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