Patchwork past

Fort Worth, TX

8/10/2006

By Nancy Allison, TCU Magazine

Gene Smith and Susan Howell admit it: They enjoy hanging on to the past. Smith, director of  TCU’s Center for Texas Studies, and Howell, a quilter and fibre artist, held history in white-gloved hands at a spring workshop on antique quilts at the Fort Worth Library. Led by Jane Kucko, associate professor of interior design and an accomplished quilter and quilt historian, the workshop attracted history buffs, quilters and even the needlework-challenged to marvel at the talent of quilters past.

The oldest quilt at the workshop, a Carolina Lily pattern from Kucko’s family, was stitched in 1864. Another, embroidered with flowers, a Dutch flag and injunctions to sleep, was completed in 1913 by Howell’s grandmother.

Every quilt really does tell a story — of its maker, its time and the person or event that it celebrates. For generations, quilting was a handy way to teach young girls to sew.

The thousands of stitches that a bed-sized quilt requires was good practice for learning proper housewifely skills. But quilts soon evolved from practical teaching tools and warm coverings to objects of beauty and utility. Traditional patterns, from simple squares to dizzying geometrical puzzles, reflect the handicraft, purpose and character of the maker.

Quilting binds more than cotton and thread. One of the men at the workshop shared a childhood memory of his grandmother’s quilting bee. He used to sit beneath the big frame as the women sewed above him, laughing and talking. Female quilters in the audience, members of well-attended local “bees,” assured him that a good chinwag with friends still defines the quilting experience.

Howell, who lent several family quilts for the workshop, believes that a quilt, with all of its associations and artistry, outranks a blanket as a covering any day. Passionate about the value of quilting and its preservation, she encourages even the stitch-lexic to try it:

“Quilting is a craft that is successful on many skill levels, from the beginner who sews simple squares together and ‘ties’ the quilt, to the artist who has chosen quilting as her/his medium to make incredible ‘thread paintings.’ The gift of a quilt is a gift of love.  Few activities are so satisfying on so many levels.”

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