Thoughts about Quilting

Check out this fun timeline of the history of quilts...

http://explorer.quiltstudy.org/timeline.html

Brought to us by the International Quilt Study & Center. They also have a huge Quilt Index online.

This timeline is great, starting at 1700 and going to the present, very cool!

Of course, right in my own backyard (Austin, TX) is a wonderful collection of quilts and quilt research materials. At the Center for American History on the University of Texas campus is the "Center for the Quilt". So, I will continue to check it out. Plus, at the historic Winedale Center they have events related to quilt study and quilt exhibits.

Check it out:
Winedale Center for the Quilt

The center is involved in a quilt documentation project called Boxes under the Bed -- and an online research tool called The Quilt Index.

A Crazy Quilt
by Douglas Malloch

They do not make them any more,
For quilts are cheaper at the store
Than women’s labor, though a wife
Men think the cheapest thing in life.
But now and then a quilt is spread
Upon a quaint old walnut bed,
A crazy quilt of those old days
That I am old enough to praise.

Some woman sewed these points and squares
Into a pattern like life’s cares.
Here is a velvet that was strong,
The poplin that she wore so long,
A fragment from her daughter’s dress,
Like her, a vanished loveliness;
Old patches of such things as these,
Old garments and old memories.

And what is life? A crazy quilt;
Sorrow and joy, and grace and quilt,
With here and there a square of blue
For some old happiness we knew;
And so the hand of time will take
The fragments of our lives and make,
Out of life’s remnants, as they fall,
A thing of beauty, after all.


***********
I’m at that stage I reach with every quilt in which I need to procrastinate. Other things come up and I don’t feel like moving to the next step with my current sewing project. I’ve almost finished the top of my sun quilt, and I just need to finish the border and then sandwich and tie... unless I decide to be adventurous and machine quilt it... we’ll see.

But, in the interim, I’ve been to the library and found some great books on quilting history.

First book; “Romance of the Patchwork Quilt” by Kretsinger (1935)

“The pieced quilt in pioneer days provided means of turning to good account the precious scraps of printed cottons, at that period so rare and costly.”

Okay, so we know that! But, here’s another observation by Mrs. Kretsinger, “In the ready-cut quilts offered for sale are seen the effects of this hurrying age in which we live.” Already in 1935, I never would have guessed. One underlying theme of this book, besides the wonderful reference material, is that when it was published there was a resurgence in quilting and other “colonial arts”.

I would definitely recommend it if you were researching a quilt block design, looking for the historical name of it, for instance. There are 37 plates of photos of quilt blocks with their name and arranged in themes, stars, flowers, etc.

Recycling and Resourcefulness: Quilts of the 1930s

October 21, 2008 - March 15, 2009
American Folk Art Museum
45 West 53rd Street
New York, NY 10019
www.folkartmuseum.org

Quote from the Folk Art Museum :
"Recycling & Resourcefulness: Quilts of the 1930s" will highlight twelve quilts from the International Quilt Study Center & Museum, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, which were made during the Depression era by thrifty women who reused clothing, flour and feed sacks, and other recycled fabrics to create "new" bedcovers in a variety of vibrant patterns. Also on view will be works from the American Folk Art Museum's collection that further explore the theme of recycling, such as the Wonderbread Rug, woven from plastic Wonderbread bags; Baby Blanket, made up entirely of condoms in aluminum wrappers; tramp art made from cigar boxes; bottle-cap figures; and quilts made from men's clothing fabrics and patriotic silk ribbons.

Watch this lecture that compliments the exhibit.

Lecture:
"Recycling and Resourcefulness: Quilts of the 1930s" by Merikay Waldvogel
_presented July 19, 2007

This lecture was very interesting, my first real exposure to the study of quilts, besides the occasional article. Some highlights are one quilt discovered from the 1930’s that was designed by an African American artist and created by women who were the wives of government workers in Alabama. They were there working on flood control and the women spent time together quilting. The design was completely different than the standard quilt blocks, it employs applique of a black man figure, between the white hand of the government and the figure of a woman. This is a wonderfully artistic and powerfully symbolic quilt.

The other interesting aspect of this lecture, and the major portion of it, is the description of the quilt contest that resulted in the Chicago World’s Fair of 1933 quilt exhibit. The contest was sponsored by Sears and produced some amazingly detailed and innovative quilts. Later many of these same quilts were displayed in an exhibit put on by the speaker, Merikay Waldvogel in connection with the book: "Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair".