I find it fascinating that "what goes around, comes around." Until I began to dabble in genealogy research in 1970, history was a dry, boring subject to me. As I gradually discovered that my ancestors, each and every one of them, had played a role, no matter how insignificantly, in settling this great country in which we live, history soon became a living, breathing subject. Then my attentions turned to quilts in 1977, especially 19th century quilts, and the world came to a halt for more than 20 years putting genealogy on the back burner. Before I really realized it, I was involved in researching the evolution of published quilt patterns and my genealogy skills were a natural fit. I finally returned to genealogy in 1999, and now juggle time between family history and that of our quilt patterns.
Published work and current activities
Quilt Patterns: An Index to the Kansas City Star Patterns, 1928-1961 (Kechi, KS: by the author, 1985).
"Quilt Blocks? -- or -- Quilt Patterns?" in Uncoverings 1986, Sally Garoutte, ed. (Mill Valley, CA: American Quilt Study Group, 1987). Updated and republished in Quiltmaking in America: Beyond the Myths (Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 1994).
"The Caden Sisters of Kentucky: A Continuing Saga," in Quilters' Journal, no. 31 (July 1987).
"Quilt History in Old Periodicals: A New Interpretation" in Uncoverings 1990, Laurel Horton, ed. (San Francisco: American Quilt Study Group, 1991).
"Who Were Laura Wheeler & Alice Brooks?" in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, no. 250 (March 1993).
I'm currently a consultant and contributor to The Quilt Index, http://www.quiltindex.org/contributor.php?kid=5D-C9-0
Oh, to be this young once again!
This photograph was taken in October 1980 in my quilt shop in Kechi, KS, a wide spot in the road on the northeast side of Wichita, and there's a humorous story behind this now browned newspaper photograph. The Wichita Eagle had a weekly "Neighbors" supplement for awhile and they did a story about the antique shops in Kechi (the Antique Capital of Kansas at the time) and the shops on north and south Broadway (formerly U. S. Highway 81). My quilt shop was nestled in the middle of Kechi's antique shops, 1978-1982, and when the photographer came to take a few pictures inside some of the shops, my quilt shop was the only one open the day he was there, so this photograph was on the front cover of the October 25th supplement instead of one of the antique shops. Needless to say, I really chided the other shop owners about their absenteeism and what they missed being a part of.
Kechi was founded in 1888 and named for a band of Indians known as the Kichai (Kechi) tribe and is pronounced Kee' cheye (and not ketch' ee as people often pronounce the unfamiliar name). It had been a stopover point for cowboys on the Chisholm Trail bound for Abilene twenty years earlier.
The quilt top I was working on is a ca. 1890-1910 indigo, red, and white calico that was complete as far as the maker went with it. I eventually completed the quilting, but it remains unbound because of the diamond points that create the outside edge and I've never gotten around to wrestling with them.