by Quilt Alliance | Apr 28, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1758, James Monroe was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia to Spence Monroe, a planter and carpenter, and Elizabeth Jones, a well-educated woman of Welsh descent. Monroe studied at the College of William and Mary, fought in the American Revolution and became the fifth President of the United States, serving from 1817 to 1825. Veline Cox Johnston of Virginia made this Pine Tree quilt around 1930 as a gift for her daughter, who documented the quilt as part of the Quilts of Tennessee. Johnston, a Methodist homemaker of Scotch Irish descent, was born in 1896, the daughter of Pollyanna and George Cox. 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://americanhistory.about.com/od/jamesmonroe/p/pmonroe.htm Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Apr 27, 2014 | Uncategorized
We’re doing something different today for this Sunday’s Q.S.O.S. Spotlight . April is National Poetry month, and the Q.S.O.S. archives are full of quilts inspired by poems. Today we’re featuring 3 quilts alongside the poems that inspired them. Click on the interviewee’s name and the quilts to read more about how these poems inspired them! Diane Horbort, interviewed in Houston, Texas in November of 2000 From From my Arm-Chair Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The heart hath its own memory, like the mind, And in it are enshrined The precious keepsakes, into which is wrought The giver’s loving thought. Donnette Cooper, interviewed in Washington, DC, in March of 2003 We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties. Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask. We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask! Mary Diamond, interviewed in Houston, Texas, in November of 2002 From Inversnaid by Gerard Manly Hopkins This darksome burn, horseback brown, His rollrock highroad roaring down, In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam Flutes and low to the lake falls home. A windpuff-bonnet of fawn-froth Turns and twindles over the broth Of a pool so pitchblack, fell-frowning, It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning. Degged with dew, dappled with dew Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads through, Wiry heathpacks, flitches of fern, And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn. What would the world be, once bereft Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet; Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. You can read more quilt stories on the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Quilt Alliance website. Posted by Emma Parker Project Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories…
by Quilt Alliance | Apr 25, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1947, President Harry S. Truman officially opened the first White House bowling alley. The two-lane alley was constructed in the West Wing with funding provided by a group of Truman’s fellow Missourians in honor of the president. Anna Pozara of Roseville, Michigan made this “Bowling Quilt” for a local bowling club. Pozara documented her quilt as part of the Michigan 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/truman-inaugurates-white-house-bowling-alley Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Apr 24, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1800, the Library of Congress was established using $5,000 appropriated by President John Adams to purchase “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress.”Today, the collection, housed in three enormous buildings in Washington, contains more than 17 million books, as well as millions of maps, manuscripts, photographs, films, audio and video recordings, prints, and drawings. The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, created by Congress in 1976, is the national center for folklife documentation and research. Bertha Marion of Galax, Virginia made this Applique Rose quilt in August 1978. It was documented by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress as part of the Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project. This ethnographic field project was conducted by the American Folklife Center in cooperation with the National Park Service and includes 229 photographs and 181 recorded interviews with six quiltmakers in Appalachian North Carolina and Virginia. 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/library-of-congress-established Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Apr 23, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1564, William Shakespeare was born according to the church record of his baptism. He lived to age 52 and is credited for authoring 38 of the most analyzed and performed plays in history. This quilt, titled “Idiot Star,” was made by the late quiltmaker and writer Helen Kelley in 1989. Celebrated for her affinity for color and storytelling in her work, Kelley included this inscription on the back of the quilt: “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May” Shakespeare/ made by one rosebud and five American beauties/The quilt belongs to me/ Helen Kelley 1989.” These names are inscribed on the front of the quilt, one per block: Marge Anderson, Connie Pluhar, Helen Kelley, Helen Lange, Mary L.Chmiel, Norma Ahlquist. The quilt was documented by the Minnesota Quilt Project in 2009. 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/william-shakespeare-born Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
