March 23 – 29, 2004
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:
- Why Red Dyes Run — The crocking discussion continues with an explanation of why red dyes historically bond less well than other colors — and why Turkey red was prized for not running. (see the article on natural dyes)
- De-Smelling Musty Stored Wool — A member seeks advice for removing a musty basement smell from a trunk of inherited wool clothing, and gets tips involving baking soda and professional dry cleaning.
- A New Handkerchief-Dating Reference — Cindy Brick recommends a newly published book on dating and valuing printed and lace handkerchiefs. (see the article on dating quilts)
- Quilt Restoration Resources and Caution — Members call for a central resource page on quilt restoration and repeat the advice to go slowly and consult a professional conservator first. (see the article on quilt restoration)
- Lititz and Lancaster Museum Hours — Judy Kelius and others share hours and contact information for the Pennsylvania Quilt & Textile Museum ahead of the Lancaster Quilt Show, and Bob Shaw clarifies how the Signature Quilt Database relates to the Quilt Index. (see the article on quilt museums)
- Scalamandre’s Move and Reproduction-Quilt Labeling — A New York Times piece on textile maker Scalamandre relocating production sparks a side discussion on properly labeling quilt reproductions so they aren’t later sold as originals.
- Gee’s Bend Exhibit Gift Shop and Reproduction Pricing — Members who visited the Gee’s Bend quilt exhibit in Milwaukee describe its gift shop, leading into a debate over the pricing and ethics of quilt-design reproductions.
- Memorial and Tribute Quilts — Announcements cover a 9/11 Memorial Quilt viewing in San Diego and a quilt Donald Beld made as a tribute to the passengers of Flight 93.
- A Scolding-Wives Poem and a British Quilt Exhibit — Kris shares a lighthearted historic poem about wives’ faults, and Sally Ward recommends an exhibit at The American Museum in Britain. (see the article on quilting in Europe)
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 08:44:51 -0500 | From: “Cindy Samson” <cvswmis.net>
I had bad experience using Lestoil to remove a black machine oil stain.. In college I took an applied textile design course in which I bleached out a design area on light colored, 100% cotton, cordless corduroy, prewashed. Only the design area was bleached. In outline quilting the design, I got black machine oil on the non-bleached part of the fabric. Using my mom’s Lestoil trick, the machine oil came out, but left a dark, oily-stain of it’s own. It ruined the project.
I have used Lestoil successfully, but I test first now, including washing the actual fabric in the actual detergent I intend to use, because I know first hand that it can leave a stain.
Cindy, faithful reader, infrequent writer (!), Michigan
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 07:32:02 -0800 (PST) | From: Kris Driessen <krisdriessen@>
I have been getting a ton of quilt restoration inquiries lately. Of course, I refer them to the Kirk Collections excellent Quilt Restoration Workshop 4 DVD set (http://www.kirkcollection.com/) and the Taking Care of Grandma’s quilt brochure. (http://www.kirkcollection.com/conserve_supplies.asp)
Some people just want a referral to someone who does it, though. Is such a list in existence? If not, can y’all share with me the names and addresses of anyone who does restoration? I will keep it confidential if you prefer, this is just for my use to refer clients. Or I can make a web page. It’s up to the restorer.
Sidebar: If you have any interest in old quilts, you need to order the Kirk Collections Quilt Restoration Workshop DVD set. The four DVDs are:Becoming a quilt restorer; Is restoration possible; dating fabric and dating quilts’ and Creating and aging fabrics, cleaning storing and displaying. Just those titles tells you how valuable the information is, but I think what I like best is the format. It’s easy to watch and comprehend and, as always, it’s the little things you pick up along the way that make the difference. No affiliation, by the way, you can’t order the DVD set from me. You have to use the link above.
Kris
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center – File online. File on time. http://taxes.@/filing.html
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 11:23:26 -0500 | From: Bob Shaw <shaw.bob@>
The best advice on restoration/conservation is to go slowly and get the best professional advice possible before doing anything.
The Alliance for American Quilts offers some expert advice on care and restoration issues on its quilt query pages at http://www.centerforthequilt.org/query/query.html
The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works maintains a very useful web site at http://aic.stanford.edu. The web site provides information on textile care and finding a qualified conservator in your area. The search page is http://aic.stanford.edu/guide/form.html
All best wishes,
Bob Shaw
Robert Shaw Executive Director The Alliance for American Quilts Tel//fax: 802/985-0737
shaw.bob@ www.centerforthequilt.org
On Mar 24, 2004, at 10:32 AM, Kris Driessen wrote:
> I have been getting a ton of quilt restoration inquiries lately.
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 06:51:31 -0500 | From: “Judy Kelius (judysue)” <judysue@>
Hi, since I manage that museum, I can answer your question! Right now we haven’t officially reopened since the winter, but have made arrangements to be open next week during the Lancaster Quilt Show, including the afternoon of Sunday, April 4. (If anyone comes, you will need to ring the doorbell and I may not be there, but you will be let in. I’ll post hours later on the list in case anyone else will be coming.) But we are normally closed on Sundays – email me privately at paquiltslititzjunction.com and I’ll inquire about arranging a visit for you. Please let me know how many in your group, and what time you are interested in coming.
Thanks!!
—– Original Message —– From: “Brenda & Roger Applegate” <rbappleg1@>
To: “Quilt History List” <qhl@> Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 10:42 PM Subject: [qhl] Litiz, Pa
Does anyone know when the quilt museum is open in Litiz, Pa. I will be in that area on Sunday, March 28th. I called the tourism office in Litiz today, but she wasn’t sure where that information was located. Thanks. Brenda Applegate
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 10:23:31 -0500 | From: Bob Shaw <shaw.bob@>
I am writing to clarify Nancy Hornback’s recent posting about the signature quilt database and its status vis a vis the Quilt Index.
The Quilt Index is a joint project of The Alliance for American Quilts, Michigan State University Museum, and MATRIX, the Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online. Proposals for additions to the Index go first to a task force made up of representatives of all three organizations. This is where the signature quilt database proposal currently resides.
We receive many proposals for the Index. The task force considers each proposal in terms of its merit and relevance to the Index, and then communicates back to the person or group that makes the proposal about status and next steps.
If the task force decides a proposal is a good idea, we then have to look for funding to implement it. We do not have money in hand for additions to the Index, so new proposals generally become part of a grant application. Unfortunately, none of this happens quickly; funding applications are complex and move slowly, and it can sometimes take years from conception to the beginnings of implementation.
We are all intrigued by the proposal for a signature quilt database becoming part of the Index and will give it serious consideration.
Sincerely yours,
Robert Shaw Executive Director The Alliance for American Quilts Tel//fax: 802/985-0737
shaw.bob@ www.centerforthequilt.org
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 09:50:39 -0600 | From: “Charlotte Bull” <charloumo-net.com>
One of you with a SITE (There are several of you reading this right now!) should set up a page on Quilt Restoration. List the sources: Web sites, DVDs, Books, and names of real folks who work on real quilts professionally! What a blessing! Then the others could give referrals.
At the present time I do minor completion & restoration for friends in my small world, simply because I care about them. (The Quilts!!!) I am not a “pro”! I work for Free. Well, maybe a lunch & visit & reimbursement for vintage fabrics.
Another lady has suddenly set herself up as a pro long arm & pro restorer….with literally no training or pre-experience in quilting, except in teaching children. A nice gal, but she was totally disinterested in attending MOKA, the newly formed Quilt Study Group for our area. How can she be a “restoration pro” if she is not interested in seeing, talking, reading and consuming Old Quilts. But if I had oodles of sources to point her in the right direction, I might be able to get her attention and drag her into the “proper fold”. (pun?) I could step back and let her be the new pro on the block.
Oh, Kris, by the way, I made a joke the other day and used the term “The Quilt Bus”. The few ladies present understood & laughed. But excuse me for doing that without your copyright permission. Oh? the joke? After two long days setting up, doing, and taking down our Show I was totally exhausted and flat on my back for 36 hours. I told them I felt as if I’d been run over by The Quilt Bus. They’d read the article in their newspapers and they roared! Well, giggled. I’d just done a C’s Choice Sites article in my guild N/L about this List, your site and about the QSGs. But, you can come and run over me any day! The QHL daily digest is my favorite e mail. Also the daily separate letters from Vintage Fabrics List Friends – VFLF! I add on a letter F for Friends to QHL too. QHLF!
Am OFF for the day! Blocks to Sew! and Blocks to Walk! My daily therapy. Thanks! cb
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 10:25:06 -0600 | From: “Liz Lois” <loislanetds.net>
Judy Kelius is the coordinator for this museum, I think they are planning on opening in a month or so. For information you can contact her at: judysue@ Hope this helps Liz Lois ——=_NextPart_000_038C_01C41253.718602D0–
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 13:54:56 -0500 | From: <mreich@>
If you were old enough to remember World War II, could you email me privately. Thanks, sue reich
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 13:43:00 -0500 | From: “J. G. Row” <JudyGrow@>
There is an interesting article in the New York Times today. Scalamandre has sold its big plant in Long Island City and is moving its production to South Carolina. They are scuttling the 100 year old hand tended looms for a new computerized mill. The grandson of the founder said “It is the only way we can preserve our textile legacy and also sell fabrics that are made in America by Americans. “
Six of the old looms are at the old Bethlehem Steel mill in PA to become part of the new Smithsonian Museum of Industrial History, one will be cleaned and put in the lobby of the new facility, and the rest will be sold for scrap metal!
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/25/garden/25SCAL.html
If you want to print the article, there is a printer friendly version. Make sure you print in landscape — don’t waste paper, as I did.
Also DO NOT FAIL TO CLICK ON THE AUDIO SLIDE SHOW! FASCINATING PHOTOS AND NARRATION. YES, I AM YELLING.
Judy “the Ringo Kid” in Ringoes, NJ judygrow@
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 13:57:33 -0500 | From: “J. G. Row” <JudyGrow@>
Also in the NY times today, a short piece on on page F3. I couldn’t find it on-line, so will quote it to you here.
[Textiles From the Walls of Museums to a Bedroom Very Near You.
An exhibition of quilts made by a group of African-American women in the small town of Gee’s Bend, Ala., was a must-see last year at the Whitney Museum of American Art and continues as a traveling exhibition. Now copies of the quilts are to be sold at Anthropologie. The first reproduction, available in June, is of “Medallion With Center Bars” (photo above), made in 1943 by Polly Bennett, now 82. It will be queen-size and cost $298.00. The other two quilts shown will be available later in the year.
The venture is a collaboration with the Tinwood Alliance, a nonprofit organization that furthers the awareness of African-American art. “The reproductions will help introduce these quilts to a wider and differnt audience,” said Matt Arnett, the president of Tinwood Media, an arm of the alliance. Keith Johnson, the antiques buyer at Anthropologie, said: “These quilts are idiosyncratic. They are more art than decoration.” Part of the proceeds will go to the Gee’s Bend Quilters Collective and the individual quilter. Orders: Anthropologie, 800-309-2500. The exhibition, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington through May 17, opens at the Cleveland Museum of Art on June 27. ]
I called the 800 number and asked if they were being made in the US or abroad and the girl checked and said they were being made right here in the good old US of A.
Here is the Anthropologie site for the Delia Bennett quilt, available in May.
Personally, I am glad they are being made here, but I think that with so many reproductions of these quilts going into homes the value of the originals will decrease if they are indistinguishable from the reproductions (to a non-quilter). Unless the reproductions are permanently marked as reproductions (stamped or embroidered, not with a label that can be cut off), perhaps they will be sold as originals one generation on. I am glad that these quilters will be finally making money on their quilts, but perhaps they’ve also been sold a “bill of goods.”
I welcome your opinions and discussion.
Judy “the Ringo Kid” in Ringoes, NJ judygrow@
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 19:58:35 +0000 | From: pkeirstead@
The Quilter’s Guild of Dallas maintains a resource list of members who do all kinds of work relating to quilts. To obtain a copy, send a stamped self-addressed business-size envelope to:
Resource Chairman Quilter’s Guild of Dallas 305 Spring Creek Village Suite 508, Box 521 Dallas, Texas 75248
Peggy Keirstead, A long-time, very satisfied member of the QGD
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 14:45:18 -0600 | From: <koshalj@>
Thanks for the Resource and could you please tell me how you are added to the list to restore quilts? Thanks Joan Kosal
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 17:40:35 -0500 | From: munsey@
Thanks to all who responded to my call to help my daughter “de-smell” the woolen items which had been stored in a basement so long. Being from a long line of thrifty Yankees, she doesn’t want to dump it. Any of the clothes which she and her daughters cannot use will be either passed on, or go to the hookers in the family for rugs. I knew QHL members would have answers!! Sandra in Cape Cod
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 20:16:27 -0500 | From: “Jan Drechsler” <quiltdoc@>
Hi Kris,
Your offer to put a list of restorers & conservators on your website is a wonderful idea. I also would like to be able to suggest a potential client contact someone with a certain speciality or training, which I may not do.
And thanks, Bob Shaw, for the links to the Alliance for American Quilts and the AIC for advice on textile care and restoration issues.
Regards,
Jan ******* Jan Drechsler in Vermont Quilt Restoration; Quilting teacher www.@/~bobmills
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 22:17:40 EST | From: Trishherr@
This is a reminder for those who will be in Lancaster, Pa. this coming week for Rita Barber’s Quilters’ Heritage Celebration. The new Lancaster Quilt and Textile Museum will officially open on Wednesday, March 31 at 10:00 AM. The featured exhibit is the collection of Lancaster County Amish quilts purchased from the Esprit Corporation collection formerly in San Francisco.
Hours are Tuesday through Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 5:00 p.m. Admission is adults-$6, students (with ID) and children (6-18)-$4. Telephone: 717/299-6440, website: www.quiltandtextilemuseum.com.
The museum is located in the center of downtown Lancaster, near the Lancaster Farmers’ market at 37-41 N. Market Street. The building is wonderful, an old bank building from 1912 Beaux Arts style, brought back to life and filled with 32 quilts of the 82 in the collection exhibited along with supportive clothing, needlework, rugs, and other related materials. The quilts will be rotated so that in several months a new selection will be on view.
The new museum gift shop has many out-of-print textile books, related textile items and the book the museum just published covering the complete collection of 82 quilts. Hope many of you will visit.
Trish Herr
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 23:37:45 -0500 | From: Patricia L Cummings <quiltersmuse@>
J/udy Grow wrote: Unless the reproductions are permanently marked as reproductions (stamped or embroidered, not with a label that can be cut off), perhaps they will be sold as originals one generation on. I am glad that these quilters will be finally making money on their quilts, but perhaps they’ve also been sold a “bill of goods.”/
Yes, one would hope that the new reproduction quilts would be clearly and permanently marked as such.
One would also be optimistic that a fair share of the monetary proceeds of such a transaction would find its way “back home”.
I can understand the desire to want to reproduce quilt patterns. After all, quilters themselves have been doing this for centuries. For one thing, it is just easier to make a tried and true pattern rather than to come up with something original, particularly for new quilters who lack the experience or confidence to be innovative. Tradition is valuable as tradition and there is a certain comfort in recreating traditional quilt designs.
The reproduction of African-American made art quilts just means that they are not outside the mainstream of American quilting, I suppose. However, art quilts being art quilts, one could also suppose that many art quilters would not go out of their way to see that their art quilts be reproduced because they would want them to remain “one of a kind” (read “special”). Money is a great persuader though, and if the quiltmakers of Gee’s Bend do not object to this situation, and if they can benefit from their (past) work in an ongoing fashion, then who is to question it?
I hope that this works out well for all the parties involved.
Thanks for posting this information, Judy.
Pat Cummings
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 00:09:03 EST | From: Sewquiet@
I read this article in the NYTimes on Sunday as well, but the article went on to say that they will also be manufacturing and marketing selling other products with these quilt designs on… I can’t recall exactly what they items were, or who had purchased the rights to them but I believe they were things such as wallpaper.. etc. Did anyone else read the article and remember the other items besides quilts?
I am happy that these people who did without and their offspring will profit from the sale of the reproduction items, but I felt that it should not go farther than the quilts and not springboard into other, everyday items.
Bernice Hatch
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 06:02:59 -0500 | From: “Judy Kelius (judysue)” <judysue@>
If anyone is coming to the Lancaster Quilt Show next week, the Pennsylvania Quilt & Textile Museum in Lititz will have special hours for it. Lititz Junction, the complex it is located in, still has not reopened after closing for the winter, but the museum WILL be open for quilters coming to Lancaster. Lititz is less than a half hour from downtown Lancaster, and the Museum is located at 55 N. Water Street (across from the Moravian Church on Main Street). Not to be confused with the new Lancaster Quilt & Textile Museum, the Pennsylvania Quilt & Textile Museum currently has on display around 30 quilts representing some of the finest Pennsylvania quilt traditions along with clothing and other textile items. It is well worth a visit!
These are the hours we will officially be open:
Thursday, April 1-Saturday, April 3 1-7 PM
Sunday, April 4 11 AM – 4 PM
If you want to come earlier in the week, that can be arranged but it is best to call ahead at 717-626-5684 (choose option 3, the Kready’s Country Store Museum, to make sure the phone is answered immediately). If you come, please push the buzzer at the main entrance to be let in.
Anyone with questions can email me at judysue@ or paquiltslititzjunction.com.
Thanks!
From: “The Motl’s”
At the Gee’s Bend quilt exhibit in Milwaukee, there were numerous items for sale. Some items were Tee shirts, note cards, different size area rugs could be ordered. Chris
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 09:36:24 -0600 | From: Sylvia Adair <piecethepastwi.@>
I also attended the Gees Bend show in Milwaukee, which included a gift shop full of items to purchase. There were books, notecards, coffee cups, T shirts in several designs, music CDs of gospel singing by the people of Gees Bend, the video/DVD documentary (which was being shown at the exhibit) and some of the reproduction quilts. The cost on the reproduction quilts was around $2500. I couldn’t see the back of the quilts, to see if they were marked as reproductions. Sylvia Adair in Germantown, Wisconsin
From: “Pat L. Nickols”
9/11 Memorial Quilt – San Diego viewing
This morning the front page of our San Diego Union Tribune showed rows of quilts, all 142 sections of the 9/11 memorial quilt, a 16,000 square-foot quilt, each panel covered with the names of the victims who died in the terrorists attacks. This exhibit is traveling throughout the United States and will go to Australia in 2005.
“The quilt, begun in May 2002, was made mostly by people who didn’t know the victims. They rallied to the call of Corey Gammel, a Long Beach man who felt compelled to honor each of the dead. Every square was crafted individually, and San Diego marks the first time that all panels have been displayed in one spot with every Sept. 11 victim memorialized, Gammel said.”
Quilt viewing – Cuyamaca College gym
900 Rancho San Diego Parkway
El Cajon, California
Hours:
Friday March 26 10 am to 7 pm
Saturday March 27 10 am to 5 pm
Sunday March 28 10 am to 5 pm
Admission is free
This was a surprise to me as I was not aware it was coming but I will be going to see it and hope many of you in the area can also.
In somewhat sunny Caliornia,
Pat L. Nickols
http://www.tardart.com/index.html Posted on another list, I found this quite interesting and thought others might as well. She is collecting clothing tags to create a art quilt statement about worker abuses that take place in the textile industry, particularly overseas. But these abuses also take place here in the US.
Gloria raglady@
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 11:33:05 -0800 (PST) | From: Joe Cunningham <joejoethequilter.com>
I found the price of these reproductions fascinating: $298 retail. If that is the selling price, the retailer should be buying them for about $150. If it is a company of some sort arranging this production, it is hard to believe that materials and labor would amount to much more than $100. Let us imagine that materials are so cheap to the manufacturer that the quiltmaker could get even $80 of that. That would mean the company is hiring American workers to make full-size quilts for $80. And I believe they are going to be hand quilted.
Or, let us believe that I am completely wrong, and the quiltmaker is going to get $200 for making a full-size quilt. Does anyone know? Even that amount of money seems slight to me. It is a wonderful thing that the original quiltmaker will be getting some sort of royalty from this project. But I am just as concerned about the worker doing the actual sewing of the reproduction. Making a quilt entails skilled labor, and I don’t see how they could sell the reproductions for $298 and pay skilled worker wages.
Joe Cunningham Joejoethequilter.com
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 15:53:27 -0500 | From: aol.com
I’m with Joe…the price seems a bit low to me. Then again, American museums don’t exactly have a terrific record when it comes to repros, do they? If it turns out that the museum is exploiting poorly paid American workers to sell reproductions of folk art masterpieces made by poorly paid American workers, the irony meter will go completely out of whack, and the universe will end.
*sigh*
Karen Evans [waiting for that Toscano pseudo-Renaissance gargoyle decor place to start offering repro 14th century Sicilian quilts made in China or India….]
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 17:03:30 EST | From: Sewquiet@
Worse yet, They could pay poorly paid overseas workers to reproduce the art.. and bypass the poorly paid american worker all together. It all comes down to margins, not art for art’s sake.
Bernice
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 22:16:14 -0800 (PST) | From: Donald Beld <donbeld@>
Hi everyone–I have posted (at vintagepictures.eboard.com) a front and back photo of a quilt I designed and made as a tribute to the common people with uncommon courage on Flight 93–It is my response as a quilter to the quilt tradition of making blocks and quilts to honor our heroes and important events. In the 19th Century, quilters honor their “common person with uncommon courage”–Barbara Freitchie–with many blocks and quilts, so I wanted to continue the tradition.
My problem now is that the quilt has begun creating quite a stir here in Southern California, and people are asking me what I am going to do with it. And I don’t know–any suggestions privately to me would be greatly appreciated.
I am really just a quilter who loves quilting traditions, so I know talking about a new quilt is off our subject matter, but I hope you don’t mind. Don Beld
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 08:42:04 -0500 | From: Patricia L Cummings <quiltersmuse@>
Dear Don:
Thanks for sharing your wonderful quilt via eboard. What a lot of thought and care went into the planning of this, right down to finding out the names of all of the people on board that fated flight and listing them on the back of the quilt!
By your careful recording of these events, you surpass the status of being just a person who appreciates quilt history. Your quilts will be enjoyed beyond your lifetime. Thank you for helping to write a new chapter in quilt history.
Pat Cummings
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 05:59:13 -0800 (PST) | From: Kris Driessen <krisdriessen@>
I’ve heard of wives too musical – too talkitive – too quiet Of scolding and of gaming wives and those too fond of Riot; But yet of all the errors I know, which to women fall; For ever doing fancywork, I think exceeds them all.
The other day when I went home no dinner was for me, I asked my wife the reason; she answered, “one, two, three” I told her I was hungry and stamped upon the floor She never even looked at me, but mumbled “one green more”.
If any lady comes to tea, her bag is first surveyed, And if the pattern pleases her, a copy there is made. She stares too at the gentlemen, and when I ask her why? “Tis, “Oh my love, the pattern of his waistcoat struck my eye”.
Ah! The misery of a working wife, with fancy work run wild; And hands that never do naught else for husband or for child; Our clothes are rent, our bills unpaid; my house is in disorder; And all because my lady wife has taken to embroider.
A History of Needlemaking M.T. Morral, 1852
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 14:25:29 -0500 | From: “J. G. Row” <JudyGrow@>
Way back in the 1970’s I did that poem in cross stitch and framed it!
> The Husband’s Complaint > > Ah! The misery of a working wife, with fancy work run wild; > And hands that never do naught else for husband or for child; > Our clothes are rent, our bills unpaid; my house is in disorder; > And all because my lady wife has taken to embroider. > > A History of Needlemaking > M.T. Morral, 1852 >
Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 12:10:49 +0100 | From: “Sally Ward” <sallytatters@>
It might seem odd to recommend to an American list a visit to ‘The American Museum in Britain’ – located at Claverton Manor in Bath, but there is what should be an excellent exhibition running there this summer. It aims to ‘celebrate the skill of quilters from Wales and America. Drawing on the collections of Jen Jones and the American Museum, the quilting traditions of these two cultures will be compared and contrasted’. There are a series of talks and workshops which look very inviting too.
So, if you are in the country this summer, it might be worth working into your itinerary…
http://www.americanmuseum.org/pages/visit_frame.htm
Sally W
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 19:36:54 -0500 | From: “Newbie Richardson” <pastcrafts@>
Dear List, Am just catching up on several days posts – sorry to be behind schedule. As a last resort, I have had luck with smelly wools by taking them to the dry cleaner and asking for the treatment that removes male cat spray. They hang the garment in a special “closet” and treat it with enzymes ( I think), any way, when I get the garment home, I remove the plastic bag and then let it air out for several weeks. Believe it or not, the odor is usually gone. Anyone who has coped with a spraying cat can attest to how awful the odor is! So take the offending garments to your independent cleaner ( who does his own work on the premises) and discuss the problem. Try one as a test, to be sure it works before you invest too much cash! Newbie Richardson The Costume and Textile Specialists Appraisals, Conservation, & Exhibition Alexandria and Richmond, VA www.costumeandtextile.com
