I wrote the below information for my lecture/trunk show about 5 years ago. So it may not be totally up to date. I have a large collection of kit quilts, both crib and full size. It is a passion. I love to collect a quilt and then find a reference or advertisement for the pattern. I have many, many notebooks full. How do you share with other who have the same passion? I am trying to make a stab at it with blogging, but I am not always motivated to get the blog done.
Bucilla,
Progress, Paragon, Gold-Art Needlework Co., Lee Wards, Home Needlecraft
Creations, Herrschner’s, Wonder-Art, Vogart, Marvil Art, Aunt Ellen,
Franks, Ladies Art Co., Rainbow, Jack
Dempsey and others are names you will hear associated with kit quilts.
A quilt kit
is the material (stamped or die-cut) in the package for making the quilt. A kit quilt is the finished quilt made
from a kit. There is some discussion about what is a kit. Some do not include
stamped blocks in their definition. Rosie Werner stated, “Years ago, Shirley
McElderry, Merikay Waldvogel, and maybe Cuesta Benberry came to the conclusion
that a kit had to have some component(s) that remained in the quilt.” I personally think a kit quilt is when you
find quilts that are exactly alike in design, color, fabric, quilting, size,
etc. Stamped blocks alone do not make a
kit in my opinion.
In 1935, Carrie Hall wrote that the kits popularized
by “this hurrying age” were especially distressing for the “true quilter”.
Cuesta Benberry, eminent quilt historian and kit
quilt authority, said in 1975 kit quilts
made from precut or prestamped kits were one of the most controversial subjects
in the quilt world of that time period.
A noted quilt author compared pre-cut kit quilts to paint by number art
kits. Kits have also been compared to the box cake mix and other instant foods.
In the 1996 book Art
Quilt Penny McMorris and Michael Kile commented “ Professional designers
made the creative decisions, leaving women with only the work of sewing the
preordained quilts together…With the introduction of these kits, quiltmaking
became as far removed from art as are paint-by-numberings.”
The International Quilt Study Center & Museum in
2003 held a quilt show “Modern Marvels-Quilts Made from Kits, 1915-1950. They stated quilt scholars were not aware
until relatively recently just how many surviving Depression-era quilts were
made from kits.
Lots of the negative comments on kit quilts comes
from quilts made from kits entered in shows competing with quilts made-from-
scratch.
I love kit quilts and my opinion on kit quilts comes
from being a collector of kit quilts starting with the crib quilts in 1999 and
in 2006 when I started collecting cross-stitch quilts which most were made from
kits, I look at each quilt individually and I’m not judging it with another
quilt. There are some really great kit quilts
that in today’s market are bringing thousands of dollars and some quilts that
are under one hundred dollars. And there
are quilts in museum collections made by well know quilters that were made from
kits. There must have been some very accomplished needle workers making kit
quilts and some who had absolutely no experience with a needle at all. Most of
the kits were either an appliqué or cross stitch with a few pieced patterns. I am not alone in noting they have a much
overlooked place in the history of quilts.
Quilt kits started around the turn of the twentieth
century. By 1911-1914 Ladies Art Company
offered kits for quilts in their supplementary embroidery catalog. In 1922 they had a full fledged catalog of
quilt kits “ Book of Applique Patchwork by Deaconess”. Early kits consisted of a background cloth,
perforated paper pattern and stamping paste or power. Later, kits came prestamped with appliqué out
line on both the background and appliqué piece.
Even the quilting line is marked on the quilt. These markings are what
to look for when trying to identify a quilt made from a kit. Most markings did not wash out of the early
kits.
An early name associated with quilt kits is Marie
Webster, the first author of a full-length book solely on quilts. “Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them”. She
was the needlework editor of the “Ladies Home Journal” 1911-1917. Many quilt patterns in “Ladies Home Journal”
during that period were original designs by Marie Webster. In 1921 Webster founded The Practical
Patchwork Company. Webster’s highly successful
business was a cottage industries and sold quilt patterns and kits from her
home in Marion Indiana.
Other important early designers were Anne Orr, Ruby
Short McKim, Mary McElwain, and Mrs. Scioto Danner. All had highly successful businesses from
their own homes. Often overlooked is the
importance of the quilt kit to the general economy of the time. These cottage
industries provided livelihoods for their families and for members of the
community during difficult economic times.
Magazines and catalogs that sold early kit quilts.
Ladies Art Company, Ladies Home Journal, Home Needlework, Modern Priscilla,
Needlecrafts Home Art.
As the quilt kit industry grew more were offered
through general needlework sources such as Herrschner’s, Lee Wards, Virginia
Snow, Aunt Ellen, Aunt Martha, Mary McElwain Quilt Shop and others. Kits were also offered through large
mail-order houses such as Sears Roebuck & Co and Montgomery Wards. They could also be found in the popular five
and dime stores such as Ben Franklin, McCrory’s and Woolworth’s.
A confusing practice that began in the 1930
was the offering of quilt kits under the name of a magazine, but also having it
available in stores under the name of the company that produced it.
The largest commercial quilt kit manufacturers are
Bucilla, Paragon and Progress. These
companies but forth great efforts to obtain fine patterns, either from
prominent designers or from museums. More on this later as we look at some of
the quilts. They used the finest
material available and most quilts have stood the test of time.
Quilt kits saw a decline in the early 1940’s with
the beginning of WWII and the resulting shortage of fabric and paper. In addition, women were now employed by the
defense industry.
McCall’s Needlework
Magazines of the 1950’s advertised Bucilla and Paragon kits. And
remained popular through the 1980. Some
manufacturers started using Polyester blends in their kits which did not hold
up to the test of time.
Quilt kit researcher Beverly Dunivent in Uncoverings
1994 concluded:
Kits continued popularity, independent of the
changes and trends that occurred in twentieth-century quiltmaking. Large number
of kit quilts shown in quilt shows,
books and magazines. Kits offered women
the opportunity to become entrepreneurs and to be recognized for their creative
efforts. Kits provided quiltmakers the means to develop skills in various
aspects of quiltmaking in areas with no other source for guidance. Some kit
designs were copied from works in museums and private collections. Often first time kit makers went on to make
other quilts.
NIMBLE
NEEDLE TREASURES MAGAZINE
1975 Volume 7 No. 1-Quilt Kits-Present and Past by
Cuesta Benberry
CUESTA BENBERRY
Unpacking
Collections: The Legacy of Cuesta Benberry, An African American Quilt Scholar
December 6, 2009 - September 5, 2010
LADIES ART COMPANY
UNCOVERINGS 1994 (15)
“Kit Quilts
in Perspective” by Beverly Dunivent
& Anne Copeland
UNCOVERINGS 1995 (16)
“Marketing
Quilt Kits in the 1920s and 1930s” by Xenia E. Cord
MARIE WEBSTER
CHILDREN’S
QUILTS FROM THE 19th CENTURY
(online article)
THE HISTORY OF 20TH CENTURY KIT QUILTS
AMERICAN
KIT QUILTS - A BRIEF HISTORY
VINTAGE
TINTED EMBROIDERED LINENS
BUCILLA
PROGRESS
PARAGON
GOLD-ART
NEEDLEWORK CO.
Lee
Wards, Home Needlecraft Creations, Herrschner’s, Wonder-Art, Vogart, Marvil
Art, Aunt Ellen, Franks, Jack Dempsey
QUILTMAKING
IN AMERICA BEYOND THE MYTHS By Horton, Laurel
ON
THE CUTTING EDGE By
Lasansky, Jeannette
UNCOVERINGS
1990
“Quilt History in Old
Periodicals” By Wilene Smith
Books and articles by Merikay Waldvogel
·
Quilts in the WPA Milwaukee
Handicraft Project, 1935-1943 - Volume 05
·
Southern Linsey Quilts of the
Nineteenth Century - Volume 08
·
The Marketing of Anne Orr's Quilts -
Volume 11
·
Mildred Dickerson: A Quilt Pattern
Collector of the 1960's and 1970's - Volume 15
·
The Origin of Mountain Mist Patterns
- Volume 16
