Quilts Part 4

Notice the maple leaf inserted in the border. Colours: red and green]

"A very effective quilt in quite a different style is made in applied work on unbleached cotton sheeting. A pattern of yellow fruit or flower with leaves is cut out in coloured serges sewn on with crewels in b.u.t.tonhole st.i.tch; stems, veins, and buds being also worked in crewels, and the ground slightly darned in dim yellow crewel. It is elaborate, but a very pleasant and repaying piece of work.

"Many beautiful old quilts are made of silk and satin embroidered in pure silks or in gold and silver twist. Most of the best specimens are from France and Italy, where from the arrangement of the houses the beds have continued to be more _en evidence_ than has been the case in England for the last two centuries. Many also are of Indian origin; the ground of these is sometimes of fine soft silk and sometimes of thick muslin, over which the pattern is worked in silk. Others, though of Indian workmanship, show a European influence, of which the most curious are those worked at Goa, under Portuguese dominion in the seventeenth century."

CHAPTER IV

THE QUILT IN AMERICA

The date of the quilt's advent into America is unknown, and--because of the lack of knowledge concerning the house furnishings of the early colonists--can never be positively determined. Quilts were in such general use and were considered as such ordinary articles that the early writers about family life in the colonies neglected to mention them. We do know, however, that quilted garments, bedspreads, curtains, and the like were very essential to the comfort and well-being of the original settlers along the Atlantic seaboard.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PEONIES

About 75 years old. Made for exhibition at state fairs in the Middle West. Colours: red, green, and yellow]

[Ill.u.s.tration: NORTH CAROLINA LILY

Over 80 years old. Flowers: red and green; the border has green buds with red centres. The quilting designs are remarkable for their beauty and originality]

Extensive investigation has shown that the introduction of the arts of patchwork and quilting to the American continent is due entirely to the English and the Dutch. No evidence has been found that Spanish or French colonists made use of quilting. The Spaniards in the warm lands of the South had little real need of warm clothing, and--outside of possible applique heraldic devices on the coats of the early explorers--may be considered as having brought to the New World none of the art so popular in Spain at the time. The French who opened up Canada brought none of the quilting or patchwork of France with them.

While needlework was taught at a very early date in the convents of Quebec, it was apparently only the more fanciful kinds of embroidery.

As a protection against the biting northern winters, the early French settlers sought protection under furs, which could be obtained quite readily in the great woods. To secure more bed clothing, it was very much easier to engage in a little hunting than to go through the laborious processes of piecing and quilting. To both Spanish and French, the new world was strictly a man's country--to adventure in and win riches upon which to retire to a life of ease in their native lands. With them, therefore, the inspiration of founding a home and providing it with the comforts of life was lacking; and without such inspiration the household arts could never flourish.

The English and Dutch planted their colonies along the coast from Virginia to Ma.s.sachusetts with the primary object of founding new homes for themselves. With them came their wives and daughters, who brought along as their portion such household comforts and conveniences as they possessed. Under their willing hands spinning, weaving, and the manufacture of garments began immediately. Their poorly heated log houses made necessary an adequate supply of bedding and hangings for protection against the winter cold. Substantial, heavy curtains, frequently lined and quilted, were hung over both doors and windows and were kept closely drawn during the bitter winter nights. In the more imposing homes were silk damask curtains with linings of quilted silk to keep out the drafts of cold that swept through the rooms.

In Ma.s.sachusetts in the early colonial days quilted garments, especially petticoats, were in general use. It is a curious circ.u.mstance that we owe this bit of information largely to the description of runaway slaves. The Boston _News Letter_ of October, 1707, contains an advertis.e.m.e.nt describing an Indian woman who ran away, clad in the best garments she could purloin from her mistress's wardrobe: "A tall l.u.s.ty Carolina Indian Woman, named Keziah Wampun Had on a striped red, blue and white Home-spun Jacket and a Red one, a Black and quilted White Silk c.r.a.pe Petticoat, a White Shift and also a blue with her, and a mixt Blue and White Linsey Woolsey Ap.r.o.n." In 1728 the _News Letter_ published an advertis.e.m.e.nt of a runaway Indian servant who, wearied by the round of domestic drudgery, adorned herself in borrowed finery and fled: "She wore off a Narrow Stript pinck cherredary Gown turned up with a little floured red and white Callico. A Stript Home-spun quilted petticoat, a plain muslin Ap.r.o.n, a suit of plain Pinners and a red and white flowered knot, also a pair of green stone earrings, with white cotton stockings and leather heel'd wooden shoes."

A few items in a list of articles ordered from England for a New England bride, Miss Judith Sewall, who was married in 1720, give some idea of what was considered as a suitable wedding outfit during that period. The bride belonged to a rich family and no doubt had furnishings much more extensive than usual: "A Duzen of good Black Walnut Chairs, A Duzen Cane Chairs, and a great chair for a chamber, all black Walnut. One Duzen large Pewter Plates, new fashion, a Duzen Ivory-hafted knives and forks. Four Duzen small gla.s.s salt cellars, Curtains and Vallens for a Bed with Counterpane, Head Cloth, and Tester made of good yellow watered camlet with Tr.i.m.m.i.n.g. Send also of the same camlet and tr.i.m.m.i.n.g as may be enough to make cushions for the chamber chairs. A good fine larger Chintz quilt, well made." This list also includes such items as kitchen utensils, warming pans, bra.s.s fenders, tongs, and shovels, and "four pairs of large Bra.s.s candlesticks."

As the resources of the new country were developed, the women were given some respite from their spinning, weaving, and garment making.

Much of their hard-won leisure was spent piecing quilts. In the rigorous climate of bleak New England there was great need of warm clothing and bedding, and the spare moments of the housekeeper were largely occupied in increasing her supply. To make the great amount of bedding necessary in the unheated sleeping rooms, every sc.r.a.p and remnant of woollen material left from the manufacture of garments was saved. To supplement these, the best parts of worn-out garments were carefully cut out, and made into quilt pieces.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FEATHER STAR WITH APPLIQUe

The "Feather Star" pieced blocks alternate with blue and white blocks on which are applied scroll designs. This quilt, which is the only one of this pattern, was made about 1835. It was designed by a Mr. Hamill for his sweetheart, Mary Hayward]

[Ill.u.s.tration: TULIP TREE LEAVES

A modern quilt made by the mountaineers of South Carolina. Colours: light blue and pink]

Beautiful, even gorgeous, materials were imported for costumes of the wives and daughters of the wealthy colonists. There may be a greater variety of fabrics woven to-day, but none is more splendid in texture and colour than those worn by the stately ladies of colonial times.

The teachings of the strict Puritans advocated plainness and simplicity of dress; even the ministers in the churches preached against the "sinfulness of display of fine raiment." Notwithstanding the teachings and pleadings of the clergy, there was great rivalry in dress among the inhabitants of the larger colonial towns. "Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy," was unnecessary advice to give to the rich colonist or to his wife. Men's attire was also of costly velvets lined with handsome brocades; beautifully embroidered waistcoats, silk stockings, and gold lace tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs were further additions to their costumes during the pre-Revolutionary period.

After these gay and costly fabrics had served their time as wearing apparel, they were carefully preserved and made over into useful articles for the household. The pinch of hard times during the struggle for independence made it imperative for many well-to-do families to economize. Consequently, in many old patchwork quilts may be found bits of the finest silks, satins, velvets, and brocades, relics of more prosperous days.

Alice Morse Earle, in her charming book on "Home Life in Colonial Days," gives us a rare insight into our great-grandmothers' fondness for patchwork, and how highly they prized their bits of highly coloured fabrics:

"The feminine love of colour, the longing for decoration, as well as pride in skill of needlecraft, found riotous expression in quilt making. Women revelled in intricate and difficult patchwork; they eagerly exchanged patterns with one another; they talked over the designs, and admired pretty bits of calico and pondered what combinations to make, with far more zest than women ever discuss art or examine high art specimens together to-day. There was one satisfactory condition in the work, and that was the quality of cottons and linens of which the patchwork was made. Real India chintzes and palampores are found in these quilts, beautiful and artistic stuffs, and the firm, unyielding, high-priced, 'real' French calicoes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MEXICAN ROSE

Made in 1842. Colours: red and green. Note the exquisite quilting]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CURRANTS AND c.o.c.ks...o...b..

Small red berries combined with conventionalized leaves.

This quilt has captured first prizes at many state fairs]

"Portions of discarded uniforms, old coat and cloak linings, brilliantly dyed worn flannel shirts and well-worn petticoats were component parts of quilts that were needed for warmth. A magnificent scarlet cloak, worn by a Lord Mayor of London and brought to America by a member of the Merrit family of Salisbury, Ma.s.sachusetts, went through a series of adventures and migrations and ended its days as small bits of vivid colour, casting a grateful glory and variety on a patchwork quilt in the Saco Valley of Maine.

"Around the outstretched quilt a dozen quilters could sit, running the whole together with fanciful set designs of st.i.tchery. Sometimes several quilts were set up, and I know of a ten days' quilting bee in Narragansett in 1752."

The women who came from Holland to make their homes on the narrow island at the mouth of the Hudson were housekeepers of traditional Dutch excellence. They delighted in well-stocked linen closets and possessed unusual quant.i.ties of sheets, pillow cases, and bedding, mostly of their own spinning and weaving. Like their English neighbours to the north, in Connecticut and Ma.s.sachusetts, they adopted quilted hangings and garments for protection against the severity of winter. Their quilted petticoats were the pride and joy of these transplanted Hollanders, and in their construction they exerted their highest talents in design and needlework. These petticoats, which were worn short enough to display the home-knitted hose, were thickly interlined as well as quilted. They were very warm, as the interlining was usually of wool. The fuller the purse, the richer and gayer were the petticoats of the New Amsterdam dames.

While not so strict in religious matters as their Puritan neighbours, the early inhabitants of New Amsterdam always observed Sunday and attended church regularly. Within the fort at the battery stood the church, built of "Manhattan Stone" in 1642. Its two peaked roofs with the watch-tower between was the most prominent object of the fortress.

"On Sunday mornings the two main streets, Broadway and Whitehall, were filled with dignified and sedate churchgoers arrayed in their best clothes. The tucked-up panniers worn by the women displayed to the best advantage the quilted petticoats. Red, blue, black, and white were the favourite and predominating colours, and the different materials included fine woollen cloth, camlet, grosgrain silk, and satin. Of all the articles of feminine attire of that period the quilted petticoat was the most important. They were worn short, displaying the low shoes with high heels and coloured hose with scarlet clockings; silken hoods partially covered their curled and powdered hair; altogether a charming and delightful picture."

The low, flat land of South Manhattan lying along the Hudson, because of its similarity to their mother country, was a favourite dwelling-place in New Netherlands. This region, known as Flatbush, was quickly covered with Dutch homes and big, orderly, flourishing gardens. A descendant of one of the oldest Dutch families which settled in this locality, Mrs. Gertrude Lefferts Vanderbilt, in her book, "The Social History of Flatbush," has given many interesting details of early New York life. She tells of the place quilt making held in the community, and how the many intricate patterns of patchwork pleasantly occupied the spare moments of the women, thus serving as a means of expression of their love of colour and design.

The following little domestic picture shows how conveniently near the thrifty housewife kept her quilt blocks: "A low chair with a seat of twisted osier, on which was tied a loose feather-filled cushion, covered with some gay material. On the back of these chairs hung the bag of knitting, with the little red stocking and shining needles plainly visible, indicating that this was the favourite seat of the industrious mother of the family; or a basket of patchwork held its place upon a low stool (bankje) beside the chair, also to be s.n.a.t.c.hed up at odd intervals (ledige tyd)."

One reliable source of information of the comforts and luxuries that contributed to pleasant dwelling in old New York is found in old inventories of household effects. Occasionally complete lists are found that throw much light on the furnishings of early days. Such an inventory of the household belongings of Captain John Kidd, before he went to sea and turned pirate, mentions over sixty different kinds of house furnishings, from a skillet to a dozen chairs embellished with Turkish embroidery. Among the articles with which John Kidd and his wife Sarah began housekeeping in New York in 1692, as recorded in this inventory, were four bedsteads, with three suits of hangings, curtains, and valances to go with them. Feather beds, feather pillows, linen sheets, tablecloths, and napkins, ten blankets, and three quilts. How much of this store of household linens was part of his wife's wedding dower is not stated.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CONVENTIONAL APPLIQUe

The designs are b.u.t.tonholed around. Colours: soft green and rose. This quilt is over 100 years old]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SINGLE TULIP

Colours: red and yellow. Seventy-five years old]

The early settlers in Virginia and the Carolinas were mostly English of the better cla.s.s, who had been landed proprietors with considerable retinues of servants. As soon as these original colonists secured a firm foothold, large estates were developed on which the manners and customs of old England were followed as closely as possible. Each plantation became a self-supporting community, since nearly all the actual necessities were produced or manufactured thereon. The loom worked ceaselessly, turning the wool, cotton, and flax into household commodities, and even the shoes for both slave and master were made from home-tanned leather. For their luxuries, the ships that carried tobacco and rice to the English markets returned laden with books, wines, laces, silverware, and beautiful house furnishings of every description.

In the colonial plantation days of household industry quilts, both patchwork and plain, were made in considerable numbers. Quilts were then in such general use as to be considered too commonplace to be described or even mentioned. Consequently, we are forced to depend for evidence of their existence in those days on bills of sale and inventories of auctions. These records, however, const.i.tute an authority which cannot be questioned.

In 1774 Belvoir, the home of the Fairfax family, one of the largest and most imposing of houses of Virginia, was sold and its contents were put up at auction. A partial list of articles bought at this sale by George Washington, then Colonel Washington, and here given, will show the luxury to which the Southern planter was accustomed: "A mahogany shaving desk, settee bed and furnishings, four mahogany chairs, oval gla.s.s with gilt frame, mahogany sideboard, twelve chairs, and three window curtains from dining-room. Several pairs of andirons, tongs, shovels, toasting forks, pickle pots, wine gla.s.ses, pewter plates, many blankets, pillows, bolsters, and _nineteen coverlids_."

[Ill.u.s.tration: DAISY QUILT

For a child's bed]

It was customary in the good old days after a dinner or ball for the guests, who necessarily came from long distances, to stay all night, and many bedrooms, frequently from ten to twenty-five, besides those needed for the family, were provided in the big houses. All were beautifully furnished with imported, ma.s.sive, carved furniture from France and England. In one year, 1768, in Charlestown, South Carolina, occurred twelve weddings among the wealthy residents of that city, and all the furniture for these rich couples came from England. The twelve ma.s.sive beds with canopies supported by heavily carved posts, decorated with rice stalks and full heads of grain, were so high that steps were needed in order to climb into them. Elaborate and expensive curtains and spreads were furnished to correspond. In one early inventory of an extensively furnished house there are mentioned "four feather beds, bolsters, two stools, looking-gla.s.s tipt with silver, two Turkey carpets, one yellow mohair bed counterpane, and _two green silk quilts_." From this it is evident that the quilt had already found its place, and no doubt in great numbers, on account of the many beds to furnish in the s.p.a.cious house of the rich planters.

Shortly after the Revolution came the great migration from Virginia over the ridges of the Blue and the Appalachian chains into what was then the wilderness of Tennessee and Kentucky. The descendants of these hardy pioneers who first forced their way westward still live among the Kentucky and Virginia hills under the conditions which prevailed a hundred years ago. In this heavily timbered rough country they manage to eke out a precarious existence by cultivating small hillside patches of cotton, corn, and a few vegetables. Immured in the seclusion of the mountains they have remained untouched by the world's progress during the past century. Year after year they are satisfied to live this secluded existence, and but rarely make an acquaintance with a stranger. Educational advantages, except of the most elementary sort, are almost unknown, and the majority of these mountaineers neither read nor write. As a result of this condition of isolated and primitive living, existing in the mountains of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, the household crafts that flourished in this country before the advent of machinery are still carried on exactly as in the old days.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OHIO ROSE