Quilts for an Exhibit

Today, I hit the road and go to Philomath, Oregon, home of the Benton County Historical Museum. The museum hosts a big quilt show every other year as part of Quilt County, a county-wide display of quilts. In 2011, The Benton County Museum will host a show of my New York Beauty quilts, and the space can accommodate about 18 full sized quilts.

Since my last visit to the museum, this group of quilts has grown to include 26 examples. I have 25 of them, the other I won on eBay just this week. The show will be a unique glimpse at quilt history as seen in variations on one pattern, known primarily as New York Beauty. 

Funny story about how the show came to be. I was an unlikely looking member of the Columbia Willamette Quilt Study Group when the group visited the museum in March. We were there to view quilts from the Susan Cockrell Collection, an educational collection conceived by an east coast collector who, philanthropically, wanted to spread culture throughout the west. 

I was one of the last people to arrive, and was wearing my usual jeans and a vintage looking Ford T-shirt, probably wearing flip-flops. At the door, we were greeted by a very attractive lady who naturally asked me if I was part of the group. I get that all the time. I'm usually the only guy in the group, I'm 6'4" 225 lbs., and I'm usually dressed waaaayy down. Except for my watch. But that's another story.

We laughed, and I learned her name - Irene Zenev - Executive Director of the museum. Who was I, and why was I there, I'm sure she wondered. 

Early American Union Quilt, 1796-1895. Read more about this quilt.

During the viewing of the Cockrell Collection, I'd been out of my seat, bouncing back and forth between the two tables. Gushing with semi-scholarly observations, I was tickled pink by the museum's appreciation of the quilts, even though they were not all in the best condition. Among those, the Early American Union Quilt was my favorite, hands down. The museum's position was the same as my own. These quilts must be preserved.

By the end of the day someone must have mentioned something to Irene about me having a collection of quilts. I guess they said good things. Irene pulled me aside. She wanted to know - and it was OK if I said no - but she wanted to know if I would be willing to show my quilts at the museum in 2011. I was happy, and said yes with no hesitation. 

A few months later, I visited the museum with 20 quilts from my collection. I met with Irene, Mary Gallagher, Liz Hoffman, and Mark Tolonen. We looked at all types of quilts, including some New York Beauties, and we all agreed it would be fantastic to have a show of all the New York Beauties. They've never been exhibited as a group.

My idea for the show is to take viewers on a journey through time. They will see 150 years of quilt history in a pattern, but they will also see an important dichotomy among the group. 

Condition varies greatly throughout my collection. Some quilts are in such pristine condition, you can see the pencil marks. Others are so tattered, it will be difficult to decide where to sew the hanging sleeves. I maintain a group called "Rescue Quilts" - quilts that display qualities of a masterpiece but are in poor condition. There are several New York Beauties among the rescue quilts.

So I'm bringing a small stack of quilts with me today, and will look forward to planning out my first show. I've got a lot of little questions. What information do they need? Who will make the tags? Do the quilts need sleeves for hanging? Before the show is mounted, will I be able to bring some of the quilts over to Sisters for my evening lecture during the Quilter's Affair? It's new territory for all of us. I've never had a show, and they've never had a show of a private collection maintained outside the museum.

Looks like a nice day for a drive!

Hidden Stone by Jean Wells Keenan

Hidden Stone, by Jean Wells Keenan, 2010

I don't often write about quilts that are not part of my collection, but I feel strongly connected to Hidden Stone, 2010, by Jean Wells Keenan. When I first met Jean in April, she was teaching a class in the back room at the Stitchin' Post. The Oregon Quilt Project was in town, and was launching the multiyear statewide quilt documentation project the following day. The documentation was a two-day event, and on day two, we were privileged to document the quilts of Jean Wells Keenan and her daughter Valori.

When Jean was dropping off quilts in the morning, she talked about a quilt she wanted to rework. She was unhappy with the quilt because it hadn't gotten in to a juried show, and she was talking about cutting it up.

"Don't cut that quilt!" I said to Jean, even though we'd just met. "There must be something else you can do besides taking a scissor to it." She seemed entertained by my candor, flashed a winning smile, and invited me over to the shop to have a look at the quilt after the documentations were done. Jean called it her "red" quilt.

If you haven't been to the Stitchin' Post in Sisters, Oregon, you must go! It's wonderful. I love it, and I don't really even know how to sew. The shop is tantalizing, mesmerizing, and luckily, I snapped out of it long enough to realize I was there to see Jean's quilt. She was in the back, finishing up a class. The class was full of women from all across the U.S. A lovely lady named Honore, who came all the way from Washington D.C., was there. Honore had invited me in the day before, when I'd curiously popped my head in the door, not wanting to interrupt Jean's class.

A few of us gathered around a table as Jean spread out her quilt. The quilt was like a magnet for small pieces of thread floating around the room, and Jean brushed off some of the threads. She pointed to one end of the quilt and said that was the area she was thinking about cutting because it wasn't as lively, visually, as she wanted it to be.

"I don't think you need to cut it up to save it," I said. "Why don't you make some of those mini quilts, like the ones on some of your other quilts?"

"Quiltlets," she said.

"Quiltlets?" I'd never heard the term before. Jean told me she that's what she called the applied miniature quilts, and she seemed to like the idea. It was less drastic than cutting up the quilt, and she could move the small pieces around on the quilt until they looked right. "It could really help balance out the quilt," I added. 

Shortly after my return home to Portland, I received a handwritten note from Jean, and in it, she thanked me for the suggestion. When I returned to Sisters in June, I saw the quilt. Jean had taken my suggestion, and the quilt looked amazing. In July, it was part of her very first art gallery showing at the High Desert Gallery on the weekend of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. The Oregon Quilt Project documented the quilt at the show, and Jean was the toast of the town. It was her 35th Outdoor Quilt Show, and just weeks later she would be inducted in the Quilters Hall of Fame in Marion, Indiana.

As the Quilt Show was winding down, Jean asked if I would photograph the quilt for her. She wanted to try another juried show. It made me happy that she felt I'd do a good job, so we arranged to have the quilt sent to my house, where I photographed it in my loft. The quilt was hanging on a stand for about a day, and I took photographs of it at different times. It seemed to change throughout the day, and looked different every time I saw it. There was something magical about the color.

I was just thinking about this quilt because I'd recently been looking at pictures of it, after seeing it again at the Northwest Quilting Expo. At the show, I had to get a pair of white gloves to pick a few pieces of thread off of it. Then it was perfect! 

Today, I received news that Hidden Stone was selected for a prestigious award at the Santa Clara Quilt Festival. The quilt won Best Use of Color! I'm thrilled for Jean, glad the pictures worked out so well, and happy to know so many others will get to enjoy the quilt. I feel like Jean put a little bit of me into the quilt when she took my advice. That's a wonderful feeling.

Suspension Bridge - Variation on a Classic

I wrote a lot in yesterday's blog, so today I'm just going to post some photos and a few notes about two Suspension Bridge quilts. Suspension Bridge is a variation on a classic - the traditional Rocky Mountain Road / Crown of Thorns pattern later known as New York Beauty. The earliest date I've found for a published pattern called Suspension Bridge is 1922, from the Ladies Art Company Quilt Pattern Book. The pattern also has other names, including Sunflower.

The quilt came from Cindy Rennels of Cindy's Antique Quilts in Clinton, Oklahoma. It was recently displayed as part of an exhibit called "New Quilts from an Old Favorite: Sunflower" from March 19-June 15, 2010, at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky. This quilt comes with a circa date of 1880. Several of the fabrics appear to be from the late 19th century, but there may be clues to indicate a later date.

I bought another quilt of the same pattern a few years ago, and it had also been given a circa date around 1880. Knowing how difficult it is to date solid fabrics, I may need to rely on some other clues to get a truly accurate idea of the date. When I saw the 1922 published pattern, it made me think this quilt could be as late as 1925. Just because it's red, white, and green doesn't mean it's 19th century.

Fabrics are major clues, but there are always other clues. The width of the binding, method of quilting, threads, date the pattern was published, quilt size and other characteristics may ultimately unlock the mysteries of both quilts. These two quilts look vastly different because of the use of fabrics, but both have 13" blocks with 7 points on each of the four quarter-circle wedges, and a center square in each block. The seemingly identical block design and size may be my biggest clue. It doesn't seem like a coincidence that both quilts share these block dimensions and characteristics.

Separated at Birth: My Virtual AQSG Poster Presentation

The subject of my Poster Presentation: two quilts from West Virginia

The American Quilt Study Group (AQSG) holds one big feature event each year. They call it Seminar. Held at a new location each year, the AQSG Seminar brings quilt enthusiasts and scholars together for a weekend engaged in quilt study. In addition to the presentation of research papers chosen for publication in "Uncoverings" and a renowned keynote speaker, Seminar offers pre-conference tours, study centers, and roundtable discussions all directed toward the interests of quilt lovers.

This year, Seminar will also have a Poster Presentation, which will include a dozen research projects currently in progress. Originally, it was supposed to be a baker's dozen, but since I couldn't be there in person this year, I thought I'd talk about it here. This is my Virtual AQSG Poster Presentation.

This quilt was misidentified after it was separated from its family.

My subject, Separated at Birth, centers around the discovery of a connection between two quilts. Both quilts are masterpiece album quilts with lyre center blocks. One quilt is part of my collection, acquired in 2006. I first saw the quilt five years earlier, when I was visiting the home of Shelly Zegart in Louisville, Kentucky.

It was the only quilt Shelly showed me that day, and it was not for sale at the time. Shelly had recently purchased it from the estate of Sandra Mitchell, a prolific quilt collector and dealer who had just passed away. When Shelly pulled the box from under a bed and opened it, I was absolutely blown away. Thinking back to when I first saw the quilt, never in a million years did I think I'd own it one day, much less unlock the mystery behind its origins.

Detail shows the incredibly dense echo quilting. 

I'd never seen a quilt with such dense quilting. The entire white space on the quilt was echo quilted in rows separated by 1/16th of an inch, and around 10 stitches per inch in each row. The applique fabric was all in mint condition, but wasn't quilted, giving it a raised effect. Fabrics included a fairly common over-dyed green floral print, a lavender floral print, a cheddar orange solid, and a deep brick red solid that some have called oxblood.

The quilt was featured in Shelly's 1995 book, "American Quilt Collections: Antique Quilt Masterpieces" - but at the time, none of us realized it had been misidentified after its separation from the family. The information was part of the entry for the Sandra Mitchell Collection, and the quilt was identified as a Pennsylvania Album from 1865, maker unknown.

In 2006, a series of very unlikely events led me to purchase the quilt. In 2009, I decided to post some pictures of it on my web site and bring it to show the Columbia Willamette Quilt Study Group (CWQSG). The group was very interested in the quilt, and CWQSG Coordinator Martha Spark thought it could have been made earlier than 1865 because of the level of detail.

Back in 1995, when Shelly published her book, the West Virginia Heritage Quilt Search was halfway through a ten-year-long, statewide quilt documentation project. The project culminated in 2000, with the release of "West Virginia Quilts and Quiltmakers: Echoes from the Hills" by Fawn Valentine.

I did not learn about the book until 2009, and it was just by chance - an unexpected, indirect result of my participation in the CWQSG meeting. After the meeting, Martha Spark was corresponding with Fawn Valentine and my quilt came up. When Fawn discovered the picture on my web site, she sent a note to Martha, which Martha forwarded to me.

Fawn and I started to correspond. She told me there was a quilt almost exactly like it in West Virginia, and felt my quilt had possibly been misidentified. The almost-identical quilt was in her book - that's when I learned about the book.  It was difficult to accept that there could be anything like my quilt, but I thought maybe there would be some design references or other similarities. So, I ordered a copy of the book.

When the book arrived, I was floored. The image on the cover was basically identical to one of the baskets on my quilt. The quilting was the same, and I'd never seen that anywhere else before. The lack of quilting on the applique was also the same, but there was much more inside the book. On page 110-111, there is a full description with detail and full view photos of the album quilt, made by Harriet Small of Berkeley County, West Virginia in 1850.

You could've knocked me over with a feather. I was absolutely stunned. Of the 25 individual block designs, 19 of them can be called a match. Click here to see the block comparison (PDF). The quilt also shares the same wandering vine borders, same lyre motif in the center block, and as mentioned, the same quilting and same lack of quilting in the applique. Six designs are unique to each quilt, and the level of sophistication varies from one quilt to the other.

Harriet Small's quilt, as documented by the WV Heritage Quilt Search.

Through a little genealogy research and more correspondence, I learned my quilt was made by Harriet's mother, Mary Couchman Small (1800-1863). The Small family had a farm in Martinsburg, Berkeley County - about 100 miles west of Baltimore - and it was a rare piece of flat, river bed land amidst more rugged terrain. The farm was located close to a main road, and is now occupied by a GM plant. Mary's daughter, Harriet, was born in 1836, which would've made her 14 years old around 1850. Mary would've been 50 at the time. According to one genealogy record, Harriet may have died shortly after 1850.

Family records indicate both quilts descended through the family of Harriet's sister, Elizabeth Jane Small Sperow, but around 1995, when West Virginia was documenting Harriet's quilt, the family couldn't lead the search team to Mary's quilt. There was a reference to the second quilt in a note sent by the family to Valentine, but no response to the request for pictures and more information. Sandra Mitchell had likely bought Mary's quilt by then - later it appeared in Shelly's book - and it's also possible that it was found in Pennsylvania, where descendants of the Sperow family resided.

To understand why this quilt was separated from its history, it's important to know a little more about Mitchell. The woman had an incredible eye for quilts. She was disliked by some, for being somewhat abrupt and disheveled looking, but was well loved by others. Julie Silber, who admiringly called Mitchell the "Queen of Cheddar" says "Sandra Mitchell was hard to miss...and hard to forget..."

One thing's for sure. Sandra Mitchell was shrewd. She was also a hoarder. When she died in 2000 at age 58, her affairs were very much in disarray. One source close to the estate liquidation called it a huge mess. Apparently, Mitchell collected all types of things including glass paperweights, Cabbage Patch Dolls and quilts. It is unclear whether or not there was a will, but I suspect there wasn't.

NOTE: There is more about Sandra Mitchell in the series "Why Quilts Matter" and The Quilt Digest, volume 4.

In the last decade, many of Sandra Mitchell's quilts have surfaced on the open market and some are currently available. By the time I received Mary Couchman Small's quilt, it was well removed from its history, including the Sandra Mitchell estate liquidation. I was aware that it had once been part of Mitchell's collection, but all I really knew was what was printed in Shelly's book. I've learned a lot since then, and feel the separation between the two quilts happened unintentionally. It's possible Mitchell was not provided with the history, but if that history had only made it to Shelly, it would've been preserved in great detail.

This research has been a wonderful journey for me, so far. I learned the two quilts weren't really separated at birth in the literal sense. They were actually separated later in life. But in terms of shared characteristics, they were clearly from the same gene pool. From here, I hope to travel to West Virginia and view the two quilts together. There may be more information to be found in the local historical society, and from the family. AQSG Seminar attendees had an opportunity to see Harriet's quilt years ago when the Seminar was in West Virginia. I look forward to the opportunity to share Mary's quilt.

To view the Quilt Index record of Harriet's quilt as documented by the West Virginia Heritage Quilt Search, click here.

To view a comparison of the blocks (PDF), click here.

And as always, please feel free to comment!!

Nell was a lucky girl...

Black cat medallion from crazy quilt, c. 1890, by Nell Breyton.

Some things are just meant to be together. Peanut butter and chocolate is one of my all-time favorite pairings. Remember the "two great tastes that taste great together, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups" commercials from the 70's? I always loved the scenarios, which usually involved two people colliding, mixing's one chocolate with the other's peanut butter. (L.O.L.)

There's wine and cheese, salt and pepper, meat and potatoes, and whiskey and cigars...if you like that kind of thing. I've noticed another great pairing a lot lately on Blogger and Facebook - cats and quilts. I shouldn't have been surprised. After all, there's a wonderful book by Sandi Fox called Cats on Quilts, and I have a copy of the book.

Cats On Quilts by Sandi Fox - a must for all cat and quilt lovers!

This year, I found a quilt that probably should've been in that book. It is a crazy quilt with a black cat center medallion, made in the late 1800's and signed by Nell Breyton of Edwards, Saint Lawrence, New York. The quilt, which is actually a heavy tied comforter, is a wonderful representation of the cat, whose placement in the center shows its importance. When I first saw this image of the cat, it reminded me very much of my cat, Boo.

Little Boo found the sunny spot. "Can't you see I'm trying to nap?"

Boo came to me in 1997, when I was living in Lawrenceville, a neighboring town to Princeton, New Jersey. At the time, her name was Sammy. A gal in one of the downstairs apartments knew I'd recently had to say goodbye to my other cat, Groucho, and she knew someone who had a cat that needed a home. One day, they brought the cat to my apartment. 

The cat, then called Sammy, was full grown, but much smaller than Groucho had been. All black except for a little white patch on her belly, and a faint wisp of white on her throat, and she had yellowy green eyes. Her nose and whiskers were all black, too, but I didn't get to admire her face because she hid it in my arms as soon as she was handed to me.

Her shyness really took me by surprise. I had to learn to live with a little girl cat after having a big boy cat for so long. Groucho was an alpha male tuxedo cat with a moustache, a drop belly, and half a tail - Mr. Personality - and he owned it! Sammy was just the opposite. She had a sweet little face, never made a sound, but she often had a surprised look. Her name evolved to Sammy Boo, and eventually just Boo. I'm fond of calling her Little Boo, and a wide variety of other names when the fancy strikes. 

Cats must have many names, I'm told.

Over twelve years later, including a long drive from New Jersey to Oregon in 1998, Boo and I are still together. Eight of those years we shared with Shadow, another alpha male cat whose outgoing personality was just like Groucho's. Shadow came from Oregon, and disappeared here, too. During the Shadow years, Boo was very anti-social. The two cats didn't like each other. After the other cat went away, Boo came out of her shell. 

Boo is often playful, but is mostly just a very humble, gentle cat.

We don't know exactly how old Boo is, but I think she was at least three when I got her in 1997, which would make her at least 16 now. Like a lot of old kitties, she's had health problems. She's not going to be around forever. So, when I saw the quilt, I thought, "what better way to represent my best little friend in my quilt collection?"

Crazy quilt, c. 1890, by Nell Breyton. 

I can't look at the quilt and not think of Little Boo. Even though the cat figure is very simple, it captures her stance and expression better than I've ever been able to photograph it. The quilt makes me wonder if cats are reincarnated. I'd always thought Shadow could have been Groucho reincarnated. They acted so much alike. So if cats are reincarnated, I wonder...did Nell Breyton know Boo in a former life? 

Nell was a lucky girl, nonetheless.

New Questions About an Old Favorite

The Wine Glass, c. 1925, found in Texas

Take a look at this quilt and ask yourself, "how does it make me feel?" Is the quilt fun? Humorous? Is it serious? Political?

I bought the quilt in January, 2004, from a quilt dealer in Texas. The price was reasonable, and I thought it was charming. It was called a "Goblet" quilt and described as a "cute, country quilt in rare pattern. Muted browns and cadet blues in plaids, stripes, checks and prints. Medium weight batting." 

The pattern appears to be Brackman # 945, The Wine Glass, published in the Oklahoma Farmer Stockman in 1920. It also resembles later patterns from the mid-to-late 1930's attributed to Hearth and Home by Wilma Smith and the KC Star. Names include Goblet, Water Glass, The Old Fashioned Goblet, and Tumbler.

When flipped, the goblets look like carafes or milk bottles.

When I first got the quilt, someone said you could flip it, and the goblets would become carafes, decanters or milk bottles. I didn't find any references to a carafe, decanter, or bottle pattern in Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. 

A recent online discussion among quilt historians raised other questions about the origins of the pattern, including a theoretical link to the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Apparently, women in the WCTU made quilts using the Goblet and the Drunkard's Path patterns, and to them, the quilts represented a condemning statement about the evils of alcohol consumption. 

The discussion was quite passionate, and included many points about origins, meaning, and intent. At first, the theories about the WCTU and these patterns seemed implausible to me. I think it's because I find so much humor in both patterns. To me, the iconography in both designs represents more of a glorification or lighthearted representation than a condemnation. 

I thought about it over the weekend, and citing the example of the massively misinterpreted song "Every Breath You Take" recorded by the Police in 1982, I realized something. The pop song, written by Sting, was adopted as a popular wedding song, but Sting called it a "sinister and ugly" song about a controlling character who is watching "every breath you take, every move you make." With this song, the public adopted it as something that was very far removed from the artist's intent. 

Could the Women's Christian Temperance Union have done the same thing with the Goblet and Drunkard's Path? Were the patterns invented elsewhere, and later adopted by the WCTU for what the icons meant to them? More importantly, did they bend the meaning into something it hadn't been originally? Did they miss the point by missing the humor?

1842 Hexagons - Excavation Complete!

1842 Hexagons: restoration removed, exposing turkey red hexagons

The excavation is complete! One week ago, this 1842 Hexagons quilt looked very different. All the red hexagons were covered with tan fabric from a very old restoration. The restoration fabric was originally red, but had faded to a light tan color. Intended to cover up the shattered turkey red fabric, the restoration probably looked pretty good when it was first done. The underside of the tan fabric is much darker than the top side - still faded, but more of a ruddy brownish red.

Turkey red hidden by faded restoration fabric

It was fun to see this quilt come to life as bits of the tan fabric were removed. Took a couple evenings just sitting by the television picking at stitches. As each patch came off, I felt closer to the maker and the original vision. The quilt is wonderfully patriotic in its combination of colors, and the reappearance of the red confirmed it.

Before (left), and after (right). What a transformation!!

One of my American Quilt Study Group friends, Jan Thomas, saw this quilt and was intrigued by the birds in the borders. According to Jan, the eagles and the two birds facing away from each other are motifs seen in Pennsylvania coverlet designs. She scanned some images and sent them to me. Very interesting! Jan will also take a look at the thread used for the restoration under her microscope, and will try to determine the age of the thread. How cool is that?

Eagle design from a Pennsylvania coverlet, courtesy of Jan Thomas

The theory about a possible Pennsylvania connection intrigues me. My family spent many years living in Moorestown, New Jersey - just across the river from Philadelphia. I could see this quilt fitting in with the decor in colonial Pennsylvania, maybe even Philadelphia. It's not a shy quilt, it's a bold one, possibly a "city mouse" as I like to say.

What do you think about the transformation? Do you think the quilt could be from Pennsylvania?