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Extracted
from articles written by
Mary
Kate Jordan for the Monterey News
When
the quilt documenters and other volunteers gathered in Sheffield on
April 29, 2001 to participate in the statewide Quilt Documentation
Project, Lynne Bassett came specifically to document the Bidwell House
“whole cloth” quilts. Lynne, the former textiles director of Old
Sturbridge Village who created their historic quilt show, "Northern
Comfort", specializes in eighteenth century quilts of this type.
They look very different from images the word “quilt” conjures up
today. “Whole cloth” quilts, like most quilts, are made of two layers of
fabric with a third layer of fabric or fibers sandwiched in between and
held in place with stitches. |
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But the tops aren’t pieced together to make a repeated pattern out of
different cotton prints, like traditional American patchwork quilts. They
aren’t decorated with cut out pieces of cloth sewn on for decoration, like
historic Baltimore or other appliquéd quilts. Their tops are made of a
single piece of solid color fabric, or several pieces of the same color,
and the decoration is entirely made by the patterns of quilt stitches. |
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Quilt made c 1175 - 1825 |
Many
of them, particularly the earlier ones, are made of wool, including many
of the Bidwell House quilts. Most have traditional American floral,
leafy, scroll-like quilting patterns as seen below.
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One
smaller red quilt, though, has a distinct geometric look to its quilting.
See (image to the right) the central medallion set into an X which goes
corner to corner on the quilt. Below a detail of the border of
semi-circles. |
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Ms. Bassett says that it was probably made by Scots-Irish immigrants,
and is based on a pattern from the British Isles. All the quilts are in
remarkably good condition, given their age and wool’s vulnerability to
moths. |
A
number of the later eighteenth and the nineteenth century quilts in the
collection are also whole cloth, but made of glazed cotton. Several of
these are on display in the upstairs
parlor
chamber room and the
children's room at the Bidwell House Museum. |
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One
white "whole cloth" quilt with an eagle and banner created
quite a stir among the volunteers. It is only the second of this
specific eagle pattern any of the documenters or the volunteers who
traveled with them had ever seen. While there’s a woman in the Pioneer
Valley who will be very disappointed to learn that her quilted eagle
isn’t one-of-a-kind, Monterey has counted coup with yet another
delightful “fiber find”. |
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