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Show Visitors Praise Winning Quilts
October 8, 1938
Detroit News Quilt History Project; Michigan State University Museum; Susan Salser
Detroit, Michigan, United States
An article describing the 1938 Detroit News Quilt Show.
Show Visitors Praise Winning Quilts
Mrs. Kirschbaum Mrs. McIntyre
Thousands of visitors to Detroit News Quilt Show at Convention Hall milled past the grand prize winning quilt, Friday, commenting extravagantly upon its beauty, as the proud owner, Mrs. William S. Kirschbaum, stood by. Here she is talking it over with another prize winner, Mrs. George McIntyre.
News Greatest Quilt Show Draws 5,000 Every 3 Hours
A bumper crop of quilts hung the length and almost the breadth of Convention Hall this week-end comprising the fifth annual Detroit News Quilt Show, attracted such a bumper crowd Friday, the opening day, that visitors at the rate of $5,000 every three hours.
It became certain during the show last year that the undertaking positively had outgrown its quarters at the Naval Armory. So Convention Hall was chosen for the 1938 spectacle and fortunately so, for the crowds and the jam were greater than ever.
Eight hundred women stood patiently in line Friday morning to await the opening of the doors, Mrs. Goldie, McClellan, arriving at 9 a. m. being the first.
Greatest Exhibit
It was not only the greatest collection of quilts ever displayed under one roof, but is the greatest crowd ever attracted by an exhibit of needlework, officials declared.
The prize rack of quilts hangs at the far end of the hall, and about this the visitors linger almost lovingly. They are quilting experts and they know their needlework. Every one appears acquainted with everyone else and reunions are being held wherever one looks.
The show will continue today and Sunday and ends Sunday night at 10 o'clock. Doors on both days will open at 11 a.m. the hours being the same as those of the Home Show which is being held in the same building.
All Detroit seems to be killing two birds with one stones, as they visit first one show and then the other. It is all free.
Friday's crowd clamored to see Mrs. William S. Kirschbaum, the Detroit woman who won the grand prize of $50 for having the best quilt in the show.
A Winner Before
Mrs. Kirschbaum obliged smilingly and stood near her beautiful quilt receiving congratulations and compliments by the score. Winning quilt prizes isn't exactly new to Mrs. Kirschbaum because she won a prize at The News first show, and received an honorable mention on one last year. This year's winner is a laurel wreath pattern, the colors artistically blended and the quilting well nigh faultless.
"I intend to take the money and buy something I can keep always," the winner said "because I earned it myself. My husband wants me to do just that. He's as tickled about as I am. He's always been more than merely interested in my quilting anyway, and if I do say so myself he's proud of me."
And so is everyone else.
Also coming in for a lot of the congratulations making the rounds was Mrs. George McIntyre, who received $25 prize for having the best finished pieced quilt. It is a Lenox Plate pattern.
Work of 11 Weeks
Mrs. McIntyre has six quilts in the show and she hadn't an idea which quilt won the prize until she saw THE one hanging in full view. The other five appear to be just as lovely.
"I worked on this quilt steadily for 11 weeks," she said, eyeing her handiwork. "But it was fun."
In a way the show is like an art exhibit. At certain points chairs have been arranged and women may site and study the quilts they most admire. There's been a good deal of that, a well as a good bit of note taking, with an eye to next year's show.
The Quilt Club members meet in a corner near the prize rack and they exchange quilt pieces as they chat gaily. Everyone is enjoying herself, or himself, as much as can be. The men are frankly having a big time.
They like to admire the beauty of the quilts and they like to examine the antique spreads and coverlets and learn the interesting histories about them.
Antique Quilt
One blue and white coverlid is being exhibited by DeVon Joll, 23, a great-great-grandson of Mrs. Elizabeth Tollman, who made the spread in her native Holland. She spun and dyed the raw wool which she clipped from the sheep. The dye was made from home products. She wove the coverlid on her own loom. Its age is uncertain, but it is over 100 years old.
Mrs. Herman O'Connel exhibits a coverlet made of rosettes. The rosettes compose 99 large blocks, with 4,749 smaller ones. There are also 14,247 French knots in the piece to add to its statistical enhancement.
Quilts of every pattern known are being exhibited and moving about the crowd, greeting people right and left, just as if she had personally invited every one of the visitors is Miss Edith B. Crumb, Quilt Club Editor of The News, who is director of the show.
A stranger to the show would wonder indeed about Miss Crumb. One can't walk two steps until a voice is heard to inquire. "Where's Miss Crumb?" and Miss Crumb gets around at such a rate she seems to be every place at once.
Perfect October weather lent its most charming day for the show's opening, and promises to see the show to the finish in the same grand manner.
Courtesy of The Detroit News Archives.
Mrs. Kirschbaum Mrs. McIntyre
Thousands of visitors to Detroit News Quilt Show at Convention Hall milled past the grand prize winning quilt, Friday, commenting extravagantly upon its beauty, as the proud owner, Mrs. William S. Kirschbaum, stood by. Here she is talking it over with another prize winner, Mrs. George McIntyre.
News Greatest Quilt Show Draws 5,000 Every 3 Hours
A bumper crop of quilts hung the length and almost the breadth of Convention Hall this week-end comprising the fifth annual Detroit News Quilt Show, attracted such a bumper crowd Friday, the opening day, that visitors at the rate of $5,000 every three hours.
It became certain during the show last year that the undertaking positively had outgrown its quarters at the Naval Armory. So Convention Hall was chosen for the 1938 spectacle and fortunately so, for the crowds and the jam were greater than ever.
Eight hundred women stood patiently in line Friday morning to await the opening of the doors, Mrs. Goldie, McClellan, arriving at 9 a. m. being the first.
Greatest Exhibit
It was not only the greatest collection of quilts ever displayed under one roof, but is the greatest crowd ever attracted by an exhibit of needlework, officials declared.
The prize rack of quilts hangs at the far end of the hall, and about this the visitors linger almost lovingly. They are quilting experts and they know their needlework. Every one appears acquainted with everyone else and reunions are being held wherever one looks.
The show will continue today and Sunday and ends Sunday night at 10 o'clock. Doors on both days will open at 11 a.m. the hours being the same as those of the Home Show which is being held in the same building.
All Detroit seems to be killing two birds with one stones, as they visit first one show and then the other. It is all free.
Friday's crowd clamored to see Mrs. William S. Kirschbaum, the Detroit woman who won the grand prize of $50 for having the best quilt in the show.
A Winner Before
Mrs. Kirschbaum obliged smilingly and stood near her beautiful quilt receiving congratulations and compliments by the score. Winning quilt prizes isn't exactly new to Mrs. Kirschbaum because she won a prize at The News first show, and received an honorable mention on one last year. This year's winner is a laurel wreath pattern, the colors artistically blended and the quilting well nigh faultless.
"I intend to take the money and buy something I can keep always," the winner said "because I earned it myself. My husband wants me to do just that. He's as tickled about as I am. He's always been more than merely interested in my quilting anyway, and if I do say so myself he's proud of me."
And so is everyone else.
Also coming in for a lot of the congratulations making the rounds was Mrs. George McIntyre, who received $25 prize for having the best finished pieced quilt. It is a Lenox Plate pattern.
Work of 11 Weeks
Mrs. McIntyre has six quilts in the show and she hadn't an idea which quilt won the prize until she saw THE one hanging in full view. The other five appear to be just as lovely.
"I worked on this quilt steadily for 11 weeks," she said, eyeing her handiwork. "But it was fun."
In a way the show is like an art exhibit. At certain points chairs have been arranged and women may site and study the quilts they most admire. There's been a good deal of that, a well as a good bit of note taking, with an eye to next year's show.
The Quilt Club members meet in a corner near the prize rack and they exchange quilt pieces as they chat gaily. Everyone is enjoying herself, or himself, as much as can be. The men are frankly having a big time.
They like to admire the beauty of the quilts and they like to examine the antique spreads and coverlets and learn the interesting histories about them.
Antique Quilt
One blue and white coverlid is being exhibited by DeVon Joll, 23, a great-great-grandson of Mrs. Elizabeth Tollman, who made the spread in her native Holland. She spun and dyed the raw wool which she clipped from the sheep. The dye was made from home products. She wove the coverlid on her own loom. Its age is uncertain, but it is over 100 years old.
Mrs. Herman O'Connel exhibits a coverlet made of rosettes. The rosettes compose 99 large blocks, with 4,749 smaller ones. There are also 14,247 French knots in the piece to add to its statistical enhancement.
Quilts of every pattern known are being exhibited and moving about the crowd, greeting people right and left, just as if she had personally invited every one of the visitors is Miss Edith B. Crumb, Quilt Club Editor of The News, who is director of the show.
A stranger to the show would wonder indeed about Miss Crumb. One can't walk two steps until a voice is heard to inquire. "Where's Miss Crumb?" and Miss Crumb gets around at such a rate she seems to be every place at once.
Perfect October weather lent its most charming day for the show's opening, and promises to see the show to the finish in the same grand manner.
Courtesy of The Detroit News Archives.
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Collection
Detroit News Quilt History Project
Salser, Susan
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