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Quilt History: Why Is It Important?

by Patricia L. Cummings
©2010

Before we ask, “Why is Quilt History important?,” perhaps we should first ask, “Why is History important?” Daniel Webster, a noted statesman from New Hampshire, (and no relation to Ellen Webster), once said:

“It is wise for us to refer to the history of our ancestors. Those who do not look upon themselves as a link connecting the past with the future, do not perform their duty of the world.”

Ellen Emeline Webster did more than her duty to save history by writing down the details of the settlement of her home town of Hebron, New Hampshire and stories of life there in the nineteenth century. In addition, she engaged in the study of quilts at a time when only three books had been written about the subject. Today, viewing antique quilts provides direction for quilters. Sometimes, the proficiency with which old quilts were made tell us how much more we need to learn to catch up with the accomplishments of quilters of the past.

Quilts may seem inconsequential to some folks because they represent ordinary, everyday “woman’s work.” Many people ask, “Why make a quilt? They sell inexpensive ones at department stores.” There is no imported Third World quilt that can measure up to the workmanship of an heirloom quilt made by a dedicated quilter. Those of us who invest time in creating quilts of every size, color, and shape possess a keen sense of our own limited lifespan. Most quilters want to leave tangible artifacts behind them by which they can be remembered. Quilters create “material culture,” and in the case of Ellen Webster, quilt “charts” that can be “read.”

Contrasts With the Past
To make any quilt, one must have a needle. Bone needles have been found at Paleolithic sites in western Europe, dating back to 35,000 years ago. The needles found range in size from ½” to 3” long. One website tells how to make bone needles, but cautions that bone dust is not a healthy substance to inhale. Today, when we want new needles, we visit our local fabric store, or consult a mail order catalog. We can choose from an array of brand names. In early America, a quilter would have to wait for the next ship to pull up to the dock in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, or Baltimore, Maryland, with a cargo that contained needles made of whalebone.

Natural Fibers: A Use of Resources
Before synthetic fibers were invented, linen, wool, silk and cotton were the resources utilized for creating thread and cloth. Linen (from flax) and wool (from fleece) were home-grown in New England. With pretty blue flowers, flax once grew prolifically in the countryside. Many labor intensive processes were needed to process flax into linen thread. That thread could be used to sew, or was woven into a fabric for clothes, or worked with cross stitches into Girlhood Samplers.

Wool was a labor-intensive product very common in New England. Some wholecloth (calimanco) quilts feature a combination of linen and wool, a cloth sometimes called linsey-woolsey. (Some believe that the term linsey-woolsey, also spelled lindsey-woolsey, takes its name from Linsey, England). Linen was used as a warp fiber on the loom; wool as the weft.

In the south, during the Civil War, dresses were made of homespun cloth created with a cotton warp and a wool weft. The book Southern Quilts: Surviving Relics of the Civil War shows a photo of a post Civil War pillow made in 1910 in which pieces from actual Civil War dresses made of homespun have been worked into a border design, Crazy Quilt style. The central part of the pillow features a poem that begins with the words, “Hoorah for the home spun dresses our ladies wore in time of the war.”

For a time, a thriving silk production business existed in Northampton, Massachusetts. Mulberry trees, there and elsewhere in New England, were planted so that there would be leaves to feed silk worms (who are “fussy” in what they will eat). A museum in Sandwich, New Hampshire owns one silk scarf with fringe, the result of a harvest of a locally-grown silk worms. That type of tree does not do well in northern climates and did not survive.

Today, cotton is the preferred fabric of choice for most quilters. Many processes are needed to prepare it: cleaning, bleaching, spinning, mercerizing, dyeing, weaving, and printing. The thousands of cotton print designs could be a lifelong study unto itself and indeed, many historic “fabric sample books” do exist in private collections and museums. These books show swatches of fabrics and the dates when they were printed.

Basic Tools Expanded
For a moment, let’s look at the building blocks of quilt making: needle, thread, and fabrics. Today, we have gone high-tech! There are rotary cutters, precise rulers, and die-cut templates and even a product called Accu-Quilt that will cut specific shapes, saving the quilter the trouble. There is every gadget imaginable, including machine stitch regulators for “long arm” machines. Inspiration comes from quilt books, classes, videos, quilt shows and the world-wide Internet. In 2010, the quilt industry is estimated at $3.58 billion dollars, and in the U.S., quilters spent $21 million dollars in that year!

First Published Quilt Pattern
Think about this: in the 19th century, there was no such thing as a dedicated quilt magazine. Today, there are more than 20 quilt magazines. Godey’s Lady’s Book was the first to publish a quilt pattern, a hexagonal design, in 1835. Silk was often the preferred fabric for designs offered in that publication.

A “Footprint”
Quilt history examines the work of quilters, and sometimes their personal journeys. Ellen Webster left her own kind of “footprint,” via her quilt documentations. In addition, through her diaries and letters, we begin to understand her sense of humor, her commitment to scholarship, and her love of celebrating the ordinary. Her quilt charts were a point of connection that encouraged me to look beyond the obvious colors and designs and want to learn more about her and the times in which she lived and worked. In making quilt charts, she recognized the creative vision of each quilter and validated them as women, as well as the importance of their endeavors.
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Ellen Emeline (Hardy) Webster, (1867-1950), Her Amazing Quilt “Charts,” Her Writings, and Her Life, a 355 page e-book with 340 photos is available directly from the publisher: Quilter’s Muse Publications or can be purchased at the New Hampshire Historical Society Museum, 6 Eagle Square, Concord, NH.

An e-book that requires no special device to read, just your own computer. On sale until July 31, 2011 for just $19.95 plus FREE SHIPPING! Paypal payments or personal checks accepted. Write to pat@quiltersmuse.com for more details.

Ellen Emeline (Hardy) Webster, (1867-1950): Her Amazing Quilt “Charts,” Her Writings, and Her Life (Concord, NH: Quilter’s Muse Publications, 2008).

©Copyright 2010. Patricia Cummings, pat@quiltersmuse.com Quilter’s Muse Publications, http://www.quiltersmuse.com Concord, New Hampshire.