Study Day, Part II

After lunch in the church basement, and a check of the silent auction items, we met at the Richland County Museum. The museum was originally built in 1850 as a school. We were given a tour of the museum, which included antique wedding gowns, quilts, and 1830-1860 coverlets.

This is a plum silk brocade wedding dress worn by Margaret Dunshee in 1835. It features bishop sleeves, ruching, and pleating, as well as other decorative touches.

This is an 1860-62 plaid silk taffeta gown with double pagoda sleeves and a full cartridge pleated skirt.

The museum had quite a collection of coverlets and quilts displayed.

And then I turned to my right, and had to stop and do a double take when I saw this The Apotheosis of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington toile, which features George Washington in a chariot, and Ben Franklin in a fur cap!

Here is a picture of the same print, from the Collection of Robert Staples and Barbara Fahs Charles, which was included in the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary Exhibition 2005-2008. This is a copperplate print on cotton, and dates from 1785-1800. It was printed in sepia, red, and purple, that I've been able to find reference to, as well as a pink version printed in England in 1800 for the American Market.

After the museum tour, we all gathered in the church again for a talk by Virginia Gunn entitled "Nineteenth-Century Quilts and Woven Coverlets: Relationships of Style Shaped by Sharing a Visual Language." This talk explored the relationship between coverlets designs and pieced and appliqued quilt patterns. Here are Xenia Cord and Sharon Pinka displaying a red and green quilt illustrating the motifs common in early woven coverlets.

For further study of red and green quilts and their motifs, Xenia recommended The Quilted Garden, by Ricky Clark. I ordered it, since I am researching red and green quilts for my local Quilt History Study Group's Red and Green quilt exhibit at our upcoming quilt show, and it's a very informative and enjoyable book.

Virginia illustrated her talk with another amazing array of coverlets. Here she is showing a blue and white quilt with a grapevine border.

Notice leaves and berries alternating from side to side.



Here she shows a coverlet with the same pattern.

Laid side by side, you can see the influence of the coverlet's design on the quilt's border.

Virginia had charted the known coverlet weavers of Ohio on a map, and it just so happened that Mansfield, near where the Study Day was held, was the center of coverlet weaving in Ohio in the early 1800's. She then gave us a history of the weavers, with examples of their work. Prominent among them were the Meilly and Mellinger families. Meilly patterns were frequently purchased by weavers starting out. As their skills grew, they sometimes altered the patterns, or added totally new design elements of their own. It was fascinating to see how the designs were copied and altered from weaver to weaver.

Here she shows a coverlet woven by Charles Meilly.

Here is my favorite coverlet of the day, featuring peacocks. I just couldn't get enough of it, it was so stunning! Notice the double border.

Here is another "bird feeding it's young" example, with a floral border.

This is a photo I would ordinarily not include because it is such a terrible picture, but this was such an important coverlet for the presentation, that I'm showing it until I can, hopefully, locate a better picture from someone else who was there. The coverlet looked like the entire thing was made of half square triangles! It was amazing to see, and hard to believe it was woven, and not pieced. I hope you can get some idea from my picture.

It was a wonderful presentation, and very informative. I've only touched briefly on the weaver's and how the designs evolved because I was so absorbed I didn't take many notes. I'm interested in learning more about coverlets and weavers, and just received the book American Coverlets and Their Weavers, by Clarita Anderson, which was recommended to me, and I can't wait to read it.

Next we had show and tell, and saw more amazing quilts. I know I've used the words amazing and stunning way too much in my narrative, but let me tell you, I WAS amazed and stunned most of the time!

Diane Livezey brought this to show.

Kimmie Humrichouser brought two quilts to share. One was a silk log cabin variation.

And the other, this red and green Princess Feather.

Notice the alternating leaf and berry border.

Sandy Rice brought this Princess Feather.

And then there was a huge gasp as Donna Stickovich unfurled this. Notice I don't use the words amazing or stunning here, simply because no words can describe seeing this in person.

The center chintz motif is called "Hunt Cornucopia," or "Trophy at Arms," and is c. 1825.

A close-up of one of the broderie perse motifs.

The quilt I most wanted to take home, other than Donna's, but I'm trying to be realistic, is one Xenia brought. I took dozens of photos, but none does it justice. It shown like a jewel to me, the colors were so bright, and the fabrics so interesting. The close-up at the beginning of this post is from this quilt. The background is one solid piece, no seams!

My pictures aren't the best, as they were all taken while the quilt was folded over a pew, but they will give you an idea of the fabrics.

The Study Day was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I hope I was able to convey some of that feeling to you in my posts. I would like to thank Xenia Cord, Virginia Gunn, and Sharon Pinka for all the hard work they put into making this a truly memorable day!

Quilts & Textiles Study Day, Part I

On August 14 I attended a Quilt and Textile Study Day covering textiles from 1840-1860. It was organized by Sharon Pinka, and held at the Lexington Congregational Church in Lexington, OH. If you thought the Show and Tell from my previous two posts was amazing, wait till you see the quilts and coverlets I saw here!

We started at 9 with a meet and greet at the church and registration. People also brought items for a silent auction to benefit the Quilter's Hall of Fame, and this was set up in the basement of the church. In the back of the room the program was to be held in we were greeted by an amazing array of quilts displayed on one side, and coverlets on the other.

At 9:30 the program began with a slide show and talk by quilt historian Xenia Cord about the social, cultural and political climate during the 1840-1860 time period. Xenia started with the fact that the population of the United States in 1840 was 17 million, of which 2.5 million were slaves. She talked about the different types of houses, starting with the single pen, and adding on rooms and stories until we ended up with a Georgian home. We learned that the first patchwork design was published in 1835, and Godey's started publishing in the 1840's. Being of Irish descent, I found it fascinating to learn that the potato famine was so devastating that the population of Ireland will not reach it's pre-famine population until 2025. Xenia also talked about the invention of mercerized cotton, batting sheets, and aniline dye.

With that background, the stage was set for Dr. Virginia Gunn's talk on Century Clothing Construction and Quilt Construction: Recognizing the Connections. She gave us a handout covering the various stitches used in clothing construction, and illustrated these using the teaching collection of clothing from the University of Akron, where she is on staff. These textiles were amazing. Virginia was a flurry of motion, and most of my pictures had either her or the clothing a blur, but we were allowed to handle and photograph it after the talk, and I got lots of close-up shots of the detailing on the clothing. I was especially interested in the children's dresses, with an eye out for ideas for doll costuming. She showed the how the various stitches used in clothing construction were then used in the construction of quilts.

Virginia showing a quilted baby bonnet.


Alright, I admit I'm a fan of soutache trim, which you already know if you've been reading my blog. :)

The next speaker was Kathleen Addlesperger, who showed us the Jacintha Cook quilt from the collection of the Richland County Museum, which was next door to the Church, and gave a talk on the history of the quilt. This amazing white whole cloth quilt was made in 1842 as a wedding quilt, but for reasons unknown the wedding didn't take place and the quilt was packed away for years. Because the design was hard to see, Kathleen had a tracing she made of the legend Jacintha quilted around the center of the quilt.

For the next segment Xenia gave a talk on the typical styles of quilts from the time period 1840-1860. We received a handout with pictures of quilts illustrating the various types of quilts such as Baltimore Album, Princess Feather, and a Chintz and Toile Lemoyne Star Crib Quilt among others. We also saw quilts from this period brought by Sharon Pinka and others, including the Crib Quilt mentioned, which was truly breathtaking.

A appliqued Meandering Leaf and Vine quilt, c. 1860, from Sharon Pinka's collection.

And the chintz and toile crib quilt, c. 1840. I have about a dozen pictures of this. I must have really liked it!

At this point we broke for lunch in the church basement, and were able to inspect and bid on the silent auction items. Stay tuned for Part II.