100-YEAR-OLD PUZZLE
Crazy quilt cues mystery
By POLLY KOLSTAD
For the Tribune
Eight years ago, Wilma Moses bought a trunk at a garage sale in Billings, setting up a mystery that a Great Falls quilting club still is working to unravel.
Sitting in a box near the trunk was a pile of junk and unusual fabric. Moses, who had an antique shop specializing in old clothes and fabrics, inquired about the box. The young man running the sale said his wife picked it up from a garage saIe in Butte.
“I took it home and stashed it in a closet,” Moses said.
Moses showed it to a man from Butte who thought it came from an early women’s sewing club. A few years later Moses gave it to her daughter-in-law, who never did anything with it. Eventually, Moses sent it off to her sister, Arliss Engstrom of Great Falls.
“It is a most interesting chain … Thank heavens that Arliss got that quilt,” Moses said.
The box included seven blocks of a large crazy quilt started a century ago. Crazy quilts are made of irregularly shaped and patterned pieces of cloth sewn together.
The antiquated pieces were hand-stitched onto old flour sacks with some transfers still not embroidered or sewn. The workin- progress measured 50 inches by 70 inches and stretched beyond the borders of a large table.
Tucked among the fabric was a book titled “Civil Government with a Montana Supplement,” copyright 1909. The makers of this unique quilt used the book to carefully preserve the embroidery thread used in the decorative seams.
It appeared that at least parts of the quilt were based on the Constitution- themed book. The center of the quilt included a black circle apparently intended for the U.S.
Seal.
Engstrom and her Monday morning quilting friends set out to learn more about the origins of the quilt and to finish it.
“We are a group of 12 retired schoolteachers, home economics instructors, nurses and fantastic artists,” Ruth Delich said of the women, who meet weekly at the Quilt Away shop.
After getting the quilt pieces, the group spent the next 36 months completing what was most likely started 100 years earlier.
“When Arliss brought the quilt to us, she inspired all of us, and as time went on, it just got more interesting,” Delich said of the group’s largest project so far.
The completed quilt contains a
See QUILT, 3H
Crazy quilt cues mystery
By POLLY KOLSTAD
For the Tribune
Eight years ago, Wilma Moses bought a trunk at a garage sale in Billings, setting up a mystery that a Great Falls quilting club still is working to unravel.
Sitting in a box near the trunk was a pile of junk and unusual fabric. Moses, who had an antique shop specializing in old clothes and fabrics, inquired about the box. The young man running the sale said his wife picked it up from a garage saIe in Butte.
“I took it home and stashed it in a closet,” Moses said.
Moses showed it to a man from Butte who thought it came from an early women’s sewing club. A few years later Moses gave it to her daughter-in-law, who never did anything with it. Eventually, Moses sent it off to her sister, Arliss Engstrom of Great Falls.
“It is a most interesting chain … Thank heavens that Arliss got that quilt,” Moses said.
The box included seven blocks of a large crazy quilt started a century ago. Crazy quilts are made of irregularly shaped and patterned pieces of cloth sewn together.
The antiquated pieces were hand-stitched onto old flour sacks with some transfers still not embroidered or sewn. The workin- progress measured 50 inches by 70 inches and stretched beyond the borders of a large table.
Tucked among the fabric was a book titled “Civil Government with a Montana Supplement,” copyright 1909. The makers of this unique quilt used the book to carefully preserve the embroidery thread used in the decorative seams.
It appeared that at least parts of the quilt were based on the Constitution- themed book. The center of the quilt included a black circle apparently intended for the U.S.
Seal.
Engstrom and her Monday morning quilting friends set out to learn more about the origins of the quilt and to finish it.
“We are a group of 12 retired schoolteachers, home economics instructors, nurses and fantastic artists,” Ruth Delich said of the women, who meet weekly at the Quilt Away shop.
After getting the quilt pieces, the group spent the next 36 months completing what was most likely started 100 years earlier.
“When Arliss brought the quilt to us, she inspired all of us, and as time went on, it just got more interesting,” Delich said of the group’s largest project so far.
The completed quilt contains a
See QUILT, 3H
ABOVE: Arliss Engstrom holds a quilt that the Monday Morning Quilting Group at Quilt Away finished recently.
INSET: A civil government book that was in the box containing the quilt that the Monday Morning Quilting Group finished recently held embroidery thread. TRIBUNE PHOTOS/LARRY BECKNER
BELOW: Members of the quilting group are, left to right, Sandie Jackman, Vicki Bickler, Judi Austin, Jerry Evans, Darlene Gardner, Laurita Jensen, Carol Walters, Susan Dreyer, Terry Reynolds, Pat Bauer, Ruth Delich and Arliss Engstrom.
BOTTOM: Details from the crazy quilt are shown. At left, a spider design on a quilt is said to bring good luck. On the right, Terry Reynolds did the embroidery work on the U.S. Seal while Judi Austin did the needlework at the seal’s edges.
THREE PHOTOS BY POLLY KOLSTAD
Article Continued Below
See QUILT on Page H03
Quilt
Continued from 1H
feast of jewel-colored shapes of scrap pieces typical of crazy quilts.
Following the original style of the work, the local quilters used whatever was at hand. In this case, many of the scraps are silk, which according to Susan Drewer, was common 100 years ago.
“There’s even knives and forks in one patch,” Terry Reynolds said.
There is also a black spider, which according to one folk art source, is found on many crazy quilts and symbolizes good luck.
The group learned various original stitches to attach the squares and the seven blocks, researching sewing methods from the early 1900s.
They used fancy stitches to do the outlining with the help of the old chenille threads that were stashed in the “Civil Government” book.
Everything was done by hand, even the stitching of the black velveteen backing.
To complete the U.S. seal, Engstrom found a pattern and drew it on. Reynolds did the embroidery work, and Judy Austin sewed the embellishments around the seal.
Within the quilt patches are designs of flowers, old lace and tatting work. Pat Bauer created crochet work of butterflies, and Laurita Jensen cross-stitched “E Pluribus Unum.”
“It is ultimately, a testimony to friendship and fellowship,” Austin said of the finished product. “We love everyone here.”
From their research, the group believes that the crazy quilt may have come from the Marian White Arts & Crafts Club in Butte, which was existence from 1905 to 1914, but they are looking for more answers. Anyone with clues to the origin of the quilt is asked to call Engstrom at 761-3898.
The quilt is available to exhibit, and eventually will be donated.
“It has to go somewhere where it has meaning,” Engstrom said.
All the best, Sydne
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