"Quilts in a Material World" - Podcast Report #1

Our island's quilt guild asked me to present a book report at this month's meeting so I chose Linda Eaton's "Quilts in a Material World".

I also told them about Linda's podcast: "Domesticating Quilts: Furnishings, Formalism and Folk Art" which is tied closely to the above book.  For those of you who who couldn't be at the guild meeting, here is the link to the podcast I promised that Linda gave at the IQSC's spring Symposium, April 27, 2013. Linda's is #2 on this list.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/international-quilt-study/id378957678?mt=10

If you don't normally use iTunes, click on this link to get to the podcasts.  

Or copy and paste this link into your computer's browser. http://www.quiltstudy.org/discovery/resources/podcasts1.html

There is no cost to download or watch any of them on-line. This is a part of the educational outreach of the IQSC.

It may take up to a minute to download. Then, when their screen comes up, you can watch or put it on pause or even rewind it (using the very small slide at the bottom of the picture). This IQSC podcast list contains a wealth of quilt history!


Here are some questions to ask yourself as you listen to Linda's lecture:

What was Betsy Ross's full name? What was her business called? Who assisted her in her business?

What might one of Betsy's early flags have looked like? How is it different from what you might have expected?

What is  cypher /  strapwork? (Each click leads you to different information.)

Who was Mary Remington? How did Linda come to know so much about her?

What is the name of the book John Carwitham produced in 1739 that may have influenced educated American women and their creation of the block set patterns in quilting? (More history on Carwitham designs here at the Geffrye Museum of the Home in London.

Floor at Bankfield Museum in England taken while on my second of
 Deb Roberts Tours and World of Quilts Travels. 
I can't say enough good things about Deb's textile study tours. 

How did Diderot influence quilt patterns?

How did we get from Classical Formal Design to the myth of early quilting as a "folk art"?

Which era in art history embraced the "folk" traditions?

How did "folk" art influence Modernist art painters?

What was the Ruth Finley quote Eaton used in her lecture?


Among other things, this podcast will:

—give you the REAL story about the history of Betsy Ross-- including all her names (she was married 3 times).

—show you images of quilters in the "professional upholstery trade".

—show you architectural design elements from floors and ceilings from the Neo-Classical period that probably inspired early block pattern quilt designs in America.

—reveal that it was well educated women (even though not sent to college like their brothers) who were well acquainted with Neo-Classical design in home interiors and "translated" said patterns into quilts.

— reveal the possible roots of the myths that set Americans in the 20th century to thinking that early quiltmaking was done by "the folk" using scraps of leftover used clothing rather than expensive fabrics that only the wealthy could afford.

~

Revisiting the AQSG Seminar 

held in Charleston, SC in Sept 2013

We are so very fortunate to have AQSG as well as the IQSC! Please join or at least support them with an annual donation! They are diligently preserving OUR history!

Carol Butzke's Study Center "Cheddar Isn't Always Cheese" at the 2013 AQSG Seminar. The AQSG Seminar is the highlight of my textile research passion, year after year. Fortunately, we have more and more satellite Quilt Study Groups now associated with AQSG so that you can enjoy digging deeply into quilt history in a communal setting more than once a year.

 The AQSG Seminar will be held in Milwaukee Sept. 10-14th this year (2014). As one of the committee chairs, Carol invites all to attend! There will be even more "cheddar quilts" from north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line and the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts will have an exhibit of quilts with connections to Mary McElwain's Shop in Walworth WI, including quilts made by Mary.

IQSC membership - http://www.quiltstudy.org/support/membership.html

AQSG membership - http://www.americanquiltstudygroup.org/membership.asp

AQSG  donation - http://www.americanquiltstudygroup.org/endowment.asp

Carol Butzke's Study Center "Cheddar Isn't Always Cheese"
at the 2013 AQSG Seminar.

Enjoy! Would love to hear your reponses to Linda Eaton's podcast!

Karen Alexander

Quilt Cabin

The Quilt Cabin in the Woods a Year Later

The Quilt Cabin built to store my collection will have been in use two years come April but re-landscaping has yet to be done---someday….maybe! As I prepare for the first Quilt History Retreat to be held here on Lopez, it's fun looking back at how this project evolved. Come along for the journey and I shall give you some information about the Retreat at the end.

Empty bookshelves! Well, that didn't last long!

So wonderful to finally have space to make magazines easily accessible! (below)

And the empty slant boards....Both queen size flat-beds also have lots of storage space under each with access from 3 different directions. I designed these and had the carpenter makee them to my specifications. I also had him make them in such a way that they can be taken completely apart by simply unscrewing them board by board. I didn't want someone to have to destroy them to get them out of the cabin some day when they are no longer needed by the next generation of my family. Instead they can be de-constructed and sold.

These babies are sturdy and moveable. 

I buy new white sheets as cheap as I can find them to layer between quilts that need more protection.  I've also been purchasing a few of the queen size pre-printed quilt tops to use for the same purpose. That way I can make it look like a quilt is lying on top of each slant board, but it is actually just new printed fabric protecting the antique quilts. However, the two you see on the land boards below are actual quilts.

Those didn't stay empty long either!

The process of re-organizing and re-storing is endless....and so much FUN!!!

Likewise the doll beds which I use for displaying various doll quilts.

No, its not a Venus de Milo in hiding....

Only the three dresses and shirts my mother-in-law (Wini Waters Alexander) made us for Xmas in 1978 (with a couple other textile items laid over the top).

Here we are in full regalia in 1978.

What's a Grand Opening without friends!

In August of 2012 I took advantage of the fact that my long-time friend and fellow AQSG member Julie Silber (owner of The Quilt Complex in the greater SF area) was going to be in the area to oversee the hanging of an exhibit at the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, WA, and planned a small preview of The Quilt Cabin.

Life size applique of our three children by Wini Alexander - 1978 hung between trees with care.  Wini used scraps from the clothing she had made the kids the previous year to make the outfits they wear on each quilt.

Sharing a Jean Ray Laury patterned quilt with Julie Silber at the Open House. This quilt was made in the very early 1970s.

This quilt hung at The Quilters Hall of Fame in honor of 

Jean Ray Laury following Jean's death in March 2012.

Below is page 56 of Jean Ray Laury's 1972 book "Quilts & Comforts". Jean simply called it “Child’s Quilt”.

On the right is the quilt in my collection that I found in eBay made by Vicky Taylor of Maryland. Vicky wrote that she found a picture of the quilt in a Christmas craft book in the late 1960s and began working on the quilt at that time, drafting her own patterns from the photo. She began it for her sister-in-law when she was born, using the photo in the book as a guide.  "It took me much longer than I thought it would and by the time I was finished, my sister-in law was 3 and my first child was a year old, so I used it on her bed." 

(Below) Julie Silber and I hold one of my favorite crib quilts. Each animal is appliqued from fabric that contains an image of itself.

(below) Guests from Bellingham admire some of the antique quilts in my collection.

(below)  Another of my special treasures — Sunbonnet Lassies designed by Marie Webster and first published in Ladies Home Journal in August 1912. Marie Webster is an iconic figure in quilt history and her restored home in Indiana now houses The Quilters Hall of Fame. Countless variations and knock-offs of Marie Webster's Sunbonnet Lassies has graced the American quilt world ever since….but her name was changed to Sunbonnet Sue or Colonial Ladies and various other names along the way.

I found this quilt at an on-line Rago Auction in 2011. The auction house graciously sent my email requesting addidtional information on to the seller. The quilt came out of the estate of Caroline [Stephens] Holt from Westfield, NJ. A family member informed me that no one knows for sure who made the quilts in the trunk found in the attic because both Caroline [Stephens] Holt's grandmother --Alice [Thornhall] Stephens -- and great grandmother Irene Thornhall -- quilted. But they do believe all the quilts in the trunk were made by those two women. 

I'll write more about this pattern and its "cousins" in my collection later.

Enjoy quilt history and want to learn more? Here is your opportunity!

Lopez Island, WA, will host its first Quit History Retreat in conjunction with the Western Washington Quilt Study Group and the Lopez Island Historical Society. The three-day event (May 15-18, 2014) will include a trip to Orcas Island and Friday Harbor to see the quilts hanging at each island’s respective historical society.

The organizers and presenters of the retreat are all members of the American Quilt Study Group.

The central theme of the first Lopez Island Quilt History Retreat will be "Signature Quilts as Carriers of Community and Women's History” led by Karen Alexander and Susan Underwood.  In addition, two collectors from the Mid-West (Kate and Mary Edgar) will be sharing selections from their collection of early 19th century antique quilts from the U.S., Great Britain and France and the exciting stories that accompany them. These particular quilts have never been exhibited on the West Coast before.

Other events will include a Bed Turning at The Quilt Cabin (Karen Alexander), a discussion of possibly two early 20th century quilt designers; and a program on quilt conservation and restoration by professional quilt restorer Anne Dawson, also of Lopez Island.

This is a great opportunity to visit the beautiful San Juan Islands, the jewels of the Pacific Northwest, just north and west of Seattle by 90 minutes plus a 45-minute ferry ride. Or you can fly to Lopez from Seattle via Kenmore Air.

Revisiting 2007 U.K. Textile Study Tour

But first, a few more Fabric and Wallpaper Thoughts following Yesterday's unexpected surprises and Post...

In August of 2007, while visiting the Whitworth Art Gallery (which is associated with the University of Manchester, U.K.), our tour group was fortunate to encounter not only textiles but a special exhibit titled "Featuring Walls: Celebrating Three Centuries of Wall Paper Decoration". This exhibit lent itself nicely to the study of textile production. You could even get inspiration for quilt patterns!

Once you stumble on good quality A+ samples of historic wallpapers, you may be surprised by the daring colors that were used in paint, wallpaper, and fabric during particular periods of the 19th century. I was.

Speaking of wallpapers and color, I discovered a very interesting book in our wonderful little island library a couple of years ago -- "Fabrics and Wallpapers: Sources, Design and Inspiration" by Barty Phillips with Mary Schoeser as Consulting Editor and the forward by Gill Saunders, curator of wallpaper collection at Victoria & Albert Museum. Of course I had to order a copy of it. What a surprise when mine arrived. It had a fabric cover! Here are a few pages for you to browse. You can find it used on-line cheap, cheap, cheap!

A question I have loved exploring all my life: What are thread and fabric and textiles really all about beyond their practical use?

"Threads of Identity"

What an astounding story! It reminds of some of the amazing stories 

I have heard about "lost quilts."

Ah, textile history...human life woven and painted into cloth.

Speaking of textile history, I can't say enough good things about Deborah Robert's Quilt Study Tours! Just like her 2006 French tour I did, her 2007 U.K. Tour made history and as well as the UK itself come alive for me once again! (I had not been to England since my teen years when we family-camped all over the UK in 1960.) After my 2007 tour with Deb, the names of places in the U.K. that I read in the posts on the BQTHL (British Quilt & Textile History List) began to make sense to me.

Just for the fun of it, I have decided to revisit that 2007 tour via my blog.

Museum of Science & Industry –MOSI

I arrived in Manchester one day early on my own thus giving me time to adjust to the
time change and to visit the Museum of Science & Industry. This museum made the Industrial Revolution and textile production history I had been reading in the Chapman and Chassagene book “European Textile Printers in the Eighteenth Century: A
Study of Peel and Oberkamph” come alive! After visiting this museum, I was determined  to track down a copy of Philip Sykas’ “The Secret Life of Textiles”.

No luck finding it at museums or local bookstores while in Manchester (amazing!). However, I was able to get in touch with another British museum by email when I returned home and ordered it from them.  It is a treasure trove of early fabrics from swatch books found in six regional holdings in the U.K.

Also at the MOSI were wonderful quilt blocks and patchwork appliquéd hangings by local school children, some wonderful sample books that the curator showed a few of us, and another exhibit on the British to Asia textile trade routes and the types of fabrics they shipped back overseas --- after buying cotton from India, weaving it, printing it and selling it back to themas fabric.

There was even a corner on medical textiles....

and a jacket made of  “burst” thistledown seeds somehow sewn together. 

It couldn’t have weighed more than an ounce or two! Incredible! 

How in the world they made all those lovely fairy-like seeds stay together is beyond me. And I don’t see how it could ever be moved!

Unexpected Meaty Research Opportunity

In the afternoon of that first full day five of us spent several hours at the large public library, again looking at sample books! Yes, fabric sample books had been donated to the library! However, we couldn’t photograph these books like we had been given permission to do for  study purposes in various museums in the U.K.

While browsing the nearby bookshelves I stumbled upon “Farm and Cottage Inventories of Mid-Essex, 1635-1749” by Francis W. Steer (SBN 900592613) first published in 1950 and republished in 1969. I immediately began looking for the world “quilt”. The question that immediately came to my mind was the fact that the word ‘quilt’ did not appear in any inventories in the book until 1689/90. The last one appears in 1749, the last year the
book documents.

I quickly skimmed the whole book and made a list and had 15 pages copied by the assistant in the Reference Room. (I found far more references in the actual pages than I had found in the Index!) Now I have a list of the quilts and other references to bedding. The book even gave the name of the room in which the object was found! Only one or two give an actual description of the quilt but it was so exciting to even find any descriptive phrase. Wish I had been allowed to xerox the whole book! I later learned from Dorothy Osler that she had mined this book in depth when working on Traditional British Quilts (Batsford, 1987). Fortunately, Dorothy went on to write a book for all of us to reference!

This trip report is getting so long I am going to have to break it down in chapters! Oh, what a marvelous heritage the UK has and how generous everyone was with sharing the quilting part of it for two weeks! It's been great wandering down memory lane. Thanks for coming along! The Whitworth Art Gallery and York will be next!

Deb Robert's Textile Study Tours

Some of my AQSG buddies: Dawn Heefner, Deb Roberts, Mary Edgar and Kate Edgar. Behind Dawn is the curator whose name I do not, unfortunately, recall.

I have been most fortunate to have taken three of Deb Robert's Textile Study Tours. I cannot say enough good things about Deborah's organizational skills and contacts in Europe! The three tours I did had a major impact in my study and understanding of textile history.

Treat yourself. Or ask your partner/spouse to treat you!

Though the Whitworth is temporarily closed for renovation, you can still explore a few things on line.  Here is a link to their Textile history program called Talking Textiles and geared to children.

~ Keep those needles flying and spread the word about how quilts and textiles enrich your life and the life of our communities!

Cheers!

Karen

Old Connections: Wallpaper and Fabric

Don't you love Syncronicity!

I was browsing old family photos earlier today. Later in the morning I was trying to track down the designer of a contemporary fabric panel in my collection. 

In the process I stumbled across the Blue Hill website and saw their new "York" collection. 

The fabric looked so much like the wall paper behind my parents in a 1955 photo I had just stumbled across earlier this morning that I had to go back and look at the family photo again. 

Although it is not an exact match, it is so very close and was so exciting to find! 

Now I think I'll need to make a wall quilt using this line of fabric to frame the photo of my parents. Yes, one more UFO to add to my list...

Remember....

"You honor the life that has been given you by remembering and telling your stories."

       

(from Robin Moore's "Awakening the Hidden Storyteller")

Yippee! It's sunny today here in the Islands!

PS: Update - I wrote a little more today.

Doll Quilts at Historic Deepwood

Just back from doing a talk for Historic Deepwood in Salem, Oregon, where I also have an exhibit of doll quilts on display. I like using doll and crib quilts to teach an overview of quilt history. They are so much easier to transport!

"The Magic of Small Quilts" 
Exhibit Dates: Oct 4 to Nov 5, 2013

There are two rooms in this lovely restored house with a period theme to each room.  One currently is 20th century and the other 19th century. 

I decided to hang several period doll quilts on panels that could be hung on the wall in each room, in addition to any doll quilts that would be on a doll bed.

The late-19th century panel (above)

And now the quilts individually...

#1 (above) is a Four Patch on Point (16.5 x 13 inches) - blues, browns, white w/ red alternating squares,  ca 1870s-1880s.  It was well a used little and hopefully brought some little  girl a lot of joy in its use. The binding is shattered in one corner & worn on another side.

#2 (above) is a Four Block Redwork Nursery Tales Doll Quilt (16x16 inches) - ca 1890-1910. It contains no batting (inner layer) but nevertheless does contain cross-hatch quilting. It is in excellent condition with the slightest "foxing" around edges on the left side.

#3 is a Log Cabin Doll Quilt (18 x 17.5 inches) in dark blues, burgandy, black, a touch of lavender or pink in each block; some shirtings plus plaid binding. It has a dark seaweed-like patterned fabric backing  but can't find the photo at the moment. There is some damage to the center of the middle block, bottom row. Very nicely made.

The 20th century panel (below)

And now the 20th century quilts individually...

#4 - Butterfly quilts of all sizes were extremely popular in the first half of the 20 century. A nine block (ca late 40s-50s) appliqued butterfly pillow cover / doll quilt. Lots of red fabrics with colorful embroidery around each butterfly as well as blue embroidery used as sashing between each block. 10.5 x 10.5. There is no batting and no quilting. It is open on one side so may have been a doll's pillow cover at one time?

#5 - A favorite theme in my collecting is quilts associated with clowns or the circus in general. I have very fond memories of attending the circus as a child when the choices for public entertainment were far more limited than today. Here is a very small (13 x 8.5 inches) green embroidered Clown on yellow background with green binding (ca 1930-1950). This tiny little gem has lovely quilting.

#6 - The ubiquitous Sunbonnet Sue. I was so thrilled to find such a tiny one! This is backed with chenille. I knew "shabby chic" chenille items had once again become popular in the last decade. This little quilt doesn't look that recently made but it does have many elements of doll and crib quilts made out of repurposed materials in the past decade, such as the use of chenille, rick-rack and buttons. But the appliqued blocks themselves and the sashing are older. It's possible that the rick-rack and buttons were simply added recently to jazz it up a bit.

#7 - Sharon Fulton Pinka wrote in her synopsis of the paper she presented at the 2009 American Quilt Study Group Quilt Seminar, "Quilt block designer William Pinch is virtually unknown outside the Midwest, yet his patterns are found in quilts all over America. This study presents the background of William Bray Pinch and his Rainbow Quilt Block Company of Cleveland, Ohio, with an assessment of his influence in the quilt world. Through analysis of existing quilts, quilt block designs, advertising ephemera, and photographs, and aided by interviews, memorabilia, and correspondence from family members, William Pinch, the self-described “Maker of Pretty Quilt Blocks,” emerges as one of the most influential quilt block designers of the twentieth century."

You can read Sharon's paper in the 2009 edition of Uncoverings, the annual AQSG journal of papers presented at Seminar. Check with your local library or order a copy from AQSG.

Here is another source for Dolly Dimple and the Rainbow Quilt Block Co.

#8 - Teddy Bears.  Click here to read about what I wrote about Teddy Bears in an earlier blog post.

More photos to come of the rest of the exhibit!

Also, if you are on Facebook, check out the Crib & Doll Quilts-Vintage and Antique  page I started some time ago. Meanwhile.....   Keep those needles flying and spread the word about how quilts enrich your life and the life of our communities!

and remember,

~You honor the life that has been given you by remembering and telling your stories.       

(A quote from Robin Moore's "Awakening the Hidden Storyteller")