QUILTS & FABRIC: PAST & PRESENT


Friday, March 18, 2011

Quilts of Prince Edward Island

Quilts of Prince Edward Island:
The Fabric of Rural Life
by Sherrie Davidson

Here's a new book for your collection of quilt survey publications. Sherrie Davidson has done a documentation project on the Canadian island north of Maine and Nova Scotia.


Medallion quilt 1810
(c) Sherrie Davidson

The book is a loving look at a small community. She found over 300 quilts and includes photos of many. The earliest is this medallion quilt made in 1810 for a wedding that never took place.


A detail of the center panel.
(c) Sherrie Davidson

 It's interesting to see that these English panels, which were quite popular with quilters in the southern U.S., were also used in Canada.

A red and white quilt about 1900
(c) Sherrie Davidson

There's a chapter on red and white quilts (a timely topic), as popular on PEI as elsewhere about 100 years or so.

She looks at the quilts in the social life and memories of the Island and places them into the context of quiltmaking at the time. Read more about Quilts of Prince Edward Island here:

Here's what the publisher says about the book:
In September 1991, Sherrie Davidson began undertaking the Heirloom Quilt Survey on Prince Edward Island. Her goal was to document and preserve the rich island history of quilt making from its beginning in the 1700s to1970. After almost twenty years of documenting the story of quilt making on Prince Edward Island, this book, Quilts of Prince Edward Island, is the result. In her quest, Sherrie Davidson visited over one hundred island homes and registered 305 beautiful and stunning quilts, each containing memories, often very personal, of family life on Prince Edward Island down through the years. These historic quilts were such an intimate part of past daily life and also player a vital role in community life whereby women came together to help raise money for community events. Today, these surviving quilts are often associated with treasured family and community history. Quilts of Prince Edward Island offers examples of every aspect of island quilt-making and also documents the story of island quilt making over the past three centuries.

Sherrie Davidson has loved, sewn, and collected quilts for over 30 years. She is past president of Kindred Spirits Quilts Guild and former owner of Heirloom Quilts in New London, PEI. She resides in the hills surrounding Nashville, Tennessee.

Prince Edward Island is mapped in green here above Nova Scotia

7 comments:

  1. I visited PEI several times as a child. My grandfather lived there for a couple of years after emigrating from Ireland and before coming to the US. I'll have to look this book up...thanks for the info!

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  2. What an accomplishment by Sherrie. I love books that share the stories of old quilts.

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  3. Love PEI - I did visit Green Gables. but do not remember a quilt on Anne's bed - it was July, so a quilt might've been too warm. I do remember a Crazy Quilt somewhere in the house though.

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  4. This is really neat! Thanks for bringing it to our attention. My partner is from PEI and there are many quilters in his family; they will probably be pretty excited about this survey, too.

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