quiltersmuse.com Blog

I understand that my latest article in the May 2008 issue of The Quilter magazine reached at least one subscriber yesterday. I received a lovely phone call from a friend across the country to exclaim how much she just loves Jim’s photos and my writing.

For us, the article is a very special one! Why? The needlework and quilts we talk about were made by four generations of the Lewis family, Jeff Lewis being my husband’s first cousin.

This is the first time that we sought and found the gravestones of quilters about whom we have written. We traveled to South Sutton, New Hampshire. Knowing that I can still see and hold their work is strong testimony to the way that textiles are a tangible representation of a person’s life and what was meaningful to them. These quilts speak of New England frugality and using what you have.

South Sutton is not on the way to anywhere, and although I have lived in New Hampshire for most of my life, with the exception of about five years, I had never visited the lovely, still quiet town that has changed little since Jim, my husband, was a boy and accompanied his Uncle Harry Lewis when he delivered grain there, by truck.

Deciding which quilts to photograph was a difficult choice. I hope you enjoy seeing the selection of nineteenth and twentieth century quilts, etc. that I’ve chosen to share in print. See The Quilter magazine: coming to a newsstand near you … soon. (May 2008 issue)

To see who visited us, the day we visited S. Sutton, view the front page of our website:  http://www.quiltersmuse.com

Patricia Cummings

Nothing is clear cut about this year’s upcoming presidential election. Now, to throw a little more confusion into the matter, Ralph Nader has announced his bid as an Independent, on the ballot. Some political pundits would charge that Nader’s same action in the last election cost Al Gore the presidency. Yet, at 74, Nader is compelled to try to make a difference and give the American public a more viable choice, as he sees it. Earlier in his career, Nader made headlines by setting up consumer rights groups in Washington. He’s set up a website: votenader.org

Goodness only knows how all of this political bantering will finally pan out. I wish that the election were more clear-cut among the two major parties. The truth is that in November, America will have to elect a new leader. Who is best qualified to lead the country?

Anyone who watches the news on television can see that the candidates are all beginning to look a little bedraggled. Deep circles are setting in under the eyes, they are a little thinner than when they first started, and their personalities are getting a little testy. At the same time, the media is digging for dirt, and zeroing in on every casual and not so casual remark caught on camera. “What does it mean/ What does it mean,” they ask themselves.

Running for president is kind of like being a bug under a microscope. As soon as you are found unworthy, whether the allegation is true or a trumped-up one, you are dissected until you die. Trouble is, everyone is looking for the weak spots and vulnerabilities of the candidates.

The most amusing segment of “Meet the Press” this morning was a discussion of candidates borrowing words from other people’s speeches. Tim Russert delineated a long record of the use of statements using “I see …” by a number of presidential candidates going all the way back to ten years after the Civil War.

So, nothing is new under the sun. We have the contenders and we have the spoilers, and we have the vulture-like media ready to add their observations, polls, and conclusions.

I would never mention politics on this blog, if I did not care about this country so much. Right now, I feel as though the nation is “going to the dogs.” We need strong and determined leaders to make a difference. When all is said and done, I still support Hillary Clinton and wish her well. I think that this country needs her leadership.

At the same time, I don’t agree with any one candidate on all of their stands on issues. Just last night, a farmer in Texas was complaining that a fence through his land, to keep out “illegal” immigrants, would cut off a great deal of farm land that has belonged to the family for generations. As a result, he might have to stop farming and doesn’t know what he would do then.

So, for one “solution,” we always seem to create another “problem.” We can’t even come up with the right flu vaccine at the right time. So, consequently, we are under attack by microscopic organisms that can be more deadly than any bomb.

Pat, with the Flu, dreaming of springtime blossoms and the call of Orioles

I have always thought that the Bear’s Paw quilt pattern is a romantic one. It reminds me of the hardships faced by earlier settlers. Bears have been in the news a lot lately. Last night, I watched a TV special about Polar Bears and Grizzly Bears. It seems that because of climactic change, their territory is coinciding and in at least one documented cases, the two kinds of bears have interbred. I digress.

A few weeks ago, I was in an antiques shop when I spotted a 40 1/4″ square quilt with Bear’s Paw blocks. This is the craziest amalgamation of anything I’ve ever seen. The top is all nineteenth century fabrics and the back is twentieth century fabric with Sunbonnet ladies. Part of the quilt is hand quilted, but not consistently the same, from block to block. One block has two bright pink ties that appear to be acrylic. The binding is store bought and the batting appears to be polyester. The quilt is quite a mix of different ages of components.

One of the interesting features is that the “paw” of each block is a light print surrounded by dark prints. It is only when one looks more closely that one can even notice that the design is “Bear’s Paw.”

Bears are very “cute” and very lovable. Several years ago, one passed in front of our car, with her two little cubs. I was happy to be inside the car. As they get more used to humans, they become more bold. Someone I know had a bear on her porch, looking in through a glass door. That, to me, is a little too close for comfort. In search of food, they will even break windows to get into a house, an amazing thing to view on the television.

I like Bear’s Paw quilt blocks and while I was telling you about the unusual quilt, I thought I’d share what little I know about bears, which in actuality, is barely nothing.

Patricia Cummings

Today, we left New Hampshire early in the morning and traveled to Vermont, where we picked up I 91 south to Massachusetts and then I 84 south through Connecticut to Waterbury, south of Hartford. The amount of snow still on the ground changed considerably as we headed south, until there was none in sight in the area we went. Migrating hawks were lined up in the bare trees, or were soaring, or were on the ground eating their kill. I must have seen thirty of them on the way down. Very late afternoon, as a passenger on the way back, found me studying the interior of my eyelids for awhile. I’m like a little kid. I often fall asleep in the car. Hmmm … or it is zzzzz?

The reason for our trip was to visit an exhibit of antique quilts at the Mattatuck Museum. The exhibit is called “Cover Stories” – Quilts and Bed Coverings from Regional Collections. The quilts will be in place until March 23, 2008.

Entering the building, we heard two ladies being buzzed in at another entrance. Their first question to whomever they encountered was “Where are the quilts?” They sounded like ladies with a mission. They entered the room and one of them headed right to a quilt, grabbed it in a bunch in her hand, within three inches of the prominent “Do Not Touch” sign. She reeled back in amazement and said, “Mercy me! Why ever would they have such a sign?” She dropped her hand.

I was busy enjoying the old quilts when I heard one of the ladies say, “Don’t they have any ‘good’ quilts, any “newer” ones? At that juncture, I wondered if they understood the word, “museum.”

Turning to one of these older gals, I asked if she is a quilter. She replied, “Heavens, no. I quilted years ago. Now, I can’t be bothered.”

It was obvious that neither of the pair knew a thing about what they were seeing and could make heads nor tales out of what the fuss was all about.

Here’s the rundown of what I remember. I think that anyone who loves quilt history would break a leg to get to this exhibit, but maybe those of us who love old quilts are odd ducks. Somehow, I don’t think so.

As one turned the corner, after first coming in the door, there was a blue and white quilt with both indigo and resist-printed fabrics. Next to that was the most stunning, blue, calimanco, glazed wool and linen quilt that is in the finest condition of any I’ve seen here in New England. The wool and flax were raised on the farm where the quilt originated.

Directly across from that was a (nine patch) Whig Rose quilt whose shapes were different from any I’ve ever seen. A quilt with squares of Chintz fabric, oddly set with alternate blocks, had a Chintz border of the same fabric. At the time this was made, I would imagine the fabric was expensive, to get that much of it.

Two Crazy Quilts hung side by side. Both were in excellent condition and truly representative of their genre and time period. There was a lot of surface decoration, including painted fabrics, Kate Greenaway designs, lots of floral motifs, stitches, and all that you would expect from fine example of this type of mid-1880s, non-quilt.

There was a Friendship quilt from 1861 and it was fun to study all the different fabrics that had been used in that. Another quilt was made of vertical rows of hexagons, with a name stenciled into the center hexagon, with brown ink.

A marvelous all-silk Lily quilt adorned a bed in the gallery, in colors of red, green and cream. It looked to be beautifully-quilted. There was a gorgeous Log Cabin quilt with 12 blocks across and 14 blocks down, all in silk, and in excellent condition. This would have been in the category of a “show quilt,” at the time it was made.

There were other Star quilts, pieced quilts, etc., each of them unique and a feat for their day, or any other day. I’m especially enamored of Crazy Quilts, so I lingered there for a long time. They were a visual feast.

Upstairs in the museum, there is a huge button collection on display. Waterbury used to have an active factory for making buttons, so that accounts for some of the mounted examples. Some parts of the museum are undergoing renovations, and the cafeteria and gift shop are both shut down right now. We did have a surprise, by taking the stairs to exit. There is a “pillar print” quilt for a four poster bed that is hanging in the location of the stairs landing. If you are not from New England, you would mistakenly call this quilt a “T” quilt or a “Cut out” quilt. Beware! We are watching!
Wonderful day! I recommend this exhibit! Thanks to my friend Carol for telling me about the exhibit. I am sorry to report that the quilt being “mauled” belong to “sue.” I am happy to say that it appeared “to be none the worse for wear.”

Patricia Cummings, http://www.quiltersmuse.com

If you haven’t noticed, politics begin in grade school. The most popular children are usually the most physically attractive, perhaps the most physically agile, the most intelligent, and often have every toy or advantage that money can buy. There are the children who stay home to help mom clean out the refrigerator, on their winter vacation, and others who visit Austria and do a little skiing.

For awhile, it seemed as though one multi-millionaire thought that he could buy the election. In this country, luckily, that is not how the system works. I have watched many television shows about the political scene this year, and must say that I have noticed, to a very great degree, how the media tends to sway public opinion. One way in which they do this is by revealing “surveys” conducted by this or that research group (of whom we’ve never heard before), or by commenting on “exit polls.”

As if they had a crystal ball, or a direct line into the brain waves of millions of Americans, the press “predicts” who will “take” this state or that one.

Campaigning for office is not a good choice for the weak of heart or those who lack determination. Have you noticed? Now that the field has narrowed even more, Democrats and Republicans alike are getting into more sniping of each other and are talking less and less about the issues.

I like to envision what political campaigning used to be like, when “stumping” actually meant standing on a stump, that was a little higher than the crowd, to give a speech. Perhaps it meant riding on a horse, to get from here to there, as did Abraham Lincoln, at least some of the time, if my memory of a PBS show a few years ago serves me.

One main campaign tool was the poster. Another common artifact from campaigns of the old days is the campaign button. Of course, old examples of those types of items are “collectible” today. Then again, there were political textile bandannas, today much sought after by collectors.

What did not exist was the constant bombardment of opinions via the air waves, and every news broadcast one turns on.

Has life improved or worsened? It’s hard to say. While it is interesting to listen to the pundits on television, I wonder if they are not swaying the voters far too much. I believe it is a fine line sometimes between reporting and trying to convince. Sometimes, it is not even what is said; but rather, the snarky way that the comment is made.

In a previous blog, at the very beginning of this primary season, I predicted that John McCain and Hillary Clinton would become the two main contenders for the presidency. In spite of the current train of thought in the news, I believe that I have predicted correctly. With baited breath, we shall just have to wait and see.

Patricia Cummings