Hidden Treasures: Early Quilts from the Poos Collection

The 100 quilts in Hidden Treasures: Rarely Seen Pre-Civil War Textiles from the Poos Collection are so memorable and gorgeous, antique quilt lovers are warned against heart palpitations and turning green with envy! These are quilts in a private collection. Lori Lee and Kay Triplett have previously shared quilts from the collecting in Indigo Quilts, Pioneer Quilts, Chintz Quilts from the Poos Collection and Red and Green Quilts from the Poos Collection. 

The Poos Collection is one of the largest privately held quilt collections in the world with a concentration on pre-1860 quilts from American, Britain, and France.

Baltimore Album Quilt with Rose Border, American, 1848

The quilts are presented in groupings:

• Album Quilts
• Wool Quilts
• Birds of a Feather
• Starstruck
• Paper-pieced Quilts
• Red and Green Quilts
• Chintz Coverlets and Quilts
• White Wholecloth Quilts

Crewel Curtains Quilt, English, c. 1750s

Early quilts often repurposed textiles. Chintz was a glazed fabric made in India with woodblock printed or painted images. Europeans used the fabric for home decor and clothing. Early Chintz quilts had little piecing, using the fabric whole. Later the naturalistic motifs were cut out and hand appliqued to a plain background.  Crewelwork drapes, quilted petticoats, and other textiles were also cut up to make quilts.

Thrush Family Crewel Quilt, English, 1810

Pictorial applique quilts often include images important to the quilter, her historical setting, and contemporaneous historical events. These quilts are not only a thing of beauty but also offer insight into other times.

The Veray Settlement Table Cover, c. 1820, includes intarsia, applique, and embroidery on wool to depict the history of the settlement. Intarsia is one of the earliest techniques found in pieced textiles. Over ten pages, each panel is reproduced and the image's representation explained.

The Sarah B. Dales Damascus Mission Quilt, American, 1854, consists of blocks with beautifully inked drawings and names, sew together 'pot holder' method. In this method, individual bocks were layered, quilted, and bound off,  then sewn together to form the quilt. The presentation quilt was given to Miss Dales before leaving to be a missionary teacher in Damascus.

Wholecloth Quilting is the oldest style, dating to the 13th c. Sometimes the quilt top was made of printed fabrics. Most are white with white quilting, sometimes with stuffing between the stitches to raise quilted motifs, called trapunto. Photographing these quilts is problematic as it is hard to show the elaborate stitching. The images in this book are excellent. I appreciated the use of backlighting to better show quilt details.

The Applique Gone Wild Coverlet, English, c. 1825, combines applique motifs with pieced blocks and cut-out chintz motifs. 

In the 1820s English Medallion style quilts had layers of pieced blocks and squares, triangles, and rectangles of fabrics. 

English Paper Piecing is one of the oldest quilt methods Fabric is sewn around a paper template and the shapes stitched together. The technique is in revival with contemporary quilters. I was very inspired by the fussy-cutting use of printed fabric motifs in the Lewis Family Hexagon Quilt, American, 1825-1850. 

Hexagon Diamonds Quilt, American 1850 is a paper pieced quilt

The Rose Sampler Quilt, American, 1860, has an improvisational quality and a personality all it's own. The medallion-type setting is off center, the outer border bud motifs are each different. It is a quilt that brings joy to the viewer.

I thank the collectors and authors Lori Lee Triplett and Kay Triplett for sharing their amazing collection through this book. Follow their blog Quilt & Textile Collections at https://www.quiltandtextilecollections.com/blog

This is a 'must' for your personal quilt history collection!

I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Hidden Treasures, Quilts from 1600 to 1860: Rarely Seen Pre–Civil War Textiles from the Poos Collection
Lori Lee Triplett and Kay Triplett
Available on July 1,  2019
Book ( $39.95  ) eBook ( $31.99 )
ISBN: 978-1-61745-807-1
(eISBN: 978-1-61745-808-8)

Indianapolis Star 1930 Quit Contest Patterns and a Family Mystery

Vintage newspaper quilt block patterns took me researching a quilt contest and a family mystery.

The Quilt Block Patterns

A member of my weekly quilt group is moving and downsizing. Among the things Karen brought to the free table was a package of envelopes with quilt block templates. My savvy lady friends quickly set it aside for me!

The patterns had belonged to Karen's friend Delphine (Del) Theman.

The patterns were shared in the Indianapolis Star in 1939 as part of their second Quilt Contest. I quickly recognized the patterns as by Ruby McKim.

November 16 ad for the Quilt Contest in the Indianapolis Star

The contest had a total of $275 in prizes! First prize won $50, second, $30, third prize, $20. There were five $10 prizes, ten $7.50 prizes, and ten $5 prizes. Ladies sent their completed quilts to the Quilt Contest Department at the Indianapolis Star.

Envelope holding quilt block pattern

Each envelope had the quilt block on the front and was noted by name and by number.

Inside each envelope were the original article and the original pattern, cut apart. I found the pattern in  Newspapers.com, seen below.

the November 20, 1930, article in the Indianapolis Star

She made another pattern which included seam allowances for cutting.

You can see in the photo above the pattern piece cut from the newspaper article and the hnd made pattern piece made with seam allowance added.

Also with the group was an illustration of the blocks in a quilt pattern layout with quilting motifs noted. The illustration was later hand penciled to enhance the illustration.

The block patterns included:

• Cherry Basket
• Bear's Paw
• Sunbeam
• Double T
• Crazy Ann
• Noon Day Lily
• Old Corn & Bean
• The Rising Sun
• Grandmother's Cross
• Rambler
• Mill Wheel
• The Skyrocket
• The Weather Vane
• Spool or Jenny Lind
• Double Nine Patch
• Wild Goose Chase
• The Strawberry
• V-Block
• Crosses & Losses
• Grandmother's Fan
• Road to Oklahoma
• Hickory Leaf
• Road to California
• The Palm Leaf
• Little Beech Tree

Here you can see the backside of the newspaper patterns.

And the paper patterns including seam allowance that she made for cutting the fabric.

Over 400 quilts were entered into the contest!

April 1, 1930, Indianapolis Star article

April 3, 1930, Indianapolis Star article

The Mystery

I researched Del on Ancestry.com. It quickly became obvious that in 1930 Del was only ten years old and she was not the collector and preserver of these patterns! Did her mother make the quilt? Did she inherit or obtain the patterns from someone outside of her immediate family?

I researched Del's family tree to see if I could garner any clues.

Del was born in Penzance, Cornwall, England on January 1, 1920, and died April 20, 2008, in Michigan. When Del was four years old she immigrated on the Melita, arriving in Quebec with her mother Emily Rosina James (age 24) and sisters Emily, Eileen Pearl, and Rosina Ellen. Emily Rosina James had been living with her mother Charlotte Standbridge.

Del's father was William Henry James and I found his Petition for Citizenship dated March 21, 1923. The document also noted that his wife Emily arrived in America on April 4, 1925. This proved that William had immigrated before his family and sent money back for their passage. This was how my Grandparents on both sides of my family came to America, the husband crossing first, obtaining work and housing, and then sending for his family.

I learned more about Del's parents.

William was born July 5, 1894, in Cornwall, England. He married Emily on October 26, 1918. Emily was born in Southampton, England on April 5, 1900. At the time of William's petition, his children were listed as Delphine, Eileen (born March 19, 1921), Rosina (born July 25, 1935), who were both noted as being born in England, and Kathleen (born December 12, 1928) born in Detroit, MI.

William Henry James's naturalization petition

William's naturalization record of March 15, 1930, showed William was 5'5" with brown hair and fair skin and weighed 115 pounds. He immigrated to Windsor, Canada, arriving on March 18, 1923, his wife and children still in England.

The 1930 Census shows the family living on Wabash Avenue in Detroit, MI. William was a 'tool man' working for Ford Motor. He became an American citizen in 1922 and Emily was naturalized in 1924. The family appears in the 1940 census as well.

On August 25, 1945, Del married Earl Henry Theman. Earl was 37 years old. His father's name was Ernest Theman. Earl's draft card dated October 16, 1940, showed he was living with his mother Anna Hessell Theman. Earl had a ruddy complexion with brown eyes and hair and was 5'8" tall. He worked for Ford Motor. Earl died on March 31, 1993.

Here was a mystery. The marriage certificate shows the bride's name as Delphine Irene Pegouske!

Karen always remembered Del talking about 'my Johnny." This was clearly not Earl's name.

I did a search for Delphine Irene Pegouske and found a marriage on November 20, 1941, to John Elroy Pegouske, son of William and Lucy Bourrassa Pegouske, 21 years old and living in Dearborn, MI. Witnesses at the wedding were John's brother Everett Pegouske and his wife Emma Leora Phieffer Pegouske.

So, Del was married before and her husband's relatives witnessed her second marriage! It was time to look into Johnny.

John was born June 22, 1916, in Melvindale, Wayne County, Michigan.

"My Johnny" enlisted on October 16, 1940. He was 24 years old, 5'9" tall with blonde hair, gray eyes, and a light complexion, born on June 21, 1916. He worked for the Thornton Tandem Co. He was an army technician 4th grade and his religion listed as Catholic.

According to his niece who posted on Ancestry.com, Johnny died on July 15, 1944, when his truck ran over a hidden land mine in Italy. John was buried in Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial in Nettuno, Città Metropolitana di Roma Capitale, Lazio, Italy.

No wonder that John's family witnessed Delphine's marriage to Earle Theman. They were supporting her to move on from her devastating loss.

Now I was curious about the Pegouske name. It is similar to my married name.  There are many spellings of the name in my husband's family tree.

My husband's grandfather's name was transliterated as Bekofske and his brother's name was transliterated as Pekoske. Gary's father called his family Prussian. My research showed they were Germans who moved into Poland and then into the area now called Ukraine before immigrated to America. Also, the 'e' ending is more usual for Prussian names.

A family tree on Ancetry.com shows the Pegouske line going to Frantz (later Frank) Pajatzky (1835-1918) in Germany/Prussia, arriving in America on June 6, 1870. Frantz married Augusta Justine Mandilke (1839-1921).

Franz and Augusta's son William (1876-1946) married Lucy Philomene Bourassa (1881-1929) and they had 15 children including John Elroy who predeceased his father by two years. William was a widower when he died in Eloise, Wayne, Michigan.

William's death in Eloise, Wayne, Michigan rang a bell for me. A few years ago our library book club read Annie's Ghosts by Steve Luxenberg about an unknown relative cloistered away in the Eloise Hospital. What was established as the Eloise Poorhouse became the Eloise Sanitarium or Hospital, at its peak a huge complex, a city in itself. In 1945 it was named the Wayne County General Hospital and Infirmary. People were sent there for many reasons. I don't know if William was ill or had dementia or had no where else to live.

The family name was also transcribed as Pogoska, Pelgotssky, Pagutski, Pegonsky, and finally Pegouske.

My friend Karen never talked to Del about her family history. We still don't know who collected the Sampler Block articles. But I had fun researching all these mysteries!

The first Quilt Contest held by the Indianapolis Star was for Ruby McKim's Flower Garden quilt.

See vintage Ruby McKim sampler quilts at
Quilts-Antique and Vintage
https://quilts-vintageandantique.blogspot.com/2010/01/ruby-mckim-1930-patchwork-quilt.html
Material Things by Barbara Brackman
https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2013/02/ruby-mckim-in-denver-post.html

Art Quilts Unfolding: 50 Years of Innovation

The first time I saw an exhibition of art quilts* it changed my entire concept of what was possible as a quilter. During my 28 years of quiltmaking, art quilts have been a source of inspiration.

I was super thrilled to receive a review copy of Art Quilts Unfolding from Schiffer Publications, a celebration of The Studio Art Quilt Association, founded in 1989 to promote art quilts.

Art Quits Unfolding documents the 50-year history of the art quilt movement, lushly illustrated by the art quilts of each time period.

Timelines for each decade mark the major shows, publications, and venues. The book shares each decade's important artists and their quilts, followed with a gallery of quilts from that time period and articles on the decade's important collections, collectors and publications.

Spin Cycle. 1998. 66" x 71". Commercial cotton, hand-dyed and airbrushed cotton. Machine pieced and appliquéd, machine quilted. Photo: James Dewrance. Image from the publisher on Amazon.

The breadth of art quilts embraces the abstract and representational, using traditional quilt materials and techniques and employing non-traditional materials and embellishments.

Piecing, applique, painting, embroidery and thread painting, fabric manipulation, embellishing-- the techniques used have no limits! New technologies have revolutionized the art quilt, such as manipulation of images printed on fabric and programmable longarm quilting. The 94-year-old quilter in my weekly group scans images to print on fabric!

Every quilter and artist will discover techniques, art, and voices to inspire them!

Leonard. 2017. 27" x 37". Hand-dyed cheesecloth, cotton, silk organza. Collection: Roberta Russell Photo: Ray Pilon.
image from the publisher on Amazon

Some of my favorite art quilts appear. I particularly enjoy quilt incorporating words and those which address the human experience. Such a quilt is Chawne Kimber's quilt The One for Eric Gardner, now in the Michigan State University collection. I read Matt Taibbi's book I Can't Breathe about Gardner, and this quilt vividly captures the story.

Velda Newman's Sunflower State
at the Grand Rapids AQS Quilt Show

Many of the quilts and artists included were familiar to me through publications and shows I have attended. But I also discovered many new artists and quilts.

Over the years I attended quilt shows, subscribed to art quilt publications, and bought art quilt books. I tried various techniques. The art quilt movement has been an inspiration to take risks and find my own voice.

Art Quilts Unfolding: 50 Years of Innovation
Sandra Sider, ed.
Schiffer Publications
Size: 8 1/2″ x 11″ | 457 color images | 352 pp
ISBN13: 9780764356261
Hardcover $49

from the publisher:From 1965 through today, the art quilt movement has grown to become one of the most exciting art forms of the 21st century. Until now, there has not been a comprehensive, chronological history of the studio art quilt, which has become an international phenomenon. This feast for the eyes offers full-color images of 400 masterpieces along with engaging interviews and profiles of 58 influential artists, key leaders, important events, and significantcollections. Organized by decade, an additional 182 international artists’ works are featured. An introduction by Janet Koplos, former senior editor of Art in America, and a conclusion by Ulysses Grant Dietz, emeritus chief curator of the Newark Museum, help us to understand the impact and the future of the art. This publication originated with Studio Art Quilt Associates, a non-profit professional organization founded in 1989 and now serving 3,500 members in nearly forty countries.

*****

*I made my first quilt in 1991. A few months later my family was traveling across Pennsylvania when I noted a quilt show, Flights of Imagination held at Donnecker's in Ephrata, PA. I saw my first art quilts and they gave me a vision of what was possible. I worked hard to master traditional quilt skills with my eye on the dream of someday making art quilts.

One of the quilts that most inspired me at that show was Jonathan Shannon's July, a representational quilt that is also surreal with giant sunflowers against a blue background, with fish swimming between the flowers. Is the blue background sky? Water? Are the flowers a reflection?

photo of July by Jonathan Shannon
Flights of Imagination 1992

Southern Quilt Traditions, History, and Designs

Southern Quilts by Mary W. Kerr includes articles by thirteen quilt historians, profusely illustrated with 270 color photographs, demonstrating the rich heritage of quilting across the South.

The heritage of quilts was influenced by Scots-Irish and German settlers as well as by African American traditions, and demonstrate regionally popular quilt patterns, a preference for complicated quilt block incorporating tiny pieces, and specific color palettes.

The Forward by Laurel Horton discusses Southern Roots, Southern Patterns, and the roots of Southern quilting from the British Isles, later impacted by waves of immigrants who migrated south from Pennsylvania.

Southern cotton was milled in New England, the plentiful American-made fabrics leading to the Golden Age of American quilt making during the mid-1800sand into the twentieth century. The development of new dyes and colors and quit block patterns, and inexpensive fabrics, led to the creation of suburb examples, while utility quilts included scrap sewing, the use of feed sacks, large quilt stitching, and heavy cotton batting.

Chapters include:

• Making Do- a Southern Tradition by Mary W. Kerr
• Alabama Pine Burr by Mary Elizabeth Johnson
• Alamance Applique by Kathlyn Sullivan
• Circles and Spikes by Teddy Pruett
• Cotton Boll by Kathlyn Sullivan
• Crown of Thorns by Merikay Waldvogel
• Double Wedding Ring by Sherry Burkhalter
• Farmer's Fancy by Bunnie Jordan
• The Impact of the Feedsack on Southern Quilts by Sarah Bliss Wright
• Pieced Pine But by Mary W. Kerr
• Rattlesnake Quilts by Marcia Kaylakie
• Seven Sisters by Sandra Starley
• Southern Florals by Lisa Erlandson
• Tricolor Quilts: How the Germans of Pennsylvania Influenced a Color Palette and Style in the South by Lynn Lancaster Gorges
• Whig's Defeat by Gaye Rick Ingram

I was particularly interested learning about Shenandoah Valley quilts since my paternal line includes the earliest settlers. The pattern known as Farmer's Fancy was particularly popular in that area.

Farmer's Fancy quilt circa 1880, from the collection of Taryn Faulkner, Pinterest image

Farmer's Fancy is a circular pattern, with an inner design similar to a sunburst or compass block, surrounded by several rings of triangles. Jordan notes the earliest documented Farmer's Fancy block dates to 1846. The pattern was later called Pyrotechnics in the 1930s.

This quilt is often found in red and cheddar yellow, and sometimes with a background of blue, cheddar, or green. In another chapter, Lynn Lancaster Georges discusses the Pennsylvania German impact on the Southern color palette. As seen in Pennsylvania Dutch Fraktur art and earthenware pottery, they tended toward teal blue, orange, and oxblood. Zig-zag borders are often found on the Shenandoah Valley quilts.

The West Virginia State Documentation Project found this pattern throughout the Shenandoah Valley and neighboring areas first settled by German Mennonites and Scots-Irish. My Gochenour family were German-speaking Swiss Brethren, a branch of the Anabaptist faith which includes the Mennonites and Amish. (My ancestors became Baptist after a few generations.)

I may be daydreaming, but I would love to make my own version of Farmer's Fancy! I bought acrylic templates from John Flynn's company. His way of construction should make it easier for me.

Southern Quilts will appeal to those interested in quilt history and to quilters who enjoy making Reproduction quilts.

I received a free e-book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Read my reviews of Mary Kerr's previous books Recycling Vintage Hexie Quilts and Twisted .

Southern Quilts: Celebrating Traditions, History, and Designs
by Mary W. Kerr
Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
Pub Date 28 Apr 2018 
Hardcover $29.99
ISBN: 9780764355028

Quit Books Reviewed in 2016

I am happy to review books relating to quilting. I received ebooks or books from a wide range of publishers.

Suzi Parron's books on the Barn Quilt Movement take readers into the American Heartland and across the nation as we learn the stories behind the painted quilt blocks shared on family farms.

Easy quilt-in-a-day projects.

 Don Beld relates the history behind traditional quilt block patterns.

Amish Quilts' extensive social history explains how 'ugly' quilts in the Amish closets were discovered and sold as art, transforming how quilts were perceived, and spurring a market for antique quilts.

One Bundle of Fun presents beautiful and easy patterns for precuts.

 This quilt history book shows centuries of Pennsylvania quilts from Cumberland County.

This HUGE collection of quilts using fat quarters includes patterns by well known quilt designers. Something for everyone1

Amazing quilts interpret all of America's national parks, accompanied by articles written by people who work for the park.

Learn the history of Modern Art and how to design modern quilts with this coloring book.

Sue Reich's collection of patriotic quilts and the Presidential quilts traveling show she organized--including my John Quincy Adams!

Mary Kerr's friends create modern quilts from vintage textiles in Twisted. Her book A Quilted Memory shows how vintage textiles can be repurposed for personal memory quilts.

Quilt patterns from quilts in Bill Volckening's personal collection.

Hmong Story Clothes tells the history of the Hmong people who as refugees developed the remarkable applique art to tell of their people's journey. 

The Fiona Quilt Block inspired four quilts made by me and my quilt friends.

Sunetra's Fiona block quilt top

Amish Quilts: How 'Ugly' Quilts Became High Art and Changed Quilting

Amish Quilts: Crafting and American Icon by Janneken Smucker was a revelation.

My quilt life began in 1991. My mother-in-law quilted in the 1980s. I saw quilts being sold at Philadelphia's Head House Square in the 1970s. I taught myself to sew, and dabbled in macramé and needlepoint. But it was that first quilt that changed my life. I quickly became interested in quilt history and antique quilts, which meant reading books because I was too poor to collect, and making quilts inspired by antique quilts.

Over the years I learned about the quilt revival, how quilts became 'art' and not just 'craft'. I saw the names of people whose books I have read (Roderick Kiracofe, Julie Silber), and who now I follow on Facebook. I thought I was pretty savvy about the history of quilting in the 20th c. But Smucker's book on Amish Quilts took all I knew and put it in a narrative that enlightened me and broadened my knowledge.

http://www.antiquesandthearts.com/amish-quilts-from-the-espirit-collection-return-to-lancaster/

The book begins with an introduction to the Amish and their life and values. She tells how antique Amish quilts, relegated to closets as old fashioned and ugly, suddenly were valued for their simple 'modern' minimalist design and deemed worthy for walls and art galleries. Pickers and dealers went door to door buying the quilts, which they resold for increasingly higher prices.

The demand for affordable quilts for home decorating brought in cottage industries, and the cottage industries hired out to non-Amish, including the Hmong people who settled in the Lancaster, PA area. (Read about the Hmong here.)

1990s cheater cloth quilts which I hand quilted

Oddly, while the black and solid color minimalist quilts were becoming identified with the Amish, contemporary Amish quilters were using new easy-care fabrics and designs for their homes.

Quilts were created to meet the demand for affordable quilts for home decorators. The Country Bride Quilt, developed by Rachel Pellman of Lancaster's The Old Country Store, was in the popular country rose and blue colors and had an appliqué design of hearts and birds.

'Amish' made 1990s quilt owned by Diane Little

My Disselfink, a pattern from a 1990s Old Country Store publication

With 100 color photographs of Amish quilts, this book on quilts, art, and economics is a must-have for anyone interested in the history of quilting in the 20th c.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Amish Quilts
Janneken Smucker
John Hopkins University Press
Hard cover $36,95
ISBN: 9781142141053