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History of Quilting:
The dictionary defines a quilt as a bed cover made of two layers
of cloth with a layer of wool or down between them. The layers are held
together and the filling kept in place by stitching. In truth a quilt means
warmth and comfort. The knights of old wore quilted vests under their suits
of armor. Chinese peasants wore quilted jackets to keep out the cold. Some
where a woman, her family facing a long cold winter with few blankets,
stitched together scraps of worn clothing to make a warm cover, and Patchwork
quilting came into being.
To bring some small measure of beauty into their homes, women made
their patchwork into decorative patterns. The patterns were named for events
in their lives, and became a historical record, not only of their own lives,
but of our country.
Patchwork patterns were named for every aspect of daily life. Birds
in Air, Bear's Paw, Broken Dishes, Grandmother's Fan, Dresden Plate, Railroad
Crossing, Wild Geese, and Turkey Tracks are only a few examples.
Sailor's wives who made quilts during months of waiting and worrying,
named their blocks Ocean Wave, Captain's Wheel, Storm at Sea, Mariner's
Compass and World Without End. Some appliquéd blocks depicted sea
tragedies and mass drowning.
By the 1700's there was more leisure time and commerce was flourishing.
Materials were used more lavishly and with more and more expertise. The
quilting bee came into being. One journal described a quilting bee that
lasted 10 days. Taxes imposed by the British caused an American boycott
against imports and by 1750 ninety percent of American Farmers fabricated
their own clothing. During the War for Independence, women of every class
made quilts. The Quilt patterns, Burgoyne Surrounded and Washington's Quilt,
reflect that period of history.
Weaving mills came to New England in the 1820's. The farm girls
who came to work in the mills were happy to be self supporting. They worked
a 14 hour day, six days a week. They lived in dormitories and sent money
home to their families. When prices for woven goods went down, the mills
increased the speed of the machines, and reduced pay so that they worked
twice as hard for less pay.
Album quilts were made of signed quilt squares. The squares were
made from scraps of clothing by friends and family. They were comforting
reminders of home.
In 1830, Northern women began to speak out against slavery. The
Mill girls, feeling a kinship to the dark women slaving in the South, added
their signatures to petitions to abolish slavery.
In the South, four year old girls became house slaves to tend to
new babies. Many of the beautiful quilts passed down as family heirlooms
were made by house slaves. Both slaves and quilts were the property of
the family who owned them.
Harriet Powers life as a slave is recorded in her African tradition
quilt. Banned from using their own language and practicing their religion
slaves preserved their heritage in their quilts and their music. After
working in the fields all day, many women quilted at night using worn out
clothing for scraps and using bark and plants to dye those scraps. These
quilts were a necessity because slaves were only given one blanket every
3 years.
Independent Hog was a code word for escaped slaves. Slaves who
were caught faced imprisonment, torture and death. The underground railroad
used quilts to identify a network of safe houses for runaway slaves. Quilts
were hung on clothes lines as a signal. Underground quilts were maps for
the slaves to follow on their way North. Quilts became a protest against
oppression. The names used were Jacob's Ladder, Deliver Me, Underground
railroad, North Star and Harriet Philadelphia. Harriet Tubman had escaped
to Philadelphia by way of the Underground Railway.
Women of the North made quilts and sold or raffled them to raise
money for the Abolitionist cause. Their motto was "May the use of our needles
prick the conscience of the slave holders." Elizabeth Keckley was a slave
who supported the family who owned her by her skill with a needle. The
father of her son was her master. Angry that her son was also treated as
a slave, she borrowed they money from her clients to buy her freedom. She
moved north to the White House and became the dressmaker for Mary Todd
Lincoln.
Quilts with the symbols of hearts and hands and inscribed with
patriotic messages were sent off to war with soldiers from both sides.
The Troop needed uniforms and blankets. The women sent masses of uniforms,
quilts and bandages. The women of the North established the United States
Sanitary Commission. They provided food, clothing and medical supplies
to the troops at the front. The New York Branch alone sent twenty six thousand
quilts to the front.
When the war ended, Elizabeth Keckley made a quilt of elegant silk
scraps with an eagle in the center. A quilt was made of remnants confederate
uniforms. One woman made a quilt inscribed with 47 battles her husband
and fought in and survived.
The growing country reached out for more land and more space and
to many men the prospect of owning their own land was irresistible. Log
Cabins seemed quaint and romantic. In 1865 immigrants traveled to the West
to build new communities and start new lives. Wives had no choice but to
follow their husbands or be left behind. So packing their dishes in their
quilts, and leaving behind family, friends, and all but the basic necessities,
they traveled to the land of the future. At the end of a long hard journey
they found a one room mud and stick hut, and a life of hardship and loneliness
in their log cabin.
These women decorated their walls with the same quilts that padded
their dishes on the trip, used them for doors to their home, and hung them
between beds for privacy. Often they buried their babies in the quilts
they had stitched to welcome them.
Log Cabin Quilts are a great favorite to this day. The square center
of the block is usually red and represents the heart and hearth of home.
This square is surrounded by strips that represent the stacked logs of
a log cabin. As the country became more settled, there were neighbors and
then friends. A quilt maker's journal records that there were fifteen to
quilt. Friendships grew as women talked about their lives and problems.
They traded scraps left from garments. The Log Cabin Quilt variations grew.
Barn Raising, Light and Dark, Straight Furrow, Courthouse Steps, Pineapple,
Windmill Blades, Streak of Lightening. Selling chances on quilts raised
money for a new church roof, books for a library.
Daughters in the family helped with sewing clothes when they were
old enough to hold a needle. Many girls had completed a full sized quilt
cover by the age of 5. They were also expected to have made all the towels,
blankets and bed linen for their own homes, as well as a series of quilt
tops, before they married. Traditionally the 13th quilt top was the Bride's
Quilt and was meant for the marriage bed. Actually it was a form of final
exam in household skills. A wife who could sew well was a real necessity
because she supplied the family with clothes.
A young woman often announced her engagement at a quilting bee,
and her friends gathered to help with the quilting of the tops. Unquilted
tops that came to light in later years may have been made by women who
did not marry.
Turkey red fabric came into being. It was a great favorite for
many years. The first Centennial was celebrated with red white and blue
quilts. Flag quilts.
In 1852 thousands of settlers headed for Oregon. They traveled
by Covered Wagon. Their wives took their patchwork quilts and calicoes
with them.
Abigail Dunaway kept a Journal when she left home for Oregon. She
was accompanied by her mother and sister. Her mother died along the way
as did many of the immigrants. There was little trouble with the Sioux
Indians as the travelers believed that if they did not harm the Indians,
the Indians would not harm them. They admired the bold geometric designs
woven into the blankets. New patchwork blocks were influenced by Indian
designs and were named, Indian basket, Indian teepee, Prairie Sun, Cactus
Basket, Feathered Star, Rocky Mountain Road. The travelers passed many
graves. The Sawtooth Edge block was influenced by the wearing away of edge
of the trail where the immigrants wandered off the path to read grave markers.
Many who had gone before them were buried in shallow graves by side of
the road. They reached Oregon. More quilt blocks were named. Pine Tree,
Dog at the Window, Wedding Ring.
Abigail Married and raised a large family. Abigail wrote " Rise
above discouragement" in her journal when her husband was seriously injured
and unable to work. Abigail opened a millinery shop to support her family.
Abigail met Susan B. Anthony, a suffragist, who was concerned with
the plight of women who sewed for a living. Abigail started a newspaper
and worked for women's right to vote. Together the women demanded an 8
hr workday, and equal pay for equal work. In 1918 Woman won the right to
vote, and Abigail Dunaway was the first woman to vote.
The invention of the sewing machine and travel by train increased
leisure time. The crazy quilt became fashionable. It was a means to demonstrate
needlework skills. Geometric designs were discarded. Working women were
considered overtaxed and underpaid. Women who stayed home were frivolous
and expensive.
Women bore the brunt of domestic violence caused by alcohol and
banded together in the Women's Temperance Union. Wearing a symbolic white
ribbon, the women of Ohio closed 3000 taverns in a month. Quilts were the
banners that brought home into politics. Blue and white quilts in the Drunkards
Path pattern and the Temperance Goblet pattern influenced social reform.
The members of the Temperance Union petitioned to abolish drug and alcohol
trade.
In 1900 factory made blocks were sold. There were lots of quilt
kits. In 1915 the first book about quilts was published. In 1929 the second
book was published. There was a renewed interest in researching blocks,
and quilters started labeling their quilts.
When catalogs started selling blankets and bedcovers, interest
in quilting declined. This decline was temporary. The depression in 1929
brought a renewed interest in quilting. Newspapers and magazines reproduced
old quilt patterns. New patterns were invented. The themes were patriotic
and technological. Art Deco styles came into vogue. Quilting and crafts
were encouraged to promote employment under the WPA.
Quilts were purchased for their beauty and their historical interest.
In 1943 "The Victory Quilt" won a National Needlework Competition.
In 1969 Quilters could find few supplies for their craft. Fabric
stores were full of synthetics. Even so, a revolution in quilting was beginning.
In the 1960 The freedom Quilting Bee in Alabama, and the Mountain Artisans
Cooperative in West Virginia was organized. Soon women from these financially
deprived areas were earning money by supplying quilts to stores in the
cities. The Quilting Boom was just beginning. The Hudson River Quilt, made
to raise funds for cleaning up the river, was the first of many community
quilts made during the Bicentennial era.
Collecting, dating, and researching old quilts resulted in an interest
in reproducing them. Small quilt clubs and groups were beginning to form
all over the country. Quilted clothing was gaining popularity.
In 1970, Doug Tompkins, owner of Esprit de corps began collecting
quilts that were hung in the San Francisco Company headquarters. The first
"Patch in Time" quilt show was organized by Joyce Gross and the Mill Valley
Quilt Authority in California. (Joyce Gross will show some of her collection
at the Petaluma History Museum during the Great Petaluma Quilt Show.)
During the past twenty years the Quilting industry has grown and
flourished. Many young women who had no quilting heritage, began careers
in the quilt industry. They became teachers, and published books on quilting.
They sold quilts and quilt related products. They invented new tools and
accessories for quilters. They developed new designs and new techniques.
They designed fabrics and opened Quilt Shops. Quilt shows have become international
events. The new world Ave of quilts is ever changing and always fresh and
exciting. The ingenuity of the new quilt maker will not
allow the craft to become stale or dated.
Quilt making is an art form of international interest. Quilt makers
no longer copy old patterns. Every design is fresh and exciting. The average
new quilt pattern lasts only a few months before it is replaced by something
new.
Quilter's enthusiasm is boundless. They travel from Quilt Show
to Quilt Show. Vacations follow the trail of Quilt Shops. They carry their
work with them. They collect, not only quilts, but patterns, fabrics, and
notions. A new fabric is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and
the modern quilter has been there and back many times.
Geraldine O'Connor
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