Between the Wars textile symposium - Part 2

Butterflies, c. 1935. Nina Schrock.

On October 15, 2011, I was privileged to attend a day-long symposium, formally titled Fabric, Fashions and Quilts: From the Armistice to Pearl Harbor. That is a rather unwieldy header, so I'm using a short title, Between the Wars, from one of the presentations, for my blog posts. The symposium was co-sponsored by the New England Quilt Museum and the American Textile History Museum. Our activities alternated between the NEQM and ATHM facilities. We made quite a sight - dozens of women shuttling between the buildings on a bright yellow school bus.

In the afternoon we enjoyed a "quilt-turning" of quilts from the collection of the NEQM, led by quilt historian Merikay Waldvogel. Merikay's assistants, who I believe were Stephanie Hatch and Cyndi Black (they were not introduced but are listed in the program) stacked quilt after quilt on a large table for our admiration. We received a wonderful hand-out with thumb-nails and description of each quilt, and the information in this blog is taken from the hand-out.

Pink Boudoir Whole Boudoir quilt, c. 1920.
Maker unknown.

The design for this quilt, whose true color is represented by the image on the right, above, was produced by the McCall Kaumagraph Company, which made iron-on transfers. The full-size pattern was printed on tissue-like paper and the consumer, presumable having pinned the paper to the fabric first, transferred the design to her fabric with the heat from her domestic iron.

Butterflies with Central Medallion, c. 1930.

Susie Alice Farnsworth Smith.

Ms. Smith, who lived in Massachusetts, arranged her butterflies around a central medallion made using the traditional broderie perse method, in which motifs are cut out from floral prints and then appliqued into a new arrangement. Broderie perse is an old technique, seen in 18th centuries quilts. Hence this quilt is an unusual combination of techniques.

Double Wedding Ring, c. 1930.
Ida Moore Gwin or Elizabeth Ann Landes Pierrel.

This quilt contains several fabrics print in New England Mills, and, yes, that is a swastika design in the detail on the right. The swastika is an ancient symbol which did not acquire negative connotations until the ascendency of the Third Reich in Germany. The presence of the motif is one way to establish definitively that the fabric, and the quilt, were produced before World War II. Since quilters often saved fabrics for years, making dating a quilt without documentation difficult, the presence of such markers as the swastika fabric is as important to the quilt historian as carbon dating is to the archaeologist.

Star of Bethlehem, c. 1925
Pearle Gwin Pierrel.

Like many quilt designs, this pattern has multiple names, including Star of Bethlehem, Lone Star and Blazing Star. Quilters could purchase complete kits or packages of die-cut, color co-cordinated diamonds.

On the wall behind the symposium participants are some of the other items on display in this room, including feedsacks, still with the purveyor's labels, and aprons. Not visible are many scrapbooks and swatch books set out around the room for our perusal. This type of documentation is essential to rigorous textile history research, but also just a treat to see.

Grandmother's Flower Garden, c. 1925
Susie Alice Farnsworth Smith.

Many versions of this popular pattern feature a center hexagon in light yellow, so the use of black centers makes this quilt a bit unusual, but I like the contrast between the dark center and the pastel tones of the petals. The quilter "fussy cut" many of the petals, as can be seen in the details on the right.

Postage Stamp Irish Chain, 1933.
Margaret Lottie Covey O'Brien.

Packages of tiny pre-cut cloth squares, or "postage stamp" pieces, were sold to quilters, so the maker of this bed covering may not have had to cut each and every tiny 3/4" piece. The hand-quilting is exquisite, and Ms. O'Brien embroidered her name, as well as the date of her quilt, in the border, a gift for quilt historians.

Butterflies, c. 1935

Nina Schrock.

According to our hand-out, "During the Depression, Eleanor Roosevelt encouraged women to participate in making traditional crafts as part of the Work Relief Program of the Works Progress Administration. Magazines like Good Housekeeping published patterns for scrap-bag quilts, allowing the quilter to use bits of left over materials."

Ms. Schrock sorted her scraps with a good eye for color, and the polka dot fabric of the insect abdomens sets off the plethora of prints beautifully.

Martha's Vineyard, 1937. Julia King.

The history of quilting is also the history of targeted marketing and advertising to women. In 1929, Fritz Hooker, the sales manager for Mountain Mist, maker of quilt battings since 1846, came up with the idea of printing quilt patterns on the inside of the batting wrappers. Martha's Vineyard was pattern number twenty-eight in a popular range that grew to one hundred and thirty patterns.

Merikay Walvogel displays an old quilt batting wrapper.

During the presentation, Ms. Waldvogel shared many additional items with us, including contemporaneous newspaper clippings, original patterns and other ephemera. Ms. Waldvogel has written several quilt history books and has ferreted out much primary documentation, including this quilt batting wrapper, on the inside of which is printed the pattern for the quilt.

Not so long ago much quilt history was a bit fuzzy, with more reliance on quilt lore, and an emphasis on the romance of quilts, than hard facts. Ms. Waldvogel's excellent research is a welcome corrective. Ms. Waldvogel was an excellent presenter, and I plan to track down her books, which include Soft Covers for Hard Times: Quiltmaking and the Great Depression and Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.

Between the Wars textile symposium - Part 1

Dresses from the 1930's.

On October 15, 2011, I was privileged to attend a day-long symposium, formally titled Fabric, Fashions and Quilts: From the Armistice to Pearl Harbor. That is a rather unwieldy header, so I'm using a short title, Between the Wars, from one of the presentations, for my blog posts. The symposium was co-sponsored by the New England Quilt Museum and the American Textile History Museum. Our activities alternated between the NEQM and ATHM facilities. We made quite a sight - dozens of women shuttling between the buildings on a bright yellow school bus.

One highlight of the symposium was a fortuitously timed exhibit at the ATHM, Grace & Glamour: 1930's Fashion, showcasing, according to curator Karen Herbaugh "...the graceful geometric cuts and streamline modernism of the 1930's." The exhibit, which ran from May 21 to October 16, 2011, confronts two misconceptions about the 30's - first, although a great many people were out of work, many were also relatively unaffected, and still had money to spend on their wardrobes. Second, notions of Depression thrift and economy are somewhat upended by the popularity of the bias cut styling of skirts.

Pattern pieces laid out "on the bias."
Source: http://wkdesigner.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/bias-cut-camisole/

"Cutting on the bias" means placing pattern pieces at a 45 degree angle to the fabric selvedge. Clothes cut on the bias have a very relaxed, elegant drape - see Myrna Loy's gowns in the "Thin Man" movies - but the technique results in a lot of wasted fabric, especially as 1930's cotton fabrics were only 36" wide. Of course, cotton scraps could be thriftily used for children's clothes, doll clothes, and quilts. Not for the first time, though, does consumer preference trump efficient use of resources.

Cotton was still used for even the dressiest of dresses, and would have been comfortable in the era before wide-spread use of air-conditioning. It's not a wash and wear fiber though, and cotton dresses required careful laundering and ironing. The women who could afford these dresses could also hire household help.

The exhibit also highlighted the growing use of rayon, one of the first synthetic fibers, during this decade. Most of the dresses in the exhibit do not have manufacturer or store labels, and it was unclear to me whether the garments were of home apparel manufacture, or made to order by professional seamstresses, or part of the increasing department store ready-to-wear trade.

New England used to be a busy garment manufacturing center. For example, Carl Shapiro, Boston-area philanthropist, founded the Kay Windsor clothing company in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1939, and sold it to the Vanity Fair Corporation in 1971. The proceeds of this sale formed the basis for his family foundation, which funded, among other endeavors, the New Wing of the Museum of Fine Arts.

Wherever the garments were made, the dresses on display exemplify the change in silhouette from the 1920's style. Curator Herbaugh thoughtfully included a few garments from the 1920's to make the contrast unmistakable.

1920's dress - no waist, flat bosom, dropped skirt.

1930's dresses - defined and accentuated waist,
bodice and neckline details, pastel colors.

Left, print dress. Right, sample swatch of dress fabric.

Ms. Herbaugh's curatorial "Aha!" moment, related to us in her brief highlight tour, was discovering that the ATHM had a swatch book with fabrics matching the material of one of the dresses. It doesn't take much to get us fabric junkies excited.

Dress with feminine floral print.

One typical characteristic of thirties dresses that can be seen in the dress and skirt detail above is that when lengthwise stripes are cut on the bias, the stripes meet at the center seam to form a chevron. This effect is also striking with plaids.

Last but not least, the accessories
- gloves, hats and shoes.

Although most of the items in the exhibit came from the ATHM's own collection, several of the objects were borrowed from Lasell College, right in my own town of Newton.

The American Textile History Museum website is http://www.athm.org/

Nova Scotia Snow Ball, with studio staff

If cute cat pictures make you throw-up, stop reading now.

My assistant helps me baste a quilt.

Nothing exciting going on, just some images of a recent quilt. Pattern is Snow Ball as interpreted by quiltmakers in Nova Scotia, from a Dover publication, Nova Scotia Patchwork Patterns, by Carter Houck.

We do like natural fibers.

The blue print material is a 36" -wide vintage fabric, with Regulated Cotton Never Misbehaves printed on the selvedge, as well as the name of this particular design, Marina. I love the cadet blue, with its gray tones.

Finally, cat-free. Batik border.

I've been quilting away, while listening to Alexander McCall Smith's The Double Comfort Safari Club audiobook. The rhythm of read-aloud seems to help ensure controlled, even hand stitching.

All quilted but the border.

PurlSoho retail therapy

Patrons finger the yarns.

The entrance, at 459 Broome St.

In August I found myself in Manhattan, to visit a family member in hospital. I took a bit of time off from the bedside vigil to meet with one of my New York-based offspring, on her last weekend of freedom before beginning graduate school. We went to PurlSoho, a sliver of a store, and found an Aladdin's cave of yarn, fabric and more.

Be still my heart! Bolts and bolts of Liberty Tana Lawn.

Liberty lawn designs in embroidery hoops -
what a great way to use scraps.

Liberty fabrics have that somewhat eccentric British design sensibility - on view in the creative hats at the televised Royal Wedding in April - and the tightly-woven, yet supple, lawn quilts up beautifully.

According to my 1959 Fairchild's Dictionary of Textiles, lawn is:

a fine, plain weave, relatively sheer cotton fabric made in close constructions. Generally made of fine, combed singles [single ply] although some cheaper carded yarn qualities are also produced... The term lawn was originally was used for fine, plain weave linen fabric with an open texture... The word is derived from Laon, a city in France, where linen lawn was manufactured extensively.

I stopped drooling over the Liberty bolts long enough to notice that PurlSoho also has a nice, edited yarn selection, including many tempting chunky yarns.

Yarn and, at the left, real wool felt.


Textured scarves.

I have a yarn-buying moratorium, but I did purchase a pre-printed sashiko embroidery panel. I took this back to the hospital and worked it there a bit, becoming entertainment for some of the patients at New York Presbyterian. I remember how utterly boring illness can be, and was happy to explain my project to the johnny-clad people, trailing IV poles, who approached me in the lounge. One woman sat with me for quite a while and chatted while I stitched. I think she needed to talk, and I was happy to listen.

Old Singer models - marvels of industrial design.

As we left PurlSoho on our way to the subway, we admired the window of AllSaints Spitalfields clothing company, with its display of antique sewing machines. For information about PurlSoho, the website is: www.purlsoho.com/purl

The Soho MOMA Store is nearby too, at 81 Spring Street. Get refreshed at Balthazar, across the street at 80 Spring St.

Images 2011 and more

Impressions of Lowell
Top row, one of the waterways that powered the mills.
Middle row, Left to right: 1) Antique Maine quilt
2) New England Quilt Museum
3) James MacNeil Whistler.

Bottom row, 1) lunch at La Boniche 2) Historic building.

On Saturday, August 13, DH and I packed in a full day of quilt viewing, taking in three - count 'em - quilt exhibits, all part of the Lowell Quilt Festival. (Click on any image to enlarge it.)

A good crowd at Images 2011.
A selection of antique red and white quilts from the NEQM
can be seen hanging from the balcony.

Our first stop was Images 2011, the annual show sponsored by the New England Quilt Museum (NEQM) auxiliary. My quilt "Radial Motion" was juried in, so of course we had to see it basking in its fifteen minutes of fame. In a change from previous years, the show was not held at the Tsongas arena, a hockey rink, but rather at Lowell Memorial Auditorium. I prefer this new venue - easier to navigate, and less of a coliseum feel.

A pineapple-type log cabin pattern of strong graphic intensity. By Pat Harrison.


First Impression, Kathleen Murphy.


The Tsar's Decree, by Megan Farkas.
Based on a 1905 illustration by Ivan Bilibin
for a tale by Alexander Pushkin.


Original illustration.
Source: http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/ivan-bilibin/illustration-for-alexander-pushkin-s-fairytale-of-the-tsar-saltan-1937

How wonderful to see a connection between a quilter in 21st America and a Russian illustrator working before the first World War. I love the idea of quilters re-interpreting illustrations by artists who worked in traditional two-dimensional media. The translation from illustration to quilt inherently brings adaptations and changes, making a new work.

For example, the quilting stitches suggest the water flow in a manner almost superior to the linework of the 2-d illustration, and the stars of the illustration have been interpreted using Swarovski crystals, which literally sparkle in the blue cloth sky.

In the Pushkin story The Tale of Tsar Saltan, the eponymous tsar chooses the youngest of three sisters to be his wife and tsarina; the elder sisters are teeth-grindingly jealous. Saltan goes off to war, and the envious sisters waste no time placing the tsarina and her young son, Prince Gvidon, into a barrel, which is tossed into the sea.

The sea, in a benevolent guise, takes pity on the mother and child, and casts them up on shore. (This is the scene in the quilt). In their new land Prince Gvidon - who grew quickly in the barrel, evidently - rescues a magic swan. After various adventures, the swan turns out to be a beautiful enchanted princess, whom Gvidon marries. He and his mother are also reunited with Tsar Saltan, and all live happily ever.

Ocean Treasures, by Norma Schlager.

The Sea was the theme of the juried art quilt show at the Brush Art Gallery and Studios, which we visited for the first time. Some artists who work in this complex also had concurrent open studios, and much of the work was very impressive. The Gallery is in the same re-purposed mill complex as the National Park Service Visitors' Center for the Lowell National Historical Park.

More info about the Brush Gallery can be found here: www.thebrush.org/

Time is as Weak as Water, Carol Anne Grotrian.

Some artists in the show are from my quilt guild, including Carol Anne Grotrian, who dyes the wonderful shibori fabrics she uses in her quilts.

Sea Spray, Valerie Maser-Flanagan.

Valerie Maser-Flanagan, Last Light.

One artist, Valerie Maser-Flanagan, had a quilt at the Brush Gallery and also at our next stop, a quilt exhibit at the birthplace of painter James MacNeil Whistler. Also the headquarters of the Lowell Art Association, this house museum displays some etchings and drawings by Whistler, period furniture, and paintings by his contemporaries such as William Morris Hunt. Worth a stop if you're in the area. More info: www.whistlerhouse.org/

Art Quilts at the Whistler.

Like most exhibits that are limited in size, this small show would have benefited from a theme or other unifying concept; as hung it was a rather random assortment of attractive contemporary art quilts. Nothing wrong with that, but the whole never rose above the sum of the parts.

Robinson Farm Girl, Vita Marie Lovett.
An excellent example of the "thread-painting"
approach to contemporary quilting.

Vermont Quilt Festival 2011

Feathered Star made about 1900 by Cynthia Lamoureaux.

The 2011 Festival, from June 24-26, was a popular event, judging from the crowds at the Champagne and Chocolate reception on Thursday night. The VQF is a judged show, meaning that each contestant receives a rating, with comments, from a panel of judges. This year the adjudicators worshiped at the altar of machine quilting, and, since I am an apostate, I'll not comment on this year's top contest winners, which may be seen at the Festival's website.

The website is found at: www.vqf.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=1

The evolution of stationary machine quilting into ever-more labyrinthine, fussy and congested stitchery, which often can't even been seen unless the viewer practically noses the quilt, has no appeal for me, especially as the dense application of thread renders the quilt surface flat and the quilt stiff. What's the difference between this kind of quilting and machine embroidery? The "More is Better" approach seems particularly pointless when all that stitching belabors a pieced or appliqued top that is essentially boring or awkward.

I don't understand the popularity of this kind of quilting, and can't help but wonder if it is linked to advertising revenue - the latest edition of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, the grandmama of quilt periodicals, has three full-page ads for machine quilting equipment, in addition to ads for expensive sewing machines marketed for both embroidery and machine quilting. To what extent is the promotion of machine quilting all about the business of quilting, as opposed to the art of quilting?

I'll get off my soapbox now, and, in any event, there were some very beautiful quilts at the Festival, and a special display, Patterns of History: Quilts from the Vermont Historical Society Collection, among other special exhibits. DH and I also had a great time exploring the sights of downtown Burlington.

Festival faculty Mickey Lawlor used machine-quilting
purposefully to evoke sense wind and tide.

In the past, I have taken a workshop with Mickey Lawlor sponsored by my quilt guild, so it was a treat to see one of the her quilts made from her hand-painted fabric.

Ice on the Sawmill River, Ann Feitelson.

Queen of Quilts, Leslie Justice Cook.
Pattern by Jeanne Kimball, with a fresh color palette.

Hot Flash, Allita Paine. (Quilted by Janice Cutting.)

A particularly nice border (Deb Tucker design) on this Hunter's Star quilt.


Sunny Lilies, Noah Patullo.
Old favorite pattern, in punchy colors,
with exciting corner treatment.


First Lorraine Went to Egypt, Barbara Polston.
Top prize, miniature quilt division.
Inspired by Egyptian artist Chant Avedissian.


Queen of My Heart, Holly Dominie.
One of the best portrait quilts I've seen.


Puzzled Yankee: A Tangram Quilt, Hope Johnson.
Tangrams are one of my favorite toys-for-all-ages,
and what a fun theme for a quilt.

Happy Days, Sheila Groman.
Nice to see the tradition of the crazy quilt continue, updated.

I spent much of my time admiring the quilts from the Vermont Historical Society and musing on the links between the antique and contemporary quilts.

Antique crazy quilt, in a zig-zag format. (Unknown artist.)

Top and bottom left: Redwork quilt with blocks
embroidered by Mary Putnam in the 19th Century;
quilt assembled circa 1930 by unknown quilter.
Bottom right, Cats in Plaid, Kirsten Barwood.

A love of pet cats spans the ages, and I would recommend Sandi Fox's book Cats on Quilts (ISBN 9780810957251) to fellow cat lovers. I was disappointed to note few redwork or sashiko quilts in this year's VQF.

Details of antique quilts.

Crazy quilt variation, Philea A. Spear, 1909.

One of my favorite antique quilts, with a very contemporary feel, was a crazy quilt made by Philea Spear in her eighty-fourth year. At first glance, randomness seem to rule, but each block center is carefully pieced and the color palette is very consistent, with enough contrast so that each minute piece reads individually in the welter of shapes and colors.

Detail, Spear quilt.

DH, in his patchwork shirt, examines an

antique quilt by Mary Jane Peaselee Vitty.

Program cover design by Mary Azarian.

Finally, kudos to the Festival for utilizing the talents of Caldecott medalist Mary Azarian for the cover artwork.

http://www.maryazarian.com/