quiltersmuse.com Blog

Unless you are a writer, or unless you keep a diary, or write lots of letters that someone keeps, no one will tell your life or your thoughts from your perspective, once you are gone. Your life will be a guessing game to anyone who tries to reconstruct something other than the obvious facts such as vital statistics.

Life is ever changing. Oh, how we value the words of Lowell Mill Girl, Lucy Larcom! Oh, how we treasure the penned lines of poetry written by Robert Frost! Oh, how we cling to the short but memorable quote of FDR. (”We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”) How we easily call to mind quotes that rendered meaning at the time, but also have universal meaning.

Words increase in value. They share insight into the workings of the human soul. Words reflect who we are. Words are memory devices, helping people to remember those who are no longer here; those who cannot speak for themselves. Words share a collective knowledge of how to do things.

Moreover, words tell us what not to do. They provide life lessons from those who have survived until now. Words provide wisdom. Although words are common, they are necessary, and it is only the most introspective person who is taciturn, and parsimonious with his words.

While you are still above ground, it is a good idea to share “encouraging words” with others. You may have had a rift with a son or daughter, and egos being what they are, perhaps it will take you to rise above the situation and just let love prevail. This sentiment has been voiced in the past: a kind word turneth away much scorn.

Words: we take them for granted. They can either soothe or incite, teach or belittle, be memorable or be blown away on a breeze.

Of course, one of the most important pieces of writing involves little more than your name, and that is a legal set of papers called Advance Directives. If you can no longer speak for yourself, due to a serious and irreversible, life threatening, medical condition, the paperwork will instruct your doctors to not begin artificial means of keeping you alive. Of course, we all hope that such a situation would not arise. Life is fragile and we never know what is coming next!

I urge you to write down some words about your life and about thoughts and experiences you’ve had during your earthly sojourn. In the future, someone will want to know what it was like to live in the year 2008. Only you can report that information because only you possesses a unique vision of the subject from a personal perspective.

One of the papers I most enjoy was scrawled in pencil by my mother’s grandfather. He wrote to her from Georgia after she’d just moved “up north,” with her family, at the age of five, in 1918. The most endearing part was the greeting: “Dear Weencsy Scrap,” his nickname for her because she was a frail child. Today, it matters not that he was semi-literate. The message was written with love and I am sure that my mother enjoyed the attention from her dear old grandpa whom she never saw again.

Yes, words count. Of course, the most important words in any language are, “I love you.”

Have a super day! Spring is here in northern New England and the flowers are blooming!

Patricia Cummings

Beautiful Mosaic Rose Quilt, made in 1881, by Louise Henry McHaney (1821-1905).

When I was sent this photo by Lenn B. Jackson, I could not help but appreciate the 12,772, 5/8th inch pieces that her great, great grandmother sewed into this quilt. She found the pattern to make the quilt at the 1884 Cotton Exposition in New Orleans.

I had written an article for The Quilter magazine in 2002, that discussed a piece of (severed) Crazy Quilt with its silk commemorative ribbon that features the image of President Grover Cleveland. The article was the first that Ms. Jackson knew of my work, she claims.

Close-up view of the Mosaic Rose Quilt

The documentation sheet that she forwarded to me states that the colors of the quilt are brown, for the background, blue, green, pink, red, and yellow. The quilter assembled the quilt in squares, using 625,828 stitches (as counted by her husband), and 178,808 hand quilting stitches, worked diagonally. That Victorian time in which the quilt was made was one of more pieces and more stitches, the better.

Here is the quilt, draped over a dining room table.

The quilt took twelve months and twelve days to complete, and was displayed at Marshall Fields in Chicago, and at the St. Louis World’s Fair.

The brown fabrics are showing some deterioration. Many of the brown dyes of the day were mordanted with iron, and that is, no doubt, the problem. Unfortunately, there is no way to reverse the effect.

The overall size of the quilt is 76 1/4″ x 85 1/4″ – in other words, twin size, and it is 100% cotton with a solid brown cotton backing.

We thank Ms. Jackson for sending this information. We sure do love to see the photos that are frequently sent to us by our readers. This is the second mosaic quilt we have seen in a year. If anyone knows of any other ones, please let us know.

Patricia Cummings

Last winter, I sought permission to visit the Harvey Homestead/Musterfield Farm Museum to learn about its history and to see the quilt collection. The result? In the next issue of The Quilter magazine dated “July 2008″ but destined to be available in a few weeks, you will see all of the lovely antique quilts from circa 1800 to the Victorian Age of the late nineteenth century.

We are thrilled to bring your attention to this lovely farm and wonderful quilts. If you are a subscriber, you will receive your magazine with no extra effort on your part. If you are not a subscriber yet, you should be, if you love quilt history.

We have already prepared articles that will run through the end of the year. This is not an advertisement, just a nudge. If you are “smart,” you will make sure that you don’t miss any issue because after reading the articles, I guarantee you that you’ll know more than you do now.

The Musterfield Farm article has five pages and many photos. I think you’ll enjoy it. I know that the article was a joy for me to write, and the quilts are not put on display, so here’s your chance to see them!

Patricia Cummings

This morning, I woke up thinking about why I love to write. I will take a topic that I know something about, and by the time I’ve done more research, I know a whole lot more. New details pop up, at every turn, and I go running to books in my library or elsewhere to find answers to obscure questions that might be of no interest to others but please my inquiring mind.

Recently, I announced that I am “into” minutia. That is, I want to know all those itsy bitsy points of knowledge, even if they never show up in any of my writings. Writing is a good mental exercise and is probably helps “brain plasticity,” a topic that has been discussed on a recent PBS show. To explain the concept briefly, as aging occurs, brains that are not regularly exercised will begin to atrophy. Writing is one way to stimulate and challenge the brain. Crossword puzzles serve the same purpose and are recommended.

I have come to the conclusion that one cannot be an excellent writer while still very young. Poets and writers who have had more life experiences generally do better at expressing their thoughts in an insightful way. They have had more time to not only learn about their subject area, but they have also passed through the fires and trials of life itself.

When I was a small child, family members wrote letters. Today, we usually just e-mail. That is a faster way to communicate, but those e-letters are deleted at the push of a button and disappear forever. I am happy to still be able to read letters that my mother’s grandfather wrote to her, and so many other old letters that have left a footprint in time. To see the handwriting of my forebears has been a happy experience.

Yes, writing is a wonderful venue, and research is fun, especially if you love finding new twists and turns around every bend. What better way to collect information and then share it in a potentially lasting way? In writing about a topic such as quilting, why, who could ask for more? The lure of writing is compelling!

Have a great day!

Patricia Cummings

If you visit an art museum, you will achieve a sense of the kind of art work that was worthy to be saved. If you visit a museum with a quilt collection, you will see quilts that were chosen to be retained in a permanent collection.

Quilting has always been a “copy art.” For that reason, we have a zillion “Log Cabin” quilts. Many other standard, published, quilt block names include a string of additional, acquired names, from print publications.

In the 1990s, decided “camps” of quilters were established: those whose quilts were exact replicas of those published in books and patterns; and those who copied the great masters, in the world of fine art. Yet other quilters who attempt to utilize only their original designs. Occasionally, drawing the line between who is an art quilter and who is a traditional quilter is difficult. Some quilters are versatile and engage in both types of quilting.

For the masses, who are not designers, and do not want to learn the skills to be one, “copying” means that they can create attractive quilts whose designs have been generated by a professional. Without worrying about color or fabric choices, a quilter is able to concentrate on achieving proficiency in craftsmanship. In Japan, students of needlework and quilting follow a “master,” as anyone could tell you who has ever attended classes in Japanese embroidery at Calloway Gardens in Georgia.

We all want to make pleasing quilts so, again and again, like water running downstream, we turn to quilters and artists of the past for inspiration. One of the most compelling quilts I have seen, in recent years, was a blue and white, award winning quilt made by Linda Franz, when it was on display at the Vermont Quilt Festival. Is the design totally original? No! It is based on a quilt made by England’s famous novelist and quilter, Jane Austen.

Likewise, the Civil War quilt made by Jane Stickle in Vermont, has achieved fame as a result of the work of a professional in the quilt world: Brenda Papadakis, with her Dear Jane book. We have seen and been amazed by the original quilt that is held in the Bennington Museum in VT. Hundreds of quilters have rushed to replicate the tiny blocks.

Is there a stigma to revisiting and making patterns that have historical meaning, for one reason or another? I think not. There is not more value in being an “art quilter,” than in choosing to be a “traditional quilter.” The future is now and relies on innovation, but our roots are in the past. I believe we can successfully honor all quilts, and choose for ourselves the types of quilts we wish to make and the methods we like the best.

Patricia Cummings, Quilter’s Muse Publications and Virtual Museum