Quilting Changing Women's Lives Over Time

We know that quilting sustained our ancestors in many ways.  For some it was a way to express creativity, others to show their fine needlework skills.  A quilt could add color and beauty to even the humblest of homes.  Quilts were a way to help others through raising money for a cause or helping someone in need. We’ve all heard of women gathering and quilting together.  In town it was another enjoyable way to visit with friends but in remote areas going to a quilting could be a rare treat for a lonely woman.

Dena Crain has written the paper “How Patchwork Quilting Changes Women’s Lives”.  Though the world has changed a great deal since our foremothers were nourished by quilting it’s inspiring to read that it’s still occurring.

Crain’s article includes stories of real women and how quilting has helped them.  It reminded me of this story from the book "The Quilters: Women and Domestic Art, an Oral History".  The book includes interviews of women during the 1970s. Since the average age of the women was 73 precious stories were gathered that would have otherwise been lost.

One of these women told the story of her mother who settled on a remote homestead in Texas.  Her husband had left to get wood for winter, a trip of several days. He was away when a terrible dust storm came up unlike anything she had ever experienced. The dugout was dark and gloomy and the wind was terrifying. Years later she told her daughter, “If I hadn’t had the piecing, I don’t know what I would have done.”  

America's Love of Royal Weddings is Nothing New

With our all day TV and messages flying across the Internet we might be inclined to think this interest in the royal wedding is a result of modern communications. But this is far from true. The fact we fought the Revolutionary War to gain freedom from the British Empire appeared to be soon forgotten.

Queen Victoria's wedding in 1840 wasn't just the talk of the town, it was the talk of the western world. "Thousands and thousands of newspapers and periodicals were shared, reaching women in remote new settlements hungering for fineries and romance. Queen Victoria's wedding was the talk."
(from To Love and to Cherish: Brides Remembered)

No wonder we were enchanted with Princess Diana and it is no surprise that all the major networks will be covering Kate's wedding beginning in the wee hours of the morning.

What fun to know we are a part of a long tradition in our fascination with William and Kate's wedding.

Read more about wedding dresses through history in my article The Fabric of Marriage: Wedding Dresses

Coffee, Tea or Chocolate?

It's that time of year when it's fun to have some hot chocolate after coming in from the cold.  But you may not know that you are following a tradition that began in Colonial America. In fact chocolate as a drink was so important to early Americans that it was considered a necessary supply for soldiers. Unlike modern cocoa the chocolate used for these drinks still had the cocoa butter in it. Another difference was that spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla were used to add flavor.

The cocoa beans were imported from South America and transforming them into a rich creamy chocolate was quite a task. You can see the process in this video,  18th Century Chocolate Making.  Eventually ways to grind and press the beans on a large scale were developed making chocolate available not only to the wealthy but to Americans in general.

Although chocolate drinks have been enjoyed in America since the mid 1600s it wasn't until the mid 1800s that chocolate bars were produced. Those early chocolate bars were somewhat coarse and dry. Methods to make smooth creamy bars were developed toward the end of the 1800s making the melt in your mouth chocolate bars we enjoy today possible.

If you would like to give someone a taste of history or simply share it with your family go to American Heritage Chocolate site to order some chocolate. I've had some and their chocolate is a treat with that touch of spice giving a sense of enjoying your chocolate drink in that long ago time. Careful research was done so that you can serve a chocolate drink much like those our ancestors loved.

(picture from Wikimedia Commons)

Dresses With a Bustle - Fashion in the 1870s

It’s always fascinating to look at antique fashion photos taking note of the styles and the details embellishing the garments. These two ladies demonstrate the latest fashion worn in the latter part of the 1870s. The dresses had some fullness overall but the bustle in the back gave the dresses the typical shape of the day. Note that not only is the back of the dress fuller but that added decoration brings attention to that fullness.


You may wonder how the bustled dress stayed in place and draped so well. The illustration to the right shows the cage style that was made with materials like wire or cane. Other bustles consisted of muslin puffs boned to give the shape. Lighter bustles were simply be made of stiffened ruffles.


It’s a special treat to examine an actual dress to see how it was made and to enjoy each detail that makes the dress special. I had the chance to do this when I was visiting antique dealer Mary Babcock. This dress is a wedding dress probably worn in the mid to late 1870s. Although some women wore the white bridal dress made popular by Queen Victoria’s wedding in 1840 many still opted for a dress that could be worn on other occasions as well. Dark colors like seen in this brown dress were in favor. The jacket made the dress even more versatile. This dress is made primarily of solid fabric while monochromatic damask is used to add interest.

To the right and below are some close ups of parts of the dress. You can see how many different elements were used to embellish this dress. Take a careful look and you will see pleats, fringe, ruching, cording and those fascinating fringed circles. It looks as if someone has pulled the threads around the edge to give that look but that seems impossible with the usual weaving grid. It might have been something pre made and bought by the yard but the fabric is the same as the rest of the dress. Might they have sold all the components together including the fabric in pleats, damask, solid, decorative fringe and the fringed circles? Perhaps the cording with the matching fabric was manufactured as well. The dress itself is all hand stitched. Each pictorial button is unique





















The photo below is of the style of bustle that was in fashion in the 1880s It's fun to see the difference.



(fashion plate photos from Wikimedia Commons)

Just how did our foremothers do their cooking?

Most often when we visit a small town museum we see an iron cook stove. So we are inclined to imagine that folks had them since the first European settlers arrived in America.

But the truth of it is that people cooked in their fireplace long before cook stoves came along. Cooking and heating fireplaces had been used since the middle ages. It was a few centuries before any improvements were made.

Some of you may have seen a fireplace used for cooking in a photo or a museum display. Often several fireplace tools and several pieces of cookware are shown. But the truth of it is that most early Americans cooked with just a few items. Perhaps a pot hook, a kettle and a ladle. An area of embers might provide heat to a small bake oven or to a make shift oven made with an overturned kettle.
So when the cook did stove come along? It wasn’t until about 1820 that efficient stoves were available making it a useful appliance home use. Though we’d like to think that this invention came about to make life a bit easier for the women of the house but the real appeal of the cook stove was that it took far less wood than a fireplace. While wood was plentiful for many of the early settlers in America as time passed people had to go further and further from home to get enough wood to keep their family warm and to cook their food.

We make a big mistake if we think that this means everyone had a cook stove by the 1830s or 40s. New technology didn’t spread like it does now. First the wealthy had such improvements to their homes. Gradually more and more other people were able to afford them. Also things spread slowly in terms of distance. Transportation was slow so we find that the stove along with other inventions took time to spread from the northeast to the south and the west.

Especially in populated regions by the mid 1800s a cast iron stove was considered a necessity in a “modern” kitchen. These stoves burned either wood or coal. Even gas stoves were available but they lacked the safety features we have today so they were not that common yet.

In the 1900s more and more American obtained electricity and by 1915 most middle class homes had electric appliances. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t a lot of folks still using wood or coal stoves. Both means and availability still affected who had modern stoves.

So next time you pop dinner into the microwave think about your ancestors who would never have dreamed of such an invention.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons)