Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 15:20:21 -0600

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

I just received a letter from a quilter in Japan that said she saw an

article (?) on the Vintage Quilt & Textile Society in the Feb issue.  Is

there anyone on the list that perhaps subscribes and could send me a copy

of the mention (not the whole mag.<G>)? I'd be forever greatful and there

will be a suprise in it for you............ bribe, bribe!!!<G>

Oh, and Karen Erlandson is scheduled for knee surgery tomorrow.  They will

be doing a scope so she wont be out of commission for too long, but

climbing the stairs to her attic office will be out of the question for a

few days.

If you want to send her a note her addy is <erland@cooke.net>

Laura

In balmy N. Texas where the trees and flowers arent sure what to do next!!

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

Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 20:05:18 -0600

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

Those of you not on the digest, please skip this paragraph!  Those of you

on the digest are probably getting your first one since Sunday.  I have

been in contact with Cuenet regarding the missing digests and they tell me

there WAS a problem last Sunday, which probably also accounts for the

mysterious unsubscribe problem for the regular version people.  It's been

fixed now.  There is no official digest for Sunday through Tuesday, but I

did a cut and paste of all the messages and will send them shortly. 

A couple of people have questioned the donation request on the home page,

http://www.QuiltHistory.com.  This is just a request to help defray the

costs of setting up and maintaining the web site.  No one was unsubscribed

because of it.  I would like to thank the people who have donated, and the

very kind comments they sent along. 

And now, for conference news: all this talk about Underground Railroad

quilts made me think about a local man who is doing research on Quakers and

the Freedom Trail.  I called him and he was perfectly happy to come and

give a talk to our group!  It won't be quilt related, specifically, but it

will still be interesting I am sure.  I am trying to fit him in now. 

I also talked to Camille Cognac about doing a lecture on restoration.  She

would like to do a limited-attendance workshop with people bringing in no

more than two quilts to work on restoring.  Camille wrote the book "Quilt

Restoration: a practical guide" and has another one pending on "Fragile

Beauties: Restoring Victorian Quilts".  This workshop will be held from 9

to 4 on Sunday, at the end of the conference, and there will be an

additional fee of $65. 

Boy, I sure hope the rest of the week is calmer....

Kris

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

Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 20:10:04 -0600

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

Karen Alexander

Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 12:27:22 EST

Dear QHL readers,

Here is my personal story about hearing Raymond Dobard's lecture. It is a

DRAFT

for

a family genealogy newsletter in which I occasionally also include stories

that come out of my quilt research.

25 January 1999

Dobard Story, Part I

Harrisonburg, VA

My father was a college professor, and in my teen years my siblings and I

were

exposed to other cultures and other ways of "seeing" the world as a result of

his assignments to the central Philippine Islands and East Africa. In my

adult

life-time I have been an avid self-taught student of comparative mythology

and

religion in addition to my interest in textile history, quilting and

genealogy. Throw in a little anthropology as well. This mixture of interests

has offered a wonderful framework for exploring the intriguing puzzle "what

is

culture and how is it transmitted?" I think the Raymond Dobard -Jacqueline

Tobin book, "Hidden in Plain View," is an amalgamation of all those subjects.

It doesn't claim to be a definitive answer, thank goodness, to any of the

questions raised. But it certainly is a rich resource and jumping off point

for further exploration of the intriguing question, "Just how is a culture

transmitted over time...and distance...and in spite of slavery or any other

inhibiting challenge that enters the picture?"

On Sunday 24 January, I drove with a friend from Reston to the Shenandoah

Valley to attend Raymond Dobard's lecture on the "Secret Story of Quilts and

the Underground Railroad" at the Virginia Quilt Museum in Harrisonburg, VA.

The Director told us afterwards that it was Dobard's first public lecture

about the subject since his book, "Hidden in Plain View," was released only a

week ago. It was also his first book signing. She also shared the fact that

she had to get special permission from Doubleday to release the book last

weekend before its official release date. Originally Dobard was to first

speak

at the Museum January 16 and 17, but a bad case of bronchitis coupled with

extremely icy roads canceled those first two scheduled lectures, but not the

3rd and 4th lectures which took place this weekend.

To retrace the development of this story, let's turn the clock back to March

1998. A friend had invited me to hear Dobard speak at the Textile Museum in

Washington DC. We came away a bit upset. Because of his contractual agreement

with the publisher [Doubleday], he was unable to give us the meat of the

story

that night, and simply hinted and danced around the subject. It was a

frustrating evening and left the three of us wondering why the Textile Museum

had him speak on a subject in the first when he wasn't actually really free

to

talk about it in substantive way.

Since that March 1998 event at the Textile Museum, there has been much

speculation among quilters across the country, especially on the Internet's

Quilt History List (QHL), about just what the two authors were going to claim

in this book!. Dobard told us yesterday that Doubleday decided that rather

than have a nation wide book tour, they thought getting him on news programs

might be the more productive way to go. Did they decide that the nature of

the book would not attract a broad enough audience to warrant the cost of a

book tour? I think the fact that Doubleday had to order a second printing

just

as the first edition was being released says a great deal about how they

thought the book would do. Perhaps Doubleday underestimated the breadth of

interest in quilt history by quilters, not to mention the interest that

African-Americans have in their own history. It would be interesting to know

just what "market share" of the book buying public bought the book.

As quilt historians know, the stories associated with the Underground

Railroad

have helped create many a quilt legend over the years, and there has been a

growing desire among quilt historians to find some way to substantiate these

stories. Such are the frustrations and the challenges of all oral traditions

and legends for the "traditional" scholar and historian.

The study of art history (i.e. images/symbols) as well as mythology/religion

(much of whose ancient roots lie in images/symbols/art) are full of such

challenges. Many naively believe that once a society has a written history,

that history is now "truthful." In truth, the written word is simply another

form of "drawn symbol" importing meaning for those who know how to interpret

it. Even with the written word, there can be conflicting interpretations!

Dobard's book seemed to offer the possibility that a break through had come

in

interpretation of the symbols within quilting that had traditionally been

associated with the Underground Railroad. His various appearances (and their

re-runs) on the Oprah Show and NBC Evening News, among others, offered,

again,

frustrating limited explanations, only whetting a growing appetite for more.

Thus was the book, "Hidden in Plan View" sold out before its first release.

In my opinion "Hidden in Plan View" is about a far broader interpretation of

quilting symbols and language and tradition than I suspect most quilters may

have expected, though I think the USA Today review hinted at it. It is

personally just what I had hoped for. Just from hearing the lecture I would

say this book is not just about "quilting" per se, and not even just about

the

Underground Railroad per se. It is about having our horizons stretched so

that

we can encompass a far broader arena for the roots of the symbols of our

quilting heritage. The three forwards in the book also add a great deal to

the

on-going discussion about the transmission of a cultural heritage, in

particular, the transmission of African and African-American cultural

symbols.

The "secret code" that Ozella McDaniel Williamson chose to finally share with

the larger community as a result of telling her story to Tobin and Dobard is

the jumping off point to a very intriguing journey of exploration. I predict

you will greatly enjoy it.

In addition the book will undoubtedly serve to stretch the understanding of

many about the complexity and rich heritage that Africans naturally brought

with them when they were forced through captivity to cross the oceans and

enter into slavery, and how, in one particular genre - quilting, those

cultural symbols were used to help them once again regain freedom.

Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 08:23:21 EST

Dear Friends,

I was also in the audience with Karen at the Quilt Museum of VA on Sunday. I

am happy about the amount of research conducted by Dr. Dobard and his

coauthor. There are leaps of faith in the book, but they are leaps that can

be taken, or not. I was interested to read about the possible Harriet

Powers/Eastern Star link due to the symbolism used in her quilts.....that was

something to ponder. I've already read my book and I want to work my way

through several selections in the extensive bibliography.

Karen- thanks for posting about the lecture and for notice about its time and

place!

Dana Harr

Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 07:53:35 -0500

From: Nancy Roberts <robertsn@norwich.net>

Back stitches for hand piecing may be a fairly common practice. Just as a

note, the General Directions in Quilting Today and Traditional Quiltworks

both instruct readers to start and end hand pieced seams with a back stitch.

They also say to take a backstitch every few stitches. That's been the case

as long as I've worked for the magazines and they've been published for a

decade.

Issue 54 of Quilting Today (a back issue) has a how-to article on Big Stitch

by Jo Walters. It also has color photos of quilts done using it. There's also

happens to be an article by Darcy Pattison on quilting in Russia in the same

issue. Nancy Roberts

Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 11:02:46 -0500

Hi all. In my index to the Kansas City Star patterns by Wilene Smith,

there is no Double Wedding Ring listed. However, the pattern, Wedding

Ring by McKim which looks like the DWR was published in October, 1928,

November, 1928, September, 1929 and October, 1929. All of these were by

McKim Studios. The Wedding Ring pattern, again looking like DWR, was

sent in by a reader from Arkansas in 1935. It was published again in

1955 and 1959. This was evidently a very popular pattern to have been

published for so many years.

Judy White

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 19:25:26 -0500

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

Subject: that sampler

I heard back about the stitched sampler. Thanks for the leads on

conservators. Surprising thing to me was that this is a Norwegian piece

(definitely made in Norway by the lady's husband's great-grandmother).

Beautiful - she sent me a couple of partial jpg shots. It has three

additional letters (besides A-Z) on it due to their alphabet. It's done

in wool, on needlepoint-type canvas (probably Berlin canvas), in normal

needlepoint stitchery. But only the figures are worked. The background

is open canvas. Gorgeous colors.

But I am not familiar with samplers made outside of southern and central

continental Europe (England, France, Italy). Were they common at all in

Nordic countries? This one is very typical of samplers in the styling

(floral and bird motifs).

Interesting. If you'd like to see the jpg's, let me know and I'll send a

copy. One word of warning - the jpg's are HUGE, so if it'll knock out

your system, or you're too impatient to wait, I wouldn't ask for it.

Alan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 14:49:42 EST

QHL readers,

The following was just sent to me by a male cousin that I have seen only once

in the last 30 years, but since the invention of e-mail, we have gotten back

into contact. I happened to include him on my posting about Dobard's lecture

and he responded with what follows. His reference to "German Palatinates" is

in reference to my genealogy research of my Swiss-German Mennonite ancestors.

David has been involved with the Native Americans of New York state for

decades, and has been helping for years in the re-discovery of their sacred

grounds. He is a brilliant, spiritual man whom some find quite eccentric.

David was in a terrible accident 6/7 years ago as he was helping move a

HOUSE,

literally. He was on the roof with a pole, his job being to carefully lift

any

electrical wires off the roof as they passed under them. Unfortunately,

something happend and one of the wires touched David. The bolt of electricity

that passed thru him was so great that he was knocked off the top of the

house

and fell to the ground. Not only did he suffer SEVERE burns from the

electricty, he broke his body in a number of places when he hit the ground.

The doctors could not believe he survived, and told him he would never walk

again. However, because of his healthy life-style (micro-biotic foods) his

body was able to fight the terrible effects of the trauma to his system. But

what they did to him and fed him in the hospital, he says, almost killed him

for good. But once he was out of the hospital, the knowledge he had acquired

over a lifetime of studying botany, physiology, nutrition, and native healing

herbs saved his life. It is a life filled with a great deal of pain, but he

gets around better than the doctors ever believed possible. First they said

he wouldn't live; then they said he would never be out of a bed; then they

said he would never get out of a wheel chair; now he gets about short

distances (even climbing hills a bit) with braces and canes!!! He awaits

"Creator's" decision as to whether he will ever walk normally again, he says.

In July 1996 a quiet ceremony of the reburial of Native American Iroquois and

Mohican remains took place in Waterford Park on Peebles Island at the mouth

of the Mohawk River in New York state. David wrote quite a story about this

event. If you would like to read it, let me know. Peebles just happens to be

the maiden name of our mothers. Here is what David wrote me today:

Karen,

your latest on quilts and the underground railroad

hits home as i have a friend walking with the fellowship of reconciliation

retracing the slave routes through the south, caribbean and africa.

curiously,

it was german religious groups -- the palatine germans -- who first began

resisting and protesting that tragic southern institution.

also, among my mohawk native american friends, they hold an annual fundraiser

for their freedom school by auctioning off quilts. last year they had over 50

handmade creations hanging all around the schoolyard. the auction took all

afternoon, and most went for $500-$1000. several were donated by local amish

households. David

QHL'ers, are any of you on this list aware of the Mowhawk Native American

quilt auctions? I wasn't.

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