Sunbonnet Sue & Overall Sam, Still Kickin'

"A Meeting of the Sunbonnet Children"

by Betty J Hagerman (1979)

I never set out to collect Sunbonnet Sue & Overall Sam quilts.

Then how did so many wind up in my Quilt Cabin?

That could be a rather long story. How about we go with the short version. As I was moving quilts about the cabin recently, I suddenly realized I had so many SBS quilts that I could no longer ignore the fact that I must have been unconsciously collecting them. 

Most are rather eccentric and roughly made though. The photo below says it all.

(Below) Overall Sam/Bill hides his light under a lampshade.

However, there are a few very nicely made examples as well.

The most exciting part of collecting is the hunt, some say. But for me, there is also the documentation. That is another kind of "hunt" and requires time and sleuthing skills....and often sheer luck. Take "Sue Dusting the Flowers" as a case in point, a quilt added to my collection in November 2017. Whimsical, no?  I had never seen one like it before!

Now to find the source of the pattern. 

The first thing I did was check my copy of Betty Hagerman's book which you saw at the beginning of this post. Nada.....though there were a couple of designs that one could see might have inspired someone to rift in this direction, creating their own unique variation of SBS. But there certainly was no exact match.

Then I checked two other books in my personal library: Quilts for Babies & Children by Dolores A. Hinson (1983), Barbara Brackman's "Encyclopedia of Applique" (1993). Again, nothing.

But Lady Luck came a knocking the very next month via eBay. Though she didn't bring me the complete answer, she gave me a strong clue as to where to go digging next.......published embroidery patterns maybe?

Somebody inspired somebody.  Which came first?  The embroidered version or 

the appliqued version? What do you think? 

If you have any leads or clues, please leave a comment!

I hope to hang an exhibit of my eclectic SBS and Overall Sam collection next May or June telling the history if images of children and human figures on quilts. The exhibit will be here on Lopez island and will be a fund fund raiser for the maintenance of Woodman Hall, one of the oldest community buildings on the island. I hope to wrap it in with a meeting of the Washington Quilt Study Group as well  so stay tuned!

(I think we need to tweak this sign a bit so it is Sue & Sam doing the sawing!)

Click here to see more of my wacky SBS quilts and tops.

PS: See it again here: http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2018/05/sue-narratives.html

Spinning Wheel Quilt

Biedler Spinning Wheel 

from the Biedler Covered Bridge Farm 

of New Market Virginia

I have no experience spinning or weaving but I couldn't resist this quilt (67x98 from SE Ohio).

Anyone know if there was a published pattern at one time? Or do you think someone just created their own from a silhouette image?

(above) This is the only other spinning-wheel-focused quilt I have seen an image of seen.

The photo above is just one block from 
a quilt in my collection 

by African American quilt artist Marie Wilson.

This is another Marie Wilson quilt I jut discovered in the April 1987 back issue of Quilters Newsletter magazine. Does anyone know where this quilt resides now?

Why did I buy the spinning wheel quilt (other than the fact that I love old quilts, period!) I bought it mainly because I inherited a family spinning wheel from the Shenandoah Valley before I left Virginia in 2004!

Below is my youngest grandson exploring the old family spinning wheel.

 I am so grateful life took us to Virginia for 15 years, thus enabling me to do primary family research.  I inherited this beautiful object from 101 year-old Mary Lucille Biedler Piner, a distant cousin.  I discovered her brother Claude Daniel Biedler in Vienna, VA about 1991, which eventually led me to Lucille who lived in Shelby, NC at the time.

 Just above is a photo of Luciile's grandparents, her grandfather being my Grandfather's uncle and her grandmother being the one who originally owned the spinning wheel and from whom Lucille inherited it. This branch of the Biedler family lived near New Market, VA and built the Biedler Covered Bridge in 1895, the last covered bridge in Virginia on private land (not owned by the state) that is still in daily use.  Some of my research on this family was referenced in the book "The Covered Bridges of Virginia" by Leola B. Pierce.

Besides the spinning wheel, I also inherited 15 Farm Ledgers from Lucille about the building and working of the Biedler Covered Bridge Farm from the 1870-1960. The ledgers even list all the men hired to make the bricks right there on the farm and lists all the construction supplies Daniel ordered

from Baltimore.

One or two of the ledgers I have were kept by the women of the family. In those ledgers they recorded the money they made from the selling of their turkeys / chickens / and eggs. I was told that money was theirs to spend as they chose for they hard earned it. It is all great reading if you love studying cultural history.

BELOW: A spinning wheel I found on line that looks very similar to mine.

Here is another photo (below) I found with the parts of the spinning wheel identified and labeled.

You can read more about this family farm by clicking here and going to my Biedler blog.

So many more things to write about, but it is time to get back to a quilting deadline I have.   I actually don't quilt very often. As much as I love it, I love research and writing even more so that is where I spend most of my time.

Hope you keep files of your own family history for future generations!

Happy Holidays!

Karen

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Why so Passionate about Quilt History?

A friend asked me recently how I could get so excited about quilt history. To her the color and design of quilts is what excited her, as well as the connection to the person to whom she was going to give the quilt, not necessarily the history of quilts in general. I had to really ponder her question.

I love the color and the design as well. But I also love the "connectedness" of quilts.  All quilts ultimately contain a story. It's just that most of them we will never know. But its ferreting out the leads, however small, that intrigues me. 

These are objects made by women for the most part and they are powerful contextual carries of women's history as well as community history. They were the voice of women long before most women were allowed to have a voice in public matters. 

Several blogs have written about an image similar to the one above found on a quilt from the 1850s.  Barbara Brackman's blog adds background material to the story. A silk quilt made by Quaker activist Deborah Coates's pictured in the book Heart and Hands: Women, Quilts, and American Society, was cut in half for two descendants and the image of the chained slave discovered by a future generation.

The threaded needle was also a vehicle of livelihood for women in the 1800s when there were few options available. 

Quilts reflect the various eras of art history as well as changing social values. They also reflect and document Western societies' shift in attitudes and perceptions of children and childhood. The illustrations of author Kate Greenway were some of the first images of children translated into needlework patterns and one can trace children's dress, games and moral education thru quilt patterns.

Quilts came into their own as vehicles of community fund raising in the 1800s and, as a consequence, bear the signatures of thousands of women and other community members. One will soon discover upon acquiring a Signature Quilt that one can actually tease out the stories of these lives thru diligently digging into historical records. And one will be astounded at the millions of dollars that have been raised thru Fund Raising Quilts since the early 1800s to this day.

Quilts have literally helped make sense out of world history for me and the pursuit of this passion has led to friendships all over the world.

What is your passion?

Cheers,

Karen

Quilt Style Timeline + Cheatercloth or Faux Patchwork

Quilts that don't come with a date stitched into them or somehow inked on them have other ways of giving us clues as to their approximate age. Style is just one clue. Here is a general style guideline handed out at the first meeting of the Northern Virginia Quilt & Fabric Dating Club in June 1995. I have barely tweaked it. Any suggestions or additions?

As you can see, it doesn't go much beyond 1950. New categories have been established by quilt appraisers for quilts after 1950, I am sure, so it's probably time for me to update this list. But since most quilts in my collection pre-date 1960, I haven't yet taken the time to update my own list.

General Quilt Style Timeline

Wholecloth..........1700s-1865
(includes whitework, trapunto-stuffed and corded,

Blue Resist)

Wool or worsted..........1750-1840

Cut-out chintz or Broderie Perse..........1775-1865

Pieced Chintz..........1775 - 1863

Square on point.........1800 - ??

Red and Green on white.........1830-1900

Blue (prints) and white..........1830—1930

Fancy silks..........1830-1910

Four Block (applieque not Broderie Perse)..........1840-1900

Album (all same block pattern)..........1840 - present

Album (appliqué Sampler)..........1840-1900

Two color quilts (red & white, blue & white, etc) 1840-1925

Hawaiian quilts..........1840 - present

Charm quilts..........1870-1950

Log Cabin at its peak..........1870-1890

Foundation (string and crazy)..........1875 – present

Utility and comforters..........1875 – 1950

Amish classics (wool)..........1880-1940

Outline embroidery (for fund raising to 1950).....1880 – present

Turn of 20th century dark colors..........1890-1925

Marie Webster’s appliqués appear in pastel colors in LHJ Jan 1911

Pastel – white background – Art Deco..........1915 – present

Fabric Dating 

For me, the strongest clue is usually the fabric itself, but that took years of studying lots of old quilts and the clues break down within this category, too: scale of print, color scheme within individual prints, printing techniques, print styles, weave.

Solid colors can be a problem, though. Then you have to rely on any number of other clues, like pattern, style, the combination of the solid colors used in the quilt, dyes, etc.

Eileen Jahnke Trestain books, "Dating Fabrics, A Color guide 1800-1960" and "Dating Fabrics, A Color guide 1950-2000" are the two handiest guide books I have come across to help see the differences in color and design, era by era, at a glance.

Cheater Cloth or Faux Patchwork

The term "cheatercloth" was new to me as I began studying quilt history in the early 1980s. Some folks call it "faux" patchwork cloth. Others simply call it "pre-printed patchwork." For me it's especially fun to find the early stuff, i.e. pre 1900 but I do also buy small pieces of 20th century "cheater cloth" because they are good tools to show what color combinations were popular at a given time period.

Here are a couple of items from my doll quilt collection and yardage collection.

A circa 1890 doll quilt  11x17 

Quilt segment (above showing) use of "cheater cloth" or "pre-printed patchwork" as most quilt historians prefer to call it now.  Notice the different color-way on the back. I think the whole thing was "pre-created quilt" using "pre-printed patchwork" fabric.

Fairly recently produced printed patchwork honoring quilters.

Another delightful doll quilt (1930s) using printed patchwork fabric.

A darling quilted doll coat using printed patchwork cloth. Probably 1970s.

Unused printed patchwork yardage - 1960-70s?

Above a young child wears. pre-printed patchwork. My guess is 1970-1989. What do you think?

A dress of printed patchwork seen in Indiana. Probably 1950s.

Unused printed patchwork yardage - ca 1900-1925? Or is it a recent reprint mimicking that era?

Doll quilt - 13 x 23. The woman to whom this once belonged was born in 1917. 

The daughter was selling her mother's belongings after he mother and passed and 

did not know who made this little quilt.

Check out another preprinted "cheater-cloth" child's quilt in my collection here.  It is a Raphael-Tuck & Sons preprinted fabric.