Master Pieces
The art of the Texas quilt.
(Page 4 of 7)
Cut from the same cloth: A history
Quilting appears to date back to ancient Egypt. Evidence of this comes from a 5400-year-old ivory figure in the British Museum in London. Found at the Temple of Osiris in 1903, it depicts a pharaoh whose cloak is carved in diamond patterns typical of quilted fabric. Bresenhan describes the figure in a book about the history of quilting, Hands All Around. In it, she explains how cloth relics from Egypt, Mongolia, and India suggest that forms of needlework associated with quiltmaking evolved first in Asia. During the Middle Ages, Crusaders returning from the East brought these techniques to Europe. Colonists in turn brought quiltmaking from Europe to North America during the 17th and 18th centuries. Quilts were such a necessity, especially in New England, but in other regions as well, that most young girls could sew and quilt before they turned 8.
Quilts came to Texas with the first Anglo settlers in the early 1800s. The untamed territory demanded total self-sufficiency. To make quilts, pioneer women had to pick, gin, and card their own cotton; spin thread; weave cloth; and dye fabric at home. Even after 1845, when Texas obtained statehood, frontier women faced daunting threats to their physical and mental survival: Comanche Indians, yellow fever, poisonous reptiles and insects, and long periods of isolation. The orderly process of making a patchwork scrap quilt of one’s very own design was one of the few pleasures life afforded. Suzanne Labry, a quilt historian and author of Texas Quilts, Texas Women, says 19th-century diaries and letters show that “for many pioneer women in Texas, while quilting was definitely part of their workload, it was also a creative and emotional outlet for them.”
Most quilts of this era were treated to a rough life: they were made of fabric scraps that were old to begin with, used to the point of tattering, boiled in vats by way of washing, and bleached by the sun when left out to dry. Some, however, were made to be more than everyday blankets. These “best” quilts were often made for important occasions such as weddings or the birth of a baby. Among them are quilts of great beauty and artistry that reflect the consummate skill that comes from early training. Because the themes and images in these quilts are from the life experiences of their makers, they are now valuable records of the history and culture of early Texas. In recognition of this important legacy, in 1983 Texas became the second state to conduct a statewide search for valuable quilts in private hands. Supported by grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, Karey Bresenhan, serving as dating expert and historian, and Nancy O’Bryant, acting as photographer, traversed the state for two years. They documented 3,500 of the finest Texas quilts and published 62 of them in Lone Stars: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1836-1936.
My Library
