Pieced by Mother Symposium Papers

On the Cutting Edge Textile Collectors, Collections, and Traditions examines the collecting attitudes of an early quilt enthusiast, Electra Havemeyer Webb, founder of the Shelburne Museum as well as that of a venerable national museum - the DAR. Other authors discuss collecting from personal, contemporary, and topical points of view: political textiles and memorabilia; textiles, related tools and sewing equipment from southeastern Pennsylvania and the development of the Eastern quilt market. The Pennsylvania vendue or auction - a major source for early as well as contemporary collectors - is explored from an historical point of view. Quiltmaking traditions across the nation are examined; on Chesapeake Bay plantations from 1794-1846 as revealed in diaries, slave narratives, and existing material culture, signature quilt traditions and their evolution in New Jersey from 1837-1867; Amish quilt fabrics and how they reflect tradition, adaptation, and change; and 20th-century salvage quilt attitudes as mirrored in Hispanic quiltmaking in Taos County, New Mexico. Also, examined are the design explosion in Depression-era quilts, and the extensive use of sack material in clothing construction and quiltmaking of that period. Last, the myth versus the reality of various craft traditions is discussed. "Were blacksmiths really muscle-bound? Were basketmakers Gypsies and were thirteen quilts in the dowry?" illustrates how our 20th-century mindset is influenced by prominent early collectors, exhibitionism, and publications among other things.