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Online since 2002. Patricia and James Cummings, Quilter's Muse Publications, Concord, NH.

Hidden Messages of a 1930s/1940s Era Quilt

by Patricia Lynne Grace Cummings

photos by James Cummings

 

Doll bed quilt made by Patricia Cummings from selvaged pieces of fabric.
photo by James Cummings

On a summer day, a few years ago, I was in an old barn where a huge flea market was set up. After looking at table after table of small glassware, trinkets, and other discards of the past, I was becoming a bit discouraged that I would find any old textiles. Suddenly, my husband approached and asked if I had checked out an old quilt in the back. As it turned out, there were two items of interest, a finished quilt and a 1930s Strippy quilt top.

Sure I wanted them! I "grabbed them up" and brought them to the check out counter. The two bemused ladies, who were in charge of collecting the money, were completely intrigued as to why anyone would want those “old things.” They were considering the condition of one quilt, in particular. With all those blood stains, why would anyone care to buy it? What would anyone do with it? Surely, not place it on a bed to use.

Price Was Right

The answer to that query did not come clear, even to me, until much later. The price had been right, at $15.00, and apparently, I could see the “possibilities.” As with every quilt of the scrap bag variety, there is a wealth of textile information worth preserving. If the quilt is antique, they don’t make the fabrics any longer. Reproduction fabrics are available, but let’s face it, they are not the real McCoy!

I knew that I would want to wash the quilt. That idea was a given. Not wanting to cause further distress to the fibers of the top layer, I decided to disassemble the quilt layers before washing. I was thankful that it had been tied, which made this process very easy. After removing all the deep colored pink embroidery floss ties, I started to unpick all of the stitches of the edge which had been formed by turning back to front.

Quilters jokingly call this process “reverse stitching.” To my total amazement, under one of the edges, the word, “Hello” was written in what at first appeared to be handwritten cursive script. For a flashing moment, I had the strange feeling that the quilt maker was speaking to me from the grave, and that she knew exactly what I was doing to her quilt.

Word Messages on Fabric

Upon looking at some of the other squares, I could see other “word” messages and quickly realized that these were actually part of a printed fabric. “Hello,” "Bon Voyage.” Somehow, seeing the words made me feel connected to the quilt maker. Suddenly, it was not an anonymous textile with blood stains that had perhaps comforted a child or war victim in trial or in illness, but rather it was an artifact from a real person, just like me, someone who had lived, who had loved, and who had said the words, “hello, good-bye, I love you, Bon Voyage!”

Orvus Soap

Determined to save the quilt in a way that it could be enjoyed by others, my plan was to take apart all of the squares, re-size them and reassemble the piece. First, I washed the top and the backing, in intact pieces, using a safe textile soap that completely washes out.

One tablespoon of Orvus dissolved  in a bathtub of water is plenty because of this soap’s sudsing action. Most often, I avoid wet washing of old textiles. There is always the possibility that unstable dyes will run and there are compelling reasons as to why it is better to use other conservation cleaning methods.

In this instance, I wanted to feel as though the quilt was somewhat decontaminated from harmful spores. Detaching the squares from each other, those which were stained were discarded. There were enough repeats of the same fabrics so I was not compromising any fabric study of the quilt by keeping only the squares in good condition.

Washing Quilt:  An Improvement

After washing, the old fabrics felt very soft to the touch. This quilt had served a strictly utilitarian purpose in its lifetime, a time far removed from the Art Quilt fad of today’s modern world. In its role, the quilt had seen much washing which was evident by the amount of surface fading. In the seams that had been hidden from light and exposure to washing agents, over many years, the fabrics are much brighter and closer to their original condition.

Blanket as Filler

The small, square, culled blocks of fabric were trimmed so that the former ragged, uneven edges, and holes left from tying and from sewing them together, were removed to make the units easier to reassemble into their new form: a doll bed quilt. The square block format of each piece was maintained in the much smaller version of the original twin size quilt. The tattered blanket that had been used for batting in this quilt was not worth saving.

   

Stylized Rooster. photo  James Cummings

Fabrics a Delight

The typical 1930s/40s array of cheerful pastel colors marched across the quilt in a delightful mix of prints. There are red and white polka dots, green ginghams with an overlay rickrack design, small and medium scale floral designs, geometric prints with squares, and many other printed fabrics well worth salvaging. Most of these unique cotton print designs, I have never seen before. Indeed, some fabrics look like pieces of recycled feedsack bags, sometimes referred to as “chicken linen.” This would not be unlikely, since the quilt was collected in a New Hampshire farming community.

                           

Charming couple. photo James Cummings

Conversational Prints a Favorite

The conversational prints are what I like best about the salvaged pieces of cloth. There is one square that has an old couple, as seen from behind, sitting on a park bench. There is a highly stylized art deco type butterfly. There is an anchor with a little sailor man, reminiscent of cartoon figures of that era. A birdcage, reminiscent of Victorian times, and a rooster, depicted in a strikingly different rendering of simulated brush strokes, add charm to the quilt’s surface.

                               

Butterfly in green and turquoise. photo James Cummings.

Every quilt has a story to tell. As we look at quilted “pieces of the past,” we can only surmise the maker's intentions. In this case, most likely the quilt was not planned to be a work of art, yet it was artistic in its own way. The quilter would never have imagined that her comforter would still be in existence sixty or more years after she had created it. One wonders for whom it was made or used and also, why the quilter used that haunting fabric with word messages. We can only hope that the quilt provided comfort for someone who was very ill.

Miniature Quilt Made to Save Fabrics

Today, the miniature quilt that resulted from saving some of the pieces of a former bed quilt are serving another purpose. As we study the variety of prints, the new quilt still shares many messages about the quiltmaker’s choice of fabric, in addition to the availability of yard goods for her to purchase at that time. The quilt speaks to us of hard times when folks simply had to “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”

One cannot help but be intrigued with old quilts. We have questions and we wonder about their provenance, but for quilts collected “out of context“ and without even the name of the quiltmaker, most likely, no answers will ever come. The compelling “words” which appear on the surface of the quilt, including
“Hello,” and “Bon Voyage,” were shocking to discover. However, the most compelling unseen message of this quilt is the same one that is inherent in every quilt:

"I lived, I loved, and please, please “remember me.”

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©Copyright 2002-2009, Patricia L. Cummings and James Cummings, Quilter's Muse Publications, http://www.quiltersmuse.com, Concord, NH. Write to:  pat@quiltersmuse.com for more information.