January 6 – 9, 2000
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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:
- Hoop and Frame Quilting, Continued — The frame-versus-hoop thread carries on from earlier in the week, with more members describing rug-making frames, floor frames, and theories on the origins of the quilt-as-you-go method.
- Fabric Prices and the “Quilt Revival” — A spirited debate over whether rising fabric prices are pricing people out of quilting, and whether keeping up with trendy designer fabric lines is really necessary.
- Quilt Research Resources and Indexes — Members discuss the Kansas City Star pattern and index books, indexing the AQSG “Uncoverings” series, and where to find quilt research materials online.
- Online Quilt Shopping and Sales Tax — A discussion of whether eBay sellers should be charging sales tax on quilts and fabric sold online, and how that varies by state.
- List Community Notes — Members meeting in person at the DAR in Washington, D.C., a request for Oregon Trail-era quilt resources for schoolchildren, and a subscription help request after an address change.
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 23:26:46 EST | From: EllynLK@
In a message dated 1/5/2000 65817 PM Pacific Standard Time, Janet writes << Bottom line, it’s an entertaining hobby w/ a beautiful end product & a lot of social contact. And I think a lot of hard working women need just such an outlet in this fast paced world. >> I couldn’t agree with you more. Think about it… we get up in the morning, nuke food prepared by someone we don’t know, get in a car someone else built, go and do work for some project that other than a paycheck, doesn’t affect us, come home and view entertainment that doesn’t reflect us or our families and nuke more food made my strangers. We really don’t have a lot of personal stake in the work we do and the things to use daily (i.e. getting up, milking the cows that nourish our children, carding/spinning/weaving the wool to make our clothes, etc)… and maybe we NEED that sort of “hands-on” experience to help us remember who we are.
Or maybe I had too much champagne the other night and am still running on fumes….
Lauri Klobas
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 23:27:25 EST | From: EllynLK@
In a message dated 1/5/2000 65817 PM Pacific Standard Time, Liz in Michigan writes << Just a quick .02 cents worth… I love quilting on my floor frame, and hated hoop quilting. Because I disliked the hoop so much, I had to learn to quilt every which way. I was able to find a thumb thimble that wasn’t plastic, and I actually do better and more even quilting with my thumb than my middle finger. It’s gotten to the point of going out of my way to use my thumb!
>>
I quilt without a hoop or a frame (and if you could see the size of my apartment, you can understand why!). When I was an embroidering teenager, I confounded my embroidering, hoop-using mother by stopping to use hoops. “I don’t understand how you can DO that,” she would say. When I began quilting in earnest, in 1992, I never stopped to think twice– just did it the way I did my embroidery (which I don’t think I could describe if I tried!)
But like Liz, I use my thumb. Maybe because no one ever showed me how to quilt, I just did what felt right at the time. I made my own thimble… a bent-over cat-food can lid (tin, not aluminum) and masking tape. If I ever lost that thing, I’ll die. I also have an “on-the-road” thimble I made from a plastic spoon and ever-useful masking tape. I’ve purchased a couple of thimbles and tried them… and neglected them. I’ll have to make another cat-food-cat-lid thimble because I’ve worn holes in the one I have (they seem to be good for three-and-a-half quilts) but as I’m still piecing the blocks for my mom’s, I don’t have to do that just yet.
I admit to be a weirdo… and I think about weirdo things. I often think of newbies watching some quilt show on TV or buying a book with the lists of specialized items they can buy for their ease– and being put off by it all when our foremothers used to often use whatever they had around to create their art. I sometimes think things have become too specialized and that people can be discouraged by that aspect, thinking they “have to do it” that way. But that’s just me, thinking weirdo things…. <<gg>> BTW, I have managed to scan my mystery textile-y item I received for Christmas. I am busy with a huge project right now but when I get a few moments, I’ll post it and maybe that will help. From my written description, people think it’s a shuttle for making rugs but it’s really big… I’ll let you know when I get something on the web. My curiosity is running wild on it!
Best, Lauri Klobas in dry, dry, dry Southern California (where the New Years Eve day rain in other parts of Los Angeles never materialized past a few splatters that did little more than stir the dust on my car….)
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 22:39:00 -0600 | From: “Peggy McBride”
I too have a round frame, wrapped in muslin, but it was used to make rag rugs, You put strips across and pinned to the strips and then wove strips round and round. Every so often you added more cross strips. I have some rag balls and I am going to try this some time. This hoop belonged to my husbands mother, and sometimes they were made out of iron rims from wagon wheels.
Peggy Mc
Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2000 20:49:43 -0800 | From: Nancy Cameron Armstrong
KANSAS CITY STAR PATTERN AND INDEX BOOKS in five volumes. Patterns and index in one notebook, as I have mine arranged, are 3^ thick. (Oklahoma City, OK COQG, 1987-1990) The patterns are exactly as they appeared when published, including the delightful but dated commentary/directions. Volume V is an excellent index with blocks in color (similar to the blocks in Brackman) and arranged alphabetically, but with a reference to the exact date when pattern first appeared in print and a brief history of the patterns. An acknowledgment appears in Volume V to WILENE SMITH, “the catalyst” for the project.
ORDER DIRECT COQG, PO Box 23916, Oklahoma City, OK 73123 (Total price for all five volumes when ordered at the same time $95.05) As well, ALL PROFITS from the books go directly to the guild. A real winner! There ARE other sources, but I believe this is defintely the best.
The Central Oklahoma QG embarked on yet another KC Star project – making a block of every design, quilted, and bound, using the original colors, if any were suggested in the clippings. Their project was completed in time for display during the celebration of the completion of the Oklahoma quilt research project in 1990 Oklahoma Heritage Quilts, in Oklahoma City. COQG rightly deserve MUCH credit and praise for their outstanding projects. Their KC Star quilt block collection, “A Galaxy of Kansas City Star Quilt Blocks,” was featured at the International Quilt Festival in Houston in November 1992. The exhibit consisted of 42 quilt sized panels, each containing about 25 individually quilted and bound blocks, plus four quilts from pattern series.
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 23:47:50 -0700 | From: “Eileen Trestain”
In the researce projenct I headed in Texas ten years ago, one of the questions we asked was why quilting wasn’t so popular in the 1940-50 and 60’s. One of the main reasons cited was that “only poor people made quilts, If you had money, you bought a blanket” . My mother’s generation, those who had grown up in the depression and war years, often went to work, and while they earned money to purchase things, didn’t have the time to make handcrafted long term projects like a quilt. Another reason for a lack of quilts was that it brought back sad memories of the depression and the war years years, when everything was make do and recycled, and you were supposed to “make quilts, and save the blankets for the boys over there”. Another thing to consider was the average age of those who had the skill and knowledge to make quilts was increasing. Many were older women, who’s eyesight wasn’t as good, and skill with the needle was in decline. Also, some of the fabrics did not create a restful harmonious whole, and the contect of the new fabrics have not proven to be as sturdy over time as those previously in use. ( I have seen way too many polycotton blend fabrics which have literally shredded.)
Our question, however, was somewhat presumptous. We saw the entire range of years presented for documentation.
Once we really start looking, you will see that quilting didn’t really disappear. The flock of 1950’s and 1960’s Sunbonnet Sue quilts will attest to that. So will the kit quilts purchased and made during those years, from all the craft catalogs and the dime store. The scrap quilts with the jumbled bright colors also are evidence of that era. The problem is that many people confuse them with 1930’s quilts. If it is a gradmother’s flower garden, it must be from the 30’s, right? HA!
The folk studies began in earnest in the 1960’s with the flower children interested as well as the scholars. Quilts became a decorator item, with mod flowers and polybattings being the decorator staple of the moment.
Then their was patchwork clothing. Remember those wonderful pieced skirts?
In the early 1970’s, the Bicentennial revival came along, colonial influenced costumes, and quilting, and dulcimers and pottery and all that great stuff were reemphasized. The show curated by Johnathan Holstein added to the awareness as quilts as graphic art. There was a push for easier fabrics to quilt with, and the first quilt market in Houston came then.
Since then, we have added all kinds of fabrics, tools, patterns, shows, and the art quilt work has expanded immensely.
Classes for adults with the money and time to spend were heavily offered in the 1980’s and 1990’s, interesting a wide range of participants.
Still, there are people out there who think that nobody really quilts anymore. That it is a lost art. That the only ones who might quilt are white haired little old ladies. I AM getting older, and I have a few grey hairs, but I don’t think the description fits yet.
Eileen
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 02:33:29 -0500 | From: “susanlk”
I haven’t followed this discussion too carefully, but I raised the original question and I’d like to comment on Laurel Horton’s post. Laurel says if a quilt is made by a Jewish person that makes it a Jewish quilt. I disagree on all counts. Einstein’s physics wasn’t Jewish Physics (although the Nazis insisted it was, and therefore corrupt), although done by a Jewish person.
It’s not the maker that creates the “Jewishness” of the quilt but rather the elements of the Jewish culture which are incorporated in the quilt, whoever makes it! I can imagine a non-Jewish person doing some of the needlework on a quilt designed by someone knowledgeable about Jewish culture and that wouldn’t affect the “Jewishness” of the quilt; indeed if certain aspects of the quiltmaking were often performed by non-Jews, that itself would become a “feature” of “Jewish” quilts. This is really not the main point anyway; I think the question is really about how quilting relating to the Jewish experience and what if any are special characteristics of quilts in the context of Jewish history, culture and experience. SusanLK
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 17:38:23 EST | From: Windquilt@
** Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2000 201438 -060 Karen asked I have a friend looking for the Kansas City Star Quilt book, is there such an animal?? She also said there was a website with it on there. ???
kb ** There is a full-page ad for this book in the December issue of BHG American Patchwork&Quilting. The book is called “One Piece at a Time” and is described as having 150 pages, 9″ x 11″, many color illustrations. Quote from ad “Star editors have selected a set of these internationally known patterns and matched them with redrafts and rotary cutting instructions.”
Cost is $19.95/copy, plus $5 S/H. Call (816) 234-4636 or mail to Quilt Book, c/o StarInfo, The Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64108.
They acccept MC/V/AMEX/DIscover. Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery.
Book can be previewed at www.kcstar.com (website for the newspaper).
No affiliation, just came across the ad after I saw Karen’s question.
Cheers, Nancy Blake south of Boston
Date: Tue, 08 Jan 1980 08:11:24 -0500 | From: Richard Crandall
For Christmas I received the ENTIRE set of “Uncoverings” from my DH.
All my requests don’t fall on deaf ears! My question is this….where is the index? Do I order one from AQSG or do I make my own. It will take me awhile to read these 20 volumes (esp. since I was also given an eight week old golden retriever puppy by my three kids-NOT a request!)
soooo– in the meantime I thought if I had an index I could start using the books for referrence.
Thanks for your help.
Carole in Maine
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 09:31:51 EST | From: Meredit300@
Back in the thirties and forties I remember women in my hometown had large, almost room-sized frames which they used mostly in winter, often inviting friends to come and quilt with them. The quilt was basted to long pieces of wood covered with cotton and then muslin which fit into slots on leg when working. After quilting was done for the day they could be lifted out and rolled and set in a corner. This was in Pennsylvania. My mother who never did ANY hand sewing…her excuse was she had lost the family needle…was always invited to quiltings. When I asked why she said,”I am the T and L lady.” Translated that meant she kept the needles threaded and fixed the lunch….she was a great cook.
My mother-in-law in Mississippi made many utility quilts in her lifetime on their homestead in the country which had only fireplaces for heat. When I talked about quilts she showed me her hooks in the dining room ceiling. They would lay out the quilts on four sides frame; put it on something like sawhorses for q;uilting. Then at night when she served supper to her husband and eleven children and needed that space, she hooked the corners of the frame to ropes and pulled it to ceiling.
The first major use of floor frames I remember was in late sixties and probably came about for space reasons. The same goes for the fad for Quilt As You Go which had quilters making and quilting blocks and then putting them together. Freed the ladies to sit in a comfortable chair and watch TV at same time. Made a lot of uneven quilts that way, I am sure.
Meredith Rials
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 15:11:49 EST | From: DDBSTUFF@
Here is the web address for Quilt Digest Books http//www.quiltdigestpress.com/ Darwin
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 19:30:10 EST | From: Baglady111@
Recently there has been discussion about shopping on the web and not paying taxes. Recently I was scanning items on Ebay and noticed that no one mentioned anything about sales tax of their items being sold..EXCEPT one lady said that if you reside in PA..pay 6% …WHY WOULD THIS BE???? baglady111
Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2000 20:30:38 -0500 | From: “Judy Kelius (judysue)”
If the seller is in the same state as you are, you should be paying tax (unless of course you’re in Delaware!). Most of the “professional” sellers on eBay do include a note that they need to charge state sales tax. A lot of people who sell on eBay probably don’t have a license to collect sales tax. If someone is just cleaning house and selling a few items, this isn’t a problem. Kind of a virtual garage sale. But if they are selling to make money on items specifically bought or manufactured for this purpose, they should apply for a sales tax license and collect and report taxes.
It will be interesting to see what happens to the internet sales tax debate. I know that I, for one, given the choice of two vendors for an item, one in PA and one elsewhere, will choose the non-PA one to save the sales tax. As a professional seller, however, I can buy on eBay and supply my tax license number if I buy from another dealer in PA.
At 0730 PM 01/07/2000 -0500, Baglady111@ wrote
>Recently there has been discussion about shopping on the web and not paying
>taxes. Recently I was scanning items on Ebay and noticed that no one
>mentioned anything about sales tax of their items being sold..EXCEPT one lady
>said that if you reside in PA..pay 6% …WHY WOULD THIS BE???? baglady111
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 17:31:02 -0800 | From: “Mindy Sharp”
I would like to find internet sites about quilts along the Oregon Trail geared toward 5-8th graders.
Mindy Sharp Go forward and never lose sight of your dreams.
Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2000 18:07:03 PST | From: “Marion Nielsen”
Dear Quilters, I am changing my email address, and unfortunately I have forgotten how to subscribe & unsubscribe to my favorite list.
Is there a technophile out there who can email me the instructions? My new address is mnielsen@ Thank you so much.
Marion Nielsen Get Your Private, Free Email at http//www.hotmail.com
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 21:54:48 -0500 | From: “John Cawley”
I met Mary Persyn and Pat Lyons, QHLers from Indiana, yesterday at the DAR in Washington, D.C. The small group I belong to in Scranton had been talking for years about going to one of the hands on quilt studies at the DAR. Now that I live only 70 miles from D.C. I decided to make a plan and have “the girls” come for a sleep-over.
The January program called “Winter Whites” was conducted by the textile curtator Nancy Tuckhorn. About 20 enthusiasts gathered around a huge table in the third floor boardroom of DAR headquaters. When I could tear my eyes from the quilts I was looking at the Washington Monument just down the street.
In 90 minutes we saw probably 20-25 whitework quilts and other white bedcoverings(Marseilles spreads, embroidered coverlets) all from before 1850. Nancy is incredibly knowledgeable, enthusiastic, down-to-earth, funny, in other words, a wonderful teracher. I learned a lot!
After the workshop Kendall Martin, a docent who had assisted Nancy and a true quilter, led us on a whirlwind exploration of the period rooms for which the DAR building is famous. She tried to show us as many quilts as possible before any of the group had their car ticketed. While forcing myself to stand back and give somebody else a chace to look at an 1830’s star quilt with chintz sashing I started talking to the woman standing next to me. She was in town for a convention of law school librarians. We introduced ourselves and voila–the QHL connection. Mary Persyn meet Cinda Cawley. Mary’s friend Pat who is also a QHLer was in town visitng her parents.
We all went downstairs to the gallery where there is a very interesting exhibit of about 30 quilts focusing on the influence of traditional quilts on art quilts. What fun it was to examine intensely the amazing examples from the DAR’s collection. There was a large partly finished block of broderie perse c. 1790. The finished elements were done in the most minute buttonhole stitch; the rest of the pieces were loosely basted to the background as we see in the unfinished Baltimore blocks. It would seem that this was the technique for applique very early indeed.
Another stunning piece was an enormous central medallion quilt done completely in reverse applique with a chintz border of such intense blue that I dreamed about it last night. The quiltmaker (my catalogue is in the other room and I’m too tired to go get it to give you her name, but she lived near Frederick, MD) made 15 such quilts in the 1835-50 period, one for each of her grandchildren. Ten or so years ago I stopped by the DAR (I never go to D.C. without running in) and found an exhibit of 11 of these quilts (all by the same maker and all reverse applique); I’m still raving about that one. Anyhow, a fine time was had by all. I enjoyed meeting e-friends in the flesh and showing old friends one of my favorite places in D.C. We had a very tasty lunch in the Corcoran Gallery’s cafe and looked at some contemporary art–kind of a sorbet after the riches of the DAR.
Cinda on the Eastern Shore
Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2000 22:43:14 -0600 | From: Russell-Hill
Happy New Year to you all, I do want to thank everyone who responded to a few questions I had before the holidays. you are all so great. The latest thread on quilting making a come back has been interesting and I would like to add a conversation my boss at the quilt shop and I were have. We were doing inventory and had started talking about the cost of fabric and how some shops jack up their prices because of the kind of traffic they may have(Tourists), that others will sell for less to draw on that traffic and how we sell it for what the suggested price is. We were wondering how long the public is going to be able to afford to continue to purchase fabric to make quilts. When I started quilting over twenty years ago 3.00 a yard was a good price maybe it was even less. Now it is 8,9 even 10 dollars a yard. Sure the quality is better I think but If you think about it, it costs over 100.00+ dollars to make a quilt top never mind anything else. My boss is really good to her customers, she will give 10 to 15% off if their purchase is over a 100 dollars. I quess she feels that if she can help them in some way it will come back to her, which it usually does. But in reality in shops where quilters don’t get a discount or get the suggested retail price but end up paying higher prices will we be able to afford to do wonderful quilts anymore.
A customer had come into the shop a while back and made a comment about how the manufactures were pricing us all out of the quilting business.
I wonder. I know even though I get a good discount as an emplyee I don’t buy as much fabric or patterns or books anymore. I have decided to use up my stash first or swap with others.
So what are your thoughts.
Debbie
Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2000 11:29:26 -0000 | From: “Sally Ward”
charset=”iso-8859-1″ Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Debbie, you have hit on a very pertinent point. Here in the UK fabric has reached UKP8-9 a metre or more, which you can nearly double into dollars.
This is not because the shops are making huge profits, rather that they are under pressure with their rents, business rates, middle-men’s mark-up, carrying a large stock for a small clientele, etc. As a result, more and more of us (yes, guilty m’lud) are shopping online because even with international shipping we are saving money. So – the shops get less business, will eventually close down – and where will we be then?.
I find it very hard to advise beginner quilters on fabric. I am always happy for them to use a stash of suitable offcuts, but because of the recent history of dressmaking and household fabric much of what they bring in is mixed weights and mixed fibres. Not impossible to work with sure, but trickier for beginners, and ultimately less rewarding considering the time and effort they are investing. But I hate having to tell them that if they want ‘new’ and they want ‘the best’ they are going to have to make a large investment in a hobby which they are only just finding out about and may ultimately not enjoy (well, it does happen<G>).
Can anyone tell me just why fabric costs so much at source. Or indeed, whether it does cost that much at source?
Sally W
Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2000 07:55:05 -0500 (EST) | From: quiltsnbears@ (Roberta Geanangel)
I believe that quilters,like other addicts, will come up with the amount necessary to purchase fabric no matter what the price. 😉 Roberta who gave up cigarettes and sugar,but draws the line at fabric
Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2000 08:23:04 -0500 (EST) | From: quiltsnbears@ (Roberta Geanangel)
Jean…you’ll have to go back further than the 20th Century to get to the start of the woman’s rights movement. In 1848 Elizabeth Stanton called for the granting of woman’s sufferage.Then there was Anne Bradstreet who,in 1630, wrote”I am obnoxious to each carping tongue who says my hand a needle better fits…” In 1776 Abigail Adams was getting together a petition for Congress concerning the rights of women. There are many others too numerous to mention here,but ,if not for them, 20th Century history might have been written differently.These women did not feel that their role in life was to deal only with household tasks. I often wonder how many of them were fighting for the rights of women because they disliked housework and sewing! That,after all,is the reason I,for one, went to work outside the home! <grin>There’s an interesting paperback,”Growing Up Female in America” edited by Eve Merriam.
Roberta
Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2000 09:05:36 EST | From: JQuilt@
CC quiltsnbears@ Subject: Re QHL Could price be doing us in, on the quilt revival?
Message-ID: <b2.b233022d.25a9efb0@> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=”us-ascii” Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 09/01/2000 075531 Eastern Standard Time, quiltsnbears@ writes << I believe that quilters,like other addicts, will come up with the amount necessary to purchase fabric no matter what the price. 😉 …………..
roberta that’s like saying an abused wife will stay in an abusive relationship because she loves her house and garden..
maybe quilting with purchased fabric,will become an avocation for middle and upper-middle women and the working poor and poor families will once again have quilts made out of cast off clothes…
jean
Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2000 10:03:22 EST | From: @aol.com
Something else to consider since when was it written in stone that we must buy only Hoffman or Alexander Henry? Or that we must have the latest RJR series, in all colorways? Or that we must have a great big fabric stash with lots and lots of colors?
Many of our foremothers used scraps from their dresses or from worn out clothes to make their quilts. Plenty of others used feedsacks, not because it was fashionable, but because it was all they had. Still others bought fabric from the local Wal-Mart (or equivalent), or used old tailor’s cuts.
When we were going through very hard times a few years ago, I made a gift quilt for my mother-in-law using scraps that ranged from cotton to rayon challis to brocade from a wedding dress. I told her not to wash it, and it’s still fine.
A lot of those habits of frugality have stayed with me. As much as I love the local quilting store, if I have a very big project, I go to Jo-Ann’s for at least my background and binding fabric. I watch the sales and buy only what I need, when I need it. I regularly check out a local discounter that sells much cotton for $1.99 a yard. And I do not confine my searches to “the quilting aisle” – if I see a nice osnaburg or some muslin useable in a nine patch on sale, I buy it.
In short, I refuse to buy what I’m supposed to buy, the way the manufacturers and high end designers tell me I’m supposed to buy it. None of my quilts have fallen apart or shredded because of my fabric choices, including the scrap quilts I made nearly twenty years ago when I didn’t know anything.
It’s certainly possible to use the gorgeous high end fabrics without bankrupting yourself – get a few fat quarters and use them with a plain background (I did that with a stunning set of Hoffman’s I bought up in Vermont – they looked gorgeous set on a slant with plain black), or buy a yard or two at a time for a special project. There are plenty of ways to get by – and isn’t that what American style scrap quilting is all about? Getting by with what you have?
Just my thoughts – Karen Evans
Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2000 15:22:47 -0000 | From: “Jenni Dobson”
charset=”iso-8859-1″ Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Karen Evans said The earliest known European quilts are believed to have been made by the quilt-as-you-go method, but heaven only knows if they were lap quilted or on a frame of some sort (I’m inclined to believe they used a small frame, but there’s no evidence I’m aware of either way).
Karen, I’m interested to know your source for this statement. I think as far as we in England on concerned, the concept of quilt-as-you-go would be thought by most people to be an American one. As someone interested in quilt history, if you can supply a reference for this please, I’d like to follow it up.
On Xenia’s original question I wonder whether square frames of whatever construction, being much simpler to engineer from lengths of timber, are the earlier. The round hoop must surely be connected with the discovery of steaming strips of wood to persuade it into a curve or circle? I’m not a wood historian but surely there must be a connection here that someone could establish?
Jenni in UK.
Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2000 21:05:07 EST | From: KareQuilt@
I went to the GIANT FLEA Market in Chantilly, VA, Saturday with my two favorite quilt buddies. (All that pent up energy from 12 months of almost no spending on quilt-related objects almost broke the bank!) <G> I bought a signature quilt, two tops, and numerous books and museum catalogues! Center block of Sig. Quilt has an embroidered triangle surrounded by the words “Loyalty, Protection, Servicie” on the three sides. In the center of triangle Ladies Auxillary, Fleet Reserve Association, Unit No. 5, Norfolk, VA, 1941-42. [This date would cover the period that includes the bombing of Pearl Harbor.] Outside the triangle at the top are the names Blanche L.
Townsend, Pres. And Elsie Slaughter, V. P. On the bottom two sides outside the triangle are 28 signatures (some past and present officers it would appear), with an embroidered anchor and the initials USN superimposed just under the bottom point of the triangle. The quilt is 5 blocks by 7 (10 1/2″). Sashing and borders are blue (horizontal) and gold (perpendicular).
Each block has a circle embroidered in the center with a woman’s name in it and anywhere from 10-20 names embroidered like signature-spokes coming off that circle. There are 3 rather large dark stains at 3 intersections on the front and many more on the back and a couple of damage spots. The batting has shifted slightly so that when you hold the quilt up to the light you can see light in 2 places. But the names are all QUITE legible! Some blocks have a city and state under some of the signers names One block is obviously Indiana people with Indianapolis with 10 signatures, Gem, IN (3), Greenfield, IN (3). Also Washington DC, and Long Beach, CA. The most unusal block has the signature of “Mayor Fiorelle L Guardia of New York City” plus “My Johniee, Clayton H. De Wilt, Horace Burrough, Naval Hospitality N. Y, Johnny the Great, Ella Clark De Wilt, U.S. Naval Academy, U.S.S. McCawley, Wallingford De Wilt, and U.S.S. Mayrant. Don’t yet know if the name before or after an object (i.e. the academy or a ship) is suppose to be somehow connected. Can’t wait to do the research on this thing and write up an article!! I am so excited for this quilt touches 3 loves quilt documentation, women’s history, and WWII (Pacific) Naval history. I fell in love with WWII naval history as a result of living in the Philippines as a teenager less than 15 years after the war ended. (We were not associated with the military in any way and not stationed near any bases). At this point I am assuming the quilt was made in Virginia. It came out of an estate in either Richmond or the Norfolk area just this fall. The dealer is going to put me in touch with the estate person he dealt with, so I hope to track down the name of the last owner. I plan to contact the Fleet Reserve Association and see if they will put a short notice or blurb in their newsletter in hopes of locating someone who knows something about the quilt. If any of you are Navy people, any suggestions as to how to get the word out are welcome!
Karen Alexander Vienna, VA
