Cost of a Crazy Quilt

Let's forgive them for they do not know of what they speak ... read on...

"Cost of a Crazy Quilt

A certain girl has pieced a crazy quilt containing 9,000 bits of ribbon. It must have taken at least three minutes' sewing to the piece. That would take 27,000 minutes - an hour a day for a year and nearly three months. In that time this foolish girl might have learned a modern language, became an accomplished cook and house-keeper, studied no end of history and science, or have done benevolent and educational work among the ignorant and poor that would have lasted to eternity - Exchange."

May 7, 1884
Newspaper Editorial Page

The fellow(s) that wrote the above never lived long enough to see the Aids Awareness quilts, the breast cancer quilts, the alzheimer quilts, the memory quilts moms make which keep their children warm years after she has passed, and the countless other quilts made to raise funds, awareness, or to honor a loved one.

Nothing "foolish" or "ignorant" about that.

Quilt Collections: Passing them On

Sea Wings to Glory

Mountain Mist Quilt Kit

Author Collection

You are building a collection of antique, vintage, and new quilts in certain motifs or classifications. What will happen to them when you are gone if your family is not as interested in collecting quilts as you are?

On my online history list a topic recently surfaced about donating quilts to museums and how much “control” you have over the collection once it is donated to the museum. Do you have the right to make certain stipulations when you donate them? What happens when the museum decides to part with your item? Will they give it back to the family? Do you even have a right to ask them to do that? Also what if you can’t find a museum interested in taking your entire collection? Like you, I would like to see my quilts in a museum, but what if you are unable to find a home for them there.

It is hard to see a collection you built be taken apart because of the emotional investment we have in what we choose to collect.

But take heart – if you collected that “motif” or classification of quilt, there is someone down the road who is building their personal/private collection that will want that quilt, the provenance, and the story of how it came to you in their private collection. Let someone else experience the same joy you had in acquiring “that quilt.”

Choose a good quilt broker/dealer you have faith in – give her or him the provenance, sell the item through them and, if you are financially able, set up a scholarship fund at your local high school or college so generations of kids will have the opportunity to go to college on your collection – you can put a stipulation on that scholarship that if a family member related to you comes of college age that particular year, the scholarship goes to your family member.

Or give the money to one of the quilt museums to fund quilt related programs/storage or an organization like the American Quilt Study Group for an annual grant/scholarship?

Quilts are like our children, they are ours for awhile, but no matter how much we want to we are not allowed to keep them forever.

NRA Eagle Quilt Research

Author's Collection

I am without a doubt an eagle quilt junkie and I am always collecting research information about eagle quilts. Those of you who are familiar with my web site Illinois Quilt History at http://www.illinoisquilthistory.com/ know that I am also interested in quilt and textile history research and I always like to share the ways in which I find information.

Yesterday I was on Ancestry.com in the newspaper portion of the search engine and in the keyword search I put in “eagle quilt” and then later “NRA Eagle Quilt.” More on the result of that search a little later.

I know of three NRA eagle quilts in existence - one is at the West Virginia State Museum, one is in private hands in Minnesota, and one is at the FDR Library at Hyde Park, New York. Personally, I am hoping there are more out there and if you do know of another one please share its whereabouts with me quiltingbee73@yahoo.com. There is a possibility of one in the Massachusetts area, if anyone knows anything about that NRA Quilt, please e-mail me, as I know someone with a special interest in that particular quilt.

It would also be interesting to know if there was an actual quilt pattern commercially produced with the blue eagle logo or if creative quilt makers created their own quilt pattern from scratch. If you have any information on that I welcome an e-mail on that too.

I love all the NRA Eagle quilts, they are as important as any historical document on that subject. Each tells a story about a time period in American history, why they came into being, and of course there is the story of the creative soul who made them. I love stories and I like endings to stories.

Back to the Ancestry.com newspaper search….The NRA Eagle Quilt search only netted two hits. The first was a dead end. The second wasn’t. It was the newspaper database for (The) San Antonio Light (San Antonio, Texas). A light bulb went off in my head and I said to myself (yes I said it out loud and scared my dog) that is where the FDR Library NRA quilt came from. I know this because I had requested a picture of that quilt from Michele at the FDR Library some time back.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library

Hyde Park, New York

NRA Quilt --FDR Library - Description

“Quilted white sateen bedspread, ca 1933, (MO 53.1091). It has six copies of the NRA Blue Eagle symbols embroidered in red, white, and blue. The background of the quilt is decorated with dollar signs. It comes with red, white, and blue fringe around the side and bottom edges. It was presented (sent) to FDR by Jaske Bros., San Antonio, Texas, date unknown, quilt maker unknown.”

That “quilt maker unknown” always haunts me whenever I see it. Please – Please – Please find an archival safe way to sign your quilts – attached a piece of muslin to the back of your quilts with the provenance information. Quilt Makers name, city, and state, date, who you make the quilt for, and why you made the quilt. Sorry – being haunted makes me a tad preachy, but please sign your quilts.

ALLRIGHT! Enough already – what did I find from the NRA Eagle Quilt search? A newspaper article and photograph of the quilt maker holding the FDR Library NRA quilt before it was sent to FDR.

The name of the article is "New Deal For Wintry Nights." The caption under the picture reads, “This NRA Quilt, made by Mrs. J. A. D. Robinson, 73, of 157 Burr Road, above is for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. When the quilt is sent to the president, it will have attached to it the names of persons who contribute to a fund for a new roof for the nursery of the San Antonio Mission Home and Training School which is operated at 223 South San Saba Street.

Citation:

“New Deal for Wintry Nights” (The) San Antonio Light (San Antonio, Texas)
September 10, 1933.

NRA Eagle Quilt at the FDR Library

Quilt maker: Mrs. J.A.D. Robinson (age 73)
Date: 1933
City and State: San Antonio, Texas
Quilt Made For: President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Quilt Type: Presentation Quilt

**********************************
Research information is out there – it is waiting for you. Researchers don’t give up hope of finding the answers you are looking for. It took me two years to find the name of an art needlework designer for a company, but once I found her all the rest came flowing in, including a photograph, but I’ll save that story for another time.

You can do this too! Press on and keep working towards your goals!

Exploring Women's Creativity - A MUST READ

When I have down time between projects, I have been known to go online looking for treasure of the informational and/or textile variety. Well today I hit the mother lode on Judy Anne Breneman's web site Womenfolk.com in the form of a series of articles under the heading of "Exploring Women's Creativity."

The URL is http://www.womenfolk.com/creativity/whatis.htm

When you click on the URL, look to the left side of the web page at the table of contents for a series of articles which begins with "What is Creativity?" Start there and work your way down, reading through each section. It does not matter where you are at on the "creative path," I promise you will take away something from reading Judy's piece.

This is my latest textile acquistion from one of my treasure hunting trips on the web and a dear soul who loves quilts that tell a story as much as I do. Thanks Semper Fi - always faithful!

Twin Towers - September 11, 2001

This quilt, like all good quilts, tells a story and the creative soul (and mind) that came up with the idea for this quilt is a historian as well as a fiber artist. Bravo well done!

Andi Reynolds Tele-Interview on Women On Quilts

You will want to mark Monday evening, November 11, 2009 down on your calendar and make a date to participate in an informative (and free) tele-interview event featuring Executive Book Editor of the American Quilter’s Society Andi Reynolds. Andi will be available to answer questions about writing how-to quilt books and articles, publishing, and being an AQS author.

Event Subject
Andi Reynolds
Executive Book Editor of the American Quilter’s Society
Paducah, Kentucky

Event Time
Monday, November 11, 2009
5 p.m. pacific, 7 p.m. central, 8 p.m. Eastern

Event Sponsor
Women On Quilts
Kim Wulfert, PhD

Event Information
http://www.womenonquilts.blogspot.com/

You don’t want to miss the opportunity to talk with this amazing editor in the comfort of your own home!

Collecting Quilt Motifs....Cowboy Quilts

Cowboy Quilts

Well Pilgrim, glad you stopped by my blog for a visit, but before we begin I’d like to introduce you to my favorite cowboy. This former wrangler turned sodbuster is Keith Wildemuth (minus his horse Jackie) and he has been my husband and partner for over 28 years.

Keith and I are children of the 1950s and 1960s who grew up watching and loving westerns. We both have fond memories - him in the country and me in the city - of watching the Wonderful World of Disney and Bonanza on Sunday night and don’t even get us started about Saturday night and Gunsmoke. Did you know James Arness has a web site and that fans can e-mail him (www.jamesarness.com/)? Did we? Yes, we emailed Mr. Arness because we wanted him to know how much we enjoyed his show, his work, and how much Matt Dillon (my dad used to call him Matt Drill-em), Festus, Miss Kitty, and Doc were a part of our childhood memories. Gunsmoke, pizza from a box, Pepsi (our own bottle that we did not have to share with our siblings), and Saturday Night at the Movies with a John Wayne flick gives you an idea of what we considered fun in those days.

All right maybe your memories go back a little farther than Gunsmoke to guys like Gene Autry or Roger Rogers? Raise your hand if you remember going to see John Wayne at the movie drive-in or maybe Tom Mix at an early sit-down theater. Come on if you don’t remember anyone else you have to remember Rawhide and Rowdy Yates, whatever happened to that guy? Let’s ask Clint Eastwood, maybe he will know.

Well let’s get rolling rolling rolling and get this blog a movin’ on to the topic that you came to read about … quilts. I love cowboy quilts and I have a few of them. They are the one quilt motif that my husband will actually set down his newspaper for and take a real interest in even during a Packer vs. Bears game – now that is something.

LeeWard Mills and LeeWards (1950-1983) featured four different cowboy quilt kits in their catalogs. (Notice I say featured, not in-housed designed and produced.)



Ride ‘em Cowboy

LeeWards Mills
Catalog 15 1953
Catalog 16 1954
Catalog 17 1954-55
Catalog 18 1955
Catalog 20 1956



Round-Up Time (With the words Round-Up Time embroidered on the quilt)

LeeWards
Catalog 21 1956-1957
Catalog 22 1957
Catalog 23 1957-58
Catalog 24 1958
Catalog 31 F/W 1961-62



Round-Up Time (Same design, but without the words Round-Up Time embroidered on the quilt)

LeeWards
Catalog ?? Xmas Sale 1961
Catalog 32 S/S 1962
Catalog 32F S/S Sale 1962
Catalog 32F Spring 1962
(Yes, there are two 32F catalogs)
Catalog 33 F/W 1962
Catalog 33F Xmas Sale 1962
Catalog 35 F/W 1963
Catalog 35F Xmas Sale 1963
Catalog 36 S/S 1964
Catalog 37 S/S Sale 1964
Catalog 44 S/S 1966
Catalog 46 F/W 1966



Little Mavericks

LeeWards
Catalog 34 S/S 1963
Catalog 34F S/S Sale 1963


Side Note

Westerns were the most popular genre of TV show in the 1950s and 1960s. Remember these:

The Adventures of Jim Bowie
The Adventures of Kit Carson
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
Alias Smith and Jones
Annie Oakley
Bat Masterson
The Big Valley
Bonanza
Branded
Bret Maverick
Cheyenne
The Chisholms
The Cisco Kid
Custer
Death Valley Days
Destry
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater
F Troop
The Gene Autry Show
Guns of Paradise (originally, Paradise)
The Guns of Will Sonnett
Gunsmoke
Harts of the West
Have Gun – Will Travel
The High Chaparral
Hopalong Cassidy
How the West Was Won
Lancer
Laramie
Laredo
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
The Lone Ranger
Maverick
Paradise (later Guns of Paradise)
Rawhide
The Rifleman
The Roy Rogers Show
The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show
Stoney Burke
The Virginian
Wagon Train
Wanted: Dead or Alive
The Wild Wild West

Special Note: I would be interested in hearing from anyone who collects cowboy quilts. Contact Susan Wildemuth quiltingbee73@yahoo.com

Collecting Quilt Motifs..... Jack and Jill Quilts

Jack and Jill Crib Quilts

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water

Jack fell down and broke his crown

And Jill came tumbling after

It's hard to trace the exact date each childhood nursery rhyme came into existence as many of them were passed down word of mouth long before they ever reached print or to ascertain the exact meaning behind each rhyme without creating or perpetuating a myth. This much is true, sometime between 1760 and 1790 London publisher John Newberry and his employee Oliver Goldsmith gathered and created a collection of these childhood jewels in book form entitled Mother Goose's Melody: Sonnets for the Cradle - In Two Parts.

Nursery Rhyme quilts featuring a group of rhymes or narrowing the design field down to one particular rhyme are popular motifs with crib quilt collectors. It's no wonder we love them so, we cut our teeth on them nestled next to our mother, auntie, or grandmother listening to their comforting voices as they rocked us to sleep.

Each of us has a favorite nursery rhyme that speaks to us, mine is Jack and Jill. The Jack and Jill quilt motif must have been popular with quilt designers too because at the present time I have found 11 different crib quilts or summer spreads featuring this motif "standing alone" (not a part of a nursery rhyme sampler) and I know there are more out there.

Jack and Jill Summer Spread

Circa 1930s

Author's Collection

Wards Catalog of Stamped Needlework - "I Made it Myself"

Spring and Summer 1934 Catalog

Montgomery Ward and Co. Ad

Author Collection

I would be interested in hearing from anyone who collects Jack and Jill Quilts. Susan Wildemuth quiltingbee73@yahoo.com

Lynn Miller of Arizona sent me a scan of this Jack and Jill Quilt. Does anyone recognize the date for this quilt and the company that manufactured the quilt? If you do please e-mail me at quiltingbee73@yahoo.com