Study Centers
4000 years of Indigos:
from Egyptian Mummies to
American Cowboys - Closed
Margo Krager
Indigo blue textiles have been highly prized since antiquity. Follow the trail of indigo over the centuries as Margo Krager, from ReproductionFabrics.com, discusses the history of these wonderful fabrics and the dye that gives them their special color. The journey begins with blue threads found in Egyptian mummy cloths and travels around the world touching 12th century meso-American and African tribal chiefs, 17th century European woad growers, Northern Civil War soldiers, the American cowboy, and contemporary ‘blue-collar’ workers in America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. This presentation includes a slide show of woven textiles, flags, costumes and uniforms, and quilts, plus a bibliography and handouts on indigo-dyed fabrics.
Ladies Art Company of St. Louis, MO
Connie Chunn
Established in 1889, the Ladies Art Company of St. Louis, MO was set up as a mail-order retail business. Advertisements were placed in women’s magazines and other monthly publications. By 1897 the Ladies Art Company was offering a catalog of 400 quilt patterns for sale, which revolutionized the standard naming of quilt blocks. This study center will take you through my 10 years of research of the Ladies Art Company with a power point presentation as well as a large display of ephemera and quilts.
Quilt as You Go is Older than you Think - Potholder Quilts and Other Wonders
Pam Weeks
Potholder quilts, those finished block by block, are just one form of quilt as you go. The technique of finishing large quilts in smaller sections is more than 150 years old, and this study center will present an inventory of these methods. Early examples will be shown. Hand outs will include a bibliography and a dictionary of techniques. If you have them, please bring examples of quilts made in sections and joined.
How to Value Your Quilts: A Panel discussion with 3 certified appraisers of PAAQT (Professional Appraisers Association - Quilted Textiles)
Holly Anderson & Members of PAAQT
Have you ever made a “discovery” of a family quilt or been the lucky one to inherit one? Did you ever wish that you had a little more information about where your quilt might have come from or just how old a special fabric might be? And, just what is it worth? Have you ever considered donating one of your quilts to a museum or historical society? Have you ever wanted to sell a quilt but just didn’t know it’s worth? This is the opportunity that you’ve been waiting for - everything you ever wanted to know about quilt appraisals. What goes into establishing the values of quilts? What approaches are taken to find comparable markets? What can you expect when getting a quilt appraised from a certified appraiser? A panel of appraisers will lead a discussion and mock appraisals for your better understanding. Participants are welcome to bring a quilt from their collection for group discussion.
Gleaning Design Techniques from
Hastings Needle Work Patterns
Ann Braaten
Designers have puzzled over how to place motifs in their artwork since humans began making art. Participants will experiment with motif placement using paper folding techniques that were found in Hastings Needle Work patterns. This Minnesota-based business designed, embroidered and sold finished stitched products regionally and nationally from 1888-1923. Women in the William LeDuc family, an early Minnesota family, operated this business out of their home in Hastings, MN. Their company’s surviving paper patterns reveal the motifs, techniques, sizes, and shapes that were used to create their needlework designs. Their designs include Victorian, Arts and Crafts, and Gothic Revival sensibilities. Today’s fiber artists can readily adapt Hastings Needle Work techniques into their designs.
Ethnic Quilts from the Upper Midwest
Elise Schebler Roberts
Making a quilt allows the quiltmaker to tangibly say “Here I am, I count”. Quiltmakers create an identity for themselves and a link to a larger community. For many quilters this community is based on ethnicity or nationality. The Midwest boasts rich and varied cultural and ethnic traditions, which are exhibited in their quilts. We will look at quilts from many of these traditions, including Native American, Hmong, African American, and Euro-American.
American Legacy Quilt Indexes
Rose Lea Alboum
The American Legacy Quilt Index Series is a unique collection of quilt patterns garnered from sources published from the late 1800s through the 1930s. Each index showcases the inventory from a single published source. What was necessary to achieve the publication of this body of work was a massive research effort to acquire the vintage catalogs, newsprint columns, farm publications and magazines. The inclusion of early quilt magazines also is represented. The number of quilt patterns drawn now encompasses over 20,000 designs with continual updates as more material is found. Discussion will center on how and why the series developed and the offshoot series, A Thematic Approach, the acquired vintage material and the introduction of lesser known quilt companies. To look into quilt history, binders of original newsprint from Nancy Cabot, Nancy Page, and quilt scrapbooks will be available for viewing as a well as a handout of the full listing of all the resources used to produce the series of indexes.
Carlie Sexton and Hubert Ver Mehren:
Growing Quilt Businesses in Iowa
Susan Price Miller
In the 1920s, Carlie Sexton created a home-based mail order business in Des Moines, Iowa, to sell her mimeographed quilt patterns copied from nineteenth century quilts. Hubert Ver Mehren owned a Des Moines company that stamped quilt blocks, fabric and patterns. He designed the first large pieced medallions of the twentieth century, some of which won prizes in the 1933 World’s Fair Sears Quilt Contest. Both Sexton and Ver Mehren reached customers in every state through several major magazines for the home published in Des Moines. Learn the history of these two quilt entrepreneurs so you can recognize their often anonymous products. Bring quilts, patterns, catalogs, and other ephemera for show and tell and discussion.
Memorial Quilts: Remembering the Deceased
Sandy Schweitzer
Definition, historical perspective, current trends. Differences between memorial, commemorative and memory quilts. Trunk show. Handouts. Supply List: three (3) crayons, colors of your choice, notebook, pen, and camera.
Furs on a Stick:
Fabrics as Trading Goods During the Fur Trade Era
Margo Krager
Textiles have been traded on a global scale for over 400 years. This lecture will trace the introduction of Indian printed fabrics into Europe and their eventual arrival here in America as trade goods. These textiles poured into American seaports early in the 18th century and were used for furnishings as well as clothing and quilts in homes along the eastern coast. They were also traded for furs with Native Americans. European and Asia textiles and ready-made shirts were an important means of exchange for over 150 years; between government agents dealing with the Five Civilized Nations, Lewis and Clark on their epic journey, or later Indian agents in Fort Benton, Montana. This presentation includes a slide show, a bibliography, and handouts of reproduction fabric samples typical of those used in Indian trade shirts.
Quilts in Photographs:
The first 100 years (1840-1940)
Janet Finley
You’ve seen the quilts. Now see them in their cultural context. Beginning in 2002, Janet has collected over 700 vintage images with quilts. The focus of this study center will be to see many of these images in a power point presentation. The formats include daguerreotypes, tintypes, carte de visites, cabinet cards, and real picture post cards. Learn more about customs in the American Victorian era, including the practice of remembrance photography and the role of the traveling photographer. Participants are encouraged to bring their own family photos containing quilts.
Quilting Motifs in 18th c. Whole-Cloth Quilts
Peggy Derrick
An introduction to the origins and applications of quilting motifs in European and Colonial whole-cloth quilts, with an explanation of techniques for copying and studying design motifs.
The History of Fabric Printing and Dyeing - an Overview
Virginia Berger
Are you relatively new to quilt history? Or could you just use a refresher course on fabric dyes and printing techniques through the years? Join this study center for an overview of the history of fabric printing and dyeing as it relates to cotton fabrics. Emphasis will be on how changes in technology impacted the colors, patterns and availability of printed fabrics and thus quilt styles through the centuries.