fyi friday: newspaper fun

4:30:00 AM

happy friday everyone!

here's a neat little tidbit about quilting:

did you know that it was quite common place for newspapers to publish about quilts and quiltmakers in the late 18 and early 1900's?

a few examples

- a newspaper article from the Lima Daily Times, Lima Ohio:
July 16, 1890. "A Patch for a Crazy Quilt" Late Wednesday night a young woman who was loitering in the evening air on the piazza of her home in Preston discovered by the lightening flash a man in a suspicious attitude near the pantry window. She could hardly believe it possible, but a second flash of lightening reassured her. She did not scream or faint or flutter, but walked calm into the house and let out the dog. A minute later a stampede proved that the dog had found something to chase, and in a few minutes the animal returned with a recognizable portion of the mans trousers in his mouth. The bold Preston girl will add this trophy to her crazy quilt.
 - a newspaper article from the Trenton Times, Trenton, New Jersey:
February 8, 1884. An Indiana editor was sued for breach of promise, but when he explained that the girl had a mania for making scrap quilts the court excused him and imposed the cost on the plaintiff.

- a newspaper article from the Bucks County Gazette, Bristol, Pennsylvania:
February 14, 1884. "A Distinguished Crazy Quilt" The princess of "crazy quilt" makers is Molly Williams, a young woman living near St. Joseph, Mo. She has just finished making a silk quilt, the blocks of which are filled in with pieces of the dresses of more or less distinguished women throughout the country. The pieces in the quilt go up in the thousands. Among the ladies who furnished her specimens are Mrs. Grant, Mrs. Sartoris, Mrs. Governor Knott of Kentucky, Mrs. Langtry, Fanny Davenport, Ellen Terry, Clara Morris, Maggie Mitchell, Kellogg, Bernhardt, Lotta, Anna Dickinson, Mrs. Hendricks, Poebe Cousin, Mrs. Fletcher, Mrs. Medill, Mrs. Story, Mrs. Thomas E. Fletcher, Mrs. Carlilse, Mrs. Watterson and Mrs. Crittenden. These distinguished ladies probably sent the samples of sympathy for an unfortunate girl whom they evidently regarded as crazier than the craziest of "crazy quilts".  

I had no idea that quilt making was that prominent and important in every day life way back when!

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4 comments

  1. Sounds like we've always been a little bit nuts. HAHAHA.

    Imagine, collecting society women's clothing scraps like they were Bieber autographs or Grateful Dead concerts tees! lol. However, it does remind me of a project I want to start on that involved none of those things...

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  3. The newspapers of that time period used to publish quilt block patterns, too!

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  4. You can tell all of the articles are written by men, because the women are described as crazy.

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