America's Quilting History

This book presents two aspects of quilts and quilting in Iowa. Mixed together throughout the book are both pictures of historic quilts and written vignettes about Iowa quilters.

You will be able to examine photographs of 70 Iowa quilts made from mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Several of them tell us something special about the times when they were made. A 1891 red, white and blue quilt made by women in Cedar Falls consists of squares and a triple border. This quilt commemorates their friends and relatives who fought in the Civil War. Names and details about the soldiers were are written in every available space.

A quilt from the second half of the nineteenth-century consists of sets of four connected blue 'T's on an ample white background. It may well have been a "Temperance Quilt" made to promote prohibition of alcohol. Yellow airplanes on a white background compose a quilt made in1930 to commemorate the historic flight of Charles Lindbergh. Most intriguing of all is a crazy quilt made in 1884 that incorporates ribbons of Iowa political candidates. How I would have loved to have been there when it was made so I could ask where each ribbon had come from and what the quilter thought of each candidate.

Other quilts fascinate us with the creativity involved as in a latter nineteenth-century quilt involving a complex design that would have been a real challenge to cut, piece and quilt. As the design is unique the quilter may have designed it herself. The quilt is pictured on the cover of the book which you can see at the top of this page.

The second aspect of this book is just as intriguing. Through interviews Jacqueline Andre Schmeal has gathered together stories of the lives of several twentieth-century Iowa quilters. Not all of them were women, as you will discover as you read about Robert Echelberger who quilted alongside his wife. Both husband and wife have made prize-winning quilts.

Because of her of mixed Black American, Indian and Irish heritage Francis Brewton grew up in segregated schools. Living under difficult conditions including a boxcar for three years didn't keep the women in her family from sewing. Her mother was an accomplished seamstress and her grandmother quilted. As a result Francis became an avid quilter. When asked why she loved quilting so she replied, "It gives me the feeling I've accomplished something someone else hasn't. The more I do the more I like it." ^p36

Many of these quilters began quilting in homes without electricity. Hard work and making do was the norm. Making quilts by hand or by treadle machine wascommon. Even today some Iowa quilters feel that handmade is superior while others enjoy using a modern sewing machine. Helen Jacobson is an example of an Iowa quilter who has embraced the computer age. She is skilled at using her computer software to help her design quilts and adapt quilt patterns.

Some of these quilters simply enjoyed quilting for their family or made quilts to help those in need. Others, like sisters Elsie Noble Ball and Mary Ball Jay, quilted to earn a bit of needed money. When I read, "They worked so hard that Mary wore a hole in the top of a keepsake silver thimble that her grandfather had given her", ^P14 I was reminded of the gold thimble I inherited from my great grandmother. Her thimble is especially precious to me, as it too has been worn through from years of quilting.

Both my great grandmother and my husband's grandmother were avid Iowa quilters. Their children remember the ever-busy quilt frames set up in their homes. You can read a bit about them and see some of the quilts they made by going to Hanna Balster's and Eva Mae Breneman's web pages. Hanna lived most of her life in Lost Nation and Eva Mae lived on a farm near Brooklyn. I like to think of them as a part of the tradition of Iowa quilters described in this book.

© 2003 Anne Johnson (Do not reproduce any material from this site without permission.)