by Quilt Alliance | Aug 10, 2014 | Uncategorized
What’s the most important part of a quilt? Perfect piecing? Even stitches? The ideal binding? Here at the Quilt Alliance, we think there’s one part of a quilt that’s always worth adding: a label. Today, we’re kicking off a mini-series here on the Q.S.O.S. Spotlight. We’ll be sharing excerpts about labels collected from Q.S.O.S. labels–why we label, why we don’t, how we do it, and what we love about it. Today, 3 quilt makers share the reasons they label their quilts. We’ll feature another installment soon with more labeling stories and ideas!Looking for an easy way to label your quilts? Check out our Quilt Alliance Labeling kit. It has everything you need–labels, a great fabric pen, instructions and ideas, and a sample of StoryPatches iron-on labels provided by stkr.it–to get started labeling your quilts and saving its story.Alyce Foster: “I have a little photo album that I’m taking pictures of the quilts that I have made. I’m also now signing my quilts. One time I was just doing them and not putting a label on them. Now I’m putting labels on them and the one on “The Real Eve,” we had to put a label on it. And also it’s an art quilt. I sign my name on the front of it now. Because when people go to a museum in 4010, I don’t want them to say, ‘Unknown Quilter.’ […] It’s good because when we went to the Renwick [Museum.] and saw the beautiful quilts there and so many of them had ‘Unknown Quilter.’ And I said to myself, ‘You want to be know when we’re looking down from heaven, that someone is admiring our work and know our name.”Janet Miller: People will, you know–acquaintances–we’ll meet someone, “Oh, you’re a quilter,” “Oh I got grandma’s quilt or so-and-so,” and “Is there a label on it? What’s the history of it?” “Well no.” So I’ll talk about you’ve got to, if you know the history and your kids aren’t going to, you’ve got to put a label on it so that there’s knowledge.Jean Wells Keenan: I have two sisters and we all have some of the quilts [from the family.] and I know that I have already decided who is getting which quilt in my family. I have two children. They are putting dibs on things too, but making sure that the quilts do stay in the family and putting labels on the back is important. You want to be able to document when they made and who made them. I try to really push that sort of idea when I teach classes, too and you know, I just love quilting so much and what it has been able to do and you know through teaching you get to–you have a voice that is differently sometimes than just a local person and so I really try to push those, you know, concepts and ideas. You can read more quilt stories on the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Quilt Alliance website.Posted by Emma ParkerProject Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our…
by Quilt Alliance | Aug 8, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1950, American Florence Chadwick swam the English Channel from France to England in 13 hours and 20 minutes, breaking the record of Gertrude Ederle. In 1951 she became the first woman to swim from England to France, making her the first woman to swim the channel in both directions. And unnamed quilter from Alva, Wyoming made this Crazy Quilt between 1950-75. The quilt is a “summer quilt,” no batting, but backed and bound. Scrap fabrics including old garments were used to make the quilt. The record notes: “Some fabrics indicate a post-war Asian connection; a windsurfer in 1940s’ swim trunks with “Samoa” and “Phillippines” printed on it; another has oriental figures with Japanese? Calligraphy; a Balinese dancer with multi-tiered pagoda– may be from a tie…” The quiltmaker’s paternal granddaughter inherited the quilt and documented it during the Wyoming Quilt Project in 2003. View this quilt on The Quilt Index to find out! Read more about its history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view or click the “See full record” link to see a larger image and all the data entered about that quilt. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_May_Chadwick Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Aug 7, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1782, General George Washington created the “Badge for Military Merit,” a purple heart-shaped piece of silk, edged with silver with the word “Merit” stitched across the face in silver. Only three known soldiers were awarded the “Purple Heart” during the Revolutionary War. An unnamed Green County, Pennsylvania quiltmaker created this machine and hand pieced and hand quilted purple and white Hearts and Gizzards quilt in 1925. The family member who inherited the quilt documented it during the West Virginia Heritage Quilt Search in 1992. View this quilt on The Quilt Index to find out! Read more about its history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view or click the “See full record” link to see a larger image and all the data entered about that quilt. Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/washington-creates-the-purple-heart Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Aug 6, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1928, Pop art superstar and cultural icon Andy Warhol was born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to immigrant parents from Czechoslovakia. Warhol studied pictorial design (illustration) at Carnegie Institute of Technology and began painting in the 1950’s. Following the advice of his art school teacher who told Warhol to paint what he liked, he painted ordinary things, including soup cans, comic strips and soap boxes. Bridget Wideman of Seaside, Oregon made this quilt titled “The ART in Artichoke” in 2011 for the Quilt Alliance contest, “Alliances: People, Patterns, Passion. Wideman wrote in her artist’s statement: “I chose a subject, in this case my favorite vegetable, the artichoke. I couldn’t figure out what could go with my artichoke, so I ended up making several in various colors and concentrating on the word itself. The word “art” was obvious. And when I think of art, I think of Andy Warhol. That’s where I got my idea for this quilt: a Warhol inspired artichoke.” View this quilt on The Quilt Index to find out! Read more about its history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view or click the “See full record” link to see a larger image and all the data entered about that quilt. Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/andy-warhol-is-born Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Aug 5, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 2002, the turret of the ironclad Union warship, the U.S.S. Monitor, was raised from the spot on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean where it sat since the ship sank in 1862. Divers worked for six weeks to bring the ship to the surface, finding the remains of two of the 16 Monitor crew members who died when the ship sank off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Mary Gibbs, of coastal Beaufort, North Carolina, hand pieced and hand quilted this Nine Patch between 1850-75. Gibbs’ great-great granddaughter received the quilt as gift and commented that it “did not look like it had ever been used.” The quilt was documented in 1986 during the North Carolina Quilt Project. View this quilt on The Quilt Index to find out! Read more about its history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view or click the “See full record” link to see a larger image and all the data entered about that quilt. Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/divers-recover-uss-monitor-turret Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
