Textiles and the Triplett Sisters

A couple of times after I’ve given the Early American Military Textiles presentation, I’ve had someone mention to me another potential textile to include. I’m always happy to add to the research and log of textiles. After the blog series, I was contacted by Ragi Marino to see if I was aware of a “soldier’s blanket” at the Texas Civil War Museum.   Ragi re-created the textile as an AQSG Study Quilt. This interesting quilt is another reminder of why quilts made of military textiles are not always recognized as such. Uniforms weren’t standardized, with soldiers wearing what they had. In the War of 1812, well past American infancy, soldiers were still wearing military garb from other countries with updated buttons and insignias.  In the case of this “blanket” the fabrics were from a later version...

Jane A. Blakely was born is Shaftsbury, Vermont on April 8, 1817 to Erastus and Sarah Blakely. In 1844, she married Walter P. Stickle in October 1844, and having no children of her own, the couple later assumed responsibility for three children. Sadly she became bedridden, but to “kill the time” she began to piece the quilt. The quilt features 169 five x five blocks with a border of triangles and a scalloped edge. In one corner it is inked “In War Time. 1863” “Pieces 5602” and stitched in black thread over the ink “Jane A. Stickle.” The initials “SB” cross stitched in the center led to the presumption that is backed by an old linen sheet from her mother Sarah Blakely. The quilt was listed in the highlights of the 1863 Bennington County Agriculture Fair....

I can’t believe it is almost a New Year! I haven’t even finished telling/showing you more of the Houston Quilt Festival. Don’t worry, we’ll get back to that in the next blog. However, I couldn’t wait to tell you about what is coming up for the Triplett Sisters in the New Year 2022. First, there is the new EPP quilt along with Diamante and More Sampler. The directions provide a suggested workflow to help you accomplish the quilt top in 1 year. It is available as a kit or a pattern, so you can choose your own fabrics. (Here’s the link.) I’ll be making another one right along with you, while giving history tidbits and pointers. Since I’ve already made the one with the cream background, I’m choosing a dark background (green or black) this time...

In our continuing tour of the exhibitions at the Houston Quilt Festival, we were surprised to see very few antique quilts. We missed seeing older quilts in all their ancient glory. Fortunately, there was one exhibition entirely of antique quilts called “Pieces of the Past.” One of the quilts was by Anna Williams, which doesn’t seem like a part of the past, since Kay knew her and spent time with her at a friend’s house. (Does that mean you are getting old when you know someone that made a quilt in an antique quilt exhibit???) Anna’s improvisational style was natural to her, but her style was one that many art quilters strive to find for themselves. Another quilt had one of my favorite pillar print birds in it. I’ve written about this fabric before (if you’d...

As you may recall, this year my sister and I had the Huguenot Friendship Quilt exhibit at the Houston Quilt Festival. We realized that not everyone was able to attend the festival this year, so we thought we’d take you to the festival through our blog. Since the big prize-winning quilts have been readily available online, I thought I would focus on other parts of the festival starting with miniature quilts. I’ve only written one other blog on miniature quilts, perhaps because not many miniature quilts are antique. It seems to be a more recent phenomenon. The Smithsonian National Museum of American History only has one quilt in the collection labeled “Miniature” and it was likely a Doll Quilt. True miniature quilts are patterns/designs found in large quilts but recreated in a smaller scale. Ideally, in...