quiltersmuse.com Blog

Background of the story:

When I was about five years old, my family moved to a brand new house that my father had ordered custom-built for us at the north end of Manchester, NH. The land around the house was not landscaped, when we arrived, and previously had been home to hundreds of toads. I decided to “collect them.” I asked my mother for a shoe box, something to hold water, and I set off to collect toads, turning over every rock, and capturing the unwitting little things. Of course, I had to find “bugs” to feed them, too.

Steve Grace at 7 years old, the year I was born.

I thought I was doing a pretty good job. However, one morning, I woke up and found that my big brother, Steve, who was 7 years older than me, had let loose the toads. I called him a “meanie” and set up a ruckus. He explained to me that one should not keep living things in captivity because wild things want to be free. I understood then.

Ever since, I have been thrilled to see toads, including the ones that hopped across the country roads between Deerfield, NH and Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, on summer nights. I’d spot them while driving my young son and my mother to Nature Programs at the Science Center there. Toads are attracted to hot asphalt, I believe.

Last week, we attended three consecutive nightly meetings and came home after dark. When the automatic light went on by the back door, there was a medium size toad sitting there, as if waiting for us to come home. Inspired by this sight, I went upstairs, grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and was in the process of writing what I thought was a lovely poem. I had only finished the first two stanzas, when Jim came in the room, looking over my shoulder.

I said, “No!” Good poetry must be read aloud!

Here is my poem, never finished, because his advice after hearing the preliminary lines was, “Don’t give up your day job!”

Ode to a Toad

There once was a toad
outside my abode
He hopped in the lamplight
abiding.

His heart was on fire
to muck through the mire
to find “lady love” there
residing.

See, this was a stroke of true genius, but now, neither you nor I will know what happened to Mr. Toad! Did he find true love? Or, wander endlessly seeking it? I leave the situation for you to ponder.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

Louise Traunstein has spent years learning all of the history she could find about a little town in New Hampshire called Groton. The town is “off the beaten path” so to speak. At one time, the founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, lived just down the road from the building that now houses the Groton Historical Society, a building that Louise herself donated to the town, as a former resident there.

We appreciate the fact that Louise is a regular reader of this blog and enjoys all the information offered here. From time to time, she has some great details of her own to add, and sends me personal letters.

After having just listened to the song I recorded this week, “Tenting on the Old Camp Ground,” and after having discussed the Salem Witch Trials with me, on the phone, Mrs. Traunstein sent the following note.

She says, “Here is what I wrote (for the GHS newsletter) about the Civil War Diary, of which we have copies.”

Mrs. Geraldine Dearborn Gould Chase (now deceased) gifted us with two copies of a diary written by Valorus Dearborn, a member of Co. A,
2nd Regiment, Massachusetts Calvary, while he was in the Civil War. His diary was small enough to fit in his shirt pocket and was with him when he was wounded on Sept. 12, 1864. He died in a hospital at Opequan Creek, Virginia on the 13th.

In 1637 she married at Ipswich, MA to Thomas Bradbury and removed with him to Salisbury. Mary Perkins Bradbury was one of those unfortunate people who, in the dark days of witchcraft delusion, was among the accused. She was convicted, but through the efforts of her family and friends, her execution was delayed, the horrid delusion passed away, and she was discharged. The papers connected with her trial, as well as those of the others who were some of the more unfortunate, have been preserved and are to be seen in the files in the Clerk of Courts Office in Salem, MA.

These were the two cases I spoke to you about concerning the Civil War and the Salem Witch Trials that had a connection to descendants of Groton residents. History is amazing.

—
Thanks for this note, Louise. History is, indeed, amazing, and not the boring subject that I used to think it was while memorizing battle plans in school. Before recent times, the full thrust of the teaching of history seems to have been about men. Women were in the background, pro-creating, and engaging in their seemingly non-important womanly things, while the hunters/soldiers/politicians all had a “greater” agenda, supposedly.

We have come to know that the study of the accomplishments of women is a worthwhile undertaking. Women are at least half of the population and deserve to be recognized. I would go so far as to say that women, inherently, have some superior qualities to men, as witnessed in my last post, See the quoted statement by Kimberly Wulfert, Ph.D.

More than ever, now is the time to celebrate Womanhood! To do so is not any sort of male-bashing. Rather it is a celebration of the best qualities of both genders.
My book about Ellen Webster has generated quite a few comments about the Salem Witch Trials, due to her mention of a quilt that had been used on the bed of Sarah Goode, the first woman hung as a witch. Reader comments led me to watch a recommended movie, “Three Sovereigns for Sarah,” already mentioned in a previous blog post.

Have a terrific day! I’ll keep writing, if you’ll keep reading. How is that for a deal?

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications – our main website

The year was 1768. Ruth Blay’s lips were sealed as to the paternity of her “Bastard child,” found dead under the floorboards of a barn. After being presumed guilty of murdering the babe, she was hung, one of only three women to have met such a fate in the state of New Hampshire. Her remains lay buried today in an unmarked grave.

Carolyn Marvin, a librarian at the Portsmouth Athenaeum, is the researcher and writer of this story. She shows exemplary scholarship in the re-creation of the details of the times (240 years ago), its societal sentiments, and the parameters of Ruth’s own life that led her to be sent to the gallows, protesting her innocence.

All the more captivating is the fact that a piece of wholecloth quilt is believed to have been made into a coverlet by Ruth for the use of her baby. In England, this act of laying up linens for the expected child would have prevented her from meeting the seemingly unwarranted death sentence for murder.

“It appears to have been quilted originally in the mid-1700s as a petticoat and later cut and re-seamed to serve as a coverlet.” (page 17).

Jane Nylander, textile specialist, book writer, and NHHS board member, helped to date and identify the textile in question. You will want to read the whole story!

This publication, which is sent out twice per year, is only one of the reasons why I enjoy being a member of the New Hampshire Historical Society. Other benefits include unlimited free admission to the Museum of NH History; free use of the Society’s library that holds extensive resources for genealogical research, and more; a 15% discount on all museum store purchases with a wide variety of products from which to choose; a quarterly newsletter; membership in the Time Travelers network, with free or reduced admission to more than 150 museums or historic sites, nationwide; invitations to programs; discounts or free admission to lectures and programs; and more.

This story about Ruth Blay was absolutely riveting. It has gripped my attention more than any other article ever published in Historical New Hampshire. Shown is the extant textile in question. True quilt scholars will want to see this article. Why not think about joining the New Hampshire Historical Society, most especially if you live in the area? Now is the time that museums need all the help we can give. I would say that the dollars spent in membership are well worth it. Let’s support these hard-working souls. As usual, another great job of editing was done by Donna-Belle Garvin.

View the New Hampshire Historical Society’s publications page.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

Many Hmong have converted to Christianity. This is a Hmong-made Christmas ornament, collection of Patricia Cummings.

I have just finished reading, The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang. While I enjoyed reading about Kao’s family’s experiences in America, I particularly appreciated the heartfelt sentiment of the last chapter. It describes, in great detail, her grandmother’s death and all of the traditional rituals associated with it. Her grandmother had already known over 250 grandchildren before she passed on (from a direct quote of the grandmother on page 259).

An excerpt:

My father and my uncles, Hmong sons, had asked for a man who was well taught in Hmong traditions to preside over the funeral. He had brought with him a selection of men, each specializing in a different part of the ceremony: the dressing of the body; the guiding of the soul to the next life; the beating of the drum of the dead; the playing of the qeej, a huge bamboo instrument played by men that carried the heart’s wishes for happy wedding, bountiful new years, and words to the dead. The man who would teach Grandma’s soul the way back to the place where she was born started chanting …

Hmong life in America is the another chapter in the history of a people who never had a real place to be. They were persecuted in China for centuries and were driven into the mountains where they learned to subsist by farming, using slash and burn methods, and moving about every ten years. I have found the study of the Hmong people, their rituals, their beliefs, their industry with the needle, and so many other parts of their culture, to be a moving (no pun intended) part of World History.

I hope that some of you will get a chance to pick up a copy of The Quilter magazine in July (it will have a September cover date). That issue has the 66th article I have written for a column called, “Pieces of the Past,” ongoing since 1999. It is the 2nd part of a two part series about the Hmong people and their textiles.

Even though those two Hmong articles are “put to bed,” I have continued my studies of the Hmong, and the book I just finished still leaves a pile more for me to read. I try to provide links to amazon for books that I like, and/or have in my own personal library. I will do the same this time. I love learning about other cultures! Today, I received a book about Australian Quilt History that is not available in this country. I have been waiting since the beginning of May for it, so it is most welcome. There has been a lot of quilting in the Land Down Under, something else to explore!

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

Within a day of posting information about the “Aunt Jemima” quilt shown on this blog a few days ago, I received word from several individuals about the “Aunt Jemima” quilt owned by the Chicago Institute of Art and made in the 1940s.

My description of the quilt is as follows:

“Aunt Jemima” is wearing a yellow bandanna and is smiling. The print fabric, which may be Feedsack cloth, repeats over the surface of the quilt. This quilt has more images of “Aunt Jemima” than the one previously shown.

The quilt blocks are set on point. The alternate blocks are “Nine Patch” units that are offered in polychromatic hues for a scrap bag effect. They appear to be mostly cotton print fabrics, or squares that “read” as solids, from a distance, although there may be some monochromatic surface designs, upon closer inspection.

Filling triangles, in solid Red, grace the perimeter to create straight edges for the center portion of the quilt. On the top and bottom edges, a border of the same Red color has been added before the quilter “framed the quilt” with a narrow White border and then added the final touch of a Black border.

This quilt appears to be heavily-quilted with purposeful lines that clearly would have taken the quilter a long time to (hand?) quilt.

The quilt has been on exhibit, and is published in Recycled and Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap, Charlene Cerny and Suzanne Seriff, editors, (New York: Harry N. Abrams. Inc. 1996).

Object information as to type of weaves in the fabrics used is available at the Chicago Art Institute’s website.

Thank you to those who brought this quilt to my attention. The quilt was the gift of Shelly Zegart.

Patricia Cummings, quilt historian, independent scholar, and member of the American Quilt Study Group

The Mancuso Brothers have sent through the following notice:

The international entries are in and juried. This year’s World Quilt Competition international entries have surpassed our expectations with the number of entries exceeding last year’s count. In addition, we are excited to announce the participation for the first time of quilters from IRELAND. We think you will be delighted to see their efforts.

We are also thrilled that U.S. entries are up from 2009. The entry deadline for U.S. entries has passed; these entries are currently being juried. If you entered, jury results will be mailed by July 8, 2009.

All of this will make for a SPECTACULAR 2009 World Quilt Competition.

The 2009 World Quilt Competition XIII will first be shown at the World Quilt Show – New England.

World Quilt Show – New England

Premier of the 2009 World Quilt Competition XIII

August 13-16, 2009

Manchester, New Hampshire (Radisson Hotel/Center of New Hampshire on Elm Street)

Workshop & Lecture Pre-Registration is OPEN

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Also, all international entries and selected U.S. winners of the 2009 World Quilt Competition XIII will tour to:

Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza XVI

Returning home to the Greater Philadelphia Area

September 17-20, 2009

Oaks (Valley Forge Area), Pennsylvania

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Pacific International Quilt Festival XVIII

October 15-18, 2009

Santa Clara (Bay Area), California

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World Quilt Show – Florida

Featuring the Grand Finale of the 2009 World Quilt Competition XIII

November 13-15, 2009 (Workshops start Nov. 12)

Palm Beach County Convention Center

West Palm Beach, Florida

We are thrilled that this show is coming to Manchester, New Hampshire again this year. We reviewed the show an article in The Quilter magazine (published in May 2007), and had a great time seeing quilts from all over the world, and the level of expertise exhibited. It was fun to choose our favorite quilts and write descriptive analyses of why we liked them. This is a great show. Mark your calendars, now!

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

Tonight, I learned more about banjos than I would have ever considered possible. Eric Bye of Vermont presented a program about 19th century music, with a focus on banjos. An amazing fact is that later in that century, banjos were made in such a way as to simulate other instruments, and there was the phenomena of “banjo orchestras,” with one banjo sounding like a piccolo; another (called a banjatar) had six strings, like a guitar, etc.; and all banjos were made in different sizes. The banjo went from having four strings to having five strings, over time.

Eric played a minstrel tune called “Circus Jig” to start off the program. With only one song, did he accompany himself with voice, although he has a very pleasant voice! He gave a wonderful overview of banjo music throughout the nineteenth century, and used two banjos, including one that he made himself, throughout the concert. The humidity was affecting his banjos a great deal and causing them to be out of tune, so he would stop and re-tune them.

Eric Bye, playing the banjo in Bristol, New Hampshire on June 25, 2009

One cannot fully appreciate American music without knowing what was happening at the time. Eric Bye filled in a lot of historical details. He remarked about the number of songs that came out of the Civil War period. He played a song from that era called, “Tenting on the Old Camp Ground,” on a boombox that he’d brought with him. The song, for which the New Hampshire Historical Society possesses an original copy of the sheet music, as seen in a recent exhibit, was written by Walter Kittredge, a New Hampshire resident. The sentimental tune was made famous by the Hutchinson Family Singers of Milford, NH. A live rendition of the song was shared by Steve Blunt, a presenter in this lecture series, whom we had the pleasure to hear a few weeks ago, and about whom we also wrote a blog entry.

The banjo and the fiddle once were considered “the devil’s instruments.” The banjo was mainly used by African-Americans on the plantation before being taken over as a preferred instrument of minstrel shows. The presenter explained that by the end of the century, and beyond, mainly people with money were playing the banjo, quite a transition.

This combination history lesson and concert was fascinating. I will say no more so as not to “give away” the whole program. Suffice it to say that it is understandable why Eric Bye has been invited back to give his presentations since 1990 in Vermont for their Humanities Council programs, and for the last five years in New Hampshire. In his real life work, he is a linguist/translator who is fluent in French, Spanish, and German. He has translated more than 100 books, primarily non-fiction and scientific titles. It appears that he brings a passion to his work and to his “play.”

We certainly enjoyed every part of tonight, except the heat and humidity over which no one had any control. This has been a fun week. We have gone to three of these programs on consecutive nights, and in diverse parts of the state of New Hampshire. We are blessed to live in the Granite State (“where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and the children are above-average!”). Even though we are pretty selective, we do let Vermonters visit us, now and again!

Thanks to the organizations in Bristol, and the NH Humanities Council, for sponsoring this event. Most of all, thanks to Eric Bye for a wonderful program!

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

This week, I received the following note from a reader:

I’ve recently acquired a quilt I hope you can help me to date. Every other block is an Aunt Jemima pancake flour sack. The alternating blocks are of a solid color with a wreath design sewn it. Some of the designs are a bit lopsided. The stitches are small and neat and are done in red thread. The quilt came from an estate sale in East Texas. I’ve done some research and gather that sack material has a long history going up to the 1950s. This quilt is unusual enough that I am thinking of donating it to a museum in San Antonio that I believe still maintains a collection of Folk Art needlework. I’d be happy to provide a picture, if you are interested.

Of course we were interested in seeing a photo.

The feedsack quilt, in question.

My response:

I have never seen this design before. It is curious that there are so many identical flour sack pieces. The person who made this must have collected the sacks for a long time, or had a large family to use that amount of flour!

The “Aunt Jemima” image was rooted in minstrel shows, first appearing in 1875. She is, of course, yet another manifestation of a caricature that depicts someone who is African-American. Some people might interpret these quilt images as “benign,” but others would be angry in seeing this and call it an example of stereotyping and bigotry. There is no way to know what was in the mind of the original quiltmaker, nor if she was Black, herself. No matter how anyone views it, you are right, it is a piece of American folk art and one well-worth preserving. A museum placement seems appropriate. This is a very special item.

I would suggest that you donate it to the Jim Crow Museum on the campus of Ferris State University. Dr. David Pilgrim, professor of Sociology, has collected more than 5,000 artifacts related to Black Memorabilia, Culture, and Discrimination.

You can hear a talk by Dr. Pilgrim on YouTube.

The evolution of the Aunt Jemima image and use in selling various products is a fascinating story. A full account can be found in the following book:

If anyone has direct information about this feedsack cloth, please write to me at: pat@quiltersmuse.com
Thanks.

Additional links of interest:

Mammy Quilts and Black Memorabilia

Collectible Feedsack Cloth: The Past Revisited

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

Martin Fox, professor of Art History at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, captivated a small but very interested group of listeners last night with his descriptions of the origins of Photography. With projected images to illustrate the roots of the technique, Fox highlighted the people who first used the simple principle that light travels along straight lines and can be used to project images on a wall, albeit upside down. He showed how a portable camera obscura, an antecedent of the modern camera, may have influenced the Dutch artist, Jan Vermeer, in “Young Woman with a Water Jug,” a painting with photographic qualities, rendered circa 1660-1662.

Throughout the 19th century, chemistry played a large role in developing various ways of printing images. Louis Daguerre, father of the Daguerrotype, is a pivotal figure in the History of Photography. In exchange for a lifelong pension, he allowed France to share his methods with the world. Daguerrotypes are usually small, 2 or 3″ big, and no larger than 8 or 9 inches. They are saved under glass to prevent fading, and most often have an elaborate copper frame. These are highly-collectible today, and some have been known to sell for $100,000. Each is a one-of-a-kind object.

Due to Daguerre’s processes being freely-shared, work with Daguerrotype images was more common than the Calotype processes of William Henry Fox Talbot who produced “Calotypes,” but also patented his method, making them more exclusive.

We were treated to a view of the first man whose ever photo was taken, inadvertently, as he stood in one spot for a long time on the streets of Paris, getting a shoe shine. He was there long enough for the photo process to work. Early picture-taking often took 5 to 15 minutes.

This is a simple overview. There is much more to the lecture and the topic, of course! We, obviously, have a great deal of interest in photography, as did the people who attended the talk. I was very surprised to see a photo image of Annie Fields, a woman who was Sarah Orne Jewett’s intimate associate for 30 years. She, too, was very beautiful! Just last week, I had just written about Sarah Orne Jewett and her residence in Maine, in a blog post.

This presentation by Martin Fox covers the many nineteenth century methods of translating images onto paper, as well as the relationship between good composition in both art and photography. We highly recommend this lecture that was presented in collaboration with the New Hampshire Humanities Council lecture series. As always, we welcome every opportunity to learn. Many thanks to the library in Greenland, New Hampshire for co-sponsoring this event.

One of the nicest books about photography in our collection is called, Dressed for the Photographer: Ordinary Americans & Fashion, 1840-1900 by Joan Severa.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

Tonight we attended a concert in Chatham, New Hampshire, pronounced “Chat-ham,” if you please. The featured artists were Mac McHale and Emery Hutchins. For the past five years the duo has produced programs for the New Hampshire Humanities Council series. They have been friends for 33 years, and musical partners for 31 years. There is no shortage of talent between them. Each plays a variety of instruments from guitar and octave mandolin to concertina, banjo and an Irish drum (a bodhran).

Emery Hutchins and Mac McHale on June 23, 2009 in the Meetinghouse at Chatham, NH for a night of “Irish Music.”

From Irish jigs, reels and ballads, the musicians departed to the genres of Bluegrass, Jazz, a little bit of Gospel, and American Folk Music. Their goal is “to demonstrate how American music is an amalgamation of musical styles,” as stated inside their CD cover, “Road to Bangor.”

The audience was engaged by being asked to clap on cue, sing along, or even holler out “yee-haw,” if the urge struck. This was no straight-laced program, although it was educational. Each song was introduced with a little bit of background as to who wrote it, made it famous, or from whence it came.

I guess I must have had too many pre-conceived notions about what tonight’s music would be. The only song I recognized as Irish, (and I am of Irish descent), was “Wild Rover.” The two men performed with the Clancy Brothers for 15 years, and many more Irish tunes appear on the two CDs we purchased. Other CD titles are available. The two have been prolific in learning traditional songs and writing some of their own. They have a web presence where their music CDs can be ordered.

Memorable songs played by Mac and Emery tonight were “Stewball,” “Blackbirds and Thrushes,” “No Vacancy,” “Just Because,” “Pistol-Packing Mama,” and an instrumental finale of the “Orange Blossom Special.” Of course, many other songs were played as well, including one request for “Rockin’ Alone in an Old Rocking Chair.”

On the long way home, we listened to the two of their CDs. I enjoyed hearing songs I’d heard in my childhood like, “Whiskey in the Jar,” “Brennan on the Moor,” and “Mountain Tea,” favorites of Burl Ives. Besides the one mentioned already, the other CD we had purchased is called, “Two Old Friends: Reunion.”

There is a single-spaced, two page list of scheduled engagements where these fine musicians will be playing in Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire, and they have bookings until September 2010.

The meeting was opened with announcements from the vice-president of the Chatham Historical Society who also led the group in the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. The Historical Society, co-sponsor of this event, has a building that is open to the public every Wednesday from 1-4:30 p.m. this summer.

The townspeople were friendly and served home-baked goodies and tropical punch as a treat, after the concert. We had never been to the town with a population of 260 people. of which 30 were present at this event. To reach the town, we had to drive to N. Conway and then up to Fryeburg, Maine, and then travel the winding back country roads of Rte. 113, past many potato farms, cemeteries, and a few churches. Eventually, we circled back into New Hampshire. There is no direct route to this town and if weren’t for this concert, we would have had no reason to go there!

Jim and I were certainly happy that we went out of our way to attend this event, and we recommend these performers for their good-natured kidding of each other, their stories, and their music. They quipped that the Meetinghouse is one of the few places they have ever played that has both an outhouse and a fax machine!

This presentation is another winner in the New Hampshire Humanities Council series, the sixth program we have attended this summer. This evening was a real treat. Thanks to all who were a part of its planning.

SCENES AROUND TOWN

Small potato farm in Chatham

Church across the street from the Meetinghouse

Cemetery in Chatham, NH

All photos courtesy of James Cummings.

See a man playing a bodhran on You Tube.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications