Quilt Cabin

The Quilt Cabin in the Woods a Year Later

The Quilt Cabin built to store my collection will have been in use two years come April but re-landscaping has yet to be done---someday….maybe! As I prepare for the first Quilt History Retreat to be held here on Lopez, it's fun looking back at how this project evolved. Come along for the journey and I shall give you some information about the Retreat at the end.

Empty bookshelves! Well, that didn't last long!

So wonderful to finally have space to make magazines easily accessible! (below)

And the empty slant boards....Both queen size flat-beds also have lots of storage space under each with access from 3 different directions. I designed these and had the carpenter makee them to my specifications. I also had him make them in such a way that they can be taken completely apart by simply unscrewing them board by board. I didn't want someone to have to destroy them to get them out of the cabin some day when they are no longer needed by the next generation of my family. Instead they can be de-constructed and sold.

These babies are sturdy and moveable. 

I buy new white sheets as cheap as I can find them to layer between quilts that need more protection.  I've also been purchasing a few of the queen size pre-printed quilt tops to use for the same purpose. That way I can make it look like a quilt is lying on top of each slant board, but it is actually just new printed fabric protecting the antique quilts. However, the two you see on the land boards below are actual quilts.

Those didn't stay empty long either!

The process of re-organizing and re-storing is endless....and so much FUN!!!

Likewise the doll beds which I use for displaying various doll quilts.

No, its not a Venus de Milo in hiding....

Only the three dresses and shirts my mother-in-law (Wini Waters Alexander) made us for Xmas in 1978 (with a couple other textile items laid over the top).

Here we are in full regalia in 1978.

What's a Grand Opening without friends!

In August of 2012 I took advantage of the fact that my long-time friend and fellow AQSG member Julie Silber (owner of The Quilt Complex in the greater SF area) was going to be in the area to oversee the hanging of an exhibit at the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, WA, and planned a small preview of The Quilt Cabin.

Life size applique of our three children by Wini Alexander - 1978 hung between trees with care.  Wini used scraps from the clothing she had made the kids the previous year to make the outfits they wear on each quilt.

Sharing a Jean Ray Laury patterned quilt with Julie Silber at the Open House. This quilt was made in the very early 1970s.

This quilt hung at The Quilters Hall of Fame in honor of 

Jean Ray Laury following Jean's death in March 2012.

Below is page 56 of Jean Ray Laury's 1972 book "Quilts & Comforts". Jean simply called it “Child’s Quilt”.

On the right is the quilt in my collection that I found in eBay made by Vicky Taylor of Maryland. Vicky wrote that she found a picture of the quilt in a Christmas craft book in the late 1960s and began working on the quilt at that time, drafting her own patterns from the photo. She began it for her sister-in-law when she was born, using the photo in the book as a guide.  "It took me much longer than I thought it would and by the time I was finished, my sister-in law was 3 and my first child was a year old, so I used it on her bed." 

(Below) Julie Silber and I hold one of my favorite crib quilts. Each animal is appliqued from fabric that contains an image of itself.

(below) Guests from Bellingham admire some of the antique quilts in my collection.

(below)  Another of my special treasures — Sunbonnet Lassies designed by Marie Webster and first published in Ladies Home Journal in August 1912. Marie Webster is an iconic figure in quilt history and her restored home in Indiana now houses The Quilters Hall of Fame. Countless variations and knock-offs of Marie Webster's Sunbonnet Lassies has graced the American quilt world ever since….but her name was changed to Sunbonnet Sue or Colonial Ladies and various other names along the way.

I found this quilt at an on-line Rago Auction in 2011. The auction house graciously sent my email requesting addidtional information on to the seller. The quilt came out of the estate of Caroline [Stephens] Holt from Westfield, NJ. A family member informed me that no one knows for sure who made the quilts in the trunk found in the attic because both Caroline [Stephens] Holt's grandmother --Alice [Thornhall] Stephens -- and great grandmother Irene Thornhall -- quilted. But they do believe all the quilts in the trunk were made by those two women. 

I'll write more about this pattern and its "cousins" in my collection later.

Enjoy quilt history and want to learn more? Here is your opportunity!

Lopez Island, WA, will host its first Quit History Retreat in conjunction with the Western Washington Quilt Study Group and the Lopez Island Historical Society. The three-day event (May 15-18, 2014) will include a trip to Orcas Island and Friday Harbor to see the quilts hanging at each island’s respective historical society.

The organizers and presenters of the retreat are all members of the American Quilt Study Group.

The central theme of the first Lopez Island Quilt History Retreat will be "Signature Quilts as Carriers of Community and Women's History” led by Karen Alexander and Susan Underwood.  In addition, two collectors from the Mid-West (Kate and Mary Edgar) will be sharing selections from their collection of early 19th century antique quilts from the U.S., Great Britain and France and the exciting stories that accompany them. These particular quilts have never been exhibited on the West Coast before.

Other events will include a Bed Turning at The Quilt Cabin (Karen Alexander), a discussion of possibly two early 20th century quilt designers; and a program on quilt conservation and restoration by professional quilt restorer Anne Dawson, also of Lopez Island.

This is a great opportunity to visit the beautiful San Juan Islands, the jewels of the Pacific Northwest, just north and west of Seattle by 90 minutes plus a 45-minute ferry ride. Or you can fly to Lopez from Seattle via Kenmore Air.

Documenting Family Quilts-Part 1

Everyone Needs Quilted Memories in the Family!  


And future generations need us to document these quilts now!

Sarah in Pink!

Teen-agers! Well, what can I say. Some females will go to strange lengths to keep that skin beautiful! But I don't think she went out in public with that goop on her face!  No self-respecting 14 year old would — not even in New Orleans where we lived at the time!


The Lone Star quilt on the wall sets off Sarah's pink glow nicely, don't you think?


The name of the portrait quilt below from 1978 is "Sarah in Pink".  My mother-in-law actually made three of these, one for each child, based on the art work we had sent her. (See the photo of all three below.)

Of course, I had no idea she would make a quilt out of the art work when I sent it. I didn't know anyone could do that.....make a quilt out of a child's artwork!












Oh my, how my daughters are going to love me for these photos. All quilts by my prolific mother-in-law, Wini Waters Alexander, born in Yakima, WA and raised in Seattle.

Christmas Eve 1978 

What's Your Story?

We all have a story about how, why and when we got hooked by the quilting bug. I think  when we record our stories, we are leaving behind a very valuable legacy. I hope you will consider writing down your story for your children or grandchildren!

I Owe it All to My Mother-in-Law!

I never would have gotten bitten by the quilt bug if it weren't for my mother-in-law. It was the above three portrait quilts plus one other quilt (below) made of Sarah's art work from age 2-7 that finally lured me into quilting.

What intrigued me most of all about the above quilt was what a carrier of history it was, a child's history. I was hooked!

Wini was proficient in so many different forms of neeldework. 
I think her first love was clothing

In 1978 she made robes for the whole family, along with those quilts you saw above!

Wini made quilts at every stage of the children's lives!  

I'll be showing you more in future posts.

I knew I had photos somewhere of my youngest daughter (Lori) taken about 1977 with two of the doll quilts Wini had made. Finally found them!

Pink Medallion doll quilt ( see above) was lost shortly after Lori received it in 1977. 

I reluctantly allowed Lori to take this precious new birthday gift (above) to her friend's house that day just across the street. It never came back and this is the only photo I have of it. Fortunately I snapped the photo just before she left the house that day. The friend's mama could not find it when I called the next morning. She claimed she hadn't even seen it. I was so upset. The two little girls had stayed home the whole afternoon so it couldn't have been left somewhere else.  I always suspected her little friend might have squirreled it away somewhere to play with later, as little children will sometimes do.  I hope some day it shows up in someone's antique doll quilt collection!  Alas, Wini did not sign her doll quilts like she did all her other quilts.





Above is another one of Wini's birthday gift's to Lori. I confess, I had a very hard time allowing her to play with this one. Each fan is trimmed in lace.

Here's Lori some 30 years later ready for a 2010 Halloween party, black wig and all!

And below a photo prepping for her wedding.  Though she doesn't make quilts (yet), she is a graphic artist!

My son's only daughter --and our only granddaughter -- in my lap with our eldest daughter looking on as her sister preps for her big day. My granddaughter is now learning to sew, thanks to her own mother and Girl Scouts.  In fact, she surprised Lori and made the Ring Pillow for the wedding!

"I'll give the baby Fan Quilt to Lori some day," I told myself those many years ago...."when she has her first baby."  It will be a lovely "baby presentation" quilt.

No baby yet but plenty of time for she just got married in April here on the island.

They are going to make GREAT parents! They already take on the nieces and nephews for several days at a time.

Our wedding day 1968!

Loren, Gary's father, is on the right side of the photo. Wini, Gary's mother, on the left side of the photo. My mother is on the right side of the photo with Loren. Frankly, my wedding was very simple. I did not even set a color scheme, yet both mothers showed up in the same color! The wedding was outdoors in a friend's lovely backyard that had just been re-landscaped with a bubbling waterfall added.

As I uploaded my wedding photo onto the blog, I got to remembering my search for my wedding dress. I found it in a bridal shop in Pasadena, CA that carried used wedding dresses. I don't know if I ever told my daughters this story for I didn't keep the dress. At least five more college friends wore it after I in a space of three years!  I don't remember now who was the last one to wear it, but it led a good long life.

Lori (above) found her dress at a Cancer Fund raising Auction. Her wedding ceremony took place in a wonderful historic church here on the island. It has perfect acoustics, no microphone is ever needed no matter what the event.

Sarah (above-my eldest) found her dress used on eBay so they both carried on the tradition.  (We'd all three rather have money to spend on books than clothes.) Sarah also got married outdoors like Gary and I.

My mother was married in a suit on Easter Sunday 1942.  Pearl Harbor had already been bombed. How quickly their world changed. Yet how much more the world has changed since even those days of crisis in the early 40s!

Peace,

Karen Alexander