The Design Used By
Marie And Heloise In Their “Crazy Quilt.”
Most crazy quilter’s are familiar with Godey’s 1884 story
called “The Career of a Crazy Quilt”
by Dulcie Weir. It’s a charming story
about two society young ladies, Heloise Herbert (aka Lois) and friend Marie
Antoinette Craig, on how they embark on making a crazy quilt. A lot can be gleaned from the story as to who, when, where, how, what and why crazy quilts were being made.
Who made Crazy
Quilts?
The patch-workers are Heloise Herbert (Lois) and Marie Antoinette
Craig. They were young ladies of means
who could perfectly well afford all the silks they wanted for their crazy
quilts but wanted the excitement of collecting them by any means
necessary. Heloise was the daughter of a
banker and lived in a mansion with a staff who, should knock please prior to
entering a room and ring tea-bells announcing meals. The girls sent fashionable-looking
correspondences to each other, written on terra cotta paper illustrated with a
little Greenaway girl, holding a peacock feather; ragged-edged paper; and copper
embossed correspondence-cards. Fashion
trends were depicted in the outfits worn by the girls: A China silk morning
gown; pretty pongee traveling suit, richly trimmed with brown velvet and the
violet scented gloves and kerchief. Fashionable
lady Mrs. Beauchamp wore tan-colored mousquetaire gloves while calling on
Heloise; she and several of her friends also made crazy quilts.
When were the
Crazy Quilts made?
The story was published in the July 1884 issue of Godey’s
Lady’s Book and refers to the wedding last fall, indicating 1883 when the crazy
quilts were completed. The girls got
together on a fair, sweet day in the early spring of 1883 to work on their
crazy quilts. Several of the letters are
dated in January and February of 1883, with the idea for making the crazy
quilts coming out one day last winter, referring to 1882. In February 1883, Mrs. Beauchamp exclaimed
that she and several of her friends had each made a crazy quilt last fall. It was she who told Heloise of the scheme to
get free buyers samples to make the quilts.
The shop keepers complained to the loss of revenue and
cost of making samples from the prior year, 1882, due to the thousands of
requests they received, of which a large portion had no return, as in only one
case out of ten led to a customers. They
didn’t want to buy anything at all, but wanted to use the silks for patchwork.
Where are the
Crazy Quilts being made?
Where else, but up-state New York, where I live! Marie lived in Albany and Heloise in
Rochester. According to the girls, the
storekeepers in Rochester were not as generous as they were in Albany. Marie’s Mamma and rich Aunt Annabel went to
New York to get new patterns and stacks of samples for the girls. Heloise’s father went to the Convention in
Syracuse, leaving the girls to work on their quilts.
How are Crazy Quilts
made?
First you needed supplies. The girls collected silk samples from dry
goods stores and sent begging letters to out-of-town friends for contributions
of silk. Relatives supplied bits of
old-fashion brocade, scraps of silk, and old silk dresses. They asked every lady that called on them for
bits of their bonnet strings. Young men
provided gently used lovely silk handkerchiefs and old (plus newer)
neckties. Sometimes family members
donated unwittingly to the patches as overcoat linings and sleeves were cut out
and used in the quilts!
The patches were arranged on a piece of Canton flannel
eighteen inches square, and the pieces of silk arranged upon it. Pre-stamped muslin foundations were also sold
in stores. The edges of each piece were
turned in, and afterwards covered over with fancy stitches in colored silks or
gold thread (numerous stitches are shown in the design); the greater the
variety that adorn a quilt, the handsomer it was considered. The pieces were furthered ornamented with
embroidered designs, or figures in etching, with colored silks. Lovely little figures for appliqué were
available to purchase. After the squares
were completed, they were joined together with fancy stitches, and the whole
quilt would then have a border of plush nine inches deep put around it, with a
lining throughout of satin. It would
then be trimmed all around with lace, and the two upper corners ornamented with
ribbon bows.
What do Crazy
Quilts look like?
Throughout the story descriptions of and means of getting
supplies; along with alternative uses for crazy quilts are implied. The look and motif designs are described in
detail as the girls worked on their patches.
One of their friends, Janie Roberts made an oriental looking sofa
cushion of tiny little bits worked up with spangles and gold thread. Pretty splashers could be made by reproducing
the design provided to the size required, tracing it on coarse white linen, and
doing the work with colored silks.
The design given for crazy patchwork showed the different
forms the pieces could be made, although a great deal was left to the ingenuity
and taste of the person designing it.
Different colored silks, satins, velvets, and plushes were used; harmony
of color was aimed at in the arrangement.
It was advised not to have many large pieces in the quilt; as the small
ones were so much more effective.
The Motifs:
Little girl sitting on a fence – crimson etching silk on
a bit of cream-colored satin
Little chocolate girl – stitched on grey damassée
Sunflower block – done in filoselle
Painted Flower – Mabel has painted me some pansies, a bit
of forget-me-not, and a spray of wild roses
Monograms – Janie Roberts is doing me a block with her
monogram on it
Crimson heart pierced with a golden arrow – embroidered
on white with gold dots
Little boy – on a bit of sulphur satin, worked him in
black
Little dog
The Design:
The girls worked on opposite sides of the pattern, from
Godey’s, a pretty design with a queer little zigzag piece in the corner. They also used gay-figured goods on their
blocks. They used old-fashioned brocade,
silk samples, silk scraps/bits, neckties, handkerchiefs, silk dresses, bonnet
strings, white Ottoman (with gold dots), a lovely rose-colored striped satin, crimson
brocade silk and light brocade (light
colors were scarcer to find). Both
quilts were finished with a beautiful rose-colored border, on which were worked
the following lines: “All precious
things, discovered late, To those that seek them, issue forth; For love in
sequel works with fate, And draws the veil from hidden worth.”
Alternative
Supplies and Crazy Quilt Uses:
Heloise’s brother Ned brought her a lot of those nasty
little cigar ribbons all in a tangle, and offered them for her crazy quilt. As we know now, cigar ribbons were indeed
used to make quilted items several years later – this could have been the
starting point of that trend. Ned and
his friends made a crazy quilt using coffee-bagging as the foundation and blocks made of old flannel shirts, stockings,
linen collars, striped petticoats, aprons, bandanna handkerchiefs, etc., all
cut in their proper form, and stitched on with pink, yellow, and purple
wrapping cord. They made it to be raffled
off for a horse blanket at the firemen’s fair.
Opinions regarding
Crazy Quilts:
Not everyone was keen on the idea of crazy quilts. They were referred to as “those abominable
things” by several of the young men who claimed that the makers would become
bores to their friends. They didn’t want
the girls plaguing men for their old neckties, and all that sort of thing. Fellows made fun of girls who went around
begging for old silk --‘rag-pickers’ they called them. Family members who had their clothing
attacked said Marie was being a nuisance to everybody, and threatened to put her
quilt in the fire if it didn’t stop.
The Shop Keepers Revenge:
As a result of making and giving away so many samples in
1882, the shop keepers resorted to providing wee little mites of samples, with button-holes
cut in them, or pasting them cardboard so that they were of no earthly use. The firms had been driven to this in
self-defense. In some cases, a deposit
of five dollars was required to get samples as a measure of good faith, with the
amount credited upon purchase. Some
companies sent representatives to inquire into the commercial standings of the
buyer’s sample requesters since ladies were creating fictitious firms in order
to get lovely shades of fine silk and damassée and brocade, some of them six or
eight inches square, and all bound together in a beautiful little book for
their patchwork.
Why were Crazy
Quilts made?
Why not? In this
case, the girls could well afford the patterns and supplies – they were making
them for the sport of finding the materials and defying the young men who
thought they were silly.
The better
question is why the story was written?
Ads, lots of them!
The entire story is sprinkled liberally with advertisements! Of course there were descriptions of all the
latest fashions – what the girls wore, with mentions of household items –
furniture and such. The Little chocolate
girl is a nod to Walter Baker’s chocolate, an American chocolate
manufacturer, who packaged his breakfast cocoa using the silhouette of the
Austrian girl from a portrait of "La Belle Chocolatiere” as his trademark
in 1883. The ever popular Kate Greenaway
girls were mentioned as adorning the stationary used by the girls; not to
mention the other types used in their correspondences. There was even a plug for the publication
Godey’s as the source of the pretty design.
It was indicated that other supplies could be purchased – stamped linen
and completed appliqué figures; plus lots of cuttings that you get so
many for a dollar. The text they
embroidered on the border is a line from popular poems. Both Mrs. Frances S. Osgood and Alfred Lord
Tennyson use the stanza. During 1843-4
Osgood published a story “The Wife,” and around the same time Tennyson expanded
his 1830 poem “The Sleeping Beauty” to include those lines in “The Arrival”
section of “The Day Dream.” Since the
girls exchanged their crazy quilts at their double wedding, the text probably
refers to “The Wife” story as they embarked on their married lives as wives.
The most probable reason the story was written was to be
used as a guide on how to make crazy quilts.
The design given for both stitches and motifs; suggested material types,
sources, colors and patch ideas (monograms, painted flowers); plus the
directions on how to assemble are all provided in the guise of the story.
Well there you have it, the, who, when, where, how, what
and why crazy quilts were being made.
Why were more made? The story was
written to make more crazy quilts!
Source:
Godey’s Lady’s Book, Volume 109, No. 649, July 1884
J.H. Haulenbeek and Co.
Proprietors and Publishers. P.O.
Box H.H. Philadelphia.
The Design Used By Marie And Heloise In Their “Crazy
Quilt.” For Description, See Work
Department. For Story, See “The Career
of a Quilt.” [Colored insert page in
front of issue, not paginated.]
THE CAREER OF A CRAZY QUILT. Dulcie Weir.
[Pages 77-82]
WORK DEPARTMENT.
CRAZY PATCHWORK. (See colored page in front of book.) [Page 96]
