The Mennonite Quilt Sale 2012

Scrap Happy by the Southern Hills Mennonite Church

 in Topeka, Kansas

Carol who belongs to my guild told me the quilt she and friends made for the Kansas MCC Relief Sale this year raised $5100 at the April, 2012 auction.

 They used a pattern they found in Better Homes & Garden Quilts and a red paisley from my Moda collection Civil War Reunion.

Double Dutch by Shari Wiens

The sale is an annual event to fund the church's emergency relief services.

Wholecloth quilt by the Hutchinson Amish Church

Individuals and church groups donate traditional quilts,

A vintage Lancaster County PA quilt

 antiques and contemporary quilts.

Star Flower by Julie Esau

Midsummer Night Garden by the Pleasant Valley

Mennonite Church, Harper, KS.

 I was glad to see they used the pattern for my

Prairie Flower quilt from Star Books.

Queen Ann Star by Four Ever Friends, Hesston

This quilt brought in the highest bid: $8100.

Autumn Leaves by Emma Stuckey and the

First Mennonite Church in Pretty Prairie

The large leaf print is from my Arnold's Attic line last year.

The quilt auction raised $134,721 this year.

I was pleased to find people using my fabric and patterns.

See all the quilts here:

http://kansas.mccsale.org/quilts/grid.html

The Garden Quilt: Interpreting a Masterpiece

Paradise in Kansas by Ilyse Moore.

Quilting by Freda Smith. 

Ilyse and I have a new pattern book:

The Garden Quilt: Interpreting a Masterpiece

My part was drawing the pattern and writing about the sources.
Here's what Star Books says about it:

Ruth Finley described The Garden applique as "the triumph of the needle....No two Garden quilts were ever quite alike...." Here Ilyse Moore and Barbara Brackman give you a pattern for a new interpretation of the Garden medallion or, as Rose Kretsinger called it, The Paradise Garden.  They've drawn from several applique masterpieces and show you how to make Ilyse's Paradise in Kansas, a Garden quilt for the twenty-first century.

 

Me and Ilyse

Ilyse improved upon my pattern and made a magnificent quilt. She gives tips for applique and organization.

We began with the center of Rose Kretsinger's Paradise Garden, which is in the collection of the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas.

http://luna.ku.edu:8180/luna/servlet/detail/kuvc1sma~1~1~650123~145131:Paradise-Garden-or-The-Garden-quilt

Rose's on the left and Ilyse's on the right.

Kansas Pattern by Charlotte Jane Whitehill (1886-1964),

Emporia Kansas, Collection of the Denver Art Museum

We substituted a border from Charlotte Jane Whitehill's Kansas Pattern. A Kansas Pattern, made in 1930, is unusual in that it is appliquéd as a border with no center. My guess is Rose Kretsinger designed this border for fellow Kansan Lottie Whitehill.

Ilyse reworked the grape designs and re-colored the parrots in the Kansas Pattern to make a Paradise in Kansas (we have so few parrots in Kansas these days that they might as well be blue as pink).

It's a 24-page pattern book with a pullout, $16.95.
Read more about the book here at the Pickledish Store:
https://www.pickledishstore.com/productDetail.php?PID=1306
It should be at your quilt shop momentarily.

Missing Nancy Hornback

Applique Quilt by Mary Parks Lawrence, Kentucky,

 from the Kansas Quilt Project

 

Nancy by Ray Rowden from Deb Rowden's book Quilter's Stories.

 See Deb's remembrance here:

http://debrowden.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-friend-nancy-hornback.html

Nancy Hornback, who died last month, was a quilt scholar who changed our views on applique quilts. All these quilt photos are from her chapter in the Kansas Quilts & Quilters book called "Nineteenth-Century Red and Green Applique Quilts."

After raising seven children she went back to graduate school in the areas of material culture and women's studies. She focused (she was very good at focusing) on red and green applique and the design and cultural sources.

Quilt by Lydia Marie Erwin Mason

Nancy was instrumental in starting the Kansas Quilt Project and maintaining it. When we began in 1986 we knew very little about what we'd find (although we thought we knew it all.) We found out right away that the red and green appliques that Nancy was looking for weren't made in Kansas. Just realizing that the design was regional was rather monumental.

Quilt by Mary Elizabeth Hamon Stoke, Kentucky

Nancy thought about the color, the symmetries, the images. She traced these to Germanic folk arts. She and I went to Germany looking for antecedents.

Quilt top by Mary A. Turley, 1869

My favorite thing her diligent research found, however, was this photo of the quilt at the top of page by Mary Parks Lawrence.

 It shows Mary's daughter with the same quilt on the bed. You don't happen across coincidences like that. You work really hard to find them.

Quilt by Sarah Forsyhte Pollock, Ohio

She also made quilts, focusing on red and green applique.

With Terry Thompson she wrote two books on contemporary applique

 in the traditional manner.

Any time I found a great red and green applique quilt I sent her a picture. I certainly will miss her enthusiasm.

Extreme Show Off Piecing: Rose Tree

Rose Tree, Missouri Rose or Prairie Flower,

 mid-19th-century from an online auction

Once Bets Ramsey and Merikay Waldvogel realized in the Quilts of Tennessee project that some of the rose quilts we assumed to be appliqued were actually pieced they began looking closely for seams. Surprisingly, they found that a few of these quilts we might call Rose Tree are pieced.

This detail shows how the pattern can be pieced into a circle.

Here's a quilt now in Texas (in the collection of the American/International Quilt Association)
that shows how the circles were then pieced into the background.

Two details from the Tennessee project.

I've seen perhaps a dozen pieced rose trees over the years. My digital picture file contains quilts primarily from Tennessee and Texas. The Quilt Index files from the Quilts of Tennessee project are a good source as are the files from the Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin: Winedale Quilt Collection.

Few of the variations are all pieced, some are all applique and some are a combination. Some come with a pot or a tree trunk.

 There are often nine blocks as in this one from an online auction. It has a nice balance with a pieced (?) rose in the center.

From the photos it looks like some of it is pieced, some applique. See the seams in the center of the rose here and the way the top of the tree trunk has a curved seam.

These floral trees are numbered 44 in my Encyclopedia of Applique. The names published in the 20th century include

Conventional Tulip - Marguerite Ickis
Rose and Buds - Nancy Cabot
Prairie Flower - Carlie Sexton
Missouri Rose - Hall and Kretsinger
Rose Tree - Kretsinger

This pattern typifies the problems with 20th-century published names. We can't assume they were used in the 19th century by the women who made the quilts.

Jane Shelby, 1855

Mississippi Beauty

The Texas Sesquicentennial Quilt Association's Texas Quilt Search found an appliqued variation inscribed with these words:

"Mississippi Beauty
Judith Connor's Quilt
Persented [sic] by  Jane Shelby
Feb. 10, 1855"

See more of the Mississippi Beauty at the Quilt Index:
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4F-88-CA

Two others:
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4C-83-C21
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4F-88-9A

Detail of a Texas quilt by Susan Bell Miller at the Briscoe Center

Rose Kretsinger's New Rose Tree from the Spencer Museum, about 1930. This one is all appliqued.
http://collection.spencerart.ku.edu/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=11181&viewType=detailView


The International Quilt Study Center and Museum has a few in their collection:
Here's one dated 1892 (#2007.038.0011)
http://cdn.firespring.com/images/1ffcb1ad-2213-4569-ab47-f254a73622d3.jpg


Another dated example, 1857 by Eliza J. Herron (1997.007.0908)
 http://cdn.firespring.com/images/397308df-f80f-42b3-9042-dbc5377dcb69.jpg


They also have one  from the 1930s (1997.007.0820)
http://cdn.firespring.com/images/69d12cc6-abd1-4e90-b147-3b806fafe8a9.jpg

Rose Tree from an online auction.

The central roses and the buds could be pieced

but the leaves are probably all appliqued.

And blogger Barbara Chainey has pictures of one in Patricia Cox's collection.
http://barbarachaineyquilts.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/a-few-more-details/

See my post about the pieced roses here:
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2012/06/show-off-piecing-whig-rose.html

Summer Quilt Shows 2012: Antique Quilts

Get Uncle Wiggily to check the air in the tires because it's time for a road trip. Here's a list of summer quilt exhibits in the U.S.

California, Folsom

Then and Now. Folsom History Museum. Through September 2nd.
The 32nd annual antique quilt show and vintage clothing exhibit will showcase quilts in antique to traditional patterns and their contemporary interpretations.  The accompanying clothing display will be drawn from the museum's collection of men's styles
http://www.folsomhistorymuseum.org/ 

Illinois State Museum

Illinois,  Chicago

Civil War Era Quilts from the Illinois State Museum, The Illinois State Museum Chicago Gallery,
June 18-September 14, 2012
Curator Angela Goebel-Bain Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts has selected 18 quilts from the museum's extensive collection, including an album quilt by Springfield neighbors of the Lincoln family.
100 West Randolph, Downtown, Chicago. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM, closed state holidays. The Gallery is free and wheelchair-accessible.
Click here: http://www.museum.state.il.us/pressroom/index.html?NPR=1127

Iowa, Waterloo

Covered By Glory: Civil War Commemorative Quilts. The Grout Museum.
Through September 1
Show featuring antique and new quilts.
http://www.groutmuseumdistrict.org/calendar.cfm

National Quilt Museum

Kentucky, Paducah

The Exquisite Stitch: 200 Years of Hand Quilting. National Quilt Museum.
June 15 to September 11
http://www.quiltmuseum.org/current-exhibits.html

Massachusetts, Deerfield

Celebrating the Fiber Arts: The Helen Geier Flynt Textile Gallery, Historic Deerfield.
Through December 30, 2012
A new permanent textile gallery with this year's exhibit: 10 early quilts and coverlets.
http://www.historic-deerfield.org/events/celebrating-fiber-arts-2012-regular-season 

Massachusetts, Lowell

Homefront & Battlefield: Quilts & Context in the Civil War. American Textile History Museum,

June 30, 2012 – November 25, 2012

Curated by Madelyn Shaw and Lynne Bassett. Catalog will be available.
See the ATHM website here:http://www.athm.org/exhibitions/current_exhibitions

The New England Quilt Museum's Lowell Quilt Festival is August 9-11, 2012.
http://nequiltmuseum.org/lowell-quilt-festival.html

IQSC What's In A Name

Nebraska, Lincoln
International Quilt Study Center and Quilt Museum:

Jean Ray Laury: Getting It All Together. Through September 2, 2012.

What's In A Name? Inscribed Quilts. Through December 3

Quilts of the Homesteading Era

World War II Quilts from the Sue Reich Collection  Through February 10, 2013

http://www.quiltstudy.org/exhibitions/

The annual American Quilt Study Group will be hosted by the International Quilt Study Center and Museum, October 3-7, 2012. Click here:

http://www.americanquiltstudygroup.org/seminar.asp 

 Nebraska History Museum: 
“Quilting for a Cause: Nebraska’s Fundraising Quilts” features 15 quilts that were used in fundraising efforts from the Civil War to present day. Through October 29, 2012.
http://blog.nebraskahistory.org/?p=7096
(update July 27)

New York, Saratoga
The Threads of Time. Brookside Museum. Through January, 2013.

Explores the history of quilting in the county in over 20 quilts.
http://www.brooksidemuseum.org/2012/03/behind-the-seams/ 

Ohio, Kent

On the Home Front: Civil War Fashions and Domestic Life. Kent State University Museum

Through August 26, 2012, featuring Elizabeth Keckley's famous silk quilt.
http://www.kent.edu/museum/visit/index.cfm
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2012/02/keckley-quilt-on-display.html

Packwood House, Previous Show

Pennsylvania, Lewisburg
Pennsylvania Quilts II. Patterns & Variations. Packwood House Museum.
June 12-October 13.
This year's annual event shows 80 quilts on the theme of pattern:  Stars, squares, rectangles, triangles, curves, flowers, and one-patch patterns.
Click here:
http://www.packwoodhousemuseum.com/exhibits.php
See some shots from last year's show on Ann Hermes's blog:
http://notesfromthequiltlab.blogspot.com/2011/07/packwood-museum-visit.html

Terasaki Collection

Pennsylvania, State College

American Quilts from the Terasaki Collection. Palmer Museum of Art.
June 12–August 26, 2012
21 quilts from collection of Etsuko Terasaki, curated by Cathy Rosa Klimaszewski. A traveling exhibit organized by the the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
Click here:
http://www.palmermuseum.psu.edu/exhibitions.html

Charleston Museum

South Carolina, Charleston

Geometric Quilts. The Charleston Museum.
Through December 9, 2012.
This year's exhibit features pieced quilts displaying a myriad of designs created from just a few distinct shapes.
http://www.charlestonmuseum.org/exhibits-geometric-quilts

Quilts by Charles Pratt (center) and Albert Small (right)

Vermont, Shelburne

Man-Made Quilts: Civil War to the Present. Shelburne Museum.
Through October 28, 2012
Quilts by men from the Museum's collection and others.  An illustrated catalogue with an essay by quilter and scholar Joe Cunningham will accompany the exhibition
http://shelburnemuseum.org/exhibitions/man-made-quilts-civil-war-to-the-present/
(Added 7/11/2012)

Colonial Williamsburg

Virginia, Williamsburg

Quilts in the Baltimore Manner. Colonial Williamsburg. Foster and Muriel McCarl Gallery.
June 9- through May 11, 2014.
One dozen quilts reflecting the strong textile industry and innovative quiltmaking styles of America’s largest seaport of the period 1845 to 1855. Curated by Linda Baumgarten and Kim Ivey.
http://www.history.org/history/museums/abby_art_current.cfm

Influences on American Quilts: Baltimore to Bengal.  A symposium exploring influences through a series of formal lectures, juried papers, and tours. November 8-10, 2012.
http://www.history.org/history/institute/institute_about.cfm

Flag by Sarah Mary Taylor, 1970s

Washington, Bellevue
Bellevue Arts Museum. Bold Expressions: African American Quilts from the Collection of Corrine Riley.
June 14 - October 7, 2012
50 quilts made throughout the American South between 1910 and the 1970s
http://www.bellevuearts.org/exhibitions/current/bold_expressions/index.html
(added 7/7/2012)

Hannah Haynes Headlee's Iris Garden

 will be at the Whatcom Museum

Washington, Bellingham
Washington, Whatcom Museum. American Quilts: The Democratic Art
August 4-October 28, 2012. Curators Robert Shaw and Julie Silber have organized a show based on Shaw's book of the same name.

http://www.whatcommuseum.org/galleries/upcoming/356-american-quilts-the-democratic-art-1780-2007-
(Added 7/16/12)

La Conner Museum

Mariner’s Compass made by Roxy Terrill and Amanda Cheney

 for Amanda’s grandson, Edward Nobles in 1865.

Washington, La Conner

Two-Color Quilts from the permanent collection. La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum.
June 27 - August 19, 2012
http://www.laconnerquilts.com/exhibits/current-exhibits/two-color-quilts