11.28.07
New England Quilts
While browsing in Borders bookstore, I came across a magazine that is new to me. Opening the covers of Quilt mania, a magazine produced in France, I was intrigued that the first two articles were about quilts from New Hampshire and Vermont.
On the plus side, the magazine features nice photos. On the minus side, there is simply not much substance in the descriptions of the antique quilts and their fabrics, so casually-mentioned in two articles. The experience of reading those photo essays is that I wanted more information.
When the author mentions that the quilts feature fabrics made by local mills, I want to know which mills and which fabrics. When the author refers to the “many” mills along the Merrimack River, I want to know the mills she means other than the Amoskeag Mills in Manchester, and the Boott Mill in Lowell, Massachusetts. Offhand, I can think of no others.
An “Aside”
I am always mystified as to how and why people from other parts of the country and/or from overseas, think they can fly in here and be sudden experts on early New England quilts, fabrics, and terminology. I don’t mean to sound unfriendly. I have encountered this situation more than once.
In New England, we have early quilts that are uniquely New England quilts. Their configuration is such that they are not an exact rectangle but rather, have an adaptation at the bottom so that the quilt will “hug” the posts of a bed. These are quilts for a four-poster bed. That is what we call them: a “four poster bed quilt.”
People from the mid-West, where such quilts do not exist traditionally, constantly tend to refer to them as “cut-out quilts.” I know someone who would shoot you dead, if you said that term around her. Luckily, she is not a gun owner!
The same situation holds for the word “coverlet.” Of course, everyone knows that there are woven coverlets. That is another story. I am talking about cotton coverlets of one or possibly two layers, that have no batting. Some could argue that a quilt top, whose edges have been turned over and stitched down, came to be used as a coverlet, as an afterthought. It’s difficult to know what was in the mind of the quilter, if she is no longer among us.
However, I have seen plenty of one layer, Redwork coverlets that appear to have been made specifically for use as a light bed covering and nothing more. In New England, I have never heard these called “summer spreads,” except by new “transplants” to New Hampshire: those already indoctrinated with the terminology of Pennsylvania, or the mid-West.
Getting Back to the Magazine
Seeing some lovely old quilts in the magazine was a real treat, especially since they were made in my backyard, so to speak. However, being able to read just the name of the type of quilt, and the date of its supposed provenance, only left me wondering if more of the quilt’s story is actually known.
Sometimes, we err when we don’t provide enough information, and such habit of doing so, can in itself be misleading. As a coffee table magazine, Quilt mania is grand! An added bonus is that instructions are offered for some wonderful traditional quilt designs, with a twist. I also loved the avant-garde fibers art works shown.
Patricia Cummings
