American quilts

Magazine Antiques, July, 2004 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

Sewing has long been an activity for American women, who were taught all manner of the needle arts during their childhood. A critical part of a girl's education in this discipline was learning how to stitch letters so she could work her initials or name onto the various linens made for the household. From the nineteenth century forward quilt-making became both a solitary and a social activity for women that required a great deal of time. Indeed, the survival of so many quilts, has often been attributed to the sentimental value attached to them. While there have been scores of exhibitions devoted to American quilts over the years, the subject of written or stitched words on quilts has not been studied in depth. Happily, the American Folk Art Museum in New York City has assembled a group of nineteen quilts made all over the United States (but primarily in the East) between the nineteenth century and the present, all of which bear text in a variety of formats. The show is entitled Talking Quilts and is on view until August 1.

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Nineteenth-century quilts that incorporate words often bear only the name of the maker and the date being commemorated, such as a birth, marriage, or retirement. However, by mid-century quilt-makers began to think of words and sayings as the predominant decorative motif. This is particularly true of a group of quilts made in northern New York State as exemplified by the Pieties quilt illustrated on page 18. The aphorisms so charmingly stitched are drawn from the Bible, poems, and a hymn.

In the early twentieth century, citations from religious sources began to appear with greater frequency, particularly on quilts made in the South. One example in the exhibition, made in Canton, Mississippi, includes the entire Lord's Prayer. The Stormy Day quilt illustrated above includes a summary of the weather on the day each particular block was appliqued to the quilt. This calls to mind the eighteenth-and nineteenth-century practice of starting each diary entry with a succinct description of the weather.

The wide variety of sayings and other words on these quilts is only matched by the array of techniques used to create them. Words are handwritten in ink, stenciled, and worked from fabrics pieced or appliqued to the quilt block.

There is no catalogue of the show, but Stacy C. Hollander, who organized the exhibition, has contributed an article about it to the Spring/Summer issue of the museum's magazine Folk Art. It may be obtained by contacting the museum at 212-265-1040.