Customer Reviews

Old Patchwork Quilts: And the Women Who Made Them

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I bought this book about 20 years ago. It was first published in 1929, but it reads as if it were written at the height of the feminist movement in the 70s! The author had a great sense of humor and a marvelous appreciation of how women needed, and found in quilting, an artistic/creative outlet, at a time when just about everything else in their world was controlled or created by men.

She traces the development of techniques and designs, from simple to complex, interweaving her discussion with descriptions of the social and environmental circumstances that influenced design and especially the naming of designs. For example, "It was impossible for the women who every morning viewed nature's most glorious spectacle not to create a 'Rising Sun' quilt pattern. How they loved the sunrise is best proved by the remarkable beauty of the pattern it inspired...It is a triumph of design and is so difficult of execution that only the most expert quilt-makers attempted it. A 'Rising Sun' was post-graduate work, and consequently is one of the rarest and most valuable of quilts."

She traces how pattern names often changed as the quilters' circumstances changed. For example, a pattern that has been known as the "Bear's Paw" (and sometimes as "Hand of Friendship") since the early 1800s in PA and Ohio was called "Duck's-foot-in-the-mud" in Long Island!

Describing Pennsylvania Dutch quilts within the context of the drabness of the Pennsylvania Dutch woman's existence she says, "...it may have been some unconsciously craved compensation for the drab monotony of their days that caused the women of these households to evolve quilt patterns so intricate. Only a soul in desperate need of nervous outlet could have conceived and executed, for instance, the "Full Blown Tulip"...It is a perfect accomplishment from a needlework standpoint, yet hideous" (she describes it in detail and goes on): "This green-red-lemon-orange combination is enough to set a blind man's teeth on edge..."

There are 100 figures (drawings and diagrams) of patterns, 90+ photos of antique quilts (black and white), and sections on sets, wadding, fabrics and dyes, etc. History has not been one of my favorite subjects, but I love this book. I have gone back to it again and again in the twenty years since that first reading, whether to find a pattern or to enjoy again her discussions. I have a rather extensive library on many subjects, and this book rates as one of my top ten favorites.

I bought this book about 20 years ago. It was first published in 1929, but it reads as if it were written at the height of the feminist movement in the 70s! The author had a great sense of humor and a marvelous appreciation of how women needed, and found in quilting, an artistic/creative outlet, at a time when just about everything else in their world was controlled or created by men.

She traces the development of techniques and designs, from simple to complex, interweaving her discussion with descriptions of the social and environmental circumstances that influenced design and especially the naming of designs. For example, "It was impossible for the women who every morning viewed nature's most glorious spectacle not to create a 'Rising Sun' quilt pattern. How they loved the sunrise is best proved by the remarkable beauty of the pattern it inspired...It is a triumph of design and is so difficult of execution that only the most expert quilt-makers attempted it. A 'Rising Sun' was post-graduate work, and consequently is one of the rarest and most valuable of quilts."

Describing Pennsylvania Dutch quilts within the context of the drabness of the Pennsylvania Dutch woman's existence she says, "...it may have been some unconsciously craved compensation for the drab monotony of their days that caused the women of these households to evolve quilt patterns so intricate. Only a soul in desperate need of nervous outlet could have conceived and executed, for instance, the "Full Blown Tulip"...It is a perfect accomplishment from a needlework standpoint, yet hideous" (she describes it in detail and goes on): "This green-red-lemon-orange combination is enough to set a blind man's teeth on edge..."

She traces how pattern names often changed as the quilters' circumstances changed. For example, a pattern that has been known as the "Bear's Paw" (and sometimes as "Hand of Friendship") since the early 1800s in PA and Ohio was called "Duck's-foot-in-the-mud" in Long Island!

There are 100 figures (drawings and diagrams) of patterns, 90+ photos of antique quilts (black and white), and sections on sets, wadding, fabrics and dyes, etc. History has not been one of my favorite subjects, but I love this book. I have gone back to it again and again in the twenty years since that first reading, whether to find a pattern or to enjoy again her discussions. I have a rather extensive library on many subjects, and this book rates as one of my top ten favorites.

I bought this book about 20 years ago. It was first published in 1929, but it reads as if it were written at the height of the feminist movement in the 70s! The author had a great sense of humor and a marvelous appreciation of how women needed, and found in quilting, an artistic/creative outlet, at a time when just about everything else in their world was controlled or created by men.

She traces the development of techniques and designs, from simple to complex, interweaving her discussion with descriptions of the social and environmental circumstances that influenced design and especially the naming of designs. For example, "It was impossible for the women who every morning viewed nature's most glorious spectacle not to create a 'Rising Sun' quilt pattern. How they loved the sunrise is best proved by the remarkable beauty of the pattern it inspired...It is a triumph of design and is so difficult of execution that only the most expert quilt-makers attempted it. A 'Rising Sun' was post-graduate work, and consequently is one of the rarest and most valuable of quilts."

She traces how pattern names often changed as the quilters' circumstances changed. For example, a pattern that has been known as the "Bear's Paw" (and sometimes as "Hand of Friendship") since the early 1800s in PA and Ohio was called "Duck's-foot-in-the-mud" in Long Island!

Describing Pennsylvania Dutch quilts within the context of the drabness of the Pennsylvania Dutch woman's existence she says, "...it may have been some unconsciously craved compensation for the drab monotony of their days that caused the women of these households to evolve quilt patterns so intricate. Only a soul in desperate need of nervous outlet could have conceived and executed, for instance, the "Full Blown Tulip"...It is a perfect accomplishment from a needlework standpoint, yet hideous" (she describes it in detail and goes on): "This green-red-lemon-orange combination is enough to set a blind man's teeth on edge..."

There are 100 figures (drawings and diagrams) of patterns, 90+ photos of antique quilts (black and white), and sections on sets, wadding, fabrics and dyes, etc. History has not been one of my favorite subjects, but I love this book. I have gone back to it again and again in the twenty years since that first reading, whether to find a pattern or to enjoy again her discussions. I have a rather extensive library on many subjects, and this book rates as one of my top ten favorites.

This book remains important in the history of quilt studies, as one of the first to examine American quilt history, but it is absolutely ridden with romantic myths and errors. Don't take anything she says as gospel. Her assertions, completely unfounded and undocumented, have been repeated endlessly in books on quilts of the Colonial Revival (30s-40s) and the quilt revival (70s-today), but it doesn't make them true. Be very, very cautious in quoting her or in assuming that anyone quoting her later on, knows what they are talking about.