lisa
Date: Thu, 05 Aug 1999 22:17:50 -0400 | From: Alan Kelchner <quiltfix@>
Always look at the edges for removed tags if you are in doubt over the place of origin. It’s the first thing I do BEFORE I examine the quilt as a piece.
A lady in one of the guilds I attend brought in an appliqu1d quilt, so proud that she’d bought this one-of-a-kind hand made quilt for a song in the Carolinas. I just *knew* it was a fake, but wasn’t certain – hadn’t seen the pattern before. I recently came across another in an antique mall and verified it’s origins (what I thought).
Did any of the Harriet Powers knock-offs ever get made? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one, in the flesh or in a catalog.
Alan
Date: Fri, 06 Aug 1999 10:38:49 +0400 | From: Xenia Cord <xecord@>
When the NQA held its annual meeting at Bowling Green, Ohio, there was a small exhibit of the Smithsonian-licensed knock-offs, including the Harriet Powers Bible Quilt.
Xenia
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1999 07:39:56 EDT | From: Kittencat3@
In a message dated 8/5/99 8:58:54 PM EST, QHL-Digest-request@ writes:
<< I think that the FT organisations realized that quilting has more a North American tradition. >>
Not to debate sweatshops (which are indefensible), but Indian quilting *far* predates anything done in America, like by at least five hundred years. Quilting probably started in Asia and migrated westward. *Patchwork* has reached its highest level in America, but it hardly started here. And as for Indian export quilts…the first ones reached Europe in the late 16th century. They included both Indian and European motifs. Margaret Renner Lidz’s article in Antiques last December has some interesting information on the subject.
Lisa Evans
Easthampton, MA
Date: Fri, 06 Aug 1999 08:28:51 -0700 | From: “Debora C. Wykes” <wykesfcn@>
“Kelchner, Alan” wrote:
> Well, just got back from lunch. Did my periodic foray through the nearby thrift store….Turned around, and there on another bin (suitcases?) was a quilt top….> So I paid $.99 for it. Shows what diligence can do for you.
…..
> So I’m having a good afternoon.
> Alan
Hey Alan, amidst all this talk about how much our work is worth, it was nice to see your delightful story about your bargain. If I was the one who worked on that quilt top, I would be so happy to know that you found it, even for 99 cents! I’m hoping that all my unfinished stuff gets tossed toward someone like you many years in the future.
I regularly look at the thrift shops here and found great stuff. and I’m jealous of what you found. A happy story.
Debbie in Monroe, MI
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1999 07:55:23 -0500 | From: “Lisa Erlandson” <erland@>
I have this quilt. This is the quilt that my family gets to sleep under when they have stomach problems that include nausea – that way, they are allowed the comforts of a quilt, but if something bad happens to the quilt – no great loss.
I also use it in lectures as an example of what import quilts can look like. My family refers to this import as “the sick quilt” – an apt description of it!
Lisa
Date: Fri, 06 Aug 1999 21:02:01 +0400 | From: Xenia Cord <xecord@>
Hi, Lisa and QHLers – Sorry as it seems, the knock-off Powers quilt may be nearly as valuable as the original! Because of the hot button that this replication pushed, the number of these quilts made was not significant, and given their workmanship they will not last. As an example of the type, as a reminder of the controversy, and as an historic artifact, this quilt should probably be preserved!
Xenia
Date: Fri, 06 Aug 1999 10:06:38 -0500 | From: Laura Hobby Syler <texas_quilt.co@>
Xenia & L#2
LOL!!! I guess this one of those damned if you do and damned if you don’t kinda things…Lisa, better rescue that matching pillow sham from the shed!
Laura
Date: Fri, 06 Aug 1999 10:06:30 -0600 | From: Jocelyn <jocelynm@>
I’ve not seen any of the fakes that were ‘black’ quilts. It seems to me that the foreign fakes are generally made to suit mainstream tastes. OTOH, it’s possible that some manufacturer decided to rip the public off, or they thought they might sell well in areas of the country with a higher African-American population than around here. However, I agree there’s something fishy about this quilt. I’ve seen poorly constructed quilts that were made by African-American women in Appalachia, and the difference is, there was no effort to make a pictorial top. They were going for ‘something to keep the kids warm this winter’, and the top used as big of pieces of fabric as they had. They didn’t waste time cutting them into pretty patterns, let alone with applique.
Flannel batting could be a matter of taste- but it shouts ‘modern’ to me, either way. 60-70 years ago, quilts were made for WARMTH. You didn’t need ‘lightweight’ quilts, especially if you were poor. My mother grew up in Southern Mississippi, and the quilts my grandmother made were heavy suckers. <G> But then, they lived in a clapboard house, that didn’t have plaster walls on the inside, and even in the deep South, that gets rather nippy at night. I think of lightweight quilts as a phenomenon of central heating. Although I suppose there could have been cold-natured people who wanted a light quilt during the summer, when everyone else used either a summer quilt or nothing at all!
The running fabrics makes me suspicious, too. I suppose there’s no real reason to say that a ‘black’ quilt couldn’t have been made from all-new fabric, but they’re associated with scrap quilts. OTOH, it’s possible that it was made from the scraps left over from making garments (although the pieces seem sorta big for that) and thus wasn’t laundered a lot. I can’t imagine a woman becoming disgusted at a shirt or dress that ran in the wash, and then cutting it up to make a quilt-top of it– at least, not a quilt-top like this one. I agree with you that I wouldn’t sell this as a genuine ‘black’ quilt. Too many questions. It may well be the real thing…but I wouldn’t stake my (nearly nonexistant) reputation on it. <G>
Jocelyn
Jocelynm@
Date: Fri, 06 Aug 1999 10:28:56 -0600 | From: Jocelyn <jocelynm@>
> As to the “black quilt thing”…. I’d hate it if we were responsible for starting another “black centered log cabin” thing…..romanticism should be kept in it’s place and not be turned into “fact”.
Laura,
I’m not completely sure what you meant by this.
I’ve seen a few books that are about ‘Black’ quilting, that describe it as if it were a distinct genre like Amish. Markers, as I understand them, are darker fabrics, usually plaids and solids, folk art motifs, and blocks that use large pieces and less ornate patterns. I think it’s important to remember that even if African-American quilters did develop a distinct style of quilting, just as Amish quilters did, that not all African-Americans would choose to work within that style. I would imagine that there are many quilts that were made in both styles by the same woman: mainstream quilts for sale, and ‘black’ quilts to satisfy her own creativity and to suit her own tastes in her home. OTOH, my mother remembers stores having fabrics for ‘white folks’ and fabrics for ‘Negroes’. It may be that African-American quilters used those palettes because that’s what the storeowners had purchased as ‘suitable’ for them…and they didn’t want to get labeled as ‘uppity’ by asking to buy the ‘white folks’ fabric. It might be one thing to let your maid take the scraps left over from making your daughter a dress, to use in quiltmaking, and quite another to see HER daughter wearing a dress that matched your daughter’s. So the ‘black’ quilts may have been not as much a matter of choice, but a matter of necessity, sort of like feed sack quilts. Who knows what a quilter’s quilts would have looked like if she had been able to buy her fabrics instead of having to use feed sacks? For that matter, would she have quilted at all? My mother quit quilting– which she started at age 4!– after the family became solvent enough to not need to make quilts. Quilts were old-fashioned things that were a mark of poverty. <G> On a lighter note, I have to announce that the World’s Oldest UFO is now quilted (don’t know about the binding. <G>). Started in 1925, and finished in 1999— by the same quilter!
Jocelyn
Jocelynm@
Date: Fri, 06 Aug 1999 13:24:59 -0500 | From: Laura Hobby Syler <texas_quilt.co@>
VQTS members will have read several articles on the African Americanquilting experience in past issues, some having to deal with Dobard, etc.Local VQTS members ( and the general public as well) are privy to an exhibition that is hanging at the McDermott Library on the University of
Dallas Campus. These quilts are well documented and were made by a Mrs Fuquay and her daughter Lizzie, black Americans living in East Dallas in the 1920’s-1940’s. Except for the signage, one would never know that they were made by “black quilters”. According to our information, these werethe kind of quilts Mrs Fuquay *always* made……. I also have a quilt belonging to Cindy Cox, a VQTS member, that was documented by Karey Bresenhan during the Texas Quilt Search Days in 1984-85 as being an African American quilt because it came from East Texas (Jefferson) and was “told” to have been originally purchased in ****** Town…( you fill in the blank<G>) However, I have several quilts made by my GM, GGM & G-aunts that are remarkably similar…..lots of plaids, blacks, greys, string pieced, not “our best work” as my GM tells me……
Again, This is a topic of conversation that we will never “put to rest” because as we discussed during all of the Dobard conversations, nothing can be substantiated……and I repeat ….Romanticism is a wonderful thing, but should not be construed as fact…..We have too many quilt history books in print that have been designated filled with erroneous information. But isn’t it wonderful that we have so many people interested in doing the research necessary to find the “real” answers.
Laura
Date: Fri, 06 Aug 1999 18:24:49 -0500 | From: Karen Bush <Birdsong@>
Karen, if she just wants it tied, I’d say either one. Although, there has been a thread on here about the poly batts…If you’re going to tie it and and not quilt it, the warm and natural would be good…kb My question is this: I have warm and natural here and Hobbs Heirloom 80/20. The fabric is very thin on the top and backing. Which batting would you suggest to use? She just wants it retied.
Karen in nh finck@
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“Quilt As Desired” the Basics and Beyond of Hand Quilting…Karen Bush, http://www.idahoquilt.com
COME SEE my quilt, getting ready for it’s November Drawing!
