President
Treasurer &
Newsletter
Deb Scott
Sierra Vista
Awards Chair
Jan Pederson
Globe
Membership
Lenna DeMarco
Sun City
(Class of 2016)
Induction Chair
Anne Hodgkins
Scottsdale
Arizona Historical Society Liaison
Laraine Daly Jones
(Class of 2014)
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Our Organizational Friends
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Arizona Country Register
Arizona Quilters Guild
Hummingbird Stitchers Quilt Guild
Mountain Top Quilt Guild
Strawberry Patchers Quilt Guild
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Special Note: We plan to publish our newsletter 4 times each year. Look for Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall editions!
Please help us expand our readership by sharing with your quilting friends. Just click "Forward e-mail" at the bottom of the page!
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Hello Friends of the Hall of Fame!
Your Arizona Quilters Hall of Fame is stepping into Spring with some Exciting Changes to our website! As we enter our second decade, we are working on a new future for our organization.
We hope you find the new website easy to use and enjoy the news from the Arizona quilting scene today ---- and the opportunity to review days past.
Three exceptional quilters have joined our Board of Directors.
Welcome and Thank You For Your Service to Laraine Daly Jones (Class of 2014), Lenna DeMarco (Class of 2016), and Anne Hodgkins!!
We are all anxiously watching our mailboxes for "our" issue of Quiltfolk magazine. The 6th edition of
Quiltfolk is dedicated to Arizona! I know I will enjoy reading the stories of old friends I've gathered over the years and seeing new faces featured. Our own organization is found there.
Did you know Arizona has the only statewide quilter's Hall of Fame in the US? We hope we can be the inspiration to others to begin their own! A big shout out to our founders and those who have worked to bring the Arizona Quilters Hall of Fame into its second decade.
Your board has been working hard in the past few months to bring us to peak performance. There are several new ideas and projects swirling about, so, watch this space for news.
The quilt show season is in full swing, be sure to attend and support your local shows and don't forget ---- a road trip to a quilt show is the best kind ever!
Happy Spring to All - Mary Lucille
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Arizona Quilt Documentation Project
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PHOENIX QDP Updates - from Lenna DeMarco
The AZQDP continues to work diligently across the state. We've documented thousands of quilts and several hundred are already listed on the national
Quilt Index. We are the busiest group in the country and have more quilts submitted than most. It's an effort of which we can be very proud. But there are many, many more quilts that need to be documented - new and old. If you have an old quilt it should be submitted to the QI and if you just finished one yesterday, the same holds true. Every quilt is part of the history of quiltmaking. The quilts found on the Quilt Index are studied and researched by scholars from around the world. The information you provide serves not only those who are researching today but also the historians and scholars of tomorrow.
A perfect example of how important this recording process is recently occurred when the Metro Team was documenting the quilts at the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott. The quilt pictured above was identified as being part of Sharlot Hall's personal collection. The museum is not sure if it is a family piece or exactly how it relates to Hall, who was born in Kansas in 1870. A beauty in its day, the well-worn nine block red and green floral applique dates to the third quarter (1850-1875) of the 19th century.
The most striking element is the lovely border - each side made up of blossoms and vines springing from a single pot. Those of us who are members of the American Quilt Study Group quickly identified this unique treatment as a design element currently being reached by quilt historian Xenia Cord. Xenia believes this border style originated with Ohio quiltmakers of the period.
Lynn Miller (taking the photo) shared the image with Xenia as well as posting a picture on several quilt history websites. Xenia was delighted to add yet another documented piece to her research and the websites were alive with speculation and commentary. The question for us, now, is how did this possibly Ohio quilt find its way to Sharlot Hall and to Prescott, Arizona? Does it indicate an Ohio connection in Hall's family? Was it brought by a pioneer to the AZ Territory? What does it reveal about America's Westward migration? It's a mystery for a good quilt detective and one that underscores the importance of preserving and recording the images and stories of quilts.
TUCSON QDP Updates- from Sue Franklin
In December, Tucson members Sue and Peggy spoke about the Emma Andres (Class of 2009) quilt collection, purchased by Lynn and Ralph Miller for $60,000. Emma's quilts are now housed in the Arizona History Museum where they will receive proper care. Currently, a fundraising effort is in effect so that the Museum may buy the collection from the Millers. Donations for this project can be made by check to Friends of Arizona History; mail to The Arizona History Museum, 949 E. Second Street, Tucson 85719, attention, Laraine Daly-Jones. Emma, who spent her entire life in Prescott, is a true Arizona treasure. She and Goldie Tracy Richmond (Class of 2014) are wonderful persons to emulate.
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| Gee's Bend Quilt: US Postage Srtamp |
The Quilts of Gee's Bend (Alabama) by Bea Kabler
Bea grew up in Alabama and traveled in the area of the Gee's Bend quilters many times over the years. She noted that most of the makers were descendents of slaves from the Mark Pettway's plantation in Alabama. While called Gee's Bend in the past, the Post Office renamed it to Boykin in
1949; however, it remains Gee's Bend to the locals.
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| Gee's Bend Quilt: Pig in the Pen |
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| Gee's Bend Quilt: Pastel Checkerboard |
The area is U shaped, 5 miles across and 7 miles long and on three sides, has the Alabama River. In the early years, there was a ferry, but gone since the mid 1960s, making a very long trip on a bad road to get to town to register (to vote). Bea noted Gee's Bend inhabitants didn't lose privileges because they were black, but because "they forgot they were black."
Before 1932, a kind merchant extended credit to the folks of Gee's Bend. That changed dramatically when he died and his shrewish wife took over the store. She collected with a vengeance! In 1962, a dam to generate electricity was built and the outcome meant the most fertile acres were flooded. Gee's bend women then began to have an interest in quilting and also to have some involvement with a Bee in nearby Alberta.
Gee's Bend quilters, from remote Gee's Bend, ultimately became Cinderellas. They were stars on the contemporary art scene with vivid patterns made with fabrics from their every day clothes. Shy, elegant, prolific, they delighted in the respect and appreciation that greeted their efforts. Their goal: to break the pattern: to see what others do and then change it, to make it their own. Gee's Bend quilters offered bold new approaches to a distinctive American art form. The quilts of Gee's Bend introduced bright contrasting color and a dramatic contrast to traditional American and European quilting.
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For questions about either quilt documentation or joining the team, please either call or email Tucson liaisons Sue Franklin, (520.490.4721;
[email protected]) or Terry Gryzb-Wysocki, (520.749.9326;
[email protected]), or state coordinator Lynn Miller (480.632.2819 or
[email protected]) Lynn also needs people familiar with the computer to aid her with data entry for the Quilt Index. Lynn does distance training which takes about two hours.
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Featured Quilters- More 2017-18 AZQHOF Award Winners
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"Southwest Memories" by Sandy May, Havasu Stitchers
Quilted by Sheri Lilienthal
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"Who Let the Dogs In" by Sandra Branjord
AQG 2018 Quilt Arizona!, Mesa
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"Starburst" by Nancy Banz
Hummingbird Stitchers 2018 Quilts of the Huachucas
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"It's a Mystery" by Sally Hatfield
Copper Country Quilters, Globe
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"Fire Island Hosta" by LaVon Crigger
from the Judy Niemeyer pattern
Queen Valley Scrap Rats
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"Red Work Baskets" by Darlene Martin, Gila County Fair, Globe
3rd Place, Mixed Techniques, AQG 2018 Quilt Arizona!
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"The Mosaic Quilt" by Janis Sachs
2018 Tombstone Quilt Show
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"Cream Crazy Quilt" by Cynthia Lynn
Vulture Peak Patchers, Wickenburg
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"Ducks Welcoming Blanket" by Joan Gray
Quail Country Quilters, Cottonwood
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"Amazon Star" by Bonnie Kouskouris
2018 Rim Country Round-Up, Payson
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"Dear Paula, With Sincere Thanks" by Karen Fisher
TQG 2018 Quilt Fiesta, Tucson
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History Corner
by Lenna deMarco
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"ELIZA LUCAS PINCKNEY - THE INDIGO GIRL"
By Lenna DeMarco
Do you love to wear your favorite old blue jeans? Do you take pride in the blue and white of your favorite team's colors? Do you have a passion for blue and white quilts?? If you answer yes to any of these questions, you owe a debt to Eliza Lucas Pinckney. Without her skill, determination and dedication, you might not be wearing those comfy old jeans.
Eliza Lucas Pinckney was born in 1722 in Antigua, West Indies, the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel George Lucas of the British Army. In 1738, hoping to make his fortune, he moved his family to an area near Charleston, South Carolina where he purchased three plantations. Shortly after their arrival, Eliza's mother died and her father was called back to Antigua. At the age of 16, Eliza was left in a strange country in charge of several siblings and three plantations. Well educated, with a thirst for knowledge and a special interest in botany, Eliza was determined to make the plantations a financial success. She was in regular contact with her father, who often sent her seeds, appraising him of her efforts to find a cash crop and make the plantations profitable. Responding to the growing textile industry and the demand for new and stable dyes, Eliza turned to the cultivation of indigo. South Carolina provided an excellent climate for growing indigo, and after a numbers years of experimentation, Eliza was soon producing a high quality indigo dye, much in demand by the mills in England. With her assistance, neighboring planters quickly followed suit and indigo soon rivaled rice as the main cash crop of the region. For three decades Eliza led the "Indigo Revolution" where, in spite of the lengthy and complex process, indigo planters saw their profits double every three to four years.
In 1744, independent and financially secure, Eliza married close family friend and neighbor, Charles Pinckney, a widower twice her age. Eliza bore four children, raising them with a liberal and forward thinking approach, using the money she earned from indigo for their education. Charles died in 1758 and Eliza once again was in charge of maintaining several plantations. The plantations were destroyed during the Revolutionary War while two of her sons served as American generals. Son Charles Cotesworth was a signer of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and the family continued its prominence in the newly formed country.
Eliza died in Philadelphia in 1793 where she had gone for treatment. Held in high regard for her contribution to the financial and agricultural growth of young America, George Washington served as one of her pallbearers. She is buried in St. Peter's Churchyard in Philadelphia. A 2017 novel ELIZA LUCAS PINCKNEY - The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd tells the fictionalized story of Eliza's struggle to create the "Indigo Revolution". So put on your favorite jeans, wrap yourself in a blue and white quilt and have a good read. And don't forget to thank Eliza!
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Ask Luce Bobbins! is on hiatus, but we look forward to hearing from her later this year!
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We wish all quilters a Happy Spring
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