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Thousands View These Prize Winning Quilts at Naval Armory; Machine Age Contrast Provided at Quilt Show
April 18, 1937
Detroit News Quilt History Project; Michigan State University Museum; Susan Salser; Lynne Charlet
Detroit, Michigan, United States
A portion of a Quilt Club Corner Column including the image and description of a quilt made in 1776 featured at the Detroit News Quilt Show in 1937.
Thousands View These Prize Winning Quilts at Naval Armory
At any time between the hours of 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. this is the familiar scene at the U.S. Naval Armory, where The Detroit News fourth annual quilt show is being held. These are the prize quilts and they claim the interest of every visitor, of which there have been thousands. The show will close at 10 p.m. today.
Machine Age Contrast Provided at Quilt Show
By Garnet Warfel
The contrast offered by 1,857 handmade quilts to the leveling monotony of the machine age must be the answer to the record breaking success of the Detroit news Quilt Show, now being held at the United States Armory, 7600 Jefferson avenue.
The crowds, constantly changing, surge by the thousand through the quilt hung aisles of the mammoth display. The crowds recognize in the present display the greatest quilt classis in the city's history.
Even the rain failed to throw the slightest dampening effect upon the show. For an hour or more before the doors opened Saturday, men and women stood chatting gaily in the unfriendly drizzle.
The show, however, has one other angle. Her name is Edith B. Crumb interior decorations editor of The News and quilt show director.
"Where is Miss Crumb?" asks nearly every visitor to the place, and so, it develops paging Miss Crumb has come to be the second greatest thing about this fourth annual show.
Miss Crumb knows every quilt in the show. She knows who made it and why. She knows the histories of every antique quilt displayed.
Exchange Blocks
In the rear of the big room is a place arranged with tables and chairs and here women sit and rest and talk- usually about quilts, and then they exchange quilt blocks. Saturday afternoon those two popular "quilt club sisters" Mrs. Emmons Galton and Mrs. Arthur Fisher, who separated in infancy and reunited 33 years later through the first quilt show, sat and received their friends. They plan to be among those present again today.
Nearby, in a place of honor, is the "medallion" quilt in turkey red the sisters made and present to Miss Crumb on the second anniversary of their reunion.
The throngs never tire of seeing the brand new quilts with their exquisite needlework in bridal bouquet, double Irish chain, laurel wreath, nosegay, and other designs, but then, too, they like to browse about the antiques and note the histories of some of these tremendous interesting exhibits.
Orange Peel Design
I like the "orange peel" quilt, for instance, it has a calm to distinction in its heritage involving the name Lafayette. The story is that once when the beloved marquets was feted in Philadelphia a guest at the banquet took home a beautiful orange, imported from Barcelona, as a souvenir. To preserve her treasure and the memory of the gala days, she made a pattern from the pared rind, which some to us now in this quilt design.
There is a woven quilt made by Mrs. Lydia B Frazee in 1825. She raised the sheep, sheared the wool, washed, fried and carded it, then wove the quilt herself. It was handed down through five generations, and is now owned by Cornelia Doyle, 10300 West Point avenue.
The Revolutionary War quilt attracts a crowd constantly. It was begun in 1775 by Anna Fragler, and Englishwoman who went to New York shortly before the war, and the quilt was finished by her at the age of 80 during the presidency of John Quincy Adams, 1825-1828 thus being 50 years in the making.
War Scenes Shown
It depicts the war, showing American forts on one side and the British on the other. The navies are between them and the army is below. The Calvary, with the presidents mounted are on the last lines. It is a unique quilt and well worth seeing.
Another old quilt that draws attention in one made by Mrs. Susan Sawtell McClain in 1836 in Maryville, Tenn. It is made of homespun cloth, quilted with homespun thread in fan design, and was made by candlelight as Mrs. McClain rocked with her foot the low cradle of her first baby. The quilt endured 75 years of ordinary family use and was washed and boiled perhaps hundreds of times with strong homemade lye soap.
For 25 years it has been treasured as a keep-sake. It is a good example of the durability of the "close quilting" of a past generation. It is exhibited of the durability of the "close quilting" of a past generation. It is exhibited by Mrs. W.A. Jenkins, 642 Trowbridge avenue.
The show will open again at 10 a.m. today and will come to a close at 10 tonight.
Courtesy of The Detroit News Archives.
At any time between the hours of 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. this is the familiar scene at the U.S. Naval Armory, where The Detroit News fourth annual quilt show is being held. These are the prize quilts and they claim the interest of every visitor, of which there have been thousands. The show will close at 10 p.m. today.
Machine Age Contrast Provided at Quilt Show
By Garnet Warfel
The contrast offered by 1,857 handmade quilts to the leveling monotony of the machine age must be the answer to the record breaking success of the Detroit news Quilt Show, now being held at the United States Armory, 7600 Jefferson avenue.
The crowds, constantly changing, surge by the thousand through the quilt hung aisles of the mammoth display. The crowds recognize in the present display the greatest quilt classis in the city's history.
Even the rain failed to throw the slightest dampening effect upon the show. For an hour or more before the doors opened Saturday, men and women stood chatting gaily in the unfriendly drizzle.
The show, however, has one other angle. Her name is Edith B. Crumb interior decorations editor of The News and quilt show director.
"Where is Miss Crumb?" asks nearly every visitor to the place, and so, it develops paging Miss Crumb has come to be the second greatest thing about this fourth annual show.
Miss Crumb knows every quilt in the show. She knows who made it and why. She knows the histories of every antique quilt displayed.
Exchange Blocks
In the rear of the big room is a place arranged with tables and chairs and here women sit and rest and talk- usually about quilts, and then they exchange quilt blocks. Saturday afternoon those two popular "quilt club sisters" Mrs. Emmons Galton and Mrs. Arthur Fisher, who separated in infancy and reunited 33 years later through the first quilt show, sat and received their friends. They plan to be among those present again today.
Nearby, in a place of honor, is the "medallion" quilt in turkey red the sisters made and present to Miss Crumb on the second anniversary of their reunion.
The throngs never tire of seeing the brand new quilts with their exquisite needlework in bridal bouquet, double Irish chain, laurel wreath, nosegay, and other designs, but then, too, they like to browse about the antiques and note the histories of some of these tremendous interesting exhibits.
Orange Peel Design
I like the "orange peel" quilt, for instance, it has a calm to distinction in its heritage involving the name Lafayette. The story is that once when the beloved marquets was feted in Philadelphia a guest at the banquet took home a beautiful orange, imported from Barcelona, as a souvenir. To preserve her treasure and the memory of the gala days, she made a pattern from the pared rind, which some to us now in this quilt design.
There is a woven quilt made by Mrs. Lydia B Frazee in 1825. She raised the sheep, sheared the wool, washed, fried and carded it, then wove the quilt herself. It was handed down through five generations, and is now owned by Cornelia Doyle, 10300 West Point avenue.
The Revolutionary War quilt attracts a crowd constantly. It was begun in 1775 by Anna Fragler, and Englishwoman who went to New York shortly before the war, and the quilt was finished by her at the age of 80 during the presidency of John Quincy Adams, 1825-1828 thus being 50 years in the making.
War Scenes Shown
It depicts the war, showing American forts on one side and the British on the other. The navies are between them and the army is below. The Calvary, with the presidents mounted are on the last lines. It is a unique quilt and well worth seeing.
Another old quilt that draws attention in one made by Mrs. Susan Sawtell McClain in 1836 in Maryville, Tenn. It is made of homespun cloth, quilted with homespun thread in fan design, and was made by candlelight as Mrs. McClain rocked with her foot the low cradle of her first baby. The quilt endured 75 years of ordinary family use and was washed and boiled perhaps hundreds of times with strong homemade lye soap.
For 25 years it has been treasured as a keep-sake. It is a good example of the durability of the "close quilting" of a past generation. It is exhibited of the durability of the "close quilting" of a past generation. It is exhibited by Mrs. W.A. Jenkins, 642 Trowbridge avenue.
The show will open again at 10 a.m. today and will come to a close at 10 tonight.
Courtesy of The Detroit News Archives.
6268.1.30
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Legacy
Gasperik Legacy Project, Mary -
Quiltmaker
Gasperik, Mary Mary Gasperik Legacy Project
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Museum
Michigan State University Museum Michigan Quilt Project
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Collection
Detroit News Quilt History Project
Salser, Susan
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Essay
Mary Gasperik and the Detroit...
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