Lest we Forget...In Gwen's own words

The quilting world has lost one of the pioneers of quilt history with the passing of Cuesta Benberry this past August 23rd.  The news reached me shortly after I  returned from Marion, Indiana for the induction of Mary Schafer into the Quilter's Hall of Fame. It was particularly poignant in that Mary and Cuesta had been friends for many years during which time they had been actively supportive of each other. Mary and Cuesta had enjoyed a long, fruitful friendship and held each other in the highest regard. Cuesta, herself a member of the Quilters Hall of Fame, had enthusiastically supported my efforts to insure that Mary's name was included to that list.

            I met Cuesta through my friendship with Mary. Those of us who corresponded with Cuesta fondly remember her timely and thorough responses to our questions which arrived hand written on legal sized sheets of lined yellow paper.

            Cuesta wrote many fine articles for early quilt magazines including Nimble Needles and Quilter's Journal. While she rightly gained notoriety as a quilt scholar, she maintained a great appreciation for serious quiltmakers like Mary. As she reminded us way back in 1984, "If people don't make quilts, we (scholars) don't have anything to write about so in order of importance, quiltmaking is the most important thing." (Quilter's Journal, No. 23, 1984, p.13). Cuesta pops up repeatedly throughout the book I wrote about Mary. She is cited ten times in the bibliography and quotes from her letters generously pepper the Schafer book.

            We all owe Cuesta our thanks for her many contributions. It was her generation who diligently worked together to gather the stories, document the patterns, collect the quilts and lay the framework for the quilting world we all enjoy today. As she and her friend Joyce Gross so colorfully reminded us "Today's quilting world did not just spring from the head of Zeus." (20th Century Quilts:1900-1970, Women Make Their Mark. Paducah, KY: American Quilter's Society, 1997.)   We will miss you, Cuesta.

              Here is a section about Cuesta from my book Mary Schafer, American Quilt Maker  (The University of Michigan Press, 2004).

            Since 1975 her research has centered primarily on African-American quilt history. Her book Always There: The African-American Presence in American Quilts (The Kentucky Quilt Project, 1992), was a ground-breaking document. Recognized for her research, Cuesta is cited in the 17th edition of Marquis Who's Who of American Women, in the 23rd edition of Marquis Who's Who in the Midwest, in the 11th edition of Who's Who in the World, and in the Directory of African-American Folklorists, Smithsonian Institution Office of Folklife Programs. A restless researcher and prolific writer, her impact on the quilt world has been considerable.

            Cuesta's interest in quilts inspired her to design a quilt using blocks found in black-made quilts from the days of slavery to the late 20th century. She named the quilt "Afro-American Women and Quilts". Mary Schafer pieced the ninth block, a version of Robbing Peter to Pay Paul. Mary got the idea for her block from a picture she saw of a quilt attributed to a black woman in Florence Peto's book, Historic Quilts.

            Mary and Cuesta corresponded for years before finally meeting each other in the summer of 1985. In a letter to Gwen Marston, dated June 15, 1985, Cuesta writes:

            The Michigan trip was a memorable one!.....the high point was to see Mary's fantastic quilts! Whew! I am still awe-struck. Everyone should know we have a Master Quiltmaker living among us today-Mary Schafer! I have seen photos of Mary's quilts for 20 years and always thought they were beautiful. But those quilts have to be seen to be believed-they are just that fabulous!

            Their friendship went beyond corresponding with each other. Over the years Mary sent Cuesta over 100 quilt blocks, which Cuesta has now donated to the Quilters Hall of Fame.

Mary Schafer, one of the most important quiltmakers of the second half of the 20th century, was named the Quilters Hall of Fame 37th honoree in Marion Indiana, July 20-21. Mary was known for her prodigious output of beautifully designed and made quilts,  her fine collection of antique quilts, and for her contributions to quilt scholarship.

            On Friday, July 20th, it was my pleasure to present a lecture about Mary's life and contributions to quiltmaking. Mary Schafer and other women of her times are responsible for creating the quilt world we know and enjoy today. Mary contributed by making         historically important quilts, researching the history of each pattern, participating in quilt pattern Round Robins, and carrying on a wide correspondence with many of the early quilt historians and pattern collectors of her day. As Joyce Gross and Cuesta Benberry noted in the catalog  for their exhibit 20th Century Quilts, 1900-1970: Women Who Make Their Mark at the AQS Museum in1997, "Today's world of quiltmaking did not just spring from the head of Zeus after 1970."

            In Marie Webster's book, Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them, 1915, Mary found the words that influenced all of her efforts on behalf of quiltmaking:

            "To raise in popular esteem these most worthy products of home industry, to add     to the appreciation of their history and traditions, to present a few of the old masterpieces to the quilters of today; such is the purpose of this book of quilts".

            Upon reading those words Mary set about on a serious quest to raise the esteem of the art of quiltmaking and the quilters themselves, to heighten peoples interest in quilt history and to share her quilts with others. With Mary, it was all about the quilts. If I heard Mary talk about "raising the esteem" once, I heard it a hundred times.

            She entered the first National Quilting Association (NQA) exhibit, in 1970 and won two blue ribbons for her CLAMSHELL quilt: Best Pieced quilt and Viewer's Choice.  Her one woman exhibits include the American Museum of Quilts in San Jose, CA (1987),  the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA (1989) and the first solo exhibit at the MAQS Museum in Paducah, KY (1991.)

            Mary's accomplishments have been recognized by her home state of Michigan.

-Michigan proclamation honoring Mary for her contribution to quiltmaking: Senate Resolution No. 605, September 9, 1986.

-Michigan Women's Foundation award for outstanding contributions to the arts. May 25,    1988.

-Permanent Mary Schafer Collection now housed at Michigan State University Museum,    East Lansing, Michigan.

         On Saturday, July 21, I did a walk through lecture at the exhibit of Mary's quilts at the Marian Public Library. The 15 quilts selected for the exhibit are from the second half of the Schafer collection owned by Mary's grand daughter, Deborah Schmondiuk.   Deborah and her husband Joe attended the festivities and their presence greatly added to the personal warmth of these events. The afternoon began with The Induction Luncheon for Mary. It was lovely to scan the room and see so many Mary Schafer devotees, many of whom came from long distances to celebrate Mary's life and contributions. Georgia Bonesteel and Bets Ramsey, both Quilters Hall of Fame Honorees, were in attendance as was Rosalind Perry, Marie Websters grand daughter.           

            It was a pleasure for me to be at this celebration on Mary's behalf and I thank the Board of Directors, Karen Alexander, President,  Joyce Hostetler, Executive Director, and all those who made this event possible. I'm sure Mary would have been very pleased.

            As this years inductee into the Quilters Hall of Fame, Mary joins those whom she admired from a previous generation, William Dunton, Ruth Finley, Averil Colby, Carrie Hall, Rose Kretsinger, Marie Webster, Grace Snyder and Bertha Stenge.

            She also joins her contemporaries, women she knew and corresponded with: Lenice Bacon, Cuesta Benberry, Florence Peto, Mary Barton, Sally Garoutte and Joyce Gross.

            And so it has come full circle. In her dedication to bringing esteem to the art of quiltmaking and to quilters from the past, Mary has earned that esteem for herself.

            For the complete Mary Schafer story see Mary Schafer, American Quilt Maker. Marston, The University of Michigan Press, 2004. Winner of the Michigan Notable Book Award.

From my book Mary Schafer; American Quilt Maker, University of Michigan Press, 2004, won Michigan Notable Book Award for literature in 2005. If you like history, this is a lovely story of a little immigrant girl who made a life for herself with needle and thread and contributed greatly to the quilt world in the process.

It was a close call. Mary told me the steamer that brought her to America was the last peacetime ship to cross the International Date Line before the Great War began in 1914. Mary, her mother and brother were on the last passenger ship allowed to exit Austria-Hungary, until the war ended in 1918. A year later the Treaty of Versailles would re-draw the map of Europe and Mary's homeland would cease to exist.

In other ways, Mary's coming to America story is the quintessential immigrant story of her day. She was born in Tarany, Somogy County, in 1910. Her mother, Julianna Zelko, and father, Josef Vida, a widower with a four year old son, had been married there the previous year. In 1911, Josef Vida realized he couldn't support his family on the little farm he had inherited. He made the hard decision many Europeans made in those days. He decided to seek a better life elsewhere.

Josef Vida struck out alone for Brazil where he labored on a plantation. When this first adventure turned out to be disappointing, he moved to Mississippi and tried growing peanuts. When his peanut crop failed, he moved to West Virginia and worked in a coal mine. Later he moved to Ohio and found work in a rubber factory. None of these first attempts earned enough money to reunite his family. Undaunted, he moved to Kansas City, Kansas and began working as a boilermaker for the Union-Pacific Railroad. There his fortune took a turn for the better. Four years after emigrating to the new world, he bought and furnished a small house and sent for his wife and children.

Tragedy struck not long after they arrived in Kansas City. Julianna fell ill with tuberculosis and died January 11, 1916. Mary was just five years old. Her father, not yet thirty, found himself widowed for the second time.

Unfortunately, bad times didn't stop there. A few years later Mary contracted a serious eye infection and Josef took her to a nearby Catholic hospital for treatment. While they were there, he learned that the nuns at St. Margaret's Hospital ran an orphanage for girls in a wing of the hospital. He decided that Mary would receive better care at the orphanage than he could provide. He made arrangements for Mary to stay with the nuns until his own situation improved.

Mary stayed at the orphanage for over a year. It was so crowded, she recalls, the girls slept two to a bed, one at the head and the other at the foot. With World War I in full swing, food, clothing and even medical supplies were hard to come by everywhere, and St. Margaret's was no exception. As though things weren't bad enough, 1918 was the year of the terrible influenza pandemic that raced around the globe killing between 20 and 40 million people. Mary remembers that many of the little girls in the orphanage died while she was there.

Late in 1919, Mary's father visited Mary in the orphanage and asked her if she wanted to stay there or go home. Mary wanted to go home. Listening to her talk about these times, I've found it hard to imagine just how alone and terrifying a time this must have been for little Mary Vida: a girl without a home, without a homeland and without a mother.

In 1920, Josef packed up the children and moved to Flint, Michigan, where he found work at General Motors. They rented two rooms on the second floor of a house which Mary remembers as being the same; no kitchen to speak of, and no running water. Mary carried pails of water from the pump in the backyard, up the stairs for drinking, cooking and bathing. She did the laundry in a wash bucket for the whole family. Mary, at age 10, was considered old enough to take on all the other housekeeping chores too. She tells me there were only two chairs at the kitchen table so she served her father and brother their meals first and then she ate later.

In spite of how much time Mary had to spend on housekeeping, she did very well in her studies. Mary liked everything about going to school except for the second and third-hand clothes she wore. Her father brought home clothing for the children which he "rescued" from the rag bag at work. Although embarrassed at the time, later on in her life "rescuing" textiles would become a major factor in her artistic development.

Mary vividly remembers an act of kindness from this period. One of her teachers re-cut and re-made one of the hand-me-down dresses to fit Mary correctly. Mary tells me she was so thankful to this teacher for altering her dress, especially because the teacher did it in a quiet way.

Inevitably Mary, as many women of her generation, would learn to sew. Josef intended to bring his daughter up with skills she needed to be marriageable. Knowing how to cook and clean was only part of it. Sewing and other types of needlework were considered crucial to her education.

With no mother to teach these essentials, Josef arranged for her to take lessons from neighbor women. Her needlework lessons included crocheting, tatting, embroidering and knitting. Josef expected perfection from Mary. He inspected all of her work. If he detected the slightest flaw, he would rip it out and make her redo it. This early experience of striving for perfection would later manifest itself in Mary's quiltmaking.
Part Two of Coming to America
Ambitious and frugal, Josef saved enough money by 1925 to buy The Flint Creamery. The dairy processed pasteurized milk, cream, buttermilk, cottage cheese and a little butter. Customer deliveries were made in a horse-drawn wagon. When Josef had to fill big orders on the other side of town, he hired Fred Schafer, a young man from the neighborhood, with access to a car.
Mary was now fifteen, old enough to work full time in the business, or so Josef thought. He told Mary what she needed to know wasn't taught in school. And so it was that Mary's high school education, as many women of her generation, came to a premature and abrupt end. Mary did continue sewing for pleasure in her spare time, though. She told me as a teenager she loved to embroider and did a great number of pillowcases, dresser scarves, buffet pieces and tablecloths.
While Mary's childhood may sound short and harsh to us today, it is important to put it in its historical context. Her story is the classic immigrant story. Her family experiences were no different than many others who came to America seeking a better life. Josef was following Old World ways in raising Mary. And, it was common in those days for everyone in the family to do their part to support the family unit.
Mary kept long hours at the Creamery. Because she was family, however, she wasn't paid for her work. Her father actually did give Mary a check, but it was only for tax purposes. Mary was expected to cash the check and give back the money. Her father thought that Mary didn't need money, because he provided for her.
Mary was good at math, and she took over the bookkeeping for the new business. When she wasn't occupied with bookkeeping, she washed bottles and did other chores. While this arrangement seemed perfectly normal to Josef, it wasn't satisfactory to Mary. When she was sixteen, she rebelled. She left her father's employ and joined other young women operators at Michigan Bell.
In Josef's eyes, Mary was fast approaching the marriageable age. He considered it his responsibility to select a husband for Mary. He told Mary who he had in mind. Mary had to tell her father that the boy he had chosen just wasn't the one for her. Mary was beginning to exercise her independence. She wanted to make her own decisions.
The Schafer's, a family of German immigrants, lived right down the street from the Creamery. Mary went to school with Ann, one of the older daughters. Ann's younger brother Fred was one of the rowdy boys she had seen around the neighborhood and at the Creamery. She didn't like him much.
Mr. Schafer, a man whom Mary remembers fondly, encouraged his son to court Mary. Fred took his father's advise and started paying attention to her. At first Mary wasn't interested, but he persisted, giving her little gifts and being attentive. Once he gave Mary a watch, which she still has. Mary began to change her mind about Fred, and they began to see each other. They found out that they liked the same things. They went to see silent films; they took in vaudeville shows at the Palace theatre in downtown Flint. They danced. In the summer they went to dances held at Potters Lake, east of Davison, Michigan. On Saturday nights in the winter, they went to the Dance Box in downtown Flint.
As a Catholic, Josef wasn't at all happy about his daughter dating a Lutheran. Fred told me that when he was courting Mary, he would catch a glimpse of Mr. Vida spying on them from behind buildings.
Fred was a hard worker. He was a welder at "The Buick," as the largest factory in the world was known in its hometown of Flint. Even before the Great Sit Down Strike of 1936/37 in Flint which resulted in major improvements for workers, a job in a General Motors factory was coveted. After about a year's courtship, and despite her father's objections, Mary and Fred married on June 22, 1929. Mary was nineteen when she took Fred's hand at St. Paul's Lutheran Church on North Saginaw Street in Flint. A formal occasion, Mary wore a white wedding gown with a long train. She had six bridesmaids. Six friends in black tie stood up with Fred.
Fred and Mary moved into their own apartment and set up housekeeping. With both of them working at paying jobs, they enjoyed relative prosperity. They loved being together and making their own decisions. The honeymoon period was short lived, however. Only three months into their new life together, the stock market crashed. Fred lost his job at Buick in the first wave of layoffs.
Shortly after, Mary lost her job too. In those days married women were the first to be laid off as they had, presumably, husbands to support them. In 1929 there was no such thing as unemployment benefits. When you got laid off, you were just out of work and that was that. Mary says she and Fred were so poor, they couldn't afford to buy a newspaper. Instead, they relied on friends to tell them what was happening downtown and what was going on in the country.
Fred and Mary got enough work at the Flint Creamery to remain independent through the first four years of the Depression. I remember Fred telling me that when he was on his usual route delivering milk with the horse and wagon, one of his stops was the Balkan Bakery. Fred used to stop there and get a loaf of bread and feed it to his horse. Of all the things that have changed in Mary's time, that Balkan Bakery is still in business in Flint, and still making wonderful old world style bread.
In October of 1934, Mary and Fred were blessed with the birth of their son Ronald, born at Hurley Hospital in Flint. When Mary left the hospital she went directly to Fred's mother's house where they lived for the next two years. It had become financially impossible to keep their apartment. For the next two years, Fred was called back to work and laid off repeatedly. Finally, in the fall of 1936 Fred was called back to work permanently. Fred worked as a welder for The Buick, as it was called, until his retirement in 1972.
In 1936, Fred and Mary bought their first home. It was a little two-bedroom white framed bungalow on Gracelawn Avenue in Flint, next to the Gracelawn Cemetery, which is still there. This first home cost $1,600. Mary reminded me that $1,600 was "amazingly low but not for the time. The great depression was in full swing. We had to borrow $200 from my father for the down payment." 1
Now Mary was finally in charge of her very own home. She knew how to do it, and she was good at it. She used her needlework skills to make her own home more beautiful. She embroidered tea towels and pillowslips, she tatted edgings for linens, and crocheted doilies for the table tops and the arms and backs of chairs. Needlework of all kinds was popular, and many homemakers practiced a variety of needle arts.
Women's magazines from that period were full of patterns and sewing projects. Mary made most of her own clothes. She knitted ties for Fred. As many women did in those days, she also mended clothes and darned socks. Fred's job as a welder meant that his shirts often had little burn holes in them so Mary was constantly mending his work shirts. Eventually, she designed and made special protective sleeves for Fred to wear at work which helped cut down on her mending.
Mary gained her citizenship in 1943 and Fred in 1944. During World War II, Fred's job as a welder was important to the war effort and kept him safely at home. Life had become easier for Mary. She was happy being a housewife and a mother. Despite the loss of homeland and mother, her time in the orphanage, and all the many hardships she had encountered in America, Mary had not only survived, she had prospered. Mary had managed to glean goodness from the harsh lessons of life. And very importantly, as she moved toward what would become her life's work, she had learned that sewing can be an act of redemption and kindness from one woman to another.

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21 November 2006
Book Review

No Time On my Hands, by Grace Snyder University of Nebraska Press, 1986.
(nebraskapress.unl.edu)

Grace Snyder
1882-1982

If you liked the Laura Ingalls Wilder books (you know Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, On the Banks of Plum Creek, etc, etc, etc when you were twelve you will like Grace Snyder's autobiography No Time On my Hands, published by University of Nebraska Press, 1986. Told by Grace in her 80th year, this story gives you clear idea about what pioneer life was all about. Grace lived all but three of her one hundred years in Nebraska and knew well of the hardships endured by families struggling to put down roots in a new land. While not a work of literary brilliance, Grace tells her story with such unadorned truthfulness that it conveys day to day life in the middle of the vast prairies in an astounding genuine way.

She tells about her beginnings as a quilter when as a 5 or 6 year old, her daily job was to go out and guard the cattle herd from coyotes and wolves with the aid of a stick and her little dog. After several weeks of sitting out in the flat plains by herself she got bored and asked her mother if she could have two patches to sew while she watched the cattle and with that, a quilter was born.

While Grace was certainly one of the great quiltmakers of the 20th century, her book doesn't focus on quilts. Rather she mentions them casually throughout the book. Grace apparently saw her quilts as one part of the many important and interesting parts of her life.

Grace is known for a number of amazingly complicated quilts including her Flower Basket Petit Point quilt with it's 87,789 pieces, and her Mosaic, with it's 58,640 pieces. The Flower Pot Petit Point quilt hangs in the Nebraska State Historical Society Museum in Lincoln and both quilts were shown in The Twentieth Century's Best American Quilts. (Austin, Mary Leman, ed. Primedia Special Interest Publication, 1999).

A year after Grace died, one of her daughters entered the Flower Basket Petit Point in a big California show where it won best of show and a thousand dollar grand prize. Perhaps her most famous quilt, it is shown on the cover of Grace's autobiography. Her Petit Point Flower Basket was featured on the cover of the 9th issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine in 1970. The magazine contained a very well written book report on No Time On my Hands.

In 1980, at the age of 98, Grace was induced into the Quilter's Hall of Fame. In 1981 Molly Newman, a writer from Denver, came to interview Grace. The result was the play Quilters based partly on Grace's life.

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6 June 2005
The Schafer and Harriman Collaboration
By Gwen Marston


In the annals of quilt history, the story of the friendship between Mary Schafer of Flushing, Michigan (1910 - ) and Betty Harriman of Bunceton, Missouri (1890 - 1971) may well stand alone. Mary Schafer, quilter, collector and amateur quilt historian, was already engaged in a fruitful correspondence with the nation's leading quilt researchers, writers, and publishers when a mutual pen pal, Barbara Bannister, introduced them by post. While their lives, and to some degree their professional reputations, would become forever intertwined, it is an irony of dramatic size that Mary Schafer and Betty Harriman would never actually meet.

Through their correspondence and, less frequently, telephone calls over the years, their quilting friendship grew. In no other had they found the same degree of interest in quilts. They discovered a mutual passion for historical quilts, especially patriotic ones, and rare old patterns. They proved each other the equal in craft as both were able, indeed eager, to tackle technically difficult quilts. Each was a polished needlewoman and was actively engaged in quiltmaking. Both chose to stay home, making quilts and investigating quilt patterns, blocks and lore quietly, rather than operating in the public eye. Both generously gave their knowledge to others. Together and sometimes collaboratively, they made hundreds of exquisite quilts.

Mary and Betty discovered other bonds: a love of gardening and American history. Betty collected dolls and made authentic period doll clothes for them. She also designed and made cloth dolls, which she dressed in period costume. She also became skilled in the art of china painting, taking her redware into town to be fired.

Betty came from an aristocratic family who counted no less a personage than General Robert E. Lee as a forebear. She married a man descended from President George Washington. Mary came from an immigrant, working class family, and married a man from same. Betty graduated from Warrensburg State College. Mary was forced to quilt school at age 15. When Betty was a young girl, her Grandmother showed her how to make quilts. When Mary was a girl, motherless, a neighbor lady showed her how to darn. Yet, through sisterhood and a shared interest in history and textiles, these women came to understand each other in a unique way and speak each other's language.

When her husband died in 1925, Betty Harriman moved from Missouri to Newport News, Virginia where she owned and operated a hotel. Upon retirement, she returned to the family farm in Bunceton. While in the East, Betty found she had access to historical houses, museums, and antique shops full of quilts and textiles. She began collecting old quilts and fabrics. She kept the rarest textiles as she found them, but she also bought old fabric for the purpose of repairing old quilts and making reproduction quilts.

When Betty found quilts that she considered historically significant, especially those which were deteriorating, Betty resolved to duplicate them as closely as possible to preserve them. Mary said of her friend, "When she liked a particular quilt, she would buy it. If it were not for sale, she would ask permission to copy the pattern. If that was denied she would sketch it, and if circumstances prevented her from sketching it, she would sketch the pattern at her first opportunity from memory." Like Betty, Mary also was compelled to reproduce old quilts. Unlike Betty, Mary was likely to bestow her reproductions with her own personal distinctive characteristics, especially in the overall quilting and in the border designs.

From years of correspondence with Betty, Mary knew Betty's mind: "I think she bought quilts that took her fancy. She seemed to like any quilts of antique textiles - English prints, copperplate, roller prints, linsey-woolsey, homespun, resist prints, oil-boiled chintz, etc. She liked historical prints, quilts and quilt patterns from historical places. If the article had the above qualities, poor or worn condition was not an important consideration."

Betty Harriman's modus operandi of quilt making is embodied in one of her favorite quilts, the LAUREL. On visiting George Washington's home at Mount Vernon, she wanted to search the off-limits attic for quilts. She persisted and was finally allowed as far as the doorway. A quilt was crumpled up in the corner of the room. Betty snapped a picture and left satisfied. When she saw the photograph, she saw an image of a quilt that was only about an inch tall. Working from this tiny reference, she was able to draft the pattern.

Another reproduction Betty made from a quilt at Mount Vernon was her WASHINGTON PLUME. Mary tells me that the original quilt was a gift to the Mt.Vernon Ladies Association in 1876 and said to be very old even at that time. The minutes of the 1886 Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union report state that the quilt dated to the eighteenth century and was made of flax. Betty wrote to Mary about the pattern, and each woman set about making this quilt. Mary says that Betty was using antique fabrics from her collection to make her quilt. Here was an ambitious, old-fashioned, historically significant quilt that could not have appealed more to these two women. Because the design was so large, it was difficult to copy. Betty decided the easiest thing to do was to send her partially completed top to Mary. Mary hurried to take the pattern so she could return Betty's top as quickly as possible.

In 1967, Betty reproduced a TREE OF LIFE quilt she had seen at Wakefield, the birthplace of George Washington. Once a grand showpiece, the old quilt was in tatters, so worn that batting was showing through. Betty sketched the pattern. The finished quilt was presented to the Wakefield Historical Society who then retired the original quilt. McCall's February 1972 issue contained an article called "Treasured Recipes from Washington's Day" and featured The Wakefield home. One of the photographs was of a four-poster bed on which lay Betty's TREE OF LIFE.

A few months before Betty's death, the Wakefield Historical Society in Virginia invited her to oversee the redecorating of Wakefield. In appreciation of this honor, Betty's family, after her death, gave Betty's LAUREL and WASHINGTON PLUME, both careful reproductions of 18th century quilts, to Wakefield.

When Betty was given the opportunity to copy a quilt pattern from the Robert E. Lee home, she shared the pattern with Mary. Letters flew back and forth as both women set out to make a reproduction of the quilt. Betty chose to make the quilt as close to the original as possible. Mary chose to take the pattern and interpret it in her own personal style. Characteristically, she used fewer blocks, bolder color, a four-sided border and drafted her own quilting designs.

While riding through Kentucky in 1969, Mary stopped in Bardstown, Kentucky, to see the home where Stephen Foster wrote "My Old Kentucky Home." This lovely home is a Kentucky State Historical Shrine. On one of the beds was a rose applique quilt called the WASHINGTON ROSE. She tried to take a photograph of the quilt, but her camera failed. She then resorted to drafting the pattern from a picture of the quilt shown on a postcard she had purchased at the home. She sent the pattern to Betty. The name alone was enough to set Betty into gear. When Betty got the pattern, she wrote to Mary about it:

Especially like the "Kentucky Home" quilt. My own Grandmother was born in Bardstown, Kentucky, living there until she married and came to Missouri. My Great Great Grandfather designed "My Old Kentucky Home," so there is a tender feeling for Bardstown and "My Old Kentucky Home" and I love having the quilt pattern. Thank you, Mary for the quilt pattern I do like it and will be impatient now to work on it.

Mary was thrilled. Little did she know when she sent the pattern to Betty, that Betty had a family connection with the house. Betty's great grandfather built the house, known as "Federal Hill," for Judge John Rowan. It continued to be in the Rowan family for several generations. Betty's grandmother, Marcie Pash Harned, was born in Bardstown and lived there until she married and moved to Missouri in 1855. This is the house in which visiting relative, Steven Foster, wrote his famous song, "My Old Kentucky Home."

Betty began work on the WASHINGTON ROSE. She was so interested in this pattern that she began two tops, according to her letters to Mary. Betty finished one top, and when she died, Mary received the unfinished top. Mary eventually finished Betty's "start" in 1984.

Betty died with a quilt top on her lap. Her twin sisters wrote to Mary and said Betty had been gardening that morning, had come in and begun working on a quilt, which Mary remembers was the LEE'S ROSE AND BUDS. Over her lifetime, Betty had made between 80 and 100 quilts and had collected about 100 antique quilts. The exact number of quilts Betty made and collected isn't known. As the cobbler's kids want shoes, Betty's body of work went without documentation.

Upon her death, family members were given their choice of quilts. The Rhea Goodman Gallery bought the remainder of her finished quilts and took them to New York City to sell. Betty's sisters remember that a moving van came to the farm and picked up all the finished quilts. Much later, Gwen Marston tried to track down Betty's quilts from Rhea Goodman. Rhea also had not kept records of the quilts. Occasionally, a picture of a quilt appears in a publication that Mary recognizes as one of Betty's.

Mary remembers Betty saying the Smithsonian had approached her regarding her quilt collection. Betty didn't want them to go to the Smithsonian because, as she said, "they would put them in storage for fifty years and then maybe let them out." Betty didn't want her quilts to languish in storage units.14 Mary completely understood Betty's position. This fear colored Mary's thinking as she accepted the Michigan State University Museum offer for her first collection, and continues to influence her in reaching a decision on the remaining collection.

Mary wanted to buy Betty's unfinished work sight unseen. The sisters gave Mary a price of $600, and Mary accepted. Mary was shocked at the amount of materials she received. In the many boxes were completed tops, partially finished tops, patterns, quilt patterns. Some were not even begun, just the pattern and fabric folded neatly together. Mary even got back her own letters that she had written to Betty over the years.

Among the patterns were original Marie Webster patterns and McCall patterns from the 1920s. In the box was a McCall transfer pattern for an applique basket quilt, which Betty had begun. Betty's pattern and one completed block are shown in Twentieth Century Quilts: 1900-1950.

In one of the boxes Mary found Betty's LEE'S ROSE AND BUDS quilt. Mary received Betty's quilt as a completed top partially marked for the quilting. Betty's notes were attached to the top: "History 'Rose and Buds' made in 1852 by mother and Grandmother of cousin Mamie Lee-Mamie Lee was born 1860 the night Abraham Lincoln was elected president...Quilt now owned by Robert E. Lee, son of Mamie Lee-This quilt is large. This old quilt is in perfect condition and very beautiful."

Mary didn't hesitate. She and Betty had each been working on a LEE'S ROSE AND BUDS, and Mary , characteristically, decided to finish Betty's first. She finished her own version later in 1972.

Sometime in the 1920s, Betty bought the Marie Webster pattern GRAPES AND VINES. The pattern came with all of the fabric for the quilt. Betty had never gotten around to making the quilt. Mary got the pattern and all the fabric needed from Betty's estate. She went to work and made the quilt, finishing it in 1972. Mary made the quilt to exact specification with the exception of the outer border. The original pattern showed a scalloped border. Mary chose a straight border but tipped her hat to the original by quilting in the scallop.

Like a sentimental inscription on a nineteenth century Friendship Quilt, Betty and Mary's friendship succeeded in transcending death. Mary set about immediately to finish Betty's "starts," as she calls them. Mary worked on these in no particular order. She decided on what project to finish based solely on whichever one caught her interest. Mary often signed these special quilts with both Betty's and her name. When Betty had done much of the work, Mary embroidered Betty's name first, with her own name directly underneath.

Eventually, she would finish twenty of the quilts Betty had started and three antique quilt tops from the Harriman estate. Seventeen of these quilts went to the Michigan State University Museum as a part of the First Collection . Subsequently three of the Harriman/Schafer quilts were sold by the Museum. After 1980, Mary finished five more tops begun by Betty. She also finished an antique top from Harriman estate. These six quilts are a part of her Second Collection, shown elsewhere in this book.

Realizing the importance of Betty's correspondence to the history of quilting between the quilting revivals of the 20th-century, Mary donated them to the Michigan State University Museum when they acquired Betty's quilts.

When asked by Gwen Marston why she wanted to finish, and did finish so many of Betty's "starts," Mary answered, "Because she was my friend."

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2 February 2004 "They had more time back then"
By Gwen Marston


"They had more time back then," is a comment I hear frequently in regards to the makers of antique quilts. It's undeniable that many antique quilts exhibit an amazing amount of fine needlework.

Grace Snyder grew up on a Nebraskan homestead in the late 1880's. She was a prolific quilt maker and is known for a number of amazingly complicated quilts including her Petit Point Flower Basket quilt with it's 87,789 pieces. Here is what she said about her life on the plains.

"Such busy years, when I baked our bread, churned our better, raised a big garden and canned all our vegetables, cured our meat, made all the girls' clothes on the sewing machine I had bought with the orphan calf, helped in the hay field, and still found a little spare time for piecing quilts."

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June 13, 2003

I've been dong a lot of hand quilting this summer and as I've been quilting, I've been thinking about quilting. I've been remembering all the references suggesting that a specific quilt was probably worked on by various quilters as the stitches vary. Right now I'm working on a medallion quilt and my stitches vary. It's because some of the fabrics are finely woven and lightweight and therefore, easy to needle. The borders are other fabrics, however, are heavier and courser and therefore, my stitches suffer.

I'm a bit concerned when editors of quilt books and magazines tell me that "no one is interested in history." They tell me quilters want patterns and projects, not history." It's hard for me to think they are right, I know so many well informed quilters who are not interested in yet another pattern: they are way beyond that.

We all owe a great deal to the women who laid the foundation for the current popularity of quilts, and it's safe to say that Florence Peto is one of the most influential quilters of the 20th century. Because I'm sure there are quilters who want more than another quilt pattern here is a little piece I wrote about the fabulous Florence Peto. I've included a bibliography so you can look up more information and see photos of some of the quilts mentioned herein. Enjoy!

Lest We Forget: Florence Peto
By Gwen Marston


Opening the summer copy of Quilting Today (Issue No. 91, pp. 18-19) I was greeted with a reproduction of a very familiar quilt called the "Calico Garden." The original quilt was made by Florence Peto in the early 1950's and now belongs to the Shelburne Museum in Vermont. The beautiful reproduction quilt was made by Froncie Quinn. The Peto quilt can be seen in 55 Famous Quilts from the Shelburne Museum, p. 43, Quilts from the Shelburne Museum, pp. 128-129, and The American Quilt, p. 241.

Few would argue that Florence Peto was the most influential quilt authority of the mid-twentieth century. Virginia Avery refers to Peto as "Renaissance Woman of the Mid Century." Born in 1884, Florence played a critical role in laying the foundation upon which the quilt world we know today was built. As two contemporary quilt historians (Cuesta Benberry and Joyce Gross) remind us, today's world of quilt making did not just "spring from the head of Zeus."

Seeing the copy of Florence's familiar "Calico Garden" quilt reminded me again of how much we quilters of today owe her. Florence Peto was born in 1884 and died in 1970. She was a quilter, collector, historian, author, lecturer, a consultant and generous donor to museums. She was inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame the second year of its existence along with other notables like, Averil Colby, Anne Orr, Grace Snyder and Bertha Stenge. Since Peto's stated goal was to preserve the memory and identity of the quilt makers, it just won't do if we forget Florence.

Her interest in quilting began as a collector and researcher of quilts. Being from New Jersey, she naturally focused on quilts from New York, New Jersey and the New England area. While initially a hobby begun after she was married and a mother of two children, she soon began to lecture and write about quilts. Her two books, Historic Quilts, 1939 and American Quilts and Coverlets, 1949, set the standard for scholarly research. She also wrote for leading magazines of the time including American Home, McCall's Needlework and Crafts, Woman's Day, and Antiques Magazine.

Florence was also a prizewinning quilt maker entering shows and winning ribbons. Being both an accomplished quilt maker and quilt scholar gave her an advantage in her ability to comprehend significant aspects of the antique quilts she collected and wrote about. She particularly enjoyed using antique fabrics from her extensive collection in her own work. The "Calico Garden" quilt contains fabrics from the eighteenth and nineteenth century including hand-block and copperplate prints, chintzes and prints from England and France. Two other Peto quilts made with her antique fabrics are Hearts and Flowers and Pot of Flowers with Wild Geese, both of which are shown in 20th Century Quilts 1900-1970: Women Make Their Mark, pp. 25-26.

Florence was always enthusiastic about sharing her antique quilt collection with the public. The Peto quilts were featured in a number of prestigious exhibits throughout the years. In 1948 the New York Historical Society hosted an impressive exhibit of Peto quilts and The Henry Ford Museum presented an exhibit of quilts from the Peto collection in 1955.

From the beginning Florence was interested in recording the history of old family quilts. She was intent on documenting information about the quilters themselves who were so often ignored and forgotten. Boldly prowling the countryside, she earned a reputation for knocking on doors and asking people to share their quilts with her. She also carefully documented all the family history pertaining to the quilts she saw. Many of the quilts she discovered she eventually helped place in museum collections.

As a well-known authority on quilts and quilt history, Florence often worked as a consultant to museums in the selection and documentation of their collections. Among the museums she consulted were the Smithsonian, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Shelburne Museum and the Newark Museum. She was responsible for placing a number of important quilts in these museums, including the magnificent Mary Totten "Rising Sun" quilt in the Smithsonian. (The Smithsonian Treasury: American Quilts, pp. 28-29). She donated the "Jane Voorhees" quilt to the Newark Museum. The Vorrhees quilt is a stunning all white stuffed-work quilt dated 1830/1831. (American Quilts in the Newark Museum Collection p. 60-61). To my knowledge, the Newark was the first museum to begin acquiring quilts for their permanent collection and to offer quilt exhibits, the first held in 1914.

Her connection to the Shelburne Museum is well known. She and Electra Webb, the founder of the Shelburne Museum were good friends who shared a common interest in quilts. They worked together to build the esteemed quilt collection for which the Shelburne Museum is so deservedly known. Seventeen of Peto's quilts became the nucleus of the collection at the Shelburne. Three of these quilts (including the "Calico Garden") are shown in 55 FAMOUS QUILTS From The Shelburne Museum on pp. 24,42, and 43.

Florence influenced quilters across the entire country. She was known for her generosity and for the encouragement she gave other quilt enthusiasts. Some of her antique fabrics even filtered down into my grateful hands, via my friend Mary Schafer. Mary was one of many quilters who corresponded with Florence and who benefited by Florence's willingness to share both information and examples of antique fabrics.

Florence died in 1970, leaving behind a legacy of quilts and information and the appreciation and respect of many esteemed contemporaries. She corresponded with many quilters including Lenise Bacon, Mary Schafer and Emma Andres. One of Peto's quilting friends was Maxine Teele, a regular writer for Nimble Needles Treasures during the 1970's. After Florence's death, Maxine wrote a wonderful remembrance of her friend in an article called "In Partial Payment." (Nimble Needles Treasures, Winter, 1973, p. 9.) I include excerpts from the article because it helps us know what kind of a woman Florence was.

... There are some people you can never repay for their contribution to your happiness. The following is a tribute to just such a person...Florence Peto, a gracious and talented lady.

... Even yet I marvel at her willingness to share time, ideas, and information with me. That Mrs. Peto was willing to take time for me (and many others) is an indication of her generous spirit and boundless enthusiasm.

... Mrs. Peto was a lady of wide ranging interests and these letters sparkled with observations on many subjects. Often she wrote of her fondness for antique fabrics, toile, calico, oil calico, historical, chintz and homespun.

... Because she gave of herself so freely, we are inspired to do likewise. Because of her many of us have had our intellect challenged, our horizons widened, our knowledge deepened and our hearts warmed.

 

To fully understand and appreciate any discipline, it is essential to know its history. With so many new quilters coming into the fold, it seems beneficial to serve them up a delicious plate of quilt history occasionally. Hopefully, the accompanying bibliography will get you started. Some of the listings in the bibliography may be hard to find, but both the Kiracofe and Woodard books are available and provide a quick review of who's who in quilting in the second half of the 19th century. Another good source for quilt history is the state documentation books of which there are many. Remembering Florence Peto prompts me to remind new quilters how beneficial and rewarding it is to explore quilt history. Florence was one of quite a number of outstanding women who pursued her interest in quilts with a passion.

Bibliography

Avery, Virginia "Florence Peto-Renaissance Woman of Mid Century." Quilter's Newsletter, January 1980.

Bacon, Lenice American Patchwork Quilts New York: William Morrow & Co., Inc., 1973.

Benberry, Cuesta "The Superb Mrs. Stenge." Nimble Needle Treasures, Summer 1971, 4.

Bowman, Doris "The Smithsonian Treasury: American Quilts" Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press 1991.

Curtis, Phillip H. "American Quilts in the Newark Museum Collection." 1973, Vol. 25, pp. 21, 60.

Gross, Joyce "Florence Peto and Woman's Day." Quilters' Journal, Mill Valley, CA, Vol. 3, No. 2.

__________ "Florence Peto." Quilters' Journal, Mill Valley, CA: Winter 1979, Vol. 2, No. 4.

__________, and Cuesta Benberry "20th Century Quilts: 1900-1970, Women Make Their Mark." Paducah, KY: American Quilter's Society, 1997.

Kiracofe, Roderick "The American Quilt New York": Clarkson Potter, 1993.

Oliver, Celia Y., Ed. "55 FAMOUS QUILTS From The Shelburne Museum" 1990

Peto, Florence "American Quilts and Coverlets New York": Chanticleer Press, 1949.

_______ "Historic Quilts New York:" The American Historical Company, Inc., 1939.

Shankel, Carol, Ed. "Quilts from the Shelburne Museum" Tokyo, Japan Kokusai Art, 1996, pp. 128-129.

Snyder, Grace "No Time on My Hands" As told to Nellie Snyder Yost Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1986.

Teele, Maxine "In Partial Payment." Nimble Needle Treasures, Winter, 1973.

Woodard, Thomas K. And Blanche Greenstein "Twentieth Century Quilts: 1900-1950" New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1988.

 

 

 





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