Bucilla Kit Quilt

Cross Stitch Kit Quilt

 

American Provincial

Bucilla

No 2868

Quilting Design

Emma Andres

Emma Andres
Prescott, Arizona
1902 - 1988

I became a huge fan of Emma Andres in 1992 when I first saw her quilts and read about her in the Arizona quilt documentation book

Grand Endeavors: Vintage Arizona Quilts and Their Makers

and in the

1990 Uncoverings "Emma Andres and Her Six Grand Old Characters by Janet Carruth and the late Laurene Sinema

Emma was inducted in the Arizona Quilters Hall of Fame, Class of 2009. 

Emma was also a contemporary of Florence Peto and you can read a little about Emma and her friendship with Florence  in the book

A Passion for Quilts The Story of Florence Peto

The Quilt Index now has downloadable copies of the Quilter’s Journal. In the Summer 1981 issue Joyce Gross wrote the story of Emma Andres.

Quilters Newsletter Magazine April 1984 also has a very nice article about Emma.  I even know several people who met her and went to Prescott to visit her.

One quilt titled Lady at the Spinning Wheel (AKA Silhouetter) was purchased by Joyce Gross sometime in the early 1980’s. That quilt is now in the  Joyce Gross Collection at the University of Texas at Austin.

You can read a little about that here 

I am dreaming Lady at the Spinning Wheel  might someday be returned to Arizona.

Most of Emma quilts are in the care of Mark & Jill Tetreau. Janet Carruth has been doing some intense research for the last several months. Emma kept wonderful scrapbooks. Those who attended the Arizona Regional Quilt Study Day, March 24, 2012 in Tucson, Arizona were most fortunate to see Emma's quilts. They are amazing.  So hoping Janet will continue her research and write a book about Emma Andres.

Janet Carruth with Emma Andres' Ninety and Nine

 

Emma Andres Lady at the Spinning Wheel Quilt

Infinite Variety, Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts

This quilt is owned by Joanna Rose and was in the exhibit March 2011 in New York City.  I have no info on the above quilt, but many have seen Emma Andres quilt so it most likely came after seeing Emma's quilt.

Emma Andres made her quilt and entered it in the 1933 Sears Century of Progress in Chicago. 

Emma's is thought to be an original design.  Made with 3500 red and white squares and won a merit award in 1933 at the Chicago World's Fair.

Janet Carruth recently discovered this fascinating coincidence while doing extensive research on Emma Andres 1902-1988 of Prescott Arizona. I recently found THIS wonderful article on Emma Andres on the Quilt Index. 

Emma's quilt was purchased by Joyce Gross and is now in the Joyce Gross Collection at The University of Texas at Austin.

KIT QUILTS-THEIR STORY

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

http://www.nimbleneedletreasures.com/irenegoodrich.htm

1975 Volume 7 No. 1-Quilt Kits-Present and Past by Cuesta Benberry

CUESTA BENBERRY

http://museum.msu.edu/Exhibitions/Upcoming/TheLegacyofCuestaBenberry.html

Unpacking Collections: The Legacy of Cuesta Benberry, An African American Quilt Scholar
December 6, 2009 - September 5, 2010

LADIES ART COMPANY

http://www.ladiesartcompany.com/index.htm

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

http://www.practicalpatchwork.com/websterstory.html

CHILDREN’S QUILTS FROM THE 19th CENTURY (online article)

http://www.fabrics.net/LauretteChildrenQuilt19thCentury.asp

THE HISTORY OF  20^TH CENTURY KIT QUILTS

http://www.womenfolk.com/quilt_pattern_history/kit-quilts.htm

AMERICAN KIT QUILTS - A BRIEF HISTORY

http://www.geocities.com/qllsite/kits1.html

VINTAGE TINTED EMBROIDERED LINENS

http://reviews.ebay.com/Vintage-Tinted-Embroidered-Linens-and-Pillows_W0QQugidZ10000000004649089

BUCILLA

http://www.plaidonline.com/articleDetail.asp?entry=article&articleID=102

 PROGRESS

 PARAGON

GOLD-ART NEEDLEWORK CO.

Lee Wards, Home Needlecraft Creations, Herrschner’s, Wonder-Art, Vogart, Marvil Art, Aunt Ellen, Franks, Jack Dempsey

http://www.antiquequiltdatingguides.com/Eagle_Quilt_Kits.htm

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

Childhood Treasures: Quilts by and for Children

The Quilts of Tennessee: Images of Domestic Life Prior to 1930

Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 World's Fair

Soft Covers for Hard Times: Quiltmaking and the Great Depression

·         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                          

Antique Pillow Case

16" x 30"

Very surprised to find this antique pillowcase last July in Redmond Oregon. They called it a wall hanging.  It is the only one I have ever found. The colors are what Anne Hermes calls Pennsylvania German.  Wouldn't you just love to know how it got to Oregon?

The blocks measure about 3 1/2 inches to 4 inches

This is what is on one side of the pillowcase.

 

This reminds me of the quilt along Lori is doing called Pink Lemonade .

Check it out if you have not seen it, very cute.

Kent Cloth of the United Nations

I am not a huge feedsack fan, but I do have a few, I think 7 or 8.  I buy them mostly if I think they are pretty unusual.  That's why I bought this pair,

looks like Lil Abner to me.  I haven't seen this design talked about anywhere.  But I did find this article about feedsacks posted on  Etsy.  And the Quilt History site has a very informative article on feedsacks.

I have these two feedsacks because I have a small collection of vintage cheater fabric.

Love cowboys, so this one is a keeper.

 

 When I saw this quilt on a trip summer 2010 in California, I just had to buy it.  It is four feedsacks sewn together to form the center panel. 

The back of the quilt is also feedsacks sewn together. A large pink and red flower design.

 

It is Kent's Cloth of the United Nations.  The fabric was printed in 1942 by Percy Kent of buffalo New York.  Using famous WWII battles and Alliance symbols including Tojo, Hitler and Mussolini. 

Red and White Quilts, Again

I still think and dream of the Infinite Variety Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts exhibit last March in New York.  I downloaded an app to my IPhone of a virtual tour of all the quilts.  It is fantastic.  As a matter of fact, instead of reading myself to sleep last night, I clicked on the Virtual Red and White Quilt Show. Never, never get tired of looking at these quilts.  So amazing to see them all in one place.

So recently my friend Jean wanted to see more of my red and white quilts. I did find a few in Oregon and Washington recently.

A Ruby McKim Bird Life quilt top found in Washington, guess I should post this under Ruby McKim.  But it is red and mostly white.

This is called Old Maid's Ramble or Double Triangle in BB Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. Purchased this in Aurora, Oregon. Home of the  Aurora Colony  and a very nice museum with family quilts from the colonist.

 

This quilt is a little dirty and needs to be cleaned.  Not sure if it was intentional to have white work or did the redwork fade to white, still need to examine this one closer.  Found this in Hillsboro, Oregon.  A charming little town with a Thursday night street fair.  Food, fun, music, antiques what more could you want.  I wasn't finding any quilts even though the antique stores were very nice.  As I was leaving one antique store the salesperson said something like can't find anything you can't live without.  Of course my response "No, I didn't see any quilts".  I kid you not this is what he said, "Oh, we moved all the quilts across the street to the liquor store!"  Okay, so now I guess I'll be checking in every liquor store for quilts.  I found several quilts in the liquor store that came home with me.

  

A redwork summer coverlet dated 1891, found in Washington.  

 

A redwork signature quilt, no date or location, not in the best shape.  

But I had to bring it home with me for $35.

Found in Sherwood, Oregon

 Found in Utah and paid way too much for it.  

Redwork is one of my favorites and there seems to be less available.

At least I don't see many anymore.  Someday soon I will show you a quilt I am

making with a bunch of antique redwork blocks I have been collecting for years. 

 

I did make this little quilt it is about 12 inches x 17 inches.  I had a very worn redwork top I had taken apart many years ago and recently started looking at it again.  Took the best of several blocks and made this little crazy redwork.  I found some floss in my stash and added the "L" and I did all of the feather stitch.

 

I found this redwork apron in Oregon recently.  

I like having things I love on display in my quilt studio.

No picture, but the ties even have redwork on them.

What's A Friend For?

I found a lot of wonderful antique quilts while traveling the last couple of months. And a lot of them came home with me. I’ll be showing them in the next couple of months here.

Lots of times I see a fabulous quilt but it is just not something that fits into my collection/collections. But I always can think of the right person that would love it. I know one woman that is crazy for crazy quilts and I saw a lot of those, but just not something I collect. Another friend collects polyester quilts and occasionally I will see one of those. Recently I saw a very interesting basket quilt on an on-line auction. I do collect basket quilts. On looking and reading the description closer, it was made from polyester. So I quickly sent an email off to my friend to give her a heads up. She responded pretty quickly that she just loved it! But she needed a big favor, she was out of town and forgot to bring here passwords for her account. She couldn’t bid on it from where she was. Would I please make an offer. Of course, she loved it, had to have, I had to help her. She is now the proud owner of a really cute poly basket quilt. I still have temporary custody so you get to see it.

While in Portland Oregon I found an interesting quilt, but just not something I thought would go in my collection. But it was just too interesting and not something you see everyday. So with my handy-dandy IPhone I took a picture and emailed it to another friend who I thought just might be interested. Of course she had told me to let her know if I saw anything she would be interested in. And her email was set up in my phone for just such an occasion. I continued looking around the antique store and didn’t hear from her. About twenty minutes later she called, luckily I was just up the street at another store. We talked about making an offer on the quilt, for the right price she was interested. As the third party negotiator we agreed on a price my friend was happy with. I think she has lots of research to do on this one.

No I don’t think it stand for Portland. I do know it was popular to put your initial on quilts. I was looking around the internet and came across this exhibit:

P-Quilt

The “P” does look similar. The Ladies Art Company and others had patterns for letters of the alphabet. Check BB Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.

Here is a “P” quilt from an online quilt exhibit “Wild By Design” from the International Quilt Study Center.

Wild By Design

There are many names/things the “P” could stand for.

Happy researching my friend.

Little Dutch Girls

Update from a reader, here is a link for a pattern for the Little Dutch Girl.

I am not sure of the name of this pattern. She looks a little Dutch to me. I have several variations. But as yet have not found a source for the pattern. I have looked in Rose Alboum Quilt Indexes, a valuable resource for quilt pattern identification. I have searched- Aunt Martha, Home Art Studio, Capper Publications, and Ladies Art Company. No luck in BB Encyclopedia of Applique.  I think someone called them Red Riding Hood. But would love to know the original source for the pattern.

These quilts are all from my collection.

Some of the little girls are holding flowers.

A before and after of a top a took apart.

Some look sweet and others look a little scarey.

This one is not the same, but interesting and I have never seen the pattern for this one.
If you know or have any ideas let me know.

MORE RED AND WHITE QUILTS

A few more Red and White Quilts for the online show.
All Redwork Quilts, hard to date any of these

Red and White Quilts

Red and White Quilts are so classy. How can you not love them.
From my collection. Don't know much about any of these, except I love them.

Redwork dated 1926 large motifs from online auction.



























I purchased this top in Pennsylvania June 2010.



















Bethlehem Star




















I have had this quilt a long time, don't even know
where I got it. But just love it. This is the first time it has had it's picture taken. It has been at the bottom of a trunk. So glad I finally got these pictures.




















This one was in the same trunk. Classic.





















Amazing what you can do with half-square triangles!
Lots of different red prints. First picture. Love the things you see in a picture.






Taryn at Repro Quilt Lover is hosting a virtual red and white quilt exhibit. The American Folk Art Museum in New York is having a red and white exhibit from March 25 to 30. I even checked the price of a plane ticket $307 not a bad price, but have no one to travel with and too chicken to go to New York alone.