Quilt History Snippets August 2025

 
Kathy Moore

 

What:      Review of Uncoverings 1994, Volume 15 of the Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group, edited by Virginia Gunn

Topic:       “Kit Quilts in Perspective”

Author:    Anne Copeland and Beverly Dunivent


Copeland and Dunivent, from the outset, declare their intent to dispel the “negative images” imposed upon the role of kit quilts in the history of American quiltmaking. Indeed, they declare, “Documented examples illustrate that kit quilts have never lost their appeal to quiltmakers and quilt viewers.” Furthermore, they claim that “kits seem to have played a more instrumental role in the entire quilt revival and the continued interest in quiltmaking than has been previously recognized.” [p. 141] And, they suggest the evidence suggests that kits “have been in existence since the turn of the century.” [p. 142] Their source for this declaration is Quilters Hall of Fame inductee, Cuesta Benberry. Given that information they then note that in the 1920s and 1930s the characteristics of kit quilts that most of us are familiar with became standardized. There follows descriptions of the range of styles, materials, and markings commonly found in manufactured kits. These included stamped fabrics representing the various parts and pieces, die-cut parts and pieces, embroidered kits, and trapunto-style whole-cloth kits. [p. 142-144]


Some commentators are quoted declaring the “uncreative aspects of quilt kits.” [p. 145-147] Among these were contemporary art historians Penny McMorris and Michael Kile, and New York quilt dealers Thomas K. Woodard and Blanche Greenstein.  The involvement of Dorothymae and Harold Groves, “prominent” Kansas City, MO, dealers” and publishers of quilt patterns and quilt show organizers, is briefly mentioned. [p. 147] The Groves’s involvement over many years of our contemporary quilt revival deserves more research and reporting. It was significant, particularly in the geographic and culturally broad middle America.


One aspect of the popularity of kit quilts I’d not thought about is that the production of the kits “represented twentieth-century technology during a time in our culture when the assembly line was popular and there was little prejudice against repetitiveness.” Furthermore, some kit quilt patterns were described and published in commercial print materials like the book Great American Quilts and popular magazines. [p. 148]


Designers and sources of quilt patterns and materials are listed and described in detail along with dates, locations, and their company histories. There are names you will recognize and some you may not have known about. Also, there is discussion about how kit quilts served as a training ground for beginner quilters. This would have been a previously unacknowledged, but significant contribution to the continuation of the quilt-making activities among American women across all classes into and through the twentieth century. It seems possible that quilt kits contributed significantly to the democratization of quilt-making in America in an era when nineteenth century practices were fading or being lost to modern women for whom homemaking was no longer the primary focus of their daily lives, especially during and after WWII in mid-century.


This is a thought-provoking and resource rich article that should be on all reference lists for quilt historians. I hope you enjoy reading it and learning as much from it as I did.

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Quilt History Snippets for March 2026

March 4, 2026
Quilt History Snippets for March, 2026…by Kathy Moore What: Review of Uncoverings 1995, Volume 16 of the Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group, edited by Virginia Gunn Topic: “Symbiotic Stitches: The Quilts of Maggie McFarland Gillespie and John Gillespie, Jr.” Author: Marlene O’Bryant-Seabrook For all our fellow AQSG members, this article is a good example of how a topic can occur to any of us and take on a life of its own to become an interesting and informative piece of research and discovery. Sometimes it opens one’s eyes and develops a narrative you just have to follow to the end of the process. We need more of this for our journal and our Seminar presentations. The author notes that she reviewed “the literature on Southern African-American matrilineal quilters” in order to discuss “the existence of African males in the textile arts in Africa and during slavery” in order to explain how European gender-role ideology has permeated the African-American male views on quilting and other needle arts.” [p. 175] What follows is authoritative information on individuals, some of whose names you will recognize, and their experiences that enlighten and enliven her narrative. There is a brief description of the experience of male textile artisans in Africa (where they and their work was valued) and in the United States as slaves where “they were forced on the plantations to submit to the division of labor which existed in Europe. African-American males thus began to view all needle arts as ‘women’s work.’” [p. 181] Nineteenth century scientist, George Washington Carver, learned needlework, especially crochet and cross stitch, and was so adept he could copy what he’d seen “without being shown” a pattern. [p. 181] Rosey Grier, a large and intimidating figure on the football field for the New York Giants and the Lost Angeles Rams in the 1970s, was photographed and he discussed in the media his work at needlepoint which he is quoted as saying that “he found … relaxing when he took plane trips and handy as a means of striking up conversations with beautiful women.” When told he had “lost your macho” that “Needlepoint is for sissies” he replied that their “opinions didn’t bother me.” [p. 182] Much of the article focuses on a mother-son team of quilters, Maggie and John Gillispie, Jr., who lived and subsistence farmed in South Carolina. John, Jr. was very attached to his mother and learned many household skills from her including piecing and quilting, much of it without printed patterns and without published pattern names. It’s a story of touching devotion between the two of them and an inspiring story of the restorative therapy provided by their quilting activities over a number of years. Images and direct quotes help enliven the narrative. It is to be noted that this author, based on her research, disputes the assertion of Maude Southwell Wahlman that quilts made by African-Americans were “designed and stitched with African traditions in mind.” Indeed, O’Bryant-Seabrook supports Roland Freeman’s assertion that there is no need to “construe African-American quilts (as being) based on African concepts.” [p. 190] Furthermore, O’Bryant-Seabrook emphatically states that she did not “believe that Maggie and John Gillispie, Jr. felt any visceral cultural rumblings when they planned, pieced, and quilted a quilt.” [p. 190]  Finally, O’Bryant-Seabrook declares that “The Gillispie story provides an intimate look into an African-American family in which quilting became more of a bonding experience that a necessity.” [p. 195] As presented, the Gillispie story becomes a case study for all of to learn from. There are many good and informative end notes that validate the research presented in this article. Given the 35+ years since publication of this article, it is one more which could use follow-up research and reporting. Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi and AQSG’s own Laurel Horton were original consultants (and were referenced) for this article and may be good sources for a renewed look at this topic. Hopefully, someone among us will want to pursue this line of inquiry and enlarge upon it.

Quilt History Snippets for February 2026

February 6, 2026
What: Review of Uncoverings 1995, Volume 16 of the Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group, edited by Virginia Gunn Topic: “Marketing Quilt Kits in the 1920s and 1930s” Author: Xenia E. Cord In this thoroughly researched and documented report Cord credits the role of “commercially produced and media-promoted” kit quilts for, to some degree, “the resurgence of quiltmaking during the Colonial Revival movement of the 1920s and 1930s. In the process these early twentieth century commercially made kits standardized and “redirected the focus of quiltmaking from a community-based folk group process to a professionally created product stressing surface design.” [p. 139] The improvisational style we see in so many mid- to late nineteenth century quilts was replaced in the early years of the twentieth century by a small group of “designers, manufacturers, and marketers, and were promoted through media and commercial sources as a reaffirmation of women’s domestic and artistic skills.” In her research Cord found a secretive “tangle of corporate interconnections, layered informal associations, widespread duplication of printed material and often obscured sources for the kits themselves.”[p. 139-140] Cord begins her documentation of these changes declaring that the creators and advertisers “created, guided, and molded the scope and direction of…quilt kit buyers with their visual and emotional appeal[s].” [p. 141] In the evolutionary process of their marketing and quilt kit production, “kit purveyors became the arbiters of style, in some instances replacing or suggesting alternatives to the standards of the traditional quiltmaking community.” The “industry created national standards for performance, and national rather than regional pattern names and designs.” [p. 142] How all this was done and by whom is the source considerable documentation and discussion that follows Cords early declarations. There are names of participants in the quilt kit industry and vivid descriptions of marketing practices. Illustrations are included as well as an extensive reference section with very inclusive and informative end notes. Cord ends her report with a number of questions and suggestions for future research on this topic noting “Considering the position of importance kit quilts assumed in the continuum of quilt history, this review of the marketing methods and sources during the first quilt revival of the twentieth century can only point the way to more extensive research.” [p. 166] It can be hoped that there are students of quilt history who are interested in taking up the charge. Xenia Cord’s article would be a great place to start.

Quilt History Snippets for January 2026

January 8, 2026
What: Review of Uncoverings 1995, Volume 16 of the Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group, edited by Virginia Gunn Topic: “The Origin of Mountain Mist® Patterns” Author: Merikay Waldvogel This is a trailblazing and jam packed article full of revealing information based on primary sources to which Waldvogel had, in 1995, recently been given access. The letters dating from the late 1920s to very early 1930 between a Tennessee artist and the sales manager of Stearns & Foster Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio (producers of Mountain Mist batting) revealed previously unknown details and answered questions for not only Waldvogel, but many others who had been looking for information on why and who designed and produced the “wrapper patterns” enclosing Mountain Mist batting. Reading this article was a bit like reading a Nancy Drew mystery, and great fun it was. One wonders if she felt the same way at the time. Waldvogel notes that “Collectors have long prized the wrappers as well as the other printed matter, which, until now, have been the only sources of information about the company.” And the discovery of the correspondence “provides a detailed record of the company’s plan to promote quiltmaking (and the sales of its cotton batting) through the distribution of high-quality quilt patterns. [p. 95] Later in the article, Waldvogel notes that the sales manager even directed the artist to make her illustrations display the designs in solid-colors rather than prints. [p. 125-126] The manager was Frederick J. Hooker, Sales Manager of the Putnam-Hooker Batting Department of Stearns & Foster Co. The artist was Margaret Hays of Chattanooga, Tennessee. “They shipped watercolor sketches and finished pattern layouts back and forth between Ohio and Tennessee for eight months from July 1929 through February 1930.” [p. 96] Hays’ niece, Evelyn Hays Banner, “inherited the materials and contacted Waldvogel thinking they might be important to quilt research.” [p. 96] And this is the key to why it was so important. There were no known extant records about this business relationship between Hooker and Hays. The company’s current staff believed “such records were discarded when a series of new owners took over the company in the mid-twentieth century.” [p. 96] Waldvogel describes in interesting detail how she validated the information she found in the correspondence. She provides images of letters and designs. Importantly, she states, “The company’s efforts impacted the quilt revival of the 1930s.” And, that the “new information suggests that the changes in style, color, and construction associated with Depression Era quilts did not happen by chance.” [p. 98] It can all be credited to the marketing practices at Mountain Mist! Waldvogel traces the history of the company from its founding in 1846 when they began experimenting with ways to make a batting that “would not tear or stretch.” [p. 98] Packaging was but one of the ways the company’s employees experimented and innovated and promoted their products and packaging. And there were many product names used over the years. Also, there were multiple designer names used in the promotion of Mountain Mist designs over the years. Hay’s name apparently was not one of them! There is so much good and interesting information in this article that I cannot recommend it enough to all of you. The End Notes are extensive. There are several appendices with trademark names and dates, quilt pattern names and dates, as well as company publication names and dates. If you are looking for information on Depression Era quilt patterns/designs and dates, or information on the Mountain Mist patterns this is the source for you. Best wishes for the new year. We’ll review another article next month. You can contact me at kmoore81@austin.rr.com for more information and comments.
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