quiltersmuse.com Blog

Beth Davis spends her weekends demonstrating the art of quilting, with a hexagon project of her own, off to the side, to show visitors.

Beth Davis of Rush, New York, is an avid quilt history enthusiast and quilt appraiser. She wrote a book, Stitches in Time, about the quilts owned by the Genesee Country Village Museum, where she has served as a volunteer for years.

Since the museum re-opened for the summer and fall season 2009, Beth has been greeting visitors and discussing quilting with them. Many who visit the historic house, where she sits and quilts, remember a grandmother or aunt as enjoying quilting and then, there is an instant rapport.

Beth in her period attire. The quilt on the bed is a reproduction quilt in a “Strippy Quilt/ Flying Geese” style, one of two of this type in the museum’s collection.

Dressed in simulated 1836 attire, Beth wears a Colonial cap while indoors, and points out that at that time, a lady would have worn a straw hat outdoors. The pink drape called a “pelease” (sp?) is just the right touch to wear with the full length, full style, paisley, cotton dress.

Beth is quite slim and would like her friends to know that she has not suddenly gained a lot of weight. She is actually wearing layers of clothing under the museum-owned dress!

The Foster-Tufts home is a lovely old Federal style home built by a wheat farmer who moved to the area and had eight children. The family occupied a log cabin for a decade before moving into more stately surrounds.

The Foster-Tufts historic home is where one can find Beth every Saturday and Sunday and holiday, between 10 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Copies of Beth’s book are available through the museum store.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

I have never heard of a mouse wake, or a mouse funeral, except perhaps for a domesticated mouse owned by a little girl, as a pet. I guess the difference between a mouse passing on and a man dying is the measure of their respective worth in the world. When an “important” political leader dies, there is much to do, with long lines of limousines, 21 gun salutes, lying in state, and much fanfare. When an ordinary human dies, he or she is picked up by the undertaker, shuffled into a body bag, and whisked away to be buried or cremated. A mouse just dies, sinking into the earth, eventually, wherever he falls, if he doesn’t become a cat’s lunch, first.

Men make everything so complicated, and often, choices revolve around money. In order to save money, an old man I once knew had his wife cremated. He kept Charlotte in a box at the top of his cellar stairs so that he would remember her, at least when he was going down there. However, he was always afraid of somehow kicking the box down the stairs, scattering her ashes on the cellar floor. A good day was when this did not happen. “How are you doing, Carl?” reaped the answer, “Good day! Didn’t kick Charlotte down the stairs!”

Mice seem to be uncomplicated creatures. They seek food, shelter, and the chance to pro-create, and the latter activity they do with aplomb! As far as I know, there are no mouse cemeteries, no “perpetual care,” (a term I find to be a bit odd), and I have never heard of mice fighting over their parents’ home, or stash of goodies they had acquired during lifetime. I like it! Give me simple, any day.

There are no gravestones that are shaped like the greatest mouse of all time: Mickey Mouse, or his wife, Minnie Mouse. No mouse mausoleums, either. Is there a mouse pecking order? Or, do they live such solitary lives that hierarchies are not even part of the equation?

In many a New England town, there is a statue dedicated to some important figure. “Important” often translates into this: “their legacy was in leaving enough money so that a huge monument to themselves could be built” – the ultimate in “You will remember me.” On the other hand, we honor soldiers, sanctified by the blood of battle, no matter what other earthly transgressions were part of their former repertoire of behavior. On the State House lawn, we have statues to notables in New Hampshire history – Franklin Pierce, Daniel Webster …

I ask one question – Is one life more significant than another? We are all flesh and blood, sweat and sinew. Is having money, or more material goods, or more popularity than others, the key to heaven? I have been taught not. The Bible states that it is more difficult for a rich man to enter the gates of heaven than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.

Death is the leveling factor for us all. We cannot avoid it. We cannot prevent it. There is no pill that will make us live forever. In the meantime, we live with all the faith we can muster, believing that there must be something beyond our present circumstances. Hmmm … I wonder if there are mice … in heaven.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

Edie Clark, long time writer for Yankee Magazine, gave a wonderful talk about New England foods tonight. The lecture was sponsored by the NH Humanities Council and the meeting in the Congregational Church Hall in Hopkinton, New Hampshire attracted many people. She discussed Fanny Farmer and her famous cooking school in Boston; Julia Child of PBS fame and author of books about French cooking; and Hayden Pearson, an early New Hampshire writer of cookbooks. We thoroughly enjoyed hearing about typical New England dishes, and at least one of them was new to me: the fish, Shad. These series of lectures are free to the public and very worthwhile.

Jim’s baked beans and brown bread, typical New England fare.

On the way home, we saw tiny goslings with their two Canadian Geese parents, finding food on a Hopkinton lawn.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

Have you ever heard of a sailors’ Valentine? I knew nothing of this old tradition until I found this letter in my mailbox this morning.

Dear Pat,

I saw your article on the Sweetheart Pillows. My dad was in the Navy and I have a few put away in a cedar chest. I don’t think my mom ever used them. They are very interesting. What’s even more ironic is that I make sailor valentines. If you don’t know what they are, just do a search on them and you will see that the concept was very similar. Except these were octagonal boxes made of seashells. The whalers would bring these home for their sweetheart after being away for almost two years.

Kathy

Immediately, I went to eBay, and one seller, “bouvard15,” from the United Kingdom, is offering a Sailors’ Valentine that was made circa 1860, in Barbados. He notes that it is a “double.” You will understand what that means when you view the photo. This is a beautiful example! There is a heart on one side, and the words, “Remember Me,” on the other side. Boxes like this one are hinged and can be closed for safe transport and to keep the shells clean. I think that the picture says much more than I could. This is auction #200341855951.

Circa 1860 Sailors’ Valentine made in Barbados, photo courtesy of “bouvard15.” Click here to go to this auction.

Oh, my! I keyed in the words “sailors’ valentines” in a Google search and came up with 542,000 entries. Who knew?

The first site I visited was that of Lynda Susan Hennigan, a contemporary artist. Her work has been exhibited widely and she has been written about by the media. In the short history provided on her site, Lynda states that octagonal wooden boxes, made of Spanish cedar (cedrella), were decorated with shells.

According to Shannon Webster, a pair of brothers hired children to make these boxes which were sold in Barbados, a West Indies island, between 1830 and 1860, to English and American sailors. Upon returning home, these decorative boxes were presented to girlfriends or wives. Antique examples, when found, are now highly-prized and collected by individuals and museums, (sometimes whaling museums).

Due to their high prices, some artists today make their own, and it seems that this is a thriving craft, if the Internet is any indication.

The photo above shows just one of the lovely boxes created by contemporary artist, Gregg Roberts.

Gregg Roberts uses Honduran mahogany to create his Sailors Valentines. He sometimes does museum restoration work, and he teaches classes in the Spring and Autumn. He is willing to do commission work. He maintains a small museum (in Cape Cod, Massachusetts) that he opens to visitors, by appointment only. For more information about his work, please contact Gregg Roberts or visit his website.

One site, Sailors Valentines, sells supplies and well as finished boxes. One could spend a whole day, just enjoying the various sites dedicated to this work! There are many listings on eBay for supplies to make new examples of this item. Amazing!

Books about Seashells, shells for sale, examples of finished Sailors’ Valentine boxes, and the booklet, “How To Make A Sailors Valentine,” are available at www.seashells.com.

A DVD video on the subject of Sailors Valentines, by Bill Jordan, is for sale.

Kits for making a sailors’ valentine are sold here.

Hope you have enjoyed this file!

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

Commonly heard phrases are: “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade,” and “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” If you lived during the Great Depression, you would have heard, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”

We all have to respond somehow to the circumstances of life and make the best of what we do have, treasuring the people and material things in our lives that make us the most happy, and tolerating other necessary but annoying situations.

This is a view of just a portion of an old patchwork quilt in the Lewis Family Collection.

I just received a letter from a dear friend, Louise Traunstein. She has shared with me the words of Olive Woodward MacDonald, Louise’s late husband’s childhood sweetheart. She had become friends with Olive and her penpal correspondent, after returning a photo of Olive to her, that was taken at a much earlier time. Olive died on Dec. 10, 2005, but meanwhile, had sent to Louise the following lines, that she had written in 1978. Olive had many losses and heartaches during her lifetime. Her words are worth remembering.

Life’s Quilt

Our memories hold in life much that is sad, discouraging and difficult
but also much that is happy, hopeful and fulfilling.
Each memory is a patch in Life’s Quilt.
The light squares are the happy and the dark represent the sad.
So we just have to rest under it as a whole
and we will be warm and comfortable
and taken altogether it won’t be too heavy.

Thanks to Louise for sharing these thoughts. We are reminded again not to become too burdened by the world and its issues. Who cannot help but think happy thoughts, if we consider the elements of Life as just part of a patchwork quilt?

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications