Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Amish Quilts To Be Displayed

Piece by piece the Amish women in Pennsylvania and the midwest created functional masterpieces through their quiltmaking.

The Decorative Arts Museum displays these remarkable examples from America's textile heritage in the exhibition Amish Quilts from the Collection of the Museum of American Folk Art January 19 through March 2.

This exceptional exhibit consists of a selection of 18 textiles from three major geographic areas of Amish quiltmaking -- the Midwest and Lancaster and Mifflin counties in Pennsylvania -- from the classic period, late 19th century through the 1930s. The exhibation allows visitors to compare and contrast Amish quiltmaking patterns and techniques from various regions.

The simple, modest lifestyle of the Pennsylvania Amish is reflected in their quilts. The early ones were made of large, geometric pieces of fabric.

The classic Lancaster County designs represented in this exhibit, center diamond and bars, are examples of patterns first created in this early period and continued through the 20th century. The Lancaster County women originally may have chosen to work with large simple patterns, not because they were easier to stitch together, but because to them a great number of tiny pieces in a quilt was considered ostentatious, a source of pride.

Such pride in wordly possessions was believed sinful among the Amish, and it was not until later that the Lancaster County women began to deviate from the established patterns of squares, diamonds and bars to include more complicated designs.

Amish women had to work with geometric designs, because their religion forbade naturalistic decoration.

A number of quilts in the exhibition come from Amish communities in the Midwest.

While sharing the beautiful stitching, geometric designs and wide borders of the Pennsylvania Amish, the Midwest Amish made their quilts with much greater variety of patterns, especially repetitive geometric patterns. The midwest women quilted a full range of patterns, both those they had borrowed from their non-Amish neighbors, and those they invented themselves.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the Amish quilts of Pennsylvania and those from the Midwest is in the materials used.

Until about 1925 or 1930, almost all of the Pennsylvania quilts were made of wool. Only a few of the very early midwestern quilts are in wool, almost all were made of cotton. Several different types of cotton were used, including sateen and twill, and it is not unusual to see a number of these different materials used in the same quilt, shading from light to dark and adding another dimension to the bedcover.

In conjunction with Amish Quilts , the Decorative Arts Museum and the Arkansas Quilters Guild are co-sponsoring a quilt workshop and lecture at the museum.

The workshop will be conducted by Bettina Havig, who is a leader in quilt research projects, a counsultant to the Silver Dollar City quilt competition, a quilt judge and a frequent contributor to quilt publications. She also is the author of four books, including `Amish Quiltmakers' and `Amish Kinder Komforts.'

The "Waste Not, Want Not: Amish Scrap Quilt" workshop, which includes lunch, will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, January 18.

Reservations at $10 each are required and can be made by calling 501-372-4000.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, January 19, Havig will give a lecture, entitled `Amish Quilts: Traditional Mid-Western Old Order Amish.'

As part of the Arkansas Arts Center's distinguished speakers series, Kee Kogan, director and senior research fellow of Folk Art Institute, Museum of American Folk Art, will discuss the role of quilts within the larger context of American folk art at 2 p.m. Sunday, February 23, at the Decoratiave Arts Museum.

Amish Quilts is sponsored by Leisure Arts, Inc. and by season sponsors Beverly Enterpise, Inc.; Ernst and Young; and Giroir and Gregory, P.A.

With a focus on decorative arts and comtemporary crafts, the Decorative Arts Museum complements The Arkansas Arts Center's programs and services with exhibitions, lectures, classes and tours. Housed in the 1840 Pike- Fletcher-Terry home located at 7th and Rock Streets, the museum was opened as part of the Arts Center.