Page 22 - MyMomHadAQuiltLikeThat

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they added batting and a backing, they quilted with “echo” quilting.
A second type of Hawaiian quilt incorporated the red, white,
and blue of the Hawaiian flag and figures of Iolani from Hawaiian
mythology. I once took a vacation to Hawaii and found such design
in museums in Honolulu and at Hana, a village at the northeast edge
of the island of Maui. My only flag type is in poor condition, but I’ve
never seen an authentic old one that was in good condition for sale.
Among the first acquisitions to the collection was "Grandmother’s
Flower Garden" from the 1930s (Fig. 138, Page 166). I purchased
it at an antique show in the Southcenter (now Westfield) Mall just
south of Seattle in the mid-1980s. Since then, the collection has
grown to over 370 pieces largely representative of the 47 styles in the
classification scheme of Phyllis Hader’s book, The Mainstreet Pocket
Guide to Quilts. I’ve added some additional groupings for "Folk",
“Novelty” and "Hmong" quilts.
Early on, I liked the geometric patterns from the 1930s, often made
with fabrics that women saved from buying 50-pound bags of sugar
or flour for their kitchens. The vendors became aware of women’s
interests, and purposely began printing bags in calicos. My paternal
grandmother Sofia Sampson always wore a calico bib apron, which I
am sure was made from such sacks.
The 1970s hippie movement brought about a new interest in old
American lifestyles, and articles began appearing in magazines like
Women’s Day addressing some of those old quilt patterns. The maga-
zine sold a pattern for a Noah’s Ark quilt, all appliqué, that I made
Figure 2: Backing of clearly marked
for my oldest son, Eric. It wore out decades ago. I was surprised to
cotton Aristos flour sacks from "Crosses
see one in his house a few years ago that was made by his mother-in- With Striped Diamond Corners" quilt,
law, Mary Sabra Monroe. Fig. 340, Page 385. Flour sacks have
uneven purple cast, perhaps from dye
“Poppies” (Fig. 374, Page 423) is a quilt appliquéd from a kit. bleeding before the quiilt was made.
I used to see such kits, and those for fabulous “Lone Star” quilts No purple leaks to the front.
(Chapter "Stars", Page 115) advertised in Sunday newspaper maga-
zines. Somewhere, probably in Sunset Magazine, “The magazine of
western living,” I saw an article on log cabin quilts (Chapter "Log
Cabin", Page 303) made from rectangular “logs” in graduated sizes
and assembled in a panoply of patterns, including “Barn Raising”
(e.g., Fig. 285, Page 326) in concentric diamonds from center to edge,
simple squares, and “Pineapples” an 8-sided pattern that ultimately
looks like a radiation warning. Another in my collection is called
“Straight Furrows” (Fig. 291, Page 332.) It is “bearded;” stuffed with
wool, some of which works its way through the top to look like dog
hair on the quilt. I still think it is a charming quilt.
After I had discovered the geometrics of the 1930s, the log cabins
of the 20s and 30s, and hippie quilts of the 70s, I thought that "New
York Beauties" (Chapter "New York Beauty and Pickle Dish", Page