Is it a good idea????
#11
Super Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Tn
Posts: 9,014
True or not, I think that would make an interesting program. And yes I would make some simple quilt sandwiches for all to try quilting. Either use a block to be quilted or just draw a design on whole cloth. Have fun with it.
#12
Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 31
There is a book called "Hiding in Plain Sight" which explains why some people believe that quilts may have been used some of the time in some places. As far as I know there is no factual proof that they were used, and none that they weren't. The people who would know are all gone. I doubt the people who wrote the history at that time would never have even considered that uneducated slaves could outwit white slaveholders and probably never asked. Also in the Jim Crow South it might not have been healthy to admit it.
Bottom Line. We don't know for sure and you cant prove a negative.
And finally Wikapedia is a fun source and many of its articles are accurate but anyone can post anything
Bottom Line. We don't know for sure and you cant prove a negative.
And finally Wikapedia is a fun source and many of its articles are accurate but anyone can post anything
Last edited by beach quilter; 02-06-2016 at 06:02 AM. Reason: additional information
#13
You know... I had a question in the back of my mind about the validity of the use of quilts during the Civil War years... I really do appreciate all these responses! And what a relief to realize that batting was surely much thinner then! I have just been astounded to think that anyone could get 12 stitches per inch with the battings I've used. I'll have to try myself with a thin batt! Thanks everyone for contributing! I KNOW I will be telling them about the wonderful Quilt Board!!! Again...
Love to all!!!
Love to all!!!
#15
Super Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Chula Vista CA
Posts: 7,402
I watched Georgia Bonesteel once and she said not to be concerned about the number of stitches per inch, consistent in size she considered to be more important. And I had to laugh when she said no one is going to put on your head stone "She quilted 12 stitches per inch." I guess we could if it was really important to the person, but I would rather mine said she made each one with love.
Last edited by quiltingcandy; 02-06-2016 at 03:48 PM.
#16
Quilts, quilting, and history provide so much for us, I believe it is a shame that anyone perpetuates myths.
"Critics of the book said that it had some serious flaws:
"Critics of the book said that it had some serious flaws:
- There are hundreds of first-hand accounts of the Underground Railroad. None of them mention quilt codes.
- There are hundreds of slave narratives collected by the WPA in the 1930's. None of them mention quilt codes.
- Some of the patterns mentioned in Hidden in Plain View were not used until the 20th century, according to Quilt Historians." http://tedpack.org/quilt1.html
#17
"The idea that enslaved people would take the hundreds of hours to make the multiple quilts necessary to pass on some very simple instructions, when they could have done the same thing in a five minute conversation behind the barn, suggests not ingenuity but, at the very least, very odd priorities. The cartoonist Rube Goldberg made a career of designing machines that took thirty steps to do what any normal person could do in one or two." Christopher Densmore.
#18
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: kansas
Posts: 6,407
I wouldn't do the Underground Railroad bit for the reasons you've already heard. But I did a presentation on quilt making and quilt care for my husband's Rotary group and it was a BIG hit--they were interested in how quilts where made, the variety of ways to quilt (and I LOVE your idea of having each give it a try with hand quilting), but most especially interested in how to care for a quilt--especially antique quilts. Seems like everyone has a quilt that was grandma's or great's, etc and most are stashed in some cedar chest absorbing cedar oils or in a trash bag in the basement/attic, etc--lots were talking about retrieving and storing elsewhere.
#20
Super Member
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Central Wisconsin
Posts: 4,391
Even if the quilt stories are not true, there surely was a lot of communication going on between the slaves and between the safe houses. And between slaves and those in the houses.
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