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When the winter winds howl and polar vortices loom with all their icy mayhem, there’s nothing quite like a quilt to bring a bit of brightness to the gloom.
Quilting is quintessentially American: creating beauty and order from assorted odds and ends, it is an inherently democratic craft and an enduring folk art. For centuries, quilting has been a means of expression for women shut out of male-dominated creative industries.
As the mercury drops, we hope you can find warm solace in UK Libraries’ many quilting resources, from our charming physical collection to our voluminous series of oral histories, with some delightful scraps in between.
Hanging on the walls of the Fifth Floor of William T. Young Library are 64 quilts from the Wade Hall Quilt Collection.
A former professor of English and Humanities at Bellarmine College in Louisville, Dr. Hall was a folk art aficionado who collected quilts from across the Ohio River Valley region over a 30 year period. Most of the quilts on display were purchased within a 100-mile radius of Lexington, in Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
All 64 quilts are lovingly described in the Wade Hall Quilt Collection Research Guide, with detailed information about each item. Though several quilts are unique designs, most utilize popular patterns, and users can find links to instructions for these patterns or the particular techniques used for each quilt.
Uniquely, the collection features quilts that exhibit signs of long and loving use. Many no longer hold their original rectangular shape, veering almost trapezoidal from decades of washing and line-drying. Others come complete with stains and tears, underscoring the foundational use-value of these wonderful objects and adding a sentimental dimension not often found in more art-oriented collections.
Among these imperfections, the most informative for the history of the craft is the fading colors found in many of the quilts, especially those using “fugitive colors” such as Congo red dye. Widely used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Congo red was an affordable dye derived from coal-tar waste products that was not properly fixed or “mordanted.” Over time, Congo red frequently turns to shades of salmon, mauve, or brown, unlike the more expensive Turkish red that retains its bright hues.
Both reds are utilized in one late 19th-century hanging diamonds quilt on the East wall (#24). Sets of diamonds that today appear red and pink would once have been the same color.
There’s more color history in one of the oldest quilts in the collection, a compass quilt hanging on the South wall and dating from 1850 (#44). Made in Bardstown, Kentucky and purchased by Dr. Hall in Mount Sterling, its central circles use a deep green fabric originally known as “Scheele’s Green” but now referred to as “poison green,” as the dye makes heavy use of arsenic. Many of the collection’s late 19th and early 20th century quilts use other greens derived from unstable vegetable dyes that have now faded to tan, grey-blue, or mousey grey.
While many of the quilts are the products of unknown makers and of unknown provenance, others can be very precisely sourced: for example, we know that at least two generations of the Edwards family from Edmonson County, Kentucky created the purple and yellow blazing star quilt hanging on the North wall (#2).
A lovely quilt in variegated blues of pansies and ribbons in Core 2 (#15) is an original design of Mable Black of Lexington. Black would later go on to help create a Best of Show-winning quilt for the 1933 Sears, Roebuck & Co. Century of Progress Quilt Contest.
A circle of hearts quilt on the East wall (#33) made by Gable Wright, a Black quilter from Springfield, Kentucky, utilized large flour sacks as backing material, with trademarks and lettering still visible, including “Greenville, TX” stamping.
While generally made of cotton fabrics, scraps, and cotton batting, Wright’s is one of a handful of quilts that makes substantial use of unique materials. Others include strips of bright silk, satin ribbons, and neckties. Many of the quilts are hand pieced and hand quilted, though some are sewn by machine.
The whole collection was prepared for hanging by Helen Thompson, a Lexington quilt appraiser, who worked with a group of more than 25 volunteers to line the quilts with a separate back that could accommodate hanging rods and weighted bottom rods. The quilts have been adding their crown of color to the Fifth Floor since Young Library opened its doors in 1998.
You’ve satisfied the coziness-cravings of your eyes, now how about some blankety soundscapes to blunt the worst of winter’s blasts nipping at your ears?
Lucky for you, the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History holds over 1200 oral history interviews with quiltmakers. If we could stitch them all together, we feel like we could keep the whole of Kentucky warm!
Most of these interviews were collected by Quilters’ Save Our Stories (QSOS), a grassroots oral history project that set out to celebrate the lives and stories of quiltmakers from around the world. From 1999 to 2016, QSOS recorded interviews with quilters from all 50 states (here are Kentucky’s) and nine countries, from Australia to Peru.
The results of this immense story-saving effort are now preserved through a partnership between the Nunn Center, the Quilt Alliance, and the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
For even more quilting resources, the Quilts in Kentucky Research Guide has you covered. You can find:
Now you’ll never throw away another scrap – and won’t that be fun! Happy quilting, Wildcats, and stay warm this winter!
