In an unforeseen and shocking move, quilters everywhere today say they are giving up buying fabric. Textile hoarders from coast to coast in the United States and in every country queried confirm that they are done buying and stashing fabric. Seama Ripper, of Paducah, Kentucky told QA reporters “I’ve just reached that point where I have “enough” fabric. I’ve been buying prints, solids and every pattern imaginable for close to 40 years now and I think it’s time to stop the consumption and start using it up.” Pat Quarters of Sisters, Oregon tells a similar story, “I love fabric, but I’ve really developed the discipline now to go into a quilt shop and “just look.” I have plans to finish every UFO in my studio, and then do a major clean up. I’m also looking into giving up chocolate.” Quilt and fabric shops everywhere reacted to the announcement with a collective snort as they restocked the fat quarter bins and bolt shelves. “Bless their hearts,” said Sydney, Australia shop owner, Ida Liketoseethat. Online retailer “Cutsy” CFO Freeda Eshop reports spraying coffee all over her screen upon reading the news report. “A trigger warning would have been appreciated–it’s really hard to get coffee out of keyboards. Hysterical though!” Happy April 1st, friends!! (Pick me up a spool of thread when you go by the shop today!) And consider spending another $30 today to become a Quilt Alliance member! We’d be honored to have you on the team and you will receive all kinds of amazing incentives AND support the work to Document, Preserve and Share the rich history of quilts and their makers. Win/Win and that’s no…
Merikay Waldvogel is an internationally known quilt historian author, and lecturer. She is widely considered an expert on mid-20th century quilts. Her expertise and tireless research into quilting and the quilters who made them led to her induction into the Quilters Hall of Fame in 2009. We are so honored and excited to have Merikay as a featured speaker at the 2017 Quilter’s Take Manhattan event. She loves quilts and quilt stories, so her lecture “Making Do: Southern Style” is sure to be both entertaining and educational. We hope you will join us for a fun-filled day of lectures by Merikay and other quilting superstars on September 16. Here’s your chance to get to know Merikay a little better. We recently asked Merikay to answer five questions we ask quiltmakers as part of our Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories( QSOS) oral history project. Here are her answers – enjoy! What is your first quilt memory? I call it “my quilt epiphany.” I was out shopping one Saturday morning in Evanston, Illinois looking for something to decorate a wall in my new Chicago apartment. One quirky quilt on display in a shop window caught my eye. I was immediately drawn to it. I felt a palpable physical reaction. My heart was racing. I was hooked. I bought it without even considering the age, pattern, or price. That quilt changed my life. Today nearly 45 years later, when you ask me “what is your first quilt memory” I can honestly say that was it. As a little girl growing up in suburban St. Louis, I did not encounter quilts anywhere. I have spent my adult life in the South where it seems like everyone’s grandmother made quilts. Quilting groups at churches are still active. People still lay out their family quilts at concerts in the park. Trunks of quilts still show up in attics. And, I will probably be studying and stroking quilts until my dying day. Have you ever used quilts to get through a difficult time? That’s an interesting question. I have to say the most difficult time for me was when my mother died in 1973. She was only 46 and it was breast cancer. Unbeknownst to me, she was making a cross-stitch quilt during the last year or so. Her friend, Mary, had it quilted by a church group and wanted to give it to one of us four kids. It’s hard for me to fathom this now but no one expressed an interest in the quilt, so Mary offered to make a quilt of our choice for each of us. I asked for a traditional star quilt made from dress fabrics my mother had sewed. I received the quilt in about 1978 and used it on our bed in Tennessee. Both of my sisters also got quilts, but it was decided that my brother’s quilt would be Mother’s cross-stitch quilt. Being the oldest sister, I decided I would hold on to it until he got “settled.” I still have it. Unlike 40 some years ago, when I didn’t consider cross-stitch quilts “real” quilts, today I know making a kit quilt is not the easiest thing in the world, and of course, it is special because she made it at a very difficult time of her life and I wonder what she was thinking at the time. What makes a quilt appropriate for a museum or special collection (including yours)? Quilts for museums ought to be in excellent condition, have a solid provenance, and most importantly, be worthy of future research and exhibition. These include: quilts with inscribed dates, names, and locations; pictorial and commemorative quilts; quilts with unusual fabrics; quilts made within one family; and quilts made by noted quilt designers and prize winning quiltmakers. For my own collection, I chose that first quilt because its quirkiness intrigued me. I still don’t know why the unknown maker finished it the way she did. Maybe she was going through a difficult time herself. I soon became enthralled by the printed fabrics in quilts. I loved Log Cabin quilts, for example. At first, I only collected 19th century quilts, but as I learned more about quiltmakers of the 1930s, I began collecting patterned quilts and even kit quilts. I used them in books, lectures, and exhibits. Every quilt I personally acquired had to spark my curiosity. The Bird’s Eye View of the Chicago World’s Fair quilt by Richard Rowley opened up a new level of collecting and in-depth research for me, as did the Chintz Center Medallion quilt (date inscribed 1833) from North Carolina. Both quilts are exceptional quilts with many aspects to explore. I have written about them and displayed them often. I am sure they will both find homes in museums eventually, but for now I enjoy owning a piece of American quilt history. What do you think makes a great quilt? You ask difficult questions! That reminds me of the project Karey Bresenhan proposed at the end of the 20th century. She asked representatives from various quilt organizations to choose their top 100 quilts of the 20th century. I was on the panel. We had a short time to make our choices. I remember thinking how the goal seemed impossible. All kinds of thoughts ran through my head . . . are we talking about old quilts and newly made quilts? Would a Jean Ray Laury or Yvonne Porcella quilt win out over a Bertha Stenge or Grace Snyder quilt? Would an Amish quilt hold its own against a utility quilt? Would kits be excluded? And how would the judges make a comprehensive search? That question turned out to be the key to choices. Most of us had extensive libraries. Being a part of the state quilt documentation projects, I knew I could find photographs of excellent quilts in the state quilt books. The organizers collected our suggestions and then sent us a final set of photographs to vote for the top 100 quilts. I didn’t agree with all the final choices, but I would say for the most part, the winning quilts were “great” quilts. To me, a great quilt is above all else well-made, has a sensitive design, and makes a strong overall impact. Like a fine piece of art, it draws you in, ignites something within you, and leaves an impression. What do you think about the importance of quilts in American life? Whether we call them blankets, covers, or quilts, quilts have always been there in American life. Providing warmth, comfort and joy, quilts also carry with them memories and mysteries. They are there at life’s special moments.They are gifts of friendship and love. Their making can be soothing and healing. A lot of laughter and story-telling goes on around a quilting frame and among friends sharing old quilts. Quilts bring people together who may never have known each other. For my own American life, I can say that quilts were my entrée to the South. Through quilts (by listening to quilters’ stories and researching the times the quilts were made), I came to love this place, Knoxville in East Tennessee, I call home. Pictures from Merikay’s Album Friends met through quilting and quilt documentation days. This Sampler includes our favorite Tennessee quilt patterns found during Quilt survey in 1984-85. At my house with quilt friends from left: Joyce Gross, Linda Claussen, Cuesta Benberry, Eva Earle Kent, Me, and Bets Ramsey in 1993. Merikay and Bets Ramsey examine a quilt for the Tennessee state survey. Quilts on a stand in my office–a variety of new and old! I love them all. Here I talk about a heavy wool quilt made of a cloth called “Linsey.”…
This week the Quilt Alliance lost one of its original supporters, who helped envision, lead, and sustain the organization and its projects. Alan Jabbour, former Quilt Alliance board member (2001-07) and president (2006-07), died on January 13, 2017. A renowned folklorist, old-time fiddle player, and collector of old fiddle tunes, Alan was the founding director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. He was also a mentor and friend to many, including those of us who were lucky enough to serve on the board of the Quilt Alliance with him. In 1992, Shelly Zegart and Eunice Ray of the Kentucky Quilt Project went to the American Folklife Center to pitch their idea for a database compiling all of the data from the many state quilt documentation projects—the largest grassroots movement to document an aspect of the decorative arts—along with related quilt media. “Alan loved the idea of the Index and was on board from moment one,” recalls Shelly. “His encouragement, support, and uplift made all the difference.” Soon after, Zegart and Ray joined forces with Karey Bresenhan and Nancy Puentes O’Bryant to establish the Quilt Alliance. Alan hosted the Quilt Alliance’s initial advisory council meeting in 1995 at the Library of Congress. He served as an essential early booster of our mission, and his invaluable connections and leadership served both the Quilt Alliance and the Quilt Index—a partner project of the Quilt Alliance, Michigan State University Museum and MSU’s MATRIX: the Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences—as we developed the organization and this signature project from a nascent idea to what they are today. As Shelly notes, “having the imprimatur of the American Folklife Center made a huge difference in the validation of the Quilt Index and the Alliance.” In addition to serving as a guiding force during the Quilt Alliance’s formative years, Alan impacted many of us personally, through his kind words, encouragement, and musical talent. QA executive director Amy Milne reflects, “Personally, I found Alan to be a warm and supportive colleague whose mentorship meant a lot to me. His devotion to family was unmistakable.” Former board member and Quilt Alliance president Le Rowell fondly recalls her close collaboration with Alan, as well as the “pleasure of his fiddling and folk music presentations, his gift of storytelling and his calm, gentle presence.” I benefitted from his encouragement as I worked toward finishing my book; he believed in me, and that helped me believe in myself. As a folklorist, Alan helped us situate quilts in the world of folk culture. It was hard not to when he’d break out his fiddle. At one board reception in Asheville with Amy’s young children in attendance, he played while they danced, reminding us how we pass on our love of culture and history to each new generation. At Quilters Take Manhattan in 2012, we enjoyed the most delightful entertainment at the annual “After Dark” cocktail party following the main event at FIT. Alan brought both his fiddle and his encyclopedic knowledge of traditional tunes. He played, while our guests danced. Before each song, he would recount its origins, and how he learned it. Denyse Schmidt, who recalls her love of old-time music in her QSOS interview, was a particularly vivacious participant in the makeshift dance floor in Victoria Findlay Wolfe’s loft apartment. Our thoughts are with Karen Jabbour, Alan’s wife of over 55 years, and their extended family. We join the many individuals whose lives Alan touched, sharing in the grief of having lost such an inspirational and devoted friend and colleague. To learn more about Alan: Stephen Winick, “Alan Jabbour 1942-2017,” Folklife Today. Ken Perlman (Alan’s musical partner), remembering Alan. Alan Jabbour’s website Posted by Janneken Smucker President of the Board of Directors, Quilt Alliance jsmucker@wcupa.edu…
Since 1993, the Quilt Alliance has been committed to documenting, preserving, and sharing the stories of quilts and quiltmakers. We care about keeping quiltmaking alive, but also celebrating its history. We shared this passion with Quilters Newsletter Magazine, the grandmother of all quilt magazines, in print since Bonnie Leman began the publication as a black and white newsletter produced out of her home in 1969. We at the Quilt Alliance were saddened to hear that F+W, the magazine’s parent company, announced that the magazine would cease publication. I admittedly don’t read all the quilt magazines. But QNM was one I paid attention to in large part because it cared about quilt history. It regularly published features that celebrated quilt heritage, quilt documentation projects, museum exhibitions, and summaries of quilt scholarship. The magazine, like the Quilt Alliance, perceived the stories of the quilts and quiltmakers of the past as integral to quiltmaking’s future. I was lucky enough to publish a few times in QNM, and always felt honored that a popular publication with large and faithful readership would feature articles by a historian like me. And that’s part of QNM’s legacy. QNM is part of our shared quilt history which the Quilt Alliance aims to preserve. The magazine was instrumental in the late twentieth-century quilt revival, not just through its publication, but through its outreach into the burgeoning world of quilt enthusiasts and its leadership in the quilt industry. For example, QNM sent a touring Quiltmobile around the country in 1976, exhibiting quilts and teaching quilting, which no doubt helped fuel the quiltmaking excitement surrounding the American Bicentennial (we here at the Quilt Alliance are inspired by this… we’ve had our eye out for a camper to drive around the country recording quilt stories). These stories are worth saving, but we can’t do it alone. In 2002, Quilt Treasures—a partner project of the Quilt Alliance, Michigan State University Museum, and Matrix, the Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at MSU—interviewed Bonnie Leman. Our partners created a mini-documentary and web portrait, but the technology supporting this presentation is out of date. watch an excerpt of Bonnie recalling the origins of Quilters Newsletter from her Quilt Treasures portrait.[space height=”10″]
[space height=”10″] Like Quilt Treasures, our oral history project Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories (QSOS) is now in need of conversion to a new platform, so we can continue to fulfill our mission of not only documenting, but also preserving and sharing quilt stories. Please join us as a member today or make a donation. Consider it a subscription to our mission, one that requires fuel and tending to document and sustain our community for years to come. We hope you can help. Posted by Janneken Smucker President of the Board of Directors, Quilt Alliance…
