Mary Schafer: Quiltmaker and Quilt Historian
During and after World War II interest in quilts and quiltmaking was waning. Quilts were not what "modern" women wanted to make or to put on their beds.
Mary Schafer found her love of making and studying quilts during this period when most people simply thought of them as something old fashioned and of little interest. Without her collections and research part of our quilt history would have been lost.
The story of her life and contributions to quilt history is fascinating. I won't tell it all as you can follow it along with pictures of quilts she made and collected at The Mary Schafer Collection: A Legacy of Quilt History. Be sure to go to the bottom of each page and select forward to see all the pages on Mary Schafer.
Just a little something to get your interest. Many of us have made dear quilter friends online, some we have never been able to meet in person. There was no Internet for Mary Schafer but she and Betty Harriman met through a round robin (a pattern swap done through the mail). They became close friends through the mail and telephone. You will learn more about them at the above link.
