Unknown Speaker 28:11 Good morning everyone. My name is Ben Anthony and I am your technical host for this session. Fabric treasures caring for the quilts in your collection. So just a few quick reminders as we get going here. We are recording this event, please if you have questions you can ask them anytime you like through the question and answer section. Use the chat section, if you want to share a comment or resource that you've used in the past, in just a second I'll be dropping a handout that our presenter Mary has today as well in the chat for you to download, about the topic today, and then closed captioning is available. You'll go to your zoom bar, and look at the live transcription available, and you could utilize that if you'd like. So, without further ado I'm going to hand this off to Amy. Our moderator for today, and thank you so much for being here. Unknown Speaker 29:17 Hi everyone, my name is Amy craft and I'm the director of Allen County Museum in Lima, and I am delighted to have the opportunity to present, Mary Royer, who will be presenting this session which is fabric treasures caring, caring for quilts in your collection. So Mary began making quilts over 35 years ago, joining the latest American quilt quilting revival in the 70s which is still growing going strong. Her interest in quilts inspired her to not only make them but to learn about the fabrics, the fads their history and their cultural significant significance, Mary belongs to the American Quilt Study Group, the Midwest study group, and volunteers at the Bob Butler County Historical Society where she assist with their quilt collection. So without further ado I would like to present, Mary and give her the chance to get on with her present presentation. Thanks, Mary. All right, thank you. Let me share screen, and we'll get rid of that slideshow. There we are. Unknown Speaker 30:32 Alright, Thank you. Let me get my pen ready. All right, well thank you for the introduction, Amy and welcome to this presentation. What I'm going to cover is our definitions period popular quilt patterns condition issues with quilts, documentation, care, and storage practices display ideas and resources. And again, we have the handout, you don't need it for the presentation but it's available afterwards, and it has a little more information than I'm giving on some of the topics, and we're going to break, I will break about halfway through to see if there are any questions in the chat. At that point, and then proceed to the end. I'm going to start with some definitions and answer the question, what is a quilt, a quilt is a textile composed of three layers held together by a running stitch, there's the top, the batting and the backing and over here is a real quilt, which is this blue and white paste top. The bad thing is this fluffy textured piece in the middle, and then there's the back so it's basically we call it a sandwich, those three layers. And the puffy little banding is very important because that's what gives you the insulation and creates the warm bed covering. There are various quilt top construction methods. Up here on the upper left is what's called Peace, or another word is Patchwork, this, this block is made up of squares sewn together, and all these squares sewn together will make up one block, and peace quilts can be of various shapes such as squares, triangles, rectangles, diamonds, shapes and hexagons that are all sewn together. Another method over here to the right is applique. And that's where pieces of cloth are cut in different shapes and sewn onto the top which is this white piece here. And the, the, these pieces can be cut out in much more realistic shapes, such as flowers, leaves, animals people's buildings, even letters can be cut out, and a saying, or message can be put on the quilt. So in this quilt we see these, these stems, leaves, flowers, all those are individual shapes that are cut out placed on the quilt and then tiny stitches along each edge, fasten these shapes to the quilt top. On the lower left, we have pieced an applique together. Here are pieces, these are diamond shapes, kind of like a flower maybe up here, those are all diamond shapes sewn together but on this middle piece square is a flower that is applicate with a center onto that so you can have a combination of piston applicate, and then various embellishments can be added to the top of the quilt such as embroidery paint beads and buttons ribbon work and lace political ribbons are often added probably signifying of the lady's political leanings inscriptions of various kinds, such as names, dates, initials, sayings can be on the quilt and those can be done either in embroidery, cross stitch, or they can be inked on the quilt, and more fancy quilts, such as the Baltimore album quilts can have fabric rushing which gives a lot of dimension stuffing and courting, and those are usually on on very fancy quilts. Unknown Speaker 34:23 It's not a quilt, until it's quilted, and some people don't even call it a quilt, unless it has quilting, and the quilting are running stitch is very important for holding those three layers together. Early on, raw cotton was carted by hand into small sheets and spread over the backing before the top was put in place. And these early quilts were densely quilted to keep the cotton or sometimes wool filling from shifting out of place, which would have reduced the insulation and elaborate quilting was a decorative feature, and that was something that provided women, an outlet for their creative skills for their imagination, and they've received recognition from each other for their standing technical skills, and over here on this quilt, the quilting kind of outlines echoes the leaves and then just becomes a graceful curve, and all these little ridges are quilting lines of quilting stitches, about 1/4 of an inch apart it's consistent throughout the quilt, very tiny fine, quilting, and that becomes another decorative feature for the piece. Here's the difference between machine stitching sometimes machines, quilts are machine quilted and hand quilting. Antique Quilts may have machine stitching may have machine quilting which I have not seen much of in an in quite old vintage quilts, which that can help in dating the sewing machine was invented in about 1848 So any quilt with machine quilting, or stitching was made after 1848. Many more domestic sewing machines were in use. After the Civil War. And just for comparison. In 1853, there were 2500, domestic machines in use. And by 1873 There were over 667,000, which tells us that women did embrace technology, and of course it freed them from canceling clothing, and just an idea machine, this is pretend this is the quilt, and machine stitching is one stitch it goes down it's locked and the needle comes right back up where it went in, down, up, and it's locked on the bottom. That is machine stitching and machine quilting would look like that hand quilting is different it's that running stitch. This is the machine up this is the quilt sandwich, and the hand stitch will go under and over and under and over so there will be a little space in between each stitch on top because there is a stitch on the bottom. So here is the little space, where the stitches underneath, and here's the stitch on top very tiny, these stitches are the curves are nice, they're not flattened. And the goal is to have very tiny close together, even stitches and ladies would count how many stitches per inch. The more stitches per inch, the better quilter, you were the pieces. Pictured here are not strictly are not quilts, because they are not quilted, but they are often associated with quilts because they have things in common with quilts on the upper right, this is a cover or spread, it's pieced it has embroidery, but there is no baddie, there is no quilting, and it is attached to a backing piece, so that just becomes like a summer spread it isn't really meant for work. On the lower left is something called a comfort comforter or comfortable. This is three layers. It is pieced it could be applicate, but it's held together with a tie, it could be a wool tie like you see here or could be embroider embroidery thread holding those three layers together, and a comfortable will eliminate that more time consuming step of hand quilting so this piece could be put into service, much more quickly. And over here in the lower right is a Yo yo, sometimes people call it a yo yo quilt, but it's not a quilt there's no batting. There's not even a backing but this is made from gathering circular pieces of fabric they're gathered, and then they're sewn together at where they intersect and it's just an airy, covering for a bed very pretty, very nice but it's not a quilt Unknown Speaker 39:11 colonial and early American quilts were quite rare, even though there are sentimental images and descriptions of women frugal women using leftover scraps to piece them, quilting and patchwork was very rarely practice in the colonial period, and it would not noticeably appear until the 1800s. When fabric producing factories were established in the new United States by the 1830s early textiles were hand woven of wool, linen, cotton, and sometimes a combination of those. But those fabrics were not adapted well adapted to quiltmaking because they were coarse and thick textiles. Some of these early quilts, very early ones would have been made from cloth that was imported from France, or Britain or cloth from India, that was imported into the colonies from Great Britain. Some of the earliest identified quilts from the mid 1700s were decorative like the whole cloth quilt that I'm talking about. They were made by very wealthy women who could afford that fabric, and have the time to make one, so they were more for show than us, and they would have elements like we see here such as a lot of florals here's a sunflower. There's a lot of just quilting you can see, and then there could be other elements like double feathered wreaths on the quilt, but it was all made up the whole top was just, quilting, and that was the whole cloth quilt. Next I'm going to cover quilt patterns, and period, popular trends. These two books by Barbara Brackman a quilt historian, are a compilation of quilt patterns and names. The Encyclopedia of the left is pieced quilt patterns, and the encyclopedia on the right is applique quilt patterns, and they consist of her research was looking at old newspapers. Early women's magazines, agricultural periodicals from the 1880s and on and when a quilt pattern was in one of those publications with a name, she gathered that together for her books so it's a long period of of public published quilt patterns and names. But Barbara does caution us not to be didactic about quilt pattern names because not every pattern has a name, and the names that we today ascribe to the 1800s quilts, would not have been known at all to those women in the 1800s, they often didn't leave the names of the quilts behind this that I'm doing some piecing today with mother. But we don't often have the name of the quilt so they wouldn't even have known the names that we're giving them today. But even so, people love to name and categorize things. So here are these two books with a lot of information about historic patterns, and publications. When a family brings a quilt and I try to discover the name that they call the quilt by, and that becomes the name of the quilt pattern called the golden age of applique. This period was called the golden age of applique, because applique quilts proliferated between 1840 and 1860, even into the 70s and red and green were commonly used colors. Sometimes they added pink, like you see a little pink here, and yellow for accents. During this period, and for the first time, American textile mills were producing fabric that was plentiful, and cheaper than ever before. Women had more leisure time for quiltmaking because they were no longer spinning or looming, their own fabric. And these red and green quilts, very commonly consisted of had an outer border. That was around all four sides beautifully framing the quilt, usually it was a vine, like here, with leaves and flowers and buds sprouting out of it. These earlier reading greens were made up of four blocks, large blocks these are about 30 to 31 inches, but that sizing will change. Unknown Speaker 43:46 Many of the makers of these earlier quilts and red and green were young women in their early 20s, who possessed, those excellent needlework skills that women needed to get by with in life, and special quotes like this one were often made for best quilt. And they demonstrated superior needlework, talent, and this is the princess feather pattern which became known around the 1840s to the 1850s. Unknown Speaker 44:18 Whoops, Unknown Speaker 44:18 sorry, I went past that one. Here's another one of those graceful red and green applique quilts. This one could be just a little bit later than the previous but now the block sizes are getting smaller. Here are nine blocks on this quilt, probably easier to handle a smaller block again this quilt has that lovely vine border with flowers and leaves sprouting out of it, it's a beautiful frame for the quilt. And maybe this woman was demonstrating her political leanings. This was called the democratic rose pattern. And here's a close up of that quilt just to show some quilting detail all hand quilted very tiny find stitches very even stitches. And these lines are evenly spaced about a fourth of an inch apart. And I marvel when I see these quilts because all of these were done before there was any kind of central heating or good lighting in a home, but beautiful, beautiful precise quilting. And this one has in all this empty some of the empty spaces on top of the quilt she quoted in these lovely hearts, they're about seven just in this little section alone. Sometimes a heart can in hearts on a quilt can indicate a bride's quilt, but I don't have any confirmation of that for this quilt. And here's a good example of some of those early printed cotton's very simple print on the vine, you just have a darker green on a lighter green fabric on the red you just have a little specks of black and yellow. So those are some examples of those early American printed fabrics. Now the mosaic, or honeycomb pattern is made up of one simple shape the hexagon. and depending on how the colors are arranged. That's how the pattern emerges. All of these have the same red center, but there's different coloring and all of them. This pattern was a favorite of the British who brought it to America. It was published in goatees lady's book in 1835 and goatees call this one have called it one of the prettiest patterns. If caught on earlier on the East Coast, and then moved further into the country, where it was popular in the 1870s to the 1880s, which is the time frame of this quilt. Over here on the left in the center hexagon, it's dated with embroidery 1880 How thoughtful, that she put the date on it. There are embroidered sets of initials like we see here r s t on about 23 of the center hexagons, and that indicates a friendship style quilt. And that was a fashion that started on the East Coast, in the 1840s and spread further west. Many of the friendship, quilts that came after that had fully embroidered or ink names on the top. Many of them had dates as well. And this hexagon style will return in the 1930s, but with a different name, different fabrics and different colors. Next is the crazy quilt fad popular from the 1880s to the 1920s. And this one is not displayed on a bed because fancy crazy quilts, which this one is are not destined for beds, They were made as parlor throws to drape over a piano or sofa in the formal parlor. It was made as a showpiece constructed to display the makers needlework talents. Her sense of color and design, and the fact that she had the leisure, leisure time to indulge in completely impractical needlework, as a fashionable pastime. There was a rising middle class in the United States by this time, and more women with more leisure time could delve into the fancy Crazy Quilt phat. There isn't a pattern for the crazy quilt. And although they look haphazard and unplanned crazy quilts required considerable design talent and exceptional sewing skills. Unknown Speaker 48:53 And we can see some of those sewing skills, and these details in this slide up here on the upper left, the paddle fan was a very popular design to stitch into your crazy quilt. There was a wave of interest in Japanese, and oriental design so the paddle fan was present on the upper right, there's a dragon fly painted on the quilt. And this, these ladies were very helpful to also put apostrophes at three, two, they embroidered a date, but every single scene is covered with a different embroidery stitch, different colored embroidery stitches. The name grandma. Oh, is embroidered on it, we don't know who grandma Oh is I wish we did, but every single scene has a different set of embroidery stitches on the lower right. These flowers are painted on, and then they're framed with this ribbon work frame, there's more embroidery on the seams on the lower left embroider designs like this can be incorporated sometimes ladies could order these from a supplier, and they didn't necessarily stitch, all of that themselves. It's not known how this quilt was made. So there's lots of embellishment on the fancy crazy quilt, and this fad lasted until about 1890. Although the fancy crazy quote fad faded about 8090 The crazy quilt style continued, and it filtered down the social ladder. Because women's magazines continue to print. ran articles and directions. And ladies, still wanted one later ones like this were made from the 1900s to 19. This one is about 1900 to 1925, but they were made into the 1940s for much more practical cloth, such as wool corduroy denim and everyday cotton, and they were used as bedcovers but they were very heavy bedcovers. This example is made from men's suiting wool, possibly cuttings from a tailor shop, which was a recycling of otherwise useless material for clothing, but still perfectly usable material. And this quilt. Again, every scene is covered with embroidery stitches, they are not fancy stitches, but this lady had good needlework skills, I'd say excellent needlework skills because every stitch is very evenly done very precisely executed, which would have been a challenge when you're stitching in heavy wool scenes. Next is the log cabin, and this design proliferated. After the 1870s, and then it went on women started making these quilts in the log cabin designed with cotton. But later, some were made of silk because of improvements in American quilt silk manufacturing, and also because ladies magazines suggested making them and silk, and you may have some of these in your own collections the silk made log cabins. There are many many variations of the log cabin and if you look at Barbara Blackmun's pieced quilt design book, you'll see many many variations of the log cabin but here are two examples here, the pineapple was very popular. And I'm going to outline this little area to show you why it's called a pineapple these decreasing logs give the illusion of a pineapple. And these blocks right here have examples of the blue, the pink and the brown fabrics. Fabrics that were very popular after the Civil War, browns, prints being especially desirable. And on the right is a design called the courthouse steps and presumably this little red square in the middle is the courthouse, and these are four sets of steps on the outer side of the courthouse, and the courthouse in Butler County, and probably others parts of the state. Ours has the courthouse in the center in for large sets of steps, ascending to this very important building so I think that's a very good way to depict it in the quilt. Unknown Speaker 53:41 Next is the fashion for read work, which was popular from about 1870 to 1925, and this is what succeeded. Crazy quilty and Redwork adorned not only quilts but coverlets dish towels laundry bags, pillow shams Bureau scarves splashers and much more. And you probably have many examples of these in your, your collections, and red work consisted of one simple stitch, covering a line drawing. And this is the polar opposite of that fancy Crazy Quilt stitching, where the ideal was to have over 100 Different fancy stitches on your crazy quilt. So maybe this simple read work gave ladies who followed all the fads, some relief from all that, that stitching that they had done for the crazy quotes to trends were popular from about the eight teen 80s through World War One, and that was combining name, and fundraiser quilts. And they were made through World War One, to raise funds for the Red Cross. Each person named on the quilt donated a fee, and this quilt here was made in 1888 it's embroidered on this lower right hand block which appears in this square in the quilt, and all these lines on the quilt that you see are really embroidered names, and that what those signify is a donation, then you had your name embroidered on the quilt for either a five to 10 cent donation. And after all the stitching was done, it's not truly a quilt I should mention it's not quilted but, You know, it's made in the style of a quilt. But after the piece was embroidered, it usually was raffled or auctioned off as a second step in that fundraiser process, and also fancy crazy quilts were made as fundraisers to. I always appreciate these fundraiser quilts because they are evidence of women, using their needlework skills to support causes and war efforts at a time when they owned, no significant personal economic assets, and did not yet share in the political process, but women found a way to make an impact through their quilts. And this quilt was made for the dollar town Lutheran Church, which is in Butler County. And in 2019, that church celebrated its 100 and 50th anniversary, and they borrowed this piece for their celebration and church members were thrilled to see not only their own relatives but their church ancestor names throughout the quilt. So that was a very, a highlight for their celebration of their 100 and 50th anniversary. Not all quilts were fancy and saved for best, and this is an example of that one. Most were made as warm bed coverings for everyday use. And by this time, the block size is smaller, there are 30 blocks on this quilt we're no longer making 30 inch blocks and these are much easier to handle and put together, but they were made this block style quilt, and others were made by the hundreds of 1000s from the 1870s and on when much cheaper fabrics was available, and published patterns could be ordered through the mail. When people, women saw them advertised in agricultural periodicals, ladies, magazines, and newspapers. I want to make a note about the cotton fabric. What we are looking at in these quilts, is fabric that was made for clothing, none of this was made for quilts, so when you're looking at a quilt. You're looking at fabric that was designed and produced for people to use to make clothing. It was not until 1982, when a fabric. When a quilt designer and author, Jenny buyer first designed fabric for, and it was marketed to quilters. And then after that time dedicated quilt shops sprang up so that was 1982 when fabric was made specifically for quilt makers. Unknown Speaker 58:24 This is a close up of the rising sun block to show that it is a plainly made unserviceable quilt. There is not the elaborate quilting that we saw before us one line of quilting. Here's another line of quilting, just a couple of crosshatch lines through the top of this quilt, and it's meant to be used and put into service quickly. But I still think it's a beautiful quilt because that Indigo and blue must have made quite a statement on a bed in a home. Now here are some patterns that were very popular in the 1930s and 1940s up on the upper left is the double wedding ring, and this is such a different style of fabric it's all pastels dainty floral prints, very very uplifting. On the lower left is the Dresden plate. Another very popular pattern, lots of pastels, violet and lilac was a popular color. And it's interesting that the 30s which was a harsh time economically, you had these bright light, airy flowery fabrics, maybe it kind of counteracted all the depressive, things that were going on on the lower right, here we have the hexagon shape again, I've mentioned it would come back in the 1930s, and now it's named grandmother's flower garden, but it's also printed in these, you know, light, airy 1930s colors. The fan appear on the upper right, this is a 1940s pattern and 1940s fabric got a little larger prints some darker prints were appearing, but all these four were very very popular in the 1930s to 1940s. And even though I've described some notable fashions and fads, in quiltmaking none of these ever patterns ever truly disappeared. People kept making them they had patterns down within families, but there were fads and fashions, and that's what I wanted to highlight. And now I'm going to stop midway to see Amy if there are any questions in the chat that I can answer, or if not, we'll just continue. Unknown Speaker 1:00:52 Let me, I'm looking right now. Okay, um, one question is, are all of these samples quilting by the same woman. Unknown Speaker 1:00:59 These samples right here or throughout. Unknown Speaker 1:01:02 I think maybe throughout. Unknown Speaker 1:01:05 Well, the the previous quilts that you were looking at were in the are in the collection of the Butler County Historical Society, and they're all most likely by different, different people. Unknown Speaker 1:01:17 And she clarified she said at the beginning. Unknown Speaker 1:01:20 At the beginning, all of those are donated quilts to the Butler County Historical Society, all by different families that donations. So every one of them was made by a different person. Unknown Speaker 1:01:32 And here's another question, do the trends in covers or spreads align with quilt timelines and patterns. Unknown Speaker 1:01:40 I think that the covers and spreads the one I, the ones I showed you do align one was a reds, and the one that was a comforter or comfortable that was tied that aligns very much with the 1920s fabrics. The other one that had the embroidery aligns with probably the 1920s and 30s when they're that read work, you know a lot of embroidery was done so, so I say yes. The they did align because that those were the fabrics that were available in the stores for cloth clothing making. So then those were incorporated into quilts in the same period. So people just made them differently. Using the same fabric that was available during a particular period. Unknown Speaker 1:02:30 I believe that's all the questions right now, Mary. Unknown Speaker 1:02:34 Okay, so then what we're going to do I'm going to continue. Unknown Speaker 1:02:38 Mary I'm sorry, there is one that just came through. Okay, um, isn't there a term tied Unknown Speaker 1:02:44 quilts. Yes, and that example was at the very beginning, I called it a comfortable comforter, and that was tied in that you could call a tied quilt, tied with yarn, or it could be embroidery floss. One thing I should mention also is that fancy crazy quilt. Most Crazy quilts were not quilted, there would be a tie at an intersection, A tie of thread that you could not even see. But it was just holding the layers in place so they wouldn't bulge out. But yes, it could be called a tide quilt, but I think the name earlier was comfort, comfortable, or comforter, but yes, that's actually accurate. Unknown Speaker 1:03:33 Okay, that's all. Unknown Speaker 1:03:34 And I should say tide will be in opposition to saying it was quilted. You know if quilted will have quilting stitches in it tied it could be any kind of quilt, any kind of three three layer thing, but it's just tied in it's a faster way to get a quote finished, so I can continue then are we good. Yeah, we have time for questions at the end, those are great questions I appreciate those. So now what I want to talk about is condition issues, because it's almost inevitable that 100 plus year old textile will have condition issues, especially quilts that were made and used daily laundered exposed to light and sometimes stored and not helpful surroundings, and I've divided it myself into these two categories, wear and tear and die related, and under the wear and tear category there are frayed missing bindings, worn parts holes in the tops and backs of quilts, stains, of course, seams could be pulled apart, there could be insect damage on woolens and mildew is one of the worst because it's very hard to remove, and dye related, there can be decayed or shredded silk, there can be color loss from light fading, washing, there can be bleeding of fabric into nearby fabrics and cracking refers to wearing of the dye will wear off in certain places where it look light, and then dark next to each other, and then there can be tendering or rotting simple rotting a fabric, and I'll explain how that happens a little bit later. So here are some common condition issues that I am putting under the wear and tear category with some pictures. On the left, I'll go from left to right, here's frayed and missing binding, some of it is just pulled away on the edge here, and there's no more binding. It's just come loose, probably from just pulling at it. If I were to attempt to fix this, I might very carefully so down on the edge with small stitches, what I could. You know what I could replace I would not replace the binding because if you take new fabric onto an old quilt, It just looks jarring and out of place. The next one has tears and fabric loss. Here is the quilt edge right here, and these large chunks, it's like almost like somebody took a bite out of it just completely missing. And down below stains are very common. This looks like a water stain, this is some kind of stain maybe from improper storage. This, anything can cause stains to occur. And then on the far right, there's simply missing fabric, there should be a whole row of circles here, all the way here and they just fell off. And this case there's still the top, this is all Apple case so you still have the top there. And this little one is almost coming off. If I were to look closely at this maybe this could be carefully stitched back down if there's enough fabric to do that with. And here's some common issues related to dye, and I want to talk about dying a little bit, or what was done to silk fabrics, and as you know many historic silk fabrics are in poor condition, as a result of metallic agents that were added to the silk to give it weight. And when dyeing it, especially when dyeing it black silk could eventually split, especially along fold lines, or just simply disintegrate, leaving bare areas like you see in this quilt on the right this is just disintegrated and almost into dust and it's completely missing. Sometimes even picking up a piece of silk quilt, can cause it to split especially if it's not being supported when handling it. Shattering and decay can happen to cotton, as well which the two pieces on the left are both cotton quilts, metal salts were used as Morton's to fix the dye in other words, to try to make it fast, and it would modify also could modify the color of a natural dye. So differing Morton's were added to red matter route, bringing a range of colors from bright red to rusty brown, an iron was a more than used to make read a rich, deep black color. But over time, iron salts and other metals weakened the fibers, causing them to decay. It's almost like they're dust, they just disappear. Unknown Speaker 1:08:34 So here on the right, the left is some rotted fabric out of cotton, you see all these white areas where there should be red fabric. The only thing holding some of it in place, is the quilting stitches. And on this square, there was some fabric that just completely disappeared probably a brown on both sides of this piece. And then down here on the lower right is an example of fugitive die, this would have been green originally this little these pieces the fine and leaves. And this these are found, especially in early, green fabrics, green is not a primary color so early greens were achieved through a two step dye process. The fabric was dyed yellow then over dyed in blue, or vice versa. It was dyed blue, and then over dyed in yellow. But what could happen in time is in this one this was dyed yellow first but over time, the blue just disappeared faded away and you're left with this pale color that's kind of an indication that yellow was the primary dye or if it happened in the opposite direction, you're kind of left with a bluish color when the yellow has just left. I want to point out on the upper right, this is a fancy. Crazy Quilt made as a fundraiser here you see the name stitched on that's kind of fun and it falls into that time period of name and fundraiser quotes 1889 So some are made as fancy crazy quotes. I want to talk about stabilization, a little bit for some of these fabrics holes and missing cloth or frayed hems can be protected with bridle tool in a matte finish. It can be purchased at Joanne's and a whole variety of colors, it looks. I just placed it against a dark cloth so you can see what it looks like but it's almost like air when you pick it up. And here's that quilt from before here's the edge of the quilt with all those chunks taken out of it. So what I did was overlap the tool on top of this, and I just, you know, with some tiny stitches, secured it into place so that raw edge won't be pulled any further. And here's the tool here, here's where it doesn't exist so there isn't a big color difference it's barely. It can barely be seen. So I think it's a good solution to protect holes on the top and I'm going back one slide because this little four inch square could be surrounded with tool, it could be tacked down. So this batting won't fall out of place. I just came from a museum in Virginia, and I'm looking at this top left piece where they covered the entire surface of a quilt with tool, because so much of this rot rotting had taken place and they didn't want any more of the quilt to fall apart. I would be hesitant to put tool on this black silk fundraiser quote, because I'd be afraid that just even piercing that black silk with a needle would cause it to shred further so handled carefully. Unknown Speaker 1:12:04 Next I want to talk about documentation, cleaning, and storage. And our foremothers never imagined that we would become so intrigued with their quilts and want to know all about them, but many of them left sparse information, which has led to many many many current research projects, some with limited results. But I suggest is gathering information from a donor as much as the donor knows, and find out who the maker was the vital statistics of the maker where the maker lived what the purpose of the quilt was. And I record information as, quote, as told by donor, because sometimes the information has been passed down in a family, it was never written down, and it can become very hazy dates can can really change a lot. I've had people say that a quilt was made in the 1880s and people like to attribute quilts to the Civil War, but when I look at the quilt, it's clearly a quilt that was made in the 1930s. So get the family's story as much as possible. And I think it's good that if the family who donates doesn't even have a story. I think that's important information to document as well, but at least you can say it came from a granddaughter living in Florida or the person who donated it was living in Ohio with her quilt. I have put labels on the quilts at the Butler County Historical Society, using this pig pen, it's an archival pen for writing on cloth, and I'll use a little section of this sprites bias fold single tape. I'll write the accession number on the tape. And that of course corresponds to information in the database, and then I slip stitch it on in a corner of the quilt on the back, if the fabric is stable. So, if a family doesn't have a lot of information about the quilt, and you want to know more about it, a certified quilt appraiser can also help you with improving some information by looking at fabric, they can help with dating, they can help with understanding how to care for the quilt, and even finding some names that the quilt might have been known by one thing to avoid I seen this on textiles, a pin with the accession number but I've void that as much as possible, especially in textiles, because of course pins can rust I have removed rusted pins from textiles, but also it can tear the fabric because one could inadvertently pull on the tag, and also that tag can pull away from the little string holding it in place so it's best to try to do this process of sewing something on the back of the quilt. Cleaning. I'm frequently asked Can I wash my quilt and people mean wash it under agitation, in a washing machine. And here's what we in the court world like to say about vintage quilts, if you feel the urge to wash your quilt. Go lie down until the urge passes, and she's just resting here in her lovely kind of late Victorian parlor, so that would be a good place to wait for the urge to pass on wet washing of vintage quilts is best done by a professional conservator, who has the knowledge, skills and equipment, especially, and they can evaluate the risks and benefits of doing that, fragile quilts can come apart at the seams. Color can fade and bleed into other sections when it's wet quilting can pull apart fabric can shrink, and if it has a wool batting. The will batting can shrink, Whoops, sorry about that. The wool bedding can shrink and really distort the quilt shape. And the older the stain, the less likely it can be removed. Anyway, Unknown Speaker 1:16:24 and valuable Antique Quilts and major museum questions often have stains and other problems. That's just the way it is. Avoid dry cleaning because cleaning chemicals, and the process are very harsh and fibers can be harmed and quotes can be destroyed. The best method for cleaning the surface than getting surface dust or dirt off is simply to vacuum it. Place a very flexible screen on top of the quilt vacuum with a low speed, with a handheld vacuum, and just remove surface dirt. If the quilt does have those shattered, or frayed areas don't vacuum in those areas you could pull backing out from the quilt. And also, don't hang the quilt on a line or shake it out because that also can cause tears and rips and the quilt. Just kind of enjoy the quilt, as It Is. Here are some storage solutions which you probably know about already, but I'm just going to go through them, and starting up here on the upper left with this picture of a fold line. This fold line occurred in this quilt. After being folded without tissue for about four days while it was waiting to be read boxed after it was shown in a quilt show so it doesn't take very long for folds and creases to occur and these delicate textiles, remember they're 150 or more or less years old, so it's best to use that acid free tissue kind of crumple it up stuff in the folds like along these lines, and then this is going to be folded over so it'll fit in the box and there's a nice piece of crumpled tissue there, it's probably best to try to store in these Gaylord acid free boxes, because then the boxes can be stacked upon one another, and you could have 10 boxes stacked up but you can't stack 10 quilts on top of each other because that will defeat the whole purpose of putting in all that tissue paper and trying to secure, you know, keep the folds from occurring, probably store no more than two to three in a box, depending on the thickness of the quote because if the lid is squished down the folds will occur. Over here on the lower left is a Muslim case which I created it's like a giant muslin pillowcase, that I sewed because there were no more places to even store these boxes under beds or on shelves so I place the quilt in a closet, on top of a box. So I just made a nice Muslim case for it, it's protected from dust. And I just want to point out here's where I've sewn the label on the quilt, it's near a corner, and I always fold the quilt so that the label is on the top so if I'm looking through a box for a certain quilt. The labels are all on the surface they are folded within the quilt. The ideal in the quilt world is to refold the quilt, every three months along new fold lines. I don't know if anybody truly does that, but if you can do it once a year, that's wonderful. But if you're taking the quilt out to show it or for some reason, when you return it to its resting spot refolded along different lines so that it won't be stressing the same portion of the quilt because it can actually end up splitting fibers. And the idea is display your quilts, so everyone can enjoy them. You know some quilts are warm and cozy coverings, they were made to protect the family, but others are really stunning works of art, and they demonstrate the makers outstanding technical and artistic skills, and all of these quilts give insight into how our four mothers contributed to their survival, and our cultural heritage. So displaying quilts exposes viewers to this heritage, and I've come up with some very budget friendly solutions, I know there's Poland drape there are other their slant boards, but they can be displayed on beds, be sure to rotate if there's a lot of light in the room. Here's that crazy quilt on Assa T in the parlor. It could be draped over a stair railing, but if it's folded, be sure to expose the outer border because if there's a pretty border treatment, you want to be able to see that it could be draped on a chair. It could be draped over a sawhorse but again cover that with muslin on a quilt rack, fold it so that the outer border is showing or quilts could be laid out on a table with enough of the quote showing that would show the beauty of the quilt. Unknown Speaker 1:21:26 There are. I've seen this solution in some museums and other places where quotes can be hung from a picture rail. Here's the traditional picture rail with the clip and the wire, and here's the dowel which can be put through a sleeve on the back of the quilt. And then the wire is threaded into this, I here's a gallery picture rail, I don't. I've looked some of them up some of that these systems are not that expensive, but then a sleeve is sewn on the back of the quilt, and then that can accommodate the dowel or a pole for hanging. Always check that the back of the quilt is sturdy enough that this could be sewn on and bear the weight of the quilt. This one is that beautiful Crazy Quilt I've seen splits in the back of the quilt. When I get back to the Historical Society I'm going to remove the sleeve because the quilt is too heavy to be hung on a pole in the future and I don't want that to happen. Here are some resources there are these and more are on the handout I there's the quilt appraisal Association, you can look up there is one appraiser in Ohio, she lives in Columbus. I'm listing here quilt guilds because this is a source of possible volunteer help to help maybe with some minor repairs to help with hanging quilts for show, sometimes guilds have up the pole and drape idea for hanging quilts, and they can help so sleeves on. Here's where to find a conservator. Here are some books that are especially this one quilts and community Ohio's traditions is the result of a statewide quilt documentation project that talks about quilts and history throughout Ohio, and the cure cough book The American quilt is really easy to read beautiful history. Lots of lavish coloured photos. And in ending. I like to say that quilts are the iconic American textile and much history is held in them of times, places, and the people who made them. They are historical documents of technological progress, such as the sewing machine, America's development of its textile industry, their documents of women's and their family and friendship ties, as we saw in the friendship quilt. They demonstrate women's economic contributions, as we saw in their fundraiser quilts. And we see women's interest in politics and social reform reflected in their quilts, the quilts that they made for causes in the United States and around the world. So in closing, I want to thank you for attending this presentation, I hope you enjoyed it and learned from it. And we should have a little bit of time for some questions and to answer. What's in the chat. Thank you so much, Unknown Speaker 1:24:36 Mary, there are a few questions. So, um, let me start with this one. What is your thought on storing quilts on beds with many on top of each other, but all laid out, with no, no folds. Unknown Speaker 1:24:53 Yeah, I have heard people do that, I don't have a good grasp of how many could be stored on top of each other. But if it's a quilt that has a surface, such as the crazy quilt, you might want to put a piece of muslin between two quilts, so there's not rubbing, but I would say four to five to six quilts, they're all flat, but you don't want to flatten if there's certain surfaces you don't want them squishing together too much, but that's an OK way to do it just so you're not getting even bright light can cause fading. But, yeah, I'd say four to five to six quilts could be done that way Unknown Speaker 1:25:31 on a bed. Okay, another question, are there any special considerations to take into account when sewing on to a historic quilt, preservation and or documenting. Unknown Speaker 1:25:44 If you're sewing a label on the quilt. Unknown Speaker 1:25:49 Perhaps, it just says sewing on to a historic Unknown Speaker 1:25:52 oh well, they might be asking about sewing on, like I mentioned the, the matte finish the bridal tool. And I do know that major museums have sewn the bridle tool on to certain sections, maybe a small section where this stuffing is coming out things are coming loose. The major museums have carefully so if the, the fabric that you're sewing on is stable. And they've done that on historic quilts in major museum collections as a conservation method, and people. Note that it has been done, so that if there's an alteration that is noted in your database. So it has been done to preserve conserve and preserve. Unknown Speaker 1:26:45 Okay, another question is rolling a quilt for storage not recommended. Unknown Speaker 1:26:50 Well, I didn't go into that because I'm rolling is hard to achieve. I know that there are those special systems and museums where there are a padded, like a there could be a dowel that's padded and then the probe can be rolled on it and then it's placed in a holder, so it's not lying flat on the ground that can be done if there's some padding to start with, and that those are systems very expensive systems that exist in museums but you also want to suspend it from something not just place the roll on the ground but that that's a good way because there will be no fault of that quilt. Unknown Speaker 1:27:30 Okay, what else, what would you do with cotton batting, that is falling, or this falling or crumbling Unknown Speaker 1:27:41 and, and I'm assuming what the person means is it's visible on the top of the quilt. So you'd only see the cotton batting, if there's a hole in the quilt, and again going back to, to some of the stabilization museums do take that bridle tool and will stitch it on very carefully, that will keep the bedding from falling out of the quilt if it's a large section of bedding. The same can be done to the back of the quilt, gently stitch some of that tool on that hole, and that should keep the batting from falling out of place. If the fabric you're sewing into is stable. Unknown Speaker 1:28:21 Okay, this is probably one that a lot of people have trouble with Do you have suggestions so people will not touch quilts when displaying, other than having an do not to touch sign. Unknown Speaker 1:28:32 Well, if they're tempted, they could. Well one thing I've seen in shows is, this may not be possible is a docent is in the room, and she has gloves on and she has a lot of people want to see what does the back of the coat look like what is the reverse fabric sometimes the fabric on the reverse is a very interesting print, or you can get a glimpse of what all that overall quoting looks like people are very eager to see the back of a quote so if someone is there to lift the back of the quilt or with gloves on, that's acceptable but yeah you don't want people touching quotes and coming around with a pen in their hand or they're drinking something because all that is is could be, but I, I, unless you're watching, or people are given a set of gloves if they go in, and they're on their own. Okay, I would have somebody kind of watching. Unknown Speaker 1:29:32 Sure. And here's another one when hanging a quilt How long should it be hung for. Unknown Speaker 1:29:39 I think that's an excellent question because the one thing I forgot to mention is if I'm hanging a quote with a sleeve in the back with a dowel, I would select a very lightweight quilt, because all that weight pulling on the, the stitched on sleeve, could be damaging to the backing fabric so, I mean, quote shows might last, you know, a month. I've seen that I've seen shows for three days over a weekend, but if it's going to be hand with a sleeve, and there's no support on the bottom, and you know can't be on a slant board. I would be sure to take a very lightweight quilt one that isn't going to be weighing down and possibly potentially ripping the quilt otherwise it could be draped on a piece of furniture or a table, and then it's got a lot of support, so select the quilt carefully. Unknown Speaker 1:30:36 Okay. Um, I would just like to thank you so much for your presentation at this point I'm not sure if there's any more questions. I know you will have access to information following later on in the month because the presentations are being recorded, but I'd like to thank you Mary because you've given a lot of really practical information that's really been useful and helpful. I think to many people and, and historical societies and museums who actually have collections. I see another question that came through. Oh, that says thank you I learned a lot from your information. Unknown Speaker 1:31:15 Yeah and there's a little more amplification in the handout. And if you need to reach me, you can call the Butler County Historical Society. Okay, thank you so much I appreciate everyone listening, Unknown Speaker 1:31:28 thank you everyone and have a great rest of your conference. Thank you, Mary. Unknown Speaker 1:31:32 You're welcome. You're very welcome. Well, Unknown Speaker 1:31:38 how'd you. That was excellent, okay so yeah really really practical information. I appreciate it because we did a quilt. Exhibit A while ago, and actually the idea of using, you know if you can have docents we had people that were in the gallery for that very reason, because we were worried about people touching them and people put their hands, you know, put a couple of gloves on and when people asked they had the opportunity to show the show they don't because that's what they want to learn. Yeah, Unknown Speaker 1:32:06 and now you're making me think of something that's where these book guilds can come in handy either members may want to come and volunteer and do that, be a part of your show and put in, you know, two hours but when I go to a show I want to look at the back of the quilt Unknown Speaker 1:32:21 that is an X actually that's a really excellent idea and I would have not we have it we were lucky we had volunteers who felt but at the end of the day that's an excellent idea. Unknown Speaker 1:32:29 Yeah, the guilds are everywhere. They're everywhere across the state and at any any quilt shop in the, in anyone's area will will know where the guilds are in those ladies would probably love to come and stand for an hour or two, you unguardedly Yeah, absolutely. I know, I want to see the back. Yeah, Unknown Speaker 1:32:47 yeah and you know somebody brought that up to our attention because somebody I think after we had had ours and we hung some of ours, more than, then probably should have been in fairness, but then we did get had some a frames made and we were able to lay some of them out. But what was interesting is one I think of our docents said you know I keep having people wanting to see the back of the quilt, yes. And so, I believe we made, you know gloves available so people could pick it up and show them. Yeah, so Unknown Speaker 1:33:17 interesting, some of the shows I go to and I wouldn't suggest this for a show but when we do a lot of quilt bed turnings, there are people now who say, just make sure your hands are washed. You can't do that with people coming off the street, I realize but a lot of us going to our own little shows they're saying, wash your hands we're not bothering with gloves anymore but, but I wouldn't have people who just drop in for the show but yeah they do want to see, they do want to see the back. Unknown Speaker 1:33:43 Yeah, it's it's intriguing actually so anyway thank you so much, Unknown Speaker 1:33:47 you're totally welcome I really appreciate it. Thank you. Well thank you Ben. Unknown Speaker 1:33:52 Yeah, thank you so much, Ben Yeah, yeah, everything's smooth, good. Unknown Speaker 1:33:57 i That's all I had to do my job was pretty easy, but Unknown Speaker 1:34:00 you learn something about quotes I did, yes. Yeah, yeah, Unknown Speaker 1:34:05 yeah. Mary I got to share this with you know I was in Colombia Anna going, I was with my brother and we went and we stopped at one of the, one of their, you know, shops and antique shops by happenstance and I'm wandering around, I had a couple of things I was thinking about picking up, I looked down and I see what looked like a crazy, crazy quilt and I'm like looking at that and I'm like, it was, it was in mint condition. Now, I don't think it was from early, or the late 1800s I think it was later like I feel like it was 1900 on up, but it is in gorgeous condition, absolutely beautifully done all stitched I about fell over and I said to my brother. Oh, I think I have to buy this. And so I just recently purchased that fell into it had no idea I didn't mean to, and I was like I gotta do this. Yeah, so I was thrilled because actually it's a welter one my favorites, yeah I love him, Unknown Speaker 1:35:03 and I love how they kept going on into the, into the 20s, with all that practical fabric, they quit the fancy, fancy, fancy thing but those fancy fundraiser quilts that he has with name with stuff, Unknown Speaker 1:35:16 I would love to see those, that's the final. Unknown Speaker 1:35:18 The sad part about those two that they have, they're wonderful they're fabulous but there's so much the silk is just, yeah, practically destroyed but to do all that stitching for a fundraiser for a church that ladies really went, you know, Unknown Speaker 1:35:33 yes Unknown Speaker 1:35:34 it did sit a lot. Yeah, Unknown Speaker 1:35:36 absolutely, Unknown Speaker 1:35:37 yeah. All right, well, it was great. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you Amy Yeah. Transcribed by https://otter.ai