by Patricia Lynne Grace Cummings
photos by James Cummings

The motif seen below is a portion of a (paper) napkin with a Blue and White design from Deerfield, Massachusetts. The stitched "D" within a flax wheel (at the bottom of the design) is the official logo of authenticity. As the Deerfield Industries became more successful and well known, other people illicitly copied their designs. As a result, in 1912, Madeline Yale Wynn designed a new logo. That image can be viewed in the Memorial Hall collection, in the room with extant examples of Deerfield Embroidery, from the Society of Blue and White Needlework.

We will begin this discussion of the historic embroideries of Deerfield, Massachusetts with a look at the published statement of Deerfield’s Society of Blue and White Needlework, (undated; circa 1900?) taken from a piece of ephemera in my collection.

Mrs. Miller's Report

Deerfield’s Society of Blue and White Needlework was started in 1896, with the intention of reviving the traditional embroidery of the Colonial period, and of establishing a village industry. Much study of the old pieces of decorative needlework preserved in family chests, showed that the designs, coloring and stitches owed their origin to England, where in the Elizabethan manors and farm houses similar bed and window furnishings in blue and white and other colors are still found, these in turn being direct in descent from the famous early Anglo-Saxon embroideries. Transplanted in our first Colonial states the designs derived fresh vigor from the Orient, for the printed and woven fabrics brought through “the China trade” furnished many an inland draughtswoman with new motives to add to the traditional English variants of the rose, thistle, lily and carnation; thus enriched the work continued, each spread or curtain being drawn, free-hand, upon the homespun linen and wrought in hand-spun threads of linen or wool dyed in madder, indigo and fustic, until superseded by fine white embroidery and lace work, its production ceasing before 1830.

The Deerfield Society does not copy or reproduce these old embroideries but true to the historical tradition produces original work in the style of their period. All designs are made by its founders, Ellen Miller and Margaret C. Whiting, who retain exclusive possession of them under the protection of their trade mark, a spinning wheel, bearing a D, which appears on every piece of needlework made. The colors of the thread and cloth used are dyed in madder, indigo, fustic and native barks, not from an antiquarian preference for the old methods but because the chemically produced dyes do not aesthetically satisfy the eye as do the refined and subtle colors of the natural dyes. Between twenty and thirty needlewomen are engaged in producing the embroidery, the work being done in their homes.

The Society exhibits occasionally at special Arts and Crafts exhibitions, and has a permanent show only at the Blue and White shop, in the Miller house on Deerfield Street, at the Sign of the Wheel. No thread is sold, nor any designs, nor unfinished work. Special designs and estimates are furnished, and orders taken through Miss Margaret Miller, Secretary, Deerfield, Massachusetts

The above one-page notice was printed by Montague Press. My guess about its date of 1900 or a little after, is based on the published fact that by 1899, twenty-five women in Deerfield, Massachusetts were engaged in the cottage industry founded by Margaret Christine Whiting and Ellen Miller. These companions had come across some moth-eaten, wool embroideries in their local museum located at Memorial Hall in Deerfield. The ladies decided then and there to try to preserve the stitched pieces that had been “lost for a hundred years,” and to preserve their designs for posterity.

The two friends set themselves to work tracing off the old designs and studying the way the stitches were worked, in an attempt to faithfully duplicate them. As word spread in the community, others wanted to join them in this effort, and still others wanted to purchase the finished products. A home-based industry had been born.

With an eye toward increasing the longevity of the items they stitched,  linen thread was chosen over the wool threads used in the original pieces. In time, they were asked to sell the paper patterns but refused, trying to protect their exclusive rights to stitch them and sell them. Every piece of authentic Deerfield embroidery met inspection. If it passed the scrutiny of assessing eyes, then the official logo of a spinning wheel with the letter “D” was added to the design.

Blue and white was a simple color combination that was very appealing at the end of the nineteenth century. The original embroideries of the Blue and White Society were done in three values of blue (light, medium, and dark) plus white. Blue was an easily attainable color, achieved by dipping threads into vats of indigo dye. The number of repeat dips determined how deep the color would be. Thread dipped twenty times would have the most intense color. When first removed from the indigo dye vat, the thread or cloth would be green but would soon turn to blue by the process of oxidation.

The ladies of Deerfield were quite used to spinning and processing their own fibers from wool and flax and were also well-versed in dyeing, with both natural materials and vegetable dyes. Any thread dipped in Fustic (which creates the color yellow) and then in Indigo, would yield a green color. Various tree barks were used to dye browns, and the madder root would yield a range of red colors, from pink to a deep rust color. At the very end of the book, Deerfield Embroidery: Traditional Patterns from Colonial Massachusetts, by Margery Burnham Howe, (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976), there is a section on dyeing, along with recipes.

Howe's book provides a wealth of information about the history of Deerfield and what daily life was like at the end of the nineteenth century. She mentions folks who lived in the community, their achievements, their habits, and the general ambience. The author also presents many examples of designs and suggests that each reader isolate and recombine elements of the motifs to suit oneself, thereby making a new design, just as the Blue and White Society members had done.

In addition, she furnishes really interesting information about the original embroideries and their makers, and bed ruggs, a typically New England bedcovering lavishly stitched with wool yarns on a linen ground. She shares her knowledge of some precious embroidered items that were either thrown away or sold at yard sales by misguided heirs. This book was reprinted in 1983 by the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield, Massachusetts and it is a compelling look at history, even if embroidery is not your “thing.”

By the end of last decade of the nineteenth century, Victorian excesses in needlework, of which Crazy Quilting was the prime example, were being set aside. Redwork, a more simple approach to needlework, in red and white, was still very much in vogue, as were red and white pieced quilts, a trend which carried over to the first two decades of the twentieth century.

The wonderful designs that the ladies of Deerfield chose to reproduce in blue and white were fun because they were a connection to the past! While adhering to an old style that they considered “colonial,” they could still have the freedom of choice to change patterns to suit themselves, yet remain within an established genre. Unwittingly, the Deerfield Blue and White Society had been caught up in the same wave of Colonial Revivalism that reached out across the country in the first decades of the twentieth century.

  Typical Design of Deerfield Blue and White Embroidery
         embroidered on linen by Patricia Cummings

The above motif was worked with a number of different stitches: outline stitch, New England Laid Stitch, spike stitch, satin stitch, and feather stitch and it was worked on white linen. This was a workshop piece that I did in the final workshop ever given by Peg Lunt of Meredith, NH. Notice the absence of the letter "D." She told us that that trademark was never to be added to our work.

In 1991, almost a century after the ladies of Deerfield had first engaged their hearts and hands in re-creating old embroideries to "save them," an elderly and frail needlewoman presented her final class. The late Margaret Lunt, or “Peg,” to those of us who knew her, was an accomplished needleworker. With Muriel Baker, she had co-written a book called Blue and White: The Cotton Embroideries of Rural China (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1977). Peg had been close friends with several members of the Blue and White Society, and the patterns that she used to teach us that day had been gifts from them.

The Blue and White Needlework of Deerfield, Massachusetts was Peg’s workshop topic on that extremely humid and hot August day in Centre Sandwich, NH, at a church hall just a stone’s throw from Keepsake Quilting. For this last formal class that Peg was ever to give, she chose her home group, the Northern New England Chapter of the Embroiderers' Guild of America. We were enthralled as she showed us items from her personal collection, including a large bedcover.

The most incredible stitch I learned that day is called the New England Laid Stitch, a stitch which is described and diagrammed in the books available on the subject of Deerfield. It is a filling stitch that is worked so that thread use is economized, thereby making it typically “Yankee.”

Another incredible revelation I found is that the buttonhole stitch, sometimes called blanket stitch, was referred to as the “spike” stitch in earlier times. This stitch was used most often for depicting tendrils.

Most of the stitches that were used for Deerfield Embroidery were of the most common variety and were, no doubt, already in the repertoire of stitches that the Deerfield ladies already knew. In the hands of those competent needleworkers, the blue and white threads turned into a statement of pure elegance.

Muli-color, embellished jacket lapels, embroidered by Patricia Cummings,with motifs originally from Deerfield.

There is much more for you to discover about the history and the variety of these beautiful designs. For that end, you may also wish to plan a trip to Historic Deerfield, MA. There you will find examples of embroidered bedcovers in some of the historic houses "up and down the street," and also some in the building that houses the textile collection. Smaller embroidered linens, and ephemera about the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework are located in Memorial Hall.

In the meantime, you may visit the following website for availability of books and needlework kits and for more information about becoming a member of Historic Deerfield Museum: http://www.historic-deerfield.org/

In addition to the books mentioned already, the following book is of great value in considering this subject:

Homespun and Blue: A Study of American Crewel Embroidery, Martha Genung Stearns,(Bonanza Books, 1940).

I hope that your appetite has been whetted for learning more about this fascinating part of needlework history. What a thrill it was to have known Peg and to visit her home, full of her many embroidered items.

Margaret Lunt, "Peg" to those of us who knew her, died on June 3, 2000 in Laconia, NH at the age of ninety-six. She will long be remembered for her love of needlework and her willingness to teach, to research, and to write extensively on the subject of blue and white embroideries to save information for future generations.

Times change, her home is no longer there, her embroideries are scattered to the four winds, and a condo complex sits on the lakeside property she loved, but we her friends remember her sweet gentleness and kindliness toward all.

©Copyright 2004. Patricia and James Cummings, Quilter's Muse Publications, Concord, NH.  pat@quiltersmuse.com