The Story Book Quilts of Marion Cheever Whiteside Newton

At the January meeting of the Enchanted Quilters of Lopez Island, I presented a program on the quilts of Marion Cheever Whiteside Newton with accompanying quilts from my own collection.  

A few blocks from Newton's "Little Women" pattern series.

Newton was a trained artist who had one leg rooted in New England and the other in Portland, Oregon. About mid-career, she turned from her success in art to designing some very special Story Book Quilts in the late 1940s, making an international name for herself by the 1950s.  

I based my talk on the research presented by Naida Treadway Patterson at the 1995 annual seminar of the American Quilt Study Group*. You can read Patterson's published research of that 1995 lecture by clicking here, which will take you to the website of the Quilt Index. However, you can't see any of the photos that appeared in the originally published article. But the text is well worth the read. 

You can see the full story of my presentation about Marion Cheever Whiteside Newton with many more photos by clicking here.

I wrote briefly once before about Newton when I was trying to track down the possible source of a quilt I added to my collection in 2013. That post I called Is She Dutch or Hungarian? (Click on the name to go to that post.)

Please feel free to leave a comment if you, too, love the Marion Cheever Whiteside Newton Story Book Quilts or have one or made one!  Also, please leave a comment if you know of others designing similar story book quilts today!

Where to go for accurate Quilt History?

As an aside, I can never resist sharing AQSG*. I have been a member of AQSG since 1981.  This group has provided me with some of the greatest friendships of my adult life as well as some of the most stimulating research seminars one could hope to attend in the field of textile/quilt history!

Many Regional Quilt Study Groups have been formed around the country in the last 20 years, most by members of AQSG, though the regional groups are NOT formerly associated with AQSG.  Yours truly helped form the Washington Quilt Study Group in 2005, along with Joy Neal and Susan Underwood, also AQSG members.  

You can read about the various regional groups by clicking here on Kris Dreissen's Quilt History website.  I highly recommend joining this discussion group so that you can access our past as well as present discussions. There is a wealth of in-depth quilt history discussions that have taken place since 1997 archived on this website. Kris charges a very nominal fee to help with overhead.

Sometimes it feels to me like Kris has been in the quilt business forever. That must say something about how old I am getting myself, not Kris's age! I do know she and her husband once had their quilt business on wheels -- yep, the original Quilt Bus!

MORE TO COME!

I have two more exciting stories to share that have been brought to my attention in the past two weeks. One is about a Comfort Quilt made by young primary school students in Leeds, England, based on a quilt they found on the Quilt Index via the Internet. It just so happens that the quilt their teacher discovered on-line was the Hearts Signature Quilt made by the members of the Enchanted Quilters in 1999 for my mother-in-law, Wini Alexander, when she diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer! Can't wait to share the students' story with you!   Wini's quilt is on the right in this photo.

Just a few of the students who made blocks for this quilt!

Tacoma native records history of African-American quilts and quilters

BY LARRY LARUE

Staff writerFebruary 6, 2015 

The other story is about a new Quilt Documentation Project led by A'donna Richardson that is beginning this weekend in the Seattle area. You can read the beginnings the story here by reading this news article whose link was sent me just three days ago.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to get to the first couple of meetings but I am very excited about keeping track of this project.

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2015/02/06/3626944/tacoma-native-records-history.html#storylink=cpy

Quilt Cabin Dedicated to Wini Alexander

 I really can't talk about the meaning of my new Quilt Research Cabin without sharing some of the story of my mother-in-law's influence in my life. Without her, I don't think I ever would have gotten into quilting.

The three quilts quilts above made by my Winifred Margaret [Waters] Alexander, 1917-1999. These three quilts were instrumental in launching me into the study of quilt history. My documentation of Wini's needlework is ongoing.


In 2005, the LaConner Quilt Museum Invited me to curate an exhibit of Wini's needlework to run January - Feb 2006. It was a great catalyst to get me started in documenting her needlework. Inasmuch as I had saved 30 years of her correspondence, I relied heavily upon the letters I had saved to help create detailed documentation.

Wini, as she was known to her many friends, was a prolific seamstress and needle worker all her life, and taught junior high level Home Economics in the Seattle Public School system in the 1970s. After she retired from teaching, she taught clothing construction and embellishment, as well as quilting and other forms of needlework through guilds and fabric or quilt shops wherever she lived.

Wini helped organize many raffle quilt projects to raise funds for various non-profits throughout her quilting life. She was also instrumental in helping found the Enchanted Quilters of Lopez & Shaw Islands and the Northwest Quilting Connection, and created NQC's newsletter, serving as its editor for 12 years until her passing in August 1999.


After Wini moved to Lopez Island in 1981, people occasionally addressed mail to her simply as "The Quilt Lady on Lopez Island" and the mail invariably reached her!

Cowboy Dan, Sarah in Pink, Dancing Lori Jo all made in 1976 and presented to the kids on Christmas Eve. Below they are snuggled under them on the cots in the living room, cots that were set up in order to create more sleeping space for visiting adults.


Another great thing about these three quilts is that the kids designed them themselves without ever suspecting their grandmother would turn them into quilts.  The eldest created her self-portrait at school by laying down on butcher block paper and having someone draw around her. Then she filled in the face and clothing. When she brought this home, the others wanted to make one, too, so I found similar paper and we made two more. Then I suggested we "send them off to Grandma so she can see how much you have grown." The rest is history.

The additional wonder of these quilts for my children is that Wini used scraps from actual clothing she had made them for the clothing on each quilt, so they recognized themselves immediately!

Xmas Eve 1976

Documenting the Quilts We Create

Wini began to make a list of the quilts she had made after I gave her a journal following my lecture “Documenting Our Lives As Quilters” at a National Quilters Association meeting in Bellingham, WA, in October 1985. 

According to this journal, Wini attempted her first quilt about 1948.  Her first entry reads, “The first quilt I made was not worth remembering. It was a Double Wedding Ring, made by machine with as many shortcuts as possible. It ended up as a furniture cover when we moved.” (Her eldest daughter recently told me that she remembers that quilt!)

Her next attempt at quilting was "an appliquéd tulip made as a bedspread for Ronnie [eldest daughter] in our new Normandy Park House in 1959. Appliqué was so-so, quilting not good. She has it still (?)"  A 2nd quilt was also made in 1959. "Embroidered and appliquéd (1959) Pinocchio Story Quilt for Marlee. Given to cousin Janet after Marlee died." (Note: Wini's youngest daughter Marlee died in 1965 at age 16 of cancer. The family was living briefly in New Orleans at the time.)

Quilt #4, “Spider Web,” was a "strip quilt done on paper which I didn't know about removing! As I quilted it over an old bedspread I realized what a poor job I'd done. Done about 1969/70. Now used for Lopez Quilt show Banner."  

Quilt #5, “Marlee's Star,” Wini records on page 2: "In 1964 I ordered a set of Pennsylvania Dutch Hex Signs for embroidery or quilting. I tried several and Marlee really liked a 12-point star design, so I decided to make a quilt for her hope chest. A few months later she died. Ten years later (1975) I made the quilt. Now used on guest bed."

1975 marks a definitive year in Wini's quilt making for she records making 5 quilts in that one year alone. The quilts that I got my greatest attention were those she made from my children's very own artwork.

The quilt immediately below dated 1976 is the one that really grabbed my attention. I began sending our eldest child's artwork to Wini when Sarah began scribbling on paper at age 2. When Sarah turned 10, Wini gave her a quilt for her birthday made entirely of Sarah's own artwork.  I had had no idea one could turn a child's art into an applique or embroidery pattern for I had never made anything but clothes and not even those for several years when I first saw this quilt.

In 1971 when the Whitney Museum in New York City exhibited quilts as art for the first time, a resurgence in interest in quilting making was already in the air. This quilt exhibit unexpectedly broke ALL attendance records at the Whitney up to that point in its history.  As a  result, they extended the exhibit by several months and then created two traveling exhibits, one to tour the U. S. and the other to tour Europe and Japan.

The rest is history, as we all like to say. My take on quilting in America at this point in time is that the Whitney unintentionally kicked off the coming quilt revival BUT it was the American Bicentennial that sent the interest in quiltmaking and Americana into the stratosphere.

From 1976 Wini's quilt making and her quilting skills took off. By now, in addition to daughter (Ronnelle nicknamed Roni) and son (Gary), Wini had a daughter-in-law (Karen-me) and three grandchildren (Sarah, Daniel, and Lori Jo), all who dearly loved her quilts and anything she made with thread and needle. The documentation of Wini's needlework history, especially her quilting, is ongoing. One of the biggest challenges will be to discover the specific sources for her patterns.

PS: Wini's Signature Friendship Quilts are now documented and are included in the Quilt Index Signature Quilt Pilot Project. Here is a link to one.

Here is a link to the Essay about the Signature Quilt Pilot Project. I was very fortunate to be invited to participate in this project.

-- To Be Continued --

Squirrel sunbathing

Junco nest

Junco

Stunned woodpecker had hit the large living room window, bounced 

to the deck barely clinging to the railing by a toenail for several minutes.