DEEP SOUTH QUILT STUDY GROUP

Ruston, Louisiana

(this part from Lynn Lancaster Gorges)

I would like to thank everyone who put together the 1st Southern Quilt Conference. It was a huge success! We began the event with a buffet dinner at Gaye Ingram's house. We all ended up in the kitchen cooking or out in the yard picking up sticks and looking at her lovely azaleas which were just beginning to bloom. She served us a great Louisiana dinner to kick the event off in the right direction. The following day we began the day with an inspiring keynote from Laurel Horton. She encouraged us to all keep our eyes, ears and thoughts open to the many concepts of what is a Southern quilt. (What We Know About Southern Quilts, and What We Think We Know) - Tracey Oleinick (member of a team of professional from Auburn University who studied Gees Bend Quilts) "The Stitches of Gees Bend and the Southern Stitching Style" - Laurel Horton interviewed Debra Faircloth about her family quilt collection "Formulating a Research Project: A Conversation Between Quilt Researcher, Laurel Horton, and Collection Owner, Debra Faircloth, about the Goals, Methods, and Resources for Research and Publication" - Kathleen Moore (Symposium Coordinator at the International Quilt Study Center) Gave us a walk through on how to use the many resources available to us on the internet at the International Quilt Study Center and AQSG. -Marcia Kaylakie (Texas - author, appraiser) Showed us her Rattlesnake Quilts and discussed the research she is gathering for her research on this pattern. One was especially wild with it's rattlesnake head and tale.

Dinner of catfish & Jambalya and then a fun time of show and tell. Saturday - Fawn Valentine (WVA - author, researcher) "Discovering an Aesthetic: Scotch-Irish Quilts in WVA" - Fawn gave us all lots to think about and explore when we look at geographical areas and their ethnic make-up - Susan Roach (one of the local organizers -- Louisiana Tech professor of Folk Life) "Re-presenting the Quilts of African Americans in the South" --Susan addressed facts and myths - Jenna Kuttruff ( professor - LSU Dept. of Human Ecology) "Acadian Cotonnade Quilts: Adding Pieces to a Puzzle" (We now know what one looks like up close and personal.) - Gaye Ingram (local organizer, English instructor, quilt researcher) with Carolyn Miller (Texas - quilt collector and researcher) "The Whig's Defeat: The Origins and Evolution of a Nineteenth-Century Political Quilt Pattern" - several examples shown Lynn Lancaster Gorges (NC- quilt collector/researcher) "North Carolina Textile Mills and Alamance Plaids" --- We need to all look at how manufacturing of all types of textiles affected quilting in our areas. Ruth Rhoads (author of Feedsacks in Georgia) "Feedsacks in Georgia: Their Manufacture, Marketing, and Consumer Use" - Ruth shared with us an array of feedsack items -Sue Reich sent each of us a very special treat. She put together "Southern Quilting News of Yesteryear" which is a collection of news articles she has found over the year referring to southern quilt making. Thank you Sue!

Saturday night most people headed on home but about 8 of us stayed over and had a fun dinner out and then finished off the leftover peach cobbler at Gaye's house. We all voted that it had been a HUGE success. I stayed over on Sunday and got a grand tour of Ruston and some much needed sleep. Unfortunately Gaye and I awakened early Monday morning to a stomach virus. My return flight to NC was not a fun event at all. Have you ever been surrounded by people eating Memphis BBQ when you had a tummy virus?????? A smell I normally love became torture. I fell into bed at my sister's house in Cary, NC and finally felt up to driving on home this afternoon. Gaye was having the same awful experience in Ruston. I do hope it only hit the 2 of us. Otherwise..... It was a wonderful experience. We opened many doors to questions that we hope that people will take on and then be ready for next year's conference. Respectfully, Lynn Lancaster Gorges, New Bern, NC participate - 1st Southern Quilt Conference

(this part from Gaye Ingram)

Because many have written asking more details on the recent Southern Conference, I have attempted an elaboration of Lynn Gorges' report. I encourage individual members of the conference to mention things that particularly interested them

Months ago, I had told Laurel Horton and Kathy Moore that I believed the Southern Quilt Conference, "Southern Cultures, Southern Quilts" would be one of those gatherings like the kitchen meeting of AQSG in California, that someday all of us present would feel privileged to be part of the origin of something new and important in quilt scholarship. I think most present at last weekendıs conference felt this too.

The conference began with a remembrance of Bets Ramsey, whose Southern Quilt Symposia stimulated much of the scholarship now existing about Southern quilts. All weekend, I heard stories from people whom Bets had encouraged and mentored and whose manuscripts she had read and critiqued. I personally am always struck with how unassuming Bets is, how she is never too busy to answer a question about quilt study. Her humility and her devotion to the highest canons of scholarship were the spirits we invoked to guide our weekend. For anyone who is tempted to accept the stereotype of the Suthen Gull, I offer Bets Ramsey, whose impeccable scholarship, whose artistic creativity, and whose twenty years of presenting quilt exhibits at the Hunter Museum (with accompanying symposia) afford a more realistic picture of the capabilities and activities of Southern women.

Laurel Horton set the tone of the conference with a really fine keynote address, artfully done from both the rhetorical and historical perspectives. She encouraged the avoidance of premature conclusions and the necessity to hold on to the questions raised in the study of quilts. Her argument began by noting the early conclusions that only a few fine examples of Southern quiltmaking existed and those, in the families of "plantation mistresses," and that poverty had precluded the rise of a Southern quilting tradition. It included notable examples of similarly flawed conclusions and stereotypes down through the present time. These, she pointed out, show how far we have come in our knowledge of Southern quilts in a relatively short period of time. And yet much remains to be done. Laurel noted, for instance, the relative abundance of mosaic quilts made in Charleston area and the stated absence of a similar example in neighboring N.C., suggesting that while it was tempting to jump to conclusions (e.g., geography, presence of harbors, etc), we were better off to pursue the question with an open mind. The address was a call for a tentative habit of mind, a questioning that would not be satisfied by the first answer it met. And it stressed the need for multiple, carefully documented lines of research. I cannot imagine a better keynote. The examples were persuasive and leading, the tone hit that fine line between conversation and public address, and the rhetorical line was perfect. I've not done justice to it here.

A theatre professor from Auburn, Tracy Oleinick, whose speciality is costume design spoke on the stitching styles of the Gee's Bend quilts pre-1967, noting the change from the longer, more random stitch lengths of that era to the smaller stitches that resulted from the commercialization that followed the marketing and branding of those quilts. She cited specific letters and other documents in which the quilters were issued specific and sometimes condescending instructions regarding construction and stitching, so their quilts would meet the demands of Eastern dealers and markets. No conclusions that were strikingly new, but interesting new evidence. Tracy's access to the letters and ephemera as well as to the entire collection of quilts (those not on exhibit are housed in a warehouse in Atlanta) gave her an authority not otherwise attainable.

Following that was a presentation we hoped might inspire and guide new researchers. Debra Faircloth, of Dry Prong, LA, owns a collection of 70+ quilts made by her grandmother, who lived across the road from Debra throughout Deb's lifetime. Debra knows worlds about these quilts, which were made between the 1920's and 2001. Since Laurel's Mary Black's Quilts dealt with a similar subject, I asked Laurel to have an informal "discussion" with Debra about ways to begin studying her collection. The conversational format was a nice break in proceedings and drew everyone present into the discussion. Some really good guidance. (title: "Formulating a Research Project: A Conversation Between Quilt Researcher, Laurel Horton, and Collection Owner, Debra Faircloth, about the Goals, Methods, and Resources for Research and Publication")

The next major presentation was Fawn Valentine's, on the Celtic aesthetic theory articulated in her Uncoverings article and, more briefly, in "West Virginia Quilts." Fawn showed slides both of quilts and their makers and the process by which the documentation was conducted. The presence of the Scots-Irish in the South was a dominant one throughout the 19th century and though, diluted, remains powerful in the region. Fawn's was the only articulated theory regarding this group's influence on quiltmaking. The presentation evoked discussion among conference members and will, no doubt, be tested by more than one re-examination of Southern quilts. This n is what we had hoped the conference would inspire in many areas.

Susan Roach, a professor of English at LA Tech and Regional Folklife Director for our section of Louisiana, followed Fawn, and her presentation was a model of lucidity and careful development. It was titled "Re-presenting the Quilts of African Americans in the South." Susan's general claim was that commodification had set up a false set of hallmarks for African-American quilts and that at this point, discovering distinctively "African" retentions is virtually impossible, so corrupted has the data become. She referred to specific texts and, of course, to the entire "Gee's Bend" traveling exhibit in her remarks. She showed pictures of quilts and asked the audience to decide whether each was quilt Anglo- or African-American in origin. Her selection was guided by the set of principles that have been falsely presumed to typify AA quilts. One simply could not tell the difference. Her point was well made; she approached the issue via Foucault et al, an approach that served her purpose well.

Jenna Kutriff, a professor of textiles at LSU, spoke on "Acadian Cotonnade Quilts: Adding Pieces to a Puzzle." Her presentation updated and amplified her paper for "Uncoverings" with new examples and research. She traced the Acadian people ('cajun is a corruption of 'Acadian') from their origins in the British maritime islands to the prairies of southwest Louisiana, where their culture became the dominant regional culture. Her presentation was excellent, and merely to see so many cotonnade fabrics was a special treat. Although cotonnade blankets are to be seen, cotonade quilts are extremely rare, having been used and recycled. She pronounces the word "cotton-ade" in English; her French contact calls it co ton ahd)

In an interesting and helpful presentation Kathy Moore of the International Quilt Center discussed the Center's holdings and demonstrated how to use the Center's website to access them. She traced the history of Center, showed the live website wherein one can see construction of its new home moving forward, and outlined the opportunities this development will make possible. Helpful, informative presentation.

The reports of research in progress suggest well-grounded research is going forward in a variety of areas of Southern quiltmaking.

Marcia Kaylakie and Carolyn Miller and I are both studying quilt patterns that have so far proven to be distinctively Southern in their provenance. Marcia presented her findings on the Rattlesnake pattern, of which she has identified 13 extant examples. She suggested origins or possible ancestors for the pattern in popular patterns like Drunkard's Path in its many variations. And of course, we had the pleasure of seeing the Rattlesnake quilt she owns onto which the maker had applied the triangular little heads and beady eyes of the pit viper for which the quilt is named. No doubt about name there!

Because we were running short on time, I abbreviated Carolyn's and my findings on the Whig's Defeat pattern. But this is what we've found. Both in construction and in the migration path it seems to follow, the pattern resembles the Rattlesnake pattern and several other Southern patterns. WD seems to have moved from western NC into TN and thence southwest to Texas. A southern migration also pattern runs from NC through GA and west across a line that runs roughly from Montgomery through North Louisiana and then into Texas. It is associated with two groups that made up the base of the Democratic Party at the time, the Scots-Irish and Mormons, and with the cause of territorialism or Manifest Destiny, specifically Texas and Oregon territories. It had an earlier non-political life and was adapted to political purposes in the 1844 election of James K. Polk. Solid evidence of its political association exists. Although Brackman lists 1844 example in Kansas City museum (a block of similar date is found in AR) as the earliest extant example, the pattern is documented in the diary of a Mormon convert from England in 1838 as "the finger quilt." The maker brought it with her to America. Mary Cross has documented it and states firmly the fabrics are of British origin. It was transmitted along cultural lines.

Lynn Lancaster Gorges presented her work on Alamance Plaids, and most of us had never seen such a variety of the plaids before. Truly a bounteous display! She traced the origins in the Holt mills and the history of the production of the woven plaid fabrics in Alamance County, NC. I suspect most present were like me: they will go through their quilt collections looking for these textiles.

Anita Weinraub, editor of "Georgia Quilts," discussed the GA Quilt Search and showed photographs of some of the really remarkable--among them, some unique---quilts produced by that search. A unique Circular Saw drew gasps from conference members, both for its brilliance (two shades of orange) and its originality of design (and size!). Here again, one saw the similarity of many African-American quilts and Scots-Irish quilts. In general the quilts produced and featured in the book possess a daring and exuberance, a preference for textile design over quilting, and a fondness for what we call fan quilting.

Ruth Rhoades, author of "Feedsacks in Georgia: Their Manufacture, Marketing, and Consumer Use," traced the history of cloth feedsacks in Georgia, including information on the mills that produced them. Again, just seeing the array of textiles and the uses to which they were put (everything from clothespin holders to dresses to pillow covers and onward) was part of the pleasure.

Then, of course, we ate. And ate. Gumbo. Jambalaya. Catfish. Peach Cobbler. And more. That is one thing about a Southern gathering: people enjoy talking about the food almost as much as they enjoy eating it. And listening to them discuss food as they eat is a treat.

And we saw quilts brought to Show and Ask, and those quilts raised questions that need answers.

And, of course, we talked. The varied accents in that room---Carolyn Miller's and Kathy Moore's flat East Texas speech, the N.O. Accents of the Muellers and Gladharts, the Cajun accents that had filtered through Indiana, Alabama's nice lilt, the South Georgia softness and the West Virginia drawl--suggested the diversity of the South, thus echoing the conference speakers.

I think I speak for most of us when I say it was a positive gathering, with lots of time built in for questions, making new friendships, networking. Lots of quilt talk. I feel that a new network and sense of connection and possibility came out of this gathering. It was an exciting experience, even for those of us who had worked on it for so long.

All of us were touched by the good wishes of friends beyond the South, particularly those of Sue Reich and Judy Grow. Sue had produced books containing Southern newspaper items about quilts and these appeared in each participant's folder. Together, Judy and Sue sent a beautiful large bouquet of tulips that stood in the center of the dining room table for our Thursday evening meal at my house. They are still beautiful.

And about that evening: there, it was plain who we are as a group of people.

As guests began to arrive, Lynn Gorges, my houseguest, sent me to change from "kitchen clothes" into something a little more presentable. When I returned, there was Lynn, Marcia Kaylakie, and Pat Kyser in my kitchen---steaming the asparagus I had intended to steam, stirring the gumbo, heating things up, and handing out plates for others to put on the sideboard, and generally giving orders. The Rowleys had brought wine and Pat had brought the most extraordinarily delicious cakes imaginable (2,743 cal/molecule). I looked out the window into the yard and saw folks wandering about. Marcia K. said, "I sent them out to pick up sticks." The garden needed that, for it had not seen me lately, and so I was grateful for small favors. Everywhere people were talking and laughing. At some point I walked down the hall and looked into the back hallway, where I saw a crowd and someone (I had no idea who) was in the guest bedroom conducting a show of my quilts. That was okay with me (for I knew under my bed was clean). But if it hadn't been clean, I would have known those with their noses there had under-beds just like it. We forgot the jambalaya was still in the oven staying warm, but everyone was glad to see it, especially since the gumbo was growing thin. Outside the wild azaleas perfumed the air, the indica azaleas dripped onto the newly green grass. The dogwoods were white overhead. And the Japanese maples decided to put out just in time to join everything else. There were sticks, sure. But who looked?

A self-doubting people don't behave that way. They become prim and guarded and smack the hands of those who would try to swipe icing from La Kyser's cake. They feel bad when folks pick up sticks in their yards. Consider it an affront, instead of a blessing. They would never dive under the bed of another's house to pull out quilts to share with people they had met only an hour earlier. And they never--never-- make the sounds I heard when they taste catfish or peach cobbler.("Bless their hearts," as my friend Carolyn Miller would say.)

I really believe our weekend together will mobilize that confidence and result in publications and papers and presentations that will expand the boundaries of what is now known about quilt history.

Then we will deserve to have our names called in the same breath with that of Bets Ramsey.

And I am grateful to all who came and shared information and picked up sticks and washed silver and stacked the dishwasher and who taught me so much I didn't know about textiles.

Wish you all could have been here, Gaye