What will this site be about?
Research and collecting is a continuous and exciting road of discovery. No matter how long a person has collected material or how much material has been accumulated, there's always something new to discover. Occasionally those new discoveries will be posted here.
It was the acquisition of the two patterns with the Mary Lee Quilts byline that inspired me to finally pursue an online format to share information and new discoveries.
My first major quilt-related research project was in 1983-84-85 when I scrolled through 244 reels of newspaper microfilm over a 17 month period to identify and date the quilt pattern collection published by the Kansas City Star and its farm paper, the Weekly Kansas City Star, later re-titled the Weekly Star Farmer, then self-published an Index to this amazing collection, the first time this well-known collection had been methodically documented (see separate Kansas City Star page). However this was only one published source and one collection, and many more begged for the same attention. In time, I hope to "make a difference" in our overall knowledge of published quilt patterns and their sources.
Researchers will discover the importance of the original engravings as they browse the various pages on this site and how they provide clues to a published source when that vital information was lost as a quiltmaker added it to her quilt pattern box or scrapbook in years past. Modern interpretations of these engravings lose the uniqueness of the designs and perhaps even the romanticism of the time in which they were originally published.
New additions:
Quilting Exclusif Magasin, Omaha, Nebraska, March 9, 2011
Wonder Package, April 28, 2011; updated September 8, 2011
Aunt Martha page updated with new illustrations, July 6, 2011
Patty Shannon, Louisville, Kentucky, October 30, 2011
© Wilene Smith, September 6, 2010, all rights reserved; updated October 30, 2011
More Quilt History (listed alphabetically)
The Alliance for American Quilts, http://www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/about/
American Quilt Study Group, http://www.americanquiltstudygroup.org/
Barbara Brackman's Material Culture, http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/ also http://www.barbarabrackman.com/
Hart Cottage Quilts, http://hartcottagequilts.com/
Illinois Quilt History: Quilt History From the Midwest, http://www.illinoisquilthistory.com/index.html
International Quilt Study Center & Museum, http://www.quiltstudy.org/
Timeline: http://explorer.quiltstudy.org/timeline.html
Quilt History Reports by Karen Alexander, http://karenquilt.blogspot.com/
The Quilt Index, http://www.quiltindex.org/contributors.php
The Quilters Hall of Fame, http://www.quiltershalloffame.net/
Selected Bibliography of State and Regional Quilt History, http://www.booksandoldlace.com/quilting/StateQuiltHistoryBibliography.htm
Womenfolk: The Art of Quilting -- Quilts and Quiltmaking Yesterday and Today, http://www.womenfolk.com/
Dating mail-order patterns through postmarks
I recently discovered a great website researched and written by a lady with a wonderful sense of humor. She successfully waded through the complexities of using postmarks on mailer envelopes as keys to dating the patterns they contained.
Dating Mail Order Patterns, http://zipzapkap.com/dating_mail_order.html
Also see her page about searching for U.S. Patents, http://zipzapkap.com/patents.html
