February 3 – 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:
- Children Learning to Quilt — Members share stories of children quilting at young ages, from grandmothers teaching at 13 to Montessori kindergarteners learning to sew, and discuss how to engage youth in quiltmaking.
- Die-Cut Appliqué Kits of the 1920s–30s — Discussion of Warren Textile Co. butterfly and floral die-cut kits sold through Comfort and Needlecraft magazines, with members sharing examples from their collections.
- Recording Quilters’ Oral Histories — Several members urge the importance of taping elderly quiltmakers’ stories before they are lost, sharing personal regrets about missed opportunities.
- Civil War Reproduction Fabrics — Xenia Cord offers a historical corrective on the modern fad for ‘Civil War’ fabrics, noting that cotton production in the wartime South was far more limited than the marketing suggests. (see the article on a Civil War quilt)
- Foust Textiles and Quiltcollector.com — Members evaluate new quilting commerce and reference websites, including a die-cut fabric supplier and a collector-oriented site featuring Diane Leone.
- Smithsonian ‘Common Threads’ Symposium — Karen Alexander announces a March 1999 Smithsonian symposium on textile collectives, women’s empowerment, and African-American quilting research.
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 1999 22:21:35 EST | From: Xroadclown [at] aol [dot] com
My grandmother pieced and hand quilted her first quilt when she was 13. She had the help of some of her cousins, and was so upset about the quality of the work they did, that she ripped out their work overnight, and re-did it. She would have been 121 now, and luckily i still have that quilt. It is a tumbling block quilt. and i love it!!!
a new quilter, but it is in my blood!
melanie (xroadclown [at] aol [dot] com)
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 1999 21:58:41 -0600 | From: “GRichter” <richter2 [at] frontiernet [dot] net>
> In a message dated 2/2/99 10:36:19 PM Eastern Standard Time,
QHL-Digest-
> request [at] cuenet [dot] com writes:
> << Anyone ever hear of little kids doing more complex patterns and with such beautiful
stitching!?
Hi,
What about the old needlework samplers? Weren’t they done by very young girls learning embroidery, etc?
Gail R in NE Wis.
richter2 [at] frontiernet [dot] net kegar [at] aol [dot] com
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 07:24:20 +0400 | From: Xenia Cord <xecord [at] netusa1 [dot] net>
When my granddaughter was 6, she wanted to make a quilt for mini-4H and enter it at the county fair (10 years ago). I had given her my old Singer 185J and taught her to sew lines on paper with an empty needle. She and I carefully cut pieces for a small Nine Patch, and she sewed them together and put on a border. Then we sandwiched the quilt and she sewed diagonals through it by machine. I made binding and she sewed it on, and I did the hand finishing. This took about 8 weeks of one step a week.
On judging day she proudly entered her little quilt (about 12″ x 18″). The judges couldn’t decide where to put it because Mini’s were not “allowed” to enter the textiles division. So they put it with “Crafts” and I actually saw the judge (a woman) pat my granddaughter on the head and say, “That’s nice, dear,” as she dismissed the effort. Needless to say, my granddaughter lost a lot of interest in quiltmaking – and in 4H!.
Xenia
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 08:05:30 EST | From: JQuilt [at] aol [dot] com
wouldn’t the elderly quiltmaker in the retirement home make a perfect person to invite to a guild meeting and have her display and tell stories about her quilts?…… or maybe have someone go to the retirement home and make a video tape of her and her quilts/stories?
jean jquilt [at] aol [dot] com
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 08:30:15 EST | From: HKnight453 [at] aol [dot] com
get your stories on tape form the elderly about quilts, geneology, or anything else, and make transcripts. I wish I had asked my Grandmother Knight more about her family in Ireland, her childhood etc. She died at 93, with a perfect memory, or nearly so. Ask now, or regret later. Most persons are more than willing to talk on the record, and it’s a good way to preserve the past…
Heather
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 09:34:36 EST | From: JQuilt [at] aol [dot] com
1000 years ago when I was 6 years old and lived in NYC…my mother began teaching me needlework, knitting and crocheting…It was not unusual for girls that age to learn these “homemaking” skills…..
I learned these wonderful crafts, so that I could make my dolls clothes, and hankies for my aunts and grandmother…they were not for any competitions…my dolls, aunts and grandmother all loved them and as a result I still love doing all of them today..
competitions are not always the best avenue for children…..or grown ups, for that matter.
jean jquilt [at] aol [dot] com
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 09:52:58 +0000 | From: Shirley McElderry <tigersoup [at] lisco [dot] net>
Audrey and QHLers: The Warren Textile Co. in Boston, Mass offered die-cut butterflies and other die-cut appliques such as pansies, tulips, etc. in 1933 and 1934 in Comfort, Needlecraft, and a few other periodicals. In an undated catalog of Warren’s are many different appliques, including both large and small butterflies, in either plain or prints. There is also a “Sunbonnet Duck” that is a real hoot! I haven’t found any reference to die-cut quilt kits being sold before 1929; but that doesn’t necessarily mean there wasn’t any! (G)
Shirley Mc from Iowa
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 11:08:53 -0800 | From: Sue <erroof [at] wcoil [dot] com>
Hi Audrey and All,
I have a one page advertisement from “Needlecraft – The Home Arts Magazine” called the “Quilt Block Service Sheet” it shows not only the die cut Butterflies, but also Star and Diamond Quilt Blocks, and Dahlia Quilt Blocks. The adds actually say the blocks are “die cut”. The bad news is there is no date on the sheet. The good news is the pictures are definitely of 20’s and 30’s prints.
The prices are as follows:
Star and Diamonds – 72 Gay print diamonds 39 cents. Gay Print Butterflies – 64 4 X 6 inch assortment 39 cents 30 8 1/4 X 6 inch assortment 39 cents
Dahlia – 72 Gay print flower petals and 9 contrasting centers finished size 10 1/2 inches just the right size for a 15 inch background block 39 cents.
The star and diamond block and the dahlia block are shown in the photo button hole stitched.
Sue in gloomy, cold, NW Ohio
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 09:56:38 -0800 (PST) | From: bevquilt [at] sprynet [dot] com
Audrey and all kit quilt fans: I totally agree with Xenia that many die-cut kits were sold during the 1920s and 30s. I have many of these, including countless homeless die-cut butterflies, in my collection. Anne Copeland and I also did an article on kits for AQSG and ours is found in Uncoverings 1994. At the present time I am working on an article for Chitra Publishing on the quilts of the 1930s and this article will include more information on Butterfly quilts made from kits and from scratch, and will include a pattern. While I was working with RJR Fashion Fabrics on the Butterfly Hope Collection last year I did research on butterfly quilts and their meaning during the Depression. I found them to be used as a sign of hope and new life for the women of that era just as they are for many people today.
Beverly
Beverly Dunivent
HTTP://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/bevquilt
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 18:53:28 -0000 | From: “Sally Ward” <sward [at] t-ward [dot] demon [dot] co [dot] uk
When each of my two children left primary school I made leavers quilts with the top class as a once a week volunteer. First time they used a medley of techniques according to their individual designs – I was amazed how well some of the (otherwise fidgety and troublesome) boys could embroider and how hard they all concentrated. The second time everyone made an ohio star using a hand sewing machine and fabrics from their own clothes. The quilts hang in the school hall and are stunning, I am very proud of the kids who made them. However, the local Countrywomens Association meet there, and on more than one occasion I have heard people remark how nice the quilts are but such a shame the teacher ‘obvously did all the work’. I have said before on another list, we should expect more of our children not less. We are never surprised how adept they are at computer games et al, so why do we think they can’t sew?
Sally in UK
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 13:30:24 -0700 | From: Adella <adellaharris [at] earthlink [dot] net
The discussion about butterfly patterns caught my eye as I am working with a local community hospice to plan a commemorative quilt.
One of our volunteers suggested a butterfly theme just yesterday. And today on the digest I read:
bevquilt [at] sprynet [dot] com wrote:
> While I was working with RJR Fashion Fabrics on the Butterfly Hope Collection last year I did research on butterfly quilts and their meaning during the Depression. I found them to be used as a sign of hope and new life for the women of that era just as they are for many people today. Beverly
Does anyone on the mailing list have a suggestion for finding butterfly die-cuts or patterns? Thanks!
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 16:31:25 -0800 | From: “pepper cory” <pepcory [at] bmd [dot] clis [dot] com>
I agree that we under-estimate what kids are capable of doing and what they want to do. I have a friend named Marie, now in her late 60’s, who pieced her first quilt, a Grandmother’s Flower Garden, when she was seven years old. Her mother did help her quilt it, I think. She’s never stopped quilting and still makes beautiful Flower Garden quilts all by hand. She says it’s relaxing!
Pepper Cory
Date: Fri, 05 Feb 1999 08:37:05 -0700 | From: Sven Olsson <sven [at] pnc [dot] com [dot] au
I have a wonderful 8yr old neice, Elizabeth, whose mother died when she was just 3yrs old. She and her brother Tristan (now 11) have been raised by a wonderful father who is a brilliant Dad.
Over the 5 years since their mother’s death, I have had the children stay over a number of times, and each time Elizabeth wants to play in my fabrics. When she was about 4yrs, we sat all one day and made a clown face doll quilt. Elizabeth cut the fabrics and placed them on a large piece of muslin to make the face, and I machine appliqued the pieces down. We used colouful buttons and bits of lace and ended up with “Lizzies Clown Quilt”.
Lately nothing had been said about fabrics or quilts, so I have not pressed the point. That was until the week before Christmas. Her answer to the usual “what would you like for Christmas” was, “Can you teach me to make a real quilt”
We now have five Ohio Star blocks made from fabric that Elizabeth chose. It is going to be a full sized quilt, and hopefully finished in time for her 9th birthday in April. We will tie it, as I am not a quilter. Lizzies dad is remarrying in March and she will be with me for 2 weeks.
I am so lucky.
Lorraine in Oz
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 17:37:24 -0500 | From: Nancy Roberts <robertsn [at] norwich [dot] net
Hello to all. I’m still cleaning and reorganizing my sewing room. This time I came across two scrapbooks, each containing more than 30 pages of patterns and clippings from the 1970’s. A friend purchased them at a church jumble sale, so I don’t have the history of whose they were. Some of the magazines represented include Women’s Circle, Women’s Household, Family Circle, Women’s Day, and Girl Scout Leader. The latter has a piece in it about bicentennial quiltmaking. There’s also an article about Ernest B. Haight, “father” of machine quilting. Many of the clippings are glued down to pages while others are paper-clipped or loose.
When I first looked them over, I didn’t think they were all that old. However, they’re nearly a quarter of a century. Hmmmm… I feel dated all of a sudden.
They’re fun to look through, but I don’t care to keep them any longer. If you collect ephemera like this and are interested, make me a trade offer of fabric from your stash (your choice). I would also need postage to mail these items to you. I don’t think they’ll make weight for the $3.20 priority mail, but would probably come in around $5 or $6. I can check this when I know the zip code they’ll go to.
E-mail me if these old-time scrapbooks sound like something that belongs in your collection. Hope someone will enjoy them. Nancy
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 20:11:44 -0600 | From: Valerie Davis <vpse [at] globaldialog [dot] com>
Dear Sally,
Viewing “Dances With Wolves” would be an entertaining way for students to learn about American history IF, and this is a big if, they are made aware in the beginning that it is very idealized. . . Indians all good, white men all bad. Neither case is true. However, the movie was celebrated as one of the few Hollywood movies which depicted the Native American in a more realistic, humanistic way. I have read that all the props used (iron tools etc.) were authenticated reproductions. Just my opionion.
Valerie
Sally Ward wrote:
> Here in the UK my 15 yr old daughter is about to take History exams which include American history. Her teacher has suggested that the class watch ‘Dances with Wolves’ as part of their revision. Is this a good idea?
> Sally
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 20:57:26 -0600 | From: Russell-Hill <russhill [at] ctesc [dot] net>
To: Valerie Davis <vpse [at] globaldialog [dot] com>
Valerie Davis wrote:
> Dear Sally,
Viewing “Dances With Wolves” would be an entertaining way for students Hi Everyone,
Well as someone who does reenacting I have a problem with a lot of the movies all though I must say that they have improved a great deal in the last few years. There is a very good made for TV movie and that is the Buffillo Soldier. That maybe a little closer to true. There are far better documentaries out there from the History Channel than Hollywood. It is if we should look at some of the movies made about England as being historically correct. I am sure that you would find many of them to be incorrect as well.
This is my .02 of course the clothes are incorrect most of the time.
Debbie
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 22:53:54 -0500 (EST) | From: “Joanna E. Evans” <jevans [at] bluemarble [dot] net>
Hello:
My twin five-year-old boys go to a wonderful Montessori school where they have been doing lots of fine motor activities like sewing. They also learned to use an iron at school (when they were 4 years old) before I had the nerve to try it.
Last year they started making four patches with me. I leave the bin of the fabrics (mostly 30s reproduction conversation prints that they have chosen at quilt shows) along with their other bins of toys. Whenever they pull it out, I help them with their projects. I try to keep it simple, light, and fun. They choose and iron two fabrics. They or I mark their squares. They cut the fabric. I pin their squares with safety pins; they prick themselves enough with the needle. And we always use a 1/2 inch seam allowance so when a cutting line isn’t followed exactly or a stitch goes astray, it is no big deal. Recently, I did a program on antique quilts for their class (of 3 to 6 year olds) at school. And now the children are working on making classroom quilt tops. (I will machine quilt them for strength; they have to be machine washed each week.)
On Tuesday evening, I took my sons to our guild meeting since my babysitter canceled. The president asked me to introduce them, so I did and I showed some of their completed work. They spent some time watching a portable tv (with earphones) and then came and sat on my lap for show and tell. (They wanted to see the quilts more than the movie. Yea!) Fortunately they were not disruptive; I would have left immediately (and they knew it) if they had been.
Tonight at a school gathering, I was surprised when the mother (a quilter herself) of a 7 year old boy told me that her stepson (whose mother died when he was 4) has been asking her to teach him to quilt. She had told him maybe when he was older. He replied that he had been sewing since he was three (at school). She said that after seeing what my boys had done, she went home and told him that she would start helping now. I hope they have as much fun with it as we have. Quilts are important to my boys and I hope they always will be.
I get so upset when I hear of people like the woman Xenia described who cause so much damage with so little effort. I think it is important for children to be exposed to a wide variety of activities and to be encouraged to follow their interests (and to have a chance to see ours). I’ll step down from my soapbox now. Thanks for listening.
Joanna
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 23:00:10 -0800 | From: Audrey Waite <awquiltr [at] sedona [dot] net
Hi Adella:
Just by coincidence I received an advertisement in the mail today from Foust Textiles Inc., P. O. Box 576, Kings Mountain, NC 28086 for precision-cut patchwork fabric quilting pieces. They’re called “Granny’s Quilting Shapes”. You can reach them at 1-800-258-9816, FAX 1-800-358-3949 or www.foustextiles.com (no affiliation,etc.) They may be wholesale only but they can probably tell you where you can purchase these shapes. There are diamonds, squares, heart appliques, triangles, squares, hexagons, bow tie, lancaster rose, tumbling blocks, birds in flight, dresden plate, butterfly (not as pretty as the ones from the 30s!) baby blocks and tulip.
Thanks to everyone for the information on the die-cut butterfly. I’ll pass it along to my friend. You are all so knowledgeable and gracious in sharing information you have.
Audrey Waite in rainy Sedona, AZ (boy did we need it!)
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 1999 07:50:53 EST | From: Lisa Evans
Sally –
If you can find it, Ken Burns’s documentary series =The Civil War= is a superb (if long) account of our great national tragedy. A fictionalized version of the climactic battle of the Civil War, Gettsburg, is the movie of the same name – very accurate, very literate, and beautifully acted and cast. *All* the extras were members of Civil War re-enactment groups, and their uniforms and equipment are completely accurate.
As for a movie about Native Americans…my vote goes to =Last of the Mohicans,= set during the French & Indian War (aka the Seven Years War). Native American activist Russell Means plays Chingachgook, the Mohican chief, and *all* the Native American extras were actually members of local tribes. The props, sets and costumes were again quite accurate (although I have some trouble with Daniel Day-Lewis’s hair, as gorgeous and charismatic as he is). The movie itself is about as romantic as it’s possible to get…and yes, the Appalachian mountains *do* look like that.
I can’t think of any good documentaries about the Revolution, although Burns made a terrific film about Thomas Jefferson a few years ago. It came out before the DNA evidence connecting him to Sally Hemings’s children, though.
Good luck – I’ll try to think of more.
Lisa Evans
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 1999 08:06:45 EST | From: JQuilt [at] aol [dot] com
for anyone going to lancaster the following website is great for info about Lancaster.
http://www.pavisnet.com/lancaster/
jean jquilt [at] aol [dot] com
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 1999 08:15:21 EST | From: JQuilt [at] aol [dot] com
thank you so much for the foust textile address …you left out a t in the website address
www.fousttextiles.com
jean jquilt [at] aol [dot] com
Date: Fri, 05 Feb 1999 08:18:59 +0400 | From: Xenia Cord <xecord [at] netusa1 [dot] net
Uncoverings is the annual journal of the American Quilt Study Group. Membership is relatively inexpensive, the annual conventions are full of energy and teeming with interesting people, all of whom are high on quilt research and quilt history
Xenia, who gives herself a membership each year for her birthday!
Date: Fri, 05 Feb 1999 08:18:13 PST | From: “Kim Heger” <kheger [at] hotmail [dot] com
Joanna, I think that’s wonderful that you and your boys are so involved with quilting! Awesome-they chose the quilts over the movie–I love it! I had my 5th grade social studies class make a quilt when we were studying pioneer. Several teachers thought, “Oh, she’ll never be able to get the boys involved.” I had 100% participation from every child! I even had the mother of one boy tell me that he was so excited about his quilt block and he told her about the progress he had made everyday when he went home from school. And this was one of the “cool” kids, too! Quilting is something even kids can identify with because most all of them have a loved blanket from childhood. Many of my students even brought theirs in to share with the class! Needless to say, that was the most enjoyable unit I’ve ever taught!
Kim Heger southwest Kansas
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 22:53:54 -0500 (EST)
To: QHL [at] cuenet [dot] com
Hello:
My twin five-year-old boys go to a wonderful Montessori school where they have been doing lots of fine motor activities like sewing. They also learned to use an iron at school (when they were 4 years old) before I had the nerve to try it.
Last year they started making four patches with me. I leave the bin of the fabrics (mostly 30s reproduction conversation prints that they have chosen at quilt shows) along with their other bins of toys. Whenever they pull it out, I help them with their projects. I try to keep it simple, light, and fun. They choose and iron two fabrics. They or I mark their squares.
They cut the fabric. I pin their squares with safety pins; they prick themselves enough with the needle. And we always use a 1/2 inch seam allowance so when a cutting line isn’t followed exactly or a stitch goes astray, it is no big deal. Recently, I did a program on antique quilts for their class (of 3 to
6 year olds) at school. And now the children are working on making classroom quilt tops. (I will machine quilt them for strength; they have to be machine washed each week.)
On Tuesday evening, I took my sons to our guild meeting since my babysitter canceled. The president asked me to introduce them, so I did and I showed some of their completed work. They spent some time watching a portable tv (with earphones) and then came and sat on my lap for show and tell.
(They wanted to see the quilts more than the movie. Yea!) Fortunately they were not disruptive; I would have left immediately (and they knew it) if they had been.
Tonight at a school gathering, I was surprised when the mother (a quilter herself) of a 7 year old boy told me that her stepson (whose mother died when he was 4) has been asking her to teach him to quilt. She had told him maybe when he was older. He replied that he had been sewing since he was three (at school). She said that after seeing what my boys had done, she went home and told him that she would start helping now. I hope they have as much fun with it as we have. Quilts are important to my boys and I hope they always will be.
I get so upset when I hear of people like the woman Xenia described who caus so much damage with so little effort. I think it is important for children to be exposed to a wide variety of activities and to be encouraged to follow their interests (and to have a chance to see ours). I’ll step down from my soapbox now. Thanks for listening.
Joanna
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 1999 11:26:13 EST | From: Palampore [at] aol [dot] com
I just ordered and received a NEW palampore from the PAST TIMES Catalog. They call it a Tree of Life Cotton Throw (108″ X 70″). It is a lightweight cotton fabric. It is really very pretty. What a lovely catalog. Anyone who loves beautiful textiles will enjoy it. I could spend tons of money with those folks. For anyone who wants their catalog it is: 1-800-621-6020 I am not advertising because I have no connection with this company. I will be taking a class tomorrow under the direction of Pepper Cory on quilting. Can hardly wait!!!
If any of you have pictures of, or patterns of 1800’s “huswif” sewing cases or other rolled sewing cases I would love to hear from you. I am interested in civilian and military rolled sewing cases. (I guess the words case or kit can be used.)
Thanks, Lynn Lancaster Gorges in New Bern, NC palampore [at] aol [dot] com
> I agree that we under-estimate what kids are capable of doing and what they want to do. I have a friend named Marie, now in her late 60’s, who pieced her first quilt, a Grandmother’s Flower Garden, when she was seven years old.
Pepper,
My mother started her first quilt when she was 4!
Not surprising she started me on quiltmaking when I was 8……
Jocelyn ocelynm [at] delphi [dot] com
Date: Fri, 05 Feb 1999 19:21:53 -0600 | From: “Kris Driessen, Hickory Hill Quilts” <oldquilt [at] albany [dot] net>
Does anyone know anything about this site?
http://www.quiltcollector.com/
It *looks* interesting, but I don’t recognize any of the names connected with it.
Kris
Date: Fri, 05 Feb 1999 21:35:09 +0400 | From: Xenia Cord <xecord [at] netusa1 [dot] net
To Kris and QHL – I tried that new site: http://www.quiltcollector.com/ The name Diane Leone is certainly familiar – in the early 1990s her name was on the selvedges of every good piece of double pink and related seaweed calicoes made! Her collection, if it is auctioned as promised, should be something to see and participate in.
No association – just a comment.
Xenia
Date: Sat, 6 Feb 1999 09:07:29 -0000 | From: “Sally Ward” <sward [at] t-ward [dot] demon [dot] co [dot] uk
This is the name on the spine of one of the best beginner instruction books I have come across – The New Sampler Quilt.
Sally
Date: Sat, 06 Feb 1999 08:32:32 +0400 | From: Xenia Cord <xecord [at] netusa1 [dot] net
May I inject an historical note about the current fad for “Civil War” fabrics? BQL (Bristish Quilt List) may not find this a burning issue, but in the US we should not let romanticism cloud our understanding.
I think in our interest in creating ever-new design fields for fabric reproduction, we have lost sight of the fact that few – if any – cotton dress goods were produced in the US (read northern states) during the Civil War. After all, raw cotton was a southern product that was not being shipped north for manufacturing, and the north was blockading southern ports to keep ships from carrying raw cotton to England for production. This was an attempt, of course, to cripple the South’s economic base; at the same time, English-made cotton goods (and related sources) were not being imported into the northern states because England was sympathetic to the southern cause.
Small amounts of raw cotton were being shipped from Utah and other areas outside the States (Utah was still a territory). Mountain Mist, for instance, got its raw cotton for ammunition cartridges, gas masks, quilt batting and mattresses from Utah. But supply, distance, and difficult transportation made this a token source compared with what had been available from the south.
Bottom line? We probably should not be talking about “Civil War” fabrics, but rather “C.W.-era” cotton prints, pre-1861, and in the latter years of the 1860s, as production and manufacturing were haltingly resumed. What do the rest of you think?
Xenia
Date: Sat, 6 Feb 1999 10:53:34 -0600 | From: Dale E Watts <dpwatts [at] ott [dot] net
I am searching for an address for Rocky Mt. Quilts in Grand Junction, CO.
Betsy Telford is the owner I do believe.
If anyone can supply her address, please email me privately. Thank you so much.
Peggy
Date: Sat, 06 Feb 1999 14:48:10 -0600 | From: Russell-Hill <russhill [at] ctesc [dot] net
Hi all,
Well I quess I will put my two cents in on this. I have done some research of the period for correct clothing. The mills in Massachusetts were still running and were producing cotton during that time. Ladies groups up North were not in such straights as the South and were able to make the quilts for the SanCom and shirts and such. the South was to a point near the wars end of making their own fabric and tearing up their linens to make things for their soldiers. At almost $20 a yard the south was suffering. It was written that a woman in the South saw a piece of cotton for $20 a yard and bought 5 yards just because she could not stand to be with out such nice fabric anymore. This was near the end of the war.
Now the production of cotton may not have been as great as it was prior to the war but the North was able to do it. This is were things failed for the South. With out industry as in the North they could not take the raw and turn it into a product for sale. Sherman said “The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car ; yet hardly a yard of cloth or a pair of shoes you ( the South) can make”. So even if cotton would not come from England it came from New England. I believe a lot of fabric also came from France.
Debbie
Date: Sat, 6 Feb 1999 16:58:21 -0500 | From: Steve Greco <GrandmasAttic [at] compuserve [dot] com>
I just want to reiterate what Heather said about getting your stories down on tape from the elderly about quilts, genealogy or anything else and make transcripts. My grandmother died at the age of 85 this past October. I was in the process of typing up everything she ever told me, doing scrapbooks on genealogy, information on quilting, etc. I thought I had a ton of information. Ever since she passed on I keep wondering “why wasn’t I listening? how come I didn’t think to get more information?” As Heather so aptly put it, “Ask now or regret later!”
Rachel Greco
Grandma’s Attic Sewing Emporium, Inc.
155 SW Court Street
Dallas, OR 97338
1-503-623-0451 e-mail: GrandmasAttic [at] compuserve [dot] com
Date: Sat, 6 Feb 1999 21:40:35 EST | From: Karen Alexander
Dear QHL readers,
Have you heard about the Smithsonian seminar March 19-20? Sounds like a real treat. I just got my announcement Friday. The title is : “Common Threads:
Creating A Cloth For Empowerment.”
“An International Symposium: The Role of Textile Collectives in Women’s Empowerment And Recent Research on African-American Quilters.” The Group for Cultural Documentation (TGCD) is co-sponsoring it with the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies, and the Smithsonians’ Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture. The flyer reads:
“We will bring together an international group of representatives of women’s groups that have coalesced around textile work…Included groups and their work…Alabama Freedom Quilting Bee, Mississippi Cultural Crossroads Quilters, Cabin Creek Quilters, Tierra Wools, Native American quilting groups, and Hmong textile groups, Africa (including Zamani Soweto Sisters of South Africa and Liberia’s Arthington Women’s Self-Help Quilting Group), Latin America (Chilean,Columbian and Peruvian groups), Eastern Europe, Asia, and Australia. The common thread among these groups across th globe is that quilting, weaving, and the creation of similar tapestry works plays a central role in their efforts to empower women….
Recent research on African-American quilts…A panel is anticiapted to include Cuesta Benberry [1983 Quilters Hall of Fame Honoree], Raymond Dobard, Roland L. Freeman, and Carolyn Mazloomi.
To pre-register ($10) make check out to TGCD and mail to 117 Ingraham St., NW, Washington, DC 20011. PH: (202) 882-7764; FAX: (202) 829-6814. Their mailing also includes a list of those representing each ethnic group and one page on Roland Freeman’s book and national exhibtion schedule.
I saw Mr. Freeman’s exhibit, ” A Communion of Spirits: African-American Quilters, Preservers, and Their Stories” a coupl of weeks ago at the Smithsonian. I loved his book, which I read some time ago, and found the exhibit very exciting. Just today I registered for the Common Threads seminar.
Karen Alexander
Research Focus: Quilts of the Shenandoah Valley
Member of AQSG since 1981
