Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 16:28:47 -0700

From: Anne Scott <nzquilter@xtra.co.nz>

Greetings from New Zealand!

I have recently returned home from a visit to the annual Sydney Quilt

festival. This year, one of the associated exhibitions was a simply

wonderful collection of historic Australian quilts.

Curated by well-known Australian collector Dr Annette Gero, the quilts

were beautifully displayed in two historic locations owned by The

National Trust of Australia. Recently renovated, Old Government House in

Paramatta, up the river from Sydney, housed the beautiful crazy quilts,

log cabins, some very old chintz and medallion quilts and of course

hexagon patterned quilts. They were set amongst the historic furnishings

of this important 19th century dwelling.

The more "domestic" pieces, including "waggas", some kangaroo skin rugs,

an interesting log cabin quilt made from army uniforms and utility quilts

with wonderful provenances were in the less grand but equally interesting

Experiment Farm cottage a few miles down the road.

While most of you are too far flung to view this exhibition (open until

22 August 2000) a stunning and well-researched catalogue has been written

by Annette Gero and published in conjunction with the exhibiton.

Unfortunately the printing ran behind schedule and copies were like

hens teeth for the first few weeks of the exhibition however I understand

more will be available shortly.

Bibliographic details are: Historic Australian Quilts by Annette Gero,

produced by The Beagle Press for the National Trust of Australia, 96

pages, 41 different quilts in full colour (wonderful details as well),

9.5 inches x 11 inches.

Anne Scott

New Zealand Quilter magazine

www.nzquilter.com

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 01:25:38 EDT

From: LeahZieber@aol.com

Speaking of quilts in movies, I recently rented the new Legend of Sleepy

Hollow with Johnny Depp (sp). In several of the scenes Mr. Crane (or is it

Krane??) (aka Johnny Depp) is pictured in a bed beneath a quilt. I was

wondering your thoughts as to whether the quilt looks accurate for the time

period - the movie is set in the very late 1700's (I think they said 1797).

Curious to your thoughts on the matter as I am trying to better my skills at

recognizing older quilts (pre 1850 stuff).

My honest recommendation is to fast forward to the point of the quilt, check

out the quilt, then turn off the movie - it was very gory! Unless of course

you like the blood and guts stuff, then it is a somewhat decent movie with a

better than boring mystery.

Best, Leah Zieber

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 15:00:46 -0500

From: "Teresa Ellis" <tquilts@airmail.net>

Kris, I think he does have a web site. One of the other appraisers pointed

out this guy to the rest of us, and I looked at his stuff. If it is the same

merchandise, they are copying a lot of the old crazy quilts, and it can look

very convincing, at least on the computer screen. Caveat emptor! Terri

Ellis, AQS appraiser.

----------

>From: "Kris Driessen, Hickory Hill Quilts" <oldquilt@albany.net>

>To: QHL@cuenet.com

>Subject: QHL: Fwd: Producers & Exporters of Hand Crfated Quilts

>Date: Sun, Jun 25, 2000, 8:16 AM

>

> Given our recent discussion on foreign quilts, I thought y'all might find

> this bit of spam I received this morning amusing. I am tempted to write

> him back and ask him if he has a website.

>

> Kris

>

>>Delivered-To: oldquilt@albany.net

>>Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 10:58:59 +0500

>>From: Javed Ansari <jansari@cubexs.net.pk>

>

>>Dear Sir,

>>

>>We are the Producers & Exporters of Hand Crafted Quilts based in

>>Pakistan. We have been Catering our Hand Crafted Quilts to Australia, UK

>>and USA Markets for the past 12 Years.

>>If your organization is involved in Hand Crafted Quilts or Want to

>>Explore the opportunity of Business please contact us for further

>>business details.

>>Please feel free to contact us for any queries or inquiries.

>>

>>Looking forward to your response. Thanks.

>>

>>Best Regards,

>>

>>Javed Ansari

>>Director

>>TechStyle Materials / Craftex

>>

>

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 08:19:42 EDT

From: JQuilt@aol.com

To: qhl@cuenet.com

Subject: "The World & I : The Magazine For Lifelong Learners,"

i think that we should know before subscribing....that this is a conservative

christian magazine...

jean

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 11:49:03 -0500

From: Laura Hobby Syler <texas_quilt.co@airmail.net>

Hi folks,

I'm working with a couple of groups that are in the planning stages of

their quilt shows and want to know what if any other shows are held in

March, April and September.

I know the Dallas & Tyler TX shows are always in March and Paducah is in

April, but does anyone have specific dates, or any others that are held in

those months? Does anyone know of the AQSG date this year?

Many thanks!

Laura

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 13:53:49 EDT

From: ZegrtQuilt@aol.com

Recently, there have been

many postings about the difficulty of getting access to published and

unpublished documentation and information about quilts, quilt making,

and quilt makers.Many discussions have taken place around database

preferences.

The Alliance for American Quilts has recognized the

need for easily accessible data, and has been working for the last four

to five years to create The Quilt Index.

The Alliance, in partnership with H-Net: The Humanities and Social

Sciences On-Line at Michigan State University, has developed a

consortium of institutions to create The Index, which will be an on-line

resource for information and images of interest to quilt makers,

scholars, students, teachers, and the general public. Utilizing the

power of the Internet, The Quilt Index will provide unprecedented access

to unpublished documentation on American quilts and quilt making,

including quilt information and images of quilts documented by state

quilt projects and held in public and private collections,

bibliographies, and finding aids to quilt-related materials. In

addition to H-Net, Quilt Index partners include the Michigan State

University Museum, the Illinois State Museum, the University of

Louisville Archives and Records Center, the Tennessee State Library, the

Library of Congress American Folklife Center, The Kentucky Quilt

Project, Inc., and Quilts of Tennessee.

Securing the funding for a project of this scope is, of course, a

challenge. We have been working for the last three years to secure an

initial grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and

succeeded in getting a small planning grant, enabling Michigan State

University to respond to remaining NEH concerns and questions about the

project and resubmit for significant funding in 2001.

As the Index develops we will keep all of you posted on its progress,

and we certainly would be interested in the meantime in any ideas you

might have as to how to enhance its utility and value.

Shelly Zegart, co-founder of The Alliance for American Quilts

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 18:31:00 -0400

From: Kathy <DeSchuit@mediaone.net>

Another fairly large quilt show is usually held the first weekend in April.

Quilters Heritage in Lancaster, PA. Next year it is two weeks earlier than

usual due to some miscommunication between Barber Diversified and the

facilities.

Laura Hobby Syler wrote:

> Hi folks,

> I'm working with a couple of groups that are in the planning stages of

> their quilt shows and want to know what if any other shows are held in

> March, April and September.

> I know the Dallas & Tyler TX shows are always in March and Paducah is in

> April, but does anyone have specific dates, or any others that are held in

> those months? Does anyone know of the AQSG date this year?

> Many thanks!

> Laura

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 21:01:22 -0500

From: "Karen S. Bush" <Birdsong@worldnet.att.net>

To: <QHL@cuenet.com>

and,, it's an embarrassing question! I have a lovely old applique

quilt...about l940'ish....white background and Beautiful hand quilting,

now...I need to wash it. It's just dingy, a fold stain on the back,

otherwise, it's not stained, etc.

Can I :

wash in gentle cycle

what soap, if any

and...sorry, I've been on this list for YEARS, and I'm asking this

question...can't believe it...sighhhhhh..kb

http://www.geocities.com/karenbushquilts/index.html

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 22:45:03 -0400

From: "Judy Grow" <Judygrow@blast.net>

To: "Quilt History List" <QHL@cuenet.com>

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Earlier this year I posted about the Everyday Life in America series, and

how it really gave me a feeling for what life was like in the different

periods in American history -- life for the everyday people.

Then a customer at the frame shop recommended that I try some time-travel

fiction , and I started with the Diana Gabaldon "Outlander" series. These

are four 1000 page novels (huge!) set in the mid 18th century in Scotland,

then moving to late 18th century America. There wasn't anything there for a

quilt historian, but I whipped through all 4 novels in record time -- less

than 2 months! There was a lot of period detail, a ripping good love story,

and lots of adventure. Our hero is tall and strong but apt to get himself

into a whole lot of trouble (of course) , our heroine courageous and

intelligent and able to make everthing OK in the end.

Now I have moved on to "Time and Again", a time-travel novel written in 1970

by Jack Finney (ISBN 0-684-80105) $12.00 in paperback. There is a sequel,

too, but my husband has grabbed that and will be reading them in reverse

order. I'm into page 85 and our hero is preparing himself to travel back

to NYC in 1882.

So far there have been some interesting comments on looking at antique

clothing in museums (the Smithsonian in particular) and how the decaying,

fading fabrics of the clothing on the dumies really won't give you a sense

of what it felt like to inhabit that clothing -- to be inside of it.

Before the time-travel the hero's teacher says, "The trouble with

everything that comes down from the distant past is that it's old. A relic.

It may tell us something of what the past was like, yet it generally

contradicts any feeling that it could possibly have been used by someone

really alive."

And the hero says, "...I stood turning a woman's shoe in my hands, studying

the brittle gray-black leather crisscrossed with cracks. The toe and a band

around the top were oddly discolored, the mother-of-pearl buttons chipped;

it was no longer a shoe but a curiosity."

And so these people were making reproductions of the old items, which were

supposed to give the students, the would-be time-travellers, a more

intimate feeling for the past. Of a new reproduction shoe, the teacher

says, "But that's a shoe a living person could own. We had to create it,

though."

The hero says, "I nodded; it wasn't hard to see a young girl sitting on the

edge of her bed pulling this on, buttoning it, then admiring it as she

revolved her foot on her ankle to make the new leather catch the light."

Am I wrong, or does this guy have it exactly backwards? It is the fading

original artifacts that give us a more intimate look into ancient lives. If

I know the kind of bed that might have been in a prosperous farmer's house

in central New Jersey in 1870, my house, my bed, then it is very easy for me

to see Mrs. Prall pulling up a quilt that she had made and tucking it in

under the pillows. It may be quite worn by now, and it may not be one that

ever made it to the 20th century, but other period quilts that have are the

ones that draw me to William Prall's wife, to help me to know her.

Certainly not the one I could make in imitation next week if I cared to.

Anyway, skimming the book beyond where I am now, I see it will be valuable

for period details of New York in the early 1880's.

I'd love to hear your views on this.

Judy in Ringoes, NJ

judygrow@blast.net

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 22:58:18 -0500

From: Laura Hobby Syler <texas_quilt.co@airmail.net>

At 09:01 PM 06/26/2000 -0500, Karen S. Bush wrote:

>and,, it's an embarrassing question! I have a lovely old applique

>quilt...about l940'ish....white background and Beautiful hand quilting,

>now...I need to wash it. It's just dingy, a fold stain on the back,

>otherwise, it's not stained, etc.

> Can I :

>wash in gentle cycle

You do mean in the bathtub, right???<G>

>what soap, if any

A while back we had discussions on Orvis Paste and how it swells the fibers

to allow the dirt to be flushed through. .in other words...rinse forever

<G>plus that fact that the textile conservator at the Ford Center in Omaha

told everyone that we are not using nearly enough of the stuff.

You can use one scoop of BIZ per bathtub full of water......a non chlorine

bleach type powder that without the little blue color crystals and

fragrance is the same as Vintage Soak.........sodiumparb...something or

other. All I know is that it works while soaking. But you will still need

to go through 2-4 bathtubs full of rinse water.

>and...sorry, I've been on this list for YEARS, and I'm asking this

>question...can't believe it...sighhhhhh..kb

>http://www.geocities.com/karenbushquilts/index.html

That's ok....we all have those senior moments at least once a day! Even

when we are not seniors yet. You've just pricked your finger too many

times and forgotten it all!

Laura

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 07:44:27 -0500

From: Laura Hobby Syler <texas_quilt.co@airmail.net>

I received this message from another QHL member who thought we'd had enough

of the AA quiltmaking discussion for a while. However, after re-reading the

quote from the book I thought I'd better pass it on to the group.

>I'm working through a new shipment of children's books. Here's one

>called_Talking to Faith Ringgold_ by Faith Ringgold, Linda Freeman, and Nancy

>Roucher. On page 13 is says:

>

>"In African art, utilitarian objects were made beautiful. So the slave

>women incorporated traditional African designs on these coverlets and

>created in America what we today call the quilt. This would mean that

>quilt-making is like jazz: both were begun by African-Americans. In

>the

>case of jazz, by African-American men, and in the case of quilts, by

>African-American women. They constitute two original contributions made

>by

>Americans to the world."

>

>I am *not* a quilt history expert--is this true? Or is it a "black

>center

>of a log cabin quilt=underground railroad" story?

>

>Vicki Betts

>Texas Rifles and LSFS

>vbetts@gower.net

I wrote back and told her that all one had to do was look in any of the

state quilt project books, the DAR or Smithsonian museums to realize that

slaves/blacks did not create quilting in America....I thought Faith was a

smarter cookie than to let this get in print!!! Just hope the Boy Scout

magazine doesn't pick this one up!

Laura

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 16:20:46 -0500

From: "Karen S. Bush" <Birdsong@worldnet.att.net>

I don't know if everyone is aware of this site, mainly on K.C. star

patterns, thought I'd pass it on to you just in case :) kb

http://www.pickledish.com/

http://www.geocities.com/karenbushquilts/index.html

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 19:31:09 -0400

From: "Deborah R. Grayson" <deborahg@mindspring.com>

To: Laura Hobby Syler <texas_quilt.co@airmail.net>, qhl@cuenet.com

Subject: Re: QHL: AA Quiltmaking....You think she'd know better!

Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.20000627193109.007eb5e0@mindspring.com>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

The tone of this e-mail message makes it clear why it is important to know

the history of ALL quilters from all cultures. When one is partially

educated their ignorance is often readily obvious. I for one never get

enough of talking about quilt history period -- regardless of who the

makers are. Perhaps a more interesting topic for discussion would be the

context of Ringgold's statement and what led her to draw such conclusions.

Also, how does looking at the collections at the Smithsonian or the DAR

prove that Ringgold's statement is wholly inacurate???

Deborah R. Grayson

ate: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 16:17:56 -1000

From: Laurie Woodard <lwoodard@hawaii.edu>

To: QHL-DIGEST <QHL@cuenet.com>

Subject: Houghtailing Quilt Exhibit-Honolulu

Message-id: <B57E2DB1.875%lwoodard@hawaii.edu>

Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

An article on the quilt exhibit is currently online at the Honolulu

Advertiser newspaper web site,

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/2000/Jun/26/islandlife1.html. You also can

find it by seaching on "Houghtailing."

--

Laurie Woodard

Hawaiian Quilt Research Project

http://openstudio.hawaii.edu/hqrp/default.html

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 22:46:19 -0400

From: Alan Kelchner <quiltfix@mail.jax.bellsouth.net>

To: ".Quilt Heritage List" <qhl@cuenet.com>

Judy,

I read those books - devoured them, actually. What struck me most was

the shock of one of the modern characters that someone in the 1880's

would have worn a red (I believe velvet) dress.

Perhaps you are confusing a sense of connection with the past, with

making the past come alive? Old things *are* relics of a time past.

They indicate what life was like. But to recreate something anew gives

you the real feeling of what using the item was like.

Alan

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 11:25:27 -0400

From: Mary Worrall <worrall@pilot.msu.edu>

As the product of a graduate program in American art history, an employee

in a museum textile collection, and a quiltmaker/teacher, I am well aware

of the problems in making too many leaps in scholarship and some of the

more controversial subjects in recent discussions of quilt history. While

the phrasing on the bookjacket of Faith Ringgold's book may be overstated,

there has been intriguing art historical publication put forth on the

African diaspora of quiltmaking and West African textiles. If one is to

look past overly generalized statements and is just interested in the study

of original contributions of African American quiltmakers, these studies

may be of further interest. If anyone does have an interest in looking at

research into the relationships between West African textiles and

quiltmaking along with jazz, you may find the works of the pioneering art

historian Robert Farris Thompson an intriguing place to start. Among his

discussions are the uses of words such as "improvisation" and its

relationship to both African American quilts and jazz. There are also

others who have researched similar subjects from an art historical bent. I

first became aware of the subject through the research of a colleague of

mine in grad school a few years ago. The nature of scholarship is to

generate discussion, and I thought that there may be some list participants

interested in looking into some of the background behind where the book's

leaps may have come from.

Mary Worrall

East Lansing, Michigan

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 17:11:24 EDT

From: MQUILT56@aol.com

Greetings All,

How much different is the statement that Faith Ringgold made in her book from

the statement that was made: "all one had to do was look in any of the

state quilt project books, the DAR or Smithsonian museums to realize that

slaves/blacks did not create quilting in America...." I have read quilt

books by "quilt/art historians" and other books by authors who have gotten a

stamp of approval from "quilt/art historians. In many cases, much of what has

been documented is a scholars research combined with his or her

interpretation on the subject. I have learned that in many of the state quilt

project books, the quilts documented are those that were found, submitted,

etc.. There are many quilts that were never documented because they weren't

found. Many people never knew that there was even a call for quilts. Also,

some quilts may have been created by African Americans, but because they were

not signed by them or signed at all, we'll never know their true origin. I

have also learned that just because a museum says something "is", I'm still

forced to check other resources, then re-check until I feel that I have

arrived at a provable truth. This is probably because I know how museum

ethnographers have become masters at creating images of what they want the

public to know and see.

Myrah

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 17:43:30 EDT

From: JQuilt@aol.com

the dark side of a competitive culture...is that it fosters winning so

strongly( usually at any price)...so that, in the unrelenting pressured

pursuit to be first, top, winner, famous..we end up lying, cheating,

deceiving...doing, saying things we would never do in a cooperative society..

but with competition comes exclusivity, and so now we are on a track to make

sure that the person from my house, town, city, county, state, country, tribe,

race is the recognized winner of recognition in anything from finding a cure

for something important, to an obscurity of inventing quilting....

i think it's wonderful that we find the dates and the makers of quilts and

write books and papers about them.(i love reading all of them) but truthfully

it doesn't make them any more beautiful or valuable to me...i just love

looking (touching if permitted) at them, and sometimes even trying to

reproduce one of those beauties...

i delete the posts, that have any reference to the UGRR and any other

historical myth(betsy ross etc.) and go on to read and enjoy all of the posts

about restoration, preservation, reproduction, books ,shops shows and

sites.....that's really why i joined this list.....

jean

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 28 Jun 00 19:13:52 -0600

From: woodford <haq@galenalink.net>

Hello,

Washing quilts is tough. It's even tougher in a bathtub. I don't have the

back for it. I wash dirty quilts in the washing machine by just doing a

lot of dial moving. I soak them in the machine and then use the water

removal section of the drain cycle (no spinning). For the last rinse, I

do use the spin cycle unless the quilt is very fragile.

And, for that brown stuff. Check by soaking a corner of the quilt in cold

water. If a solvent front occurs where the water has stopped soaking the

quilt, you should use a cold water soak before going on to stain removal

and Biz washing. My mother told me this about those white sheer curtains

people used to put on windows, dumbbells.

Yes, more than several rinsings are needed. In my house, this method

means going up and down the stairs a lot, but it's a lot easier than

hanging over a bathtub.

Try it, it works.

BarbaraDate: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 22:41:55 EDT

From: KareQuilt@aol.com

Here is a quilter from Austria's websites with quite a few links to European

guilds.

Also a grad student at University of Virginia's website who has done quilt

research.

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/quilt/opening.html

Karen Alexander

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 21:17:56 -0700

From: Denise Clausen <nadyne@oregoncoast.com>

Hi Judy

The Latimer Quilt and Textile Center uses SNAP, a museum specific

program that runs on ACCESS, to catalogue our textile collections. All of

our quilts are catalogued in this way, some books, and we've started on the

rest of the textile collection, quilt blocks are next, magazines and

periodicals just make me dizzy. A limited budget makes this a slow process.

This will be an interesting thread.

Denise Clausen

Director LQTC

Judy White wrote:

> Hi everybody. Karen Alexander and I have been having a conversation

> about databases and the kinds of information that goes into various

> databases. This all started with the question about the "Quilter's

> Journal" and she said she thought of creating an index for the

> "Quilter's Journal." So that led to a discussion of databases and

> cataloging personal collections of patterns, quilts, etc. How many of

> you have your own personal collections of quilts or whatever on a

> database? What kind of databases are in use out there? What kind of

> information do you use to catalog your collections? I personally use

> Access and have all my vintage pattern collections on database as well

> as my personal quilt collection. My hope is put all my old books on

> db. This can be a never-ending project. Karen said this would be a

> good question for the list, so let's hear from some of you about how you

> keep your collections.

>

> Judy White - Ct

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 01:11:15 -0500

From: Jon Miskowski <jmiskows@facstaff.wisc.edu>

I've been compiling a list of quilt documentaries -- at least what I can

find --and will post here but posting now

to alert you to "Egg the arts show" seen on many PBS stations includes a

program that includes the quilts

of Hystercine Rankin. You can learn more about the program at:

http://www.thirteen.org/egg/egg.html

I found the site difficult to navigate but you will find the quilting info

in the area called "The Series" and from there

to "What is the Ideal Woman?" and from there a link to "Quilts"

The Egg site is a bit annoying to find anything but just about anything you

find there is interesting so it is fun

to explore.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 18:25:53 EDT

From: MQUILT56@aol.com

<< I really try hard not to minimize what may be important to others just

because it is not important to me and/or a part of my cultural experience.

The attempt to characterize a search for historical accuracy as

"competitive culture" is an attempt to make an educational exercise into a

negative experience. One of the strengths of this society is that it is a

"patchwork quilt" of many cultures . It would behoove us to recognize and

affirm the contributions that all of the "patches" have made.

Myrah

[ 181 ]

Copyright ©PhoebeMoon Web Design Solutions