Today's Quilt Serendipity

It matters not that I already have collected enough appliqué quilt patterns to keep my fat chubby fluffy fingers busy for the next 20 or so years.

Wednesday, I pulled out of one of my precariously tall TO DO stacks a press release about a historic quilt that was available in kit form from the Winterthur Museum in Winterthur, Delaware.

It is the Old Otterbein Church Baltimore Album Quilt (first picture), made in 1854 by members of the church. The church was? is? located in Baltimore, Maryland.

This led to a delightful trail of serendipitous discoveries that I must share with you!

The first unexpected treat: the kit is now on SALE!  $49 instead of $60! (Info below on how to get one of the only 125 remaining kits!)

The second tidbit of serendipity: while I was looking for the website that posted the photo and history of this quilt so that I could blog about it (and share the sale with you), I discovered that Mary Simon was believed to have been affiliated with this historic quilt.

Now here is where my quilting, genealogy, mystery- loving, curious chick mind almost overdosed on  the connecting the threads of the women who made some of these fabulous quilts!

Mary Simon is the artist and quilter who made the famous Baltimore Album quilt in the collection of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, headquartered in Washington, D.C.

The same Mary Simon, an enterprising Bavarian immigrant, made kits of some original appliqué album blocks that were all the rage at the time. A few of the blocks (the basket of flowers blocks) in the Old Otterbein Church quilt are believed to be those Mary Simon kits.Thanks to Nancy Kern for letting me know that this Mary Simon connection to the Old Otterbein Church Quilt is an unproven and oft-repeated theory. I DO enjoy learning the nuances of quilt history! Many thanks, Nancy!

I never realized that quilt kits or even individual block kits were available as early as 1854. That was the third delicious tidbit of discovery of the day! Based on the above correction, I am even more interested in learning when the first quilt kit or block kit appeared on the market.  When did Block of the Month Quilt programs begin?

The Mary Simon quilt is one of two "famous" Baltimore Album quilts in the National DAR Museum for which the DAR collaborated with the Baltimore Applique Society to reproduce in pattern form. 

The Mary Mannakee Quilt is the other meticulously reproduced pattern from the NSDAR Collection. (Both detailed patterns sets are just $25 each available through the DAR Museum Store. I bought my copies of the patterns five or six years back, so there may not be that many copies of these pattern sets left!)

That led me to review the information online about the NSDAR Museum's Mary Simon quilt and kit, and I discovered that Nancy Gibson Tuckhorn, the textile curator at the NSDAR Museum a few years back, had published a book, A Maryland Album: Quiltmaking Traditions 1634 - 1934, (Rutledge Hill Press, 1995).

I've added that book to my growing list of quilt books that I MUST have! It's an easy list for Gordon to reference when he needs an idea for how to spoil me.  *grin*

Nancy was the reason P&B Textiles was licensed to reproduce some of the historic fabrics from the NSDAR quilt collection.  Those fabrics debuted in 1999? 2000? 2001? I was not interested actually MAKING quilts back in 1999, so I did not buy any of the DAR reproduction fabrics. (*kicking myself*)

The last several weeks, I've been actively searching for remnants of that DAR reproduction fabric to add to my stash for future Baltimore Album -type projects.

Isn't it amazing how quilting threads weave themselves in and out, throughout the fabric of our lives?

If you know where I can buy some of that DAR Reproduction fabric or how I can contact Nancy Tuckhorn Gibson, please let me know. 

It amazes me how this blog has helped me find some elusive people!

Some nice person reading this blog connected me to Meighan Morrison, that needlepoint designer I talked about back in January.  She is now writing books for children featuring  quilts as part of the plot.  They are on my Quilt Book Wish List also!

How to order the Old Otterbein Church pattern kit:

I called 1-800-448-3883 which is the switchboard at Winterthur. 
Ask to be transferred to the Gift Shop.
Dorris was the nice lady at the gift shop who told me how few pattern kits were left.
The sale price is $49 plus $8.99 shipping.

If this is available to be ordered online, I can't find it. Now I don't even remember how I received the press release that was in my Leaning Tower of TO DO Items. 

Many, many thanks to Kathy for letting me know this morning that I had failed to share the ordering information with you!  Thanks to Lisa for letting me know I had a typo in the phone number for the switchboard at Winterthur!

The phone number at the National DAR Museum Store is: (202) 879-3208

If you start one of these quilts, please let me know.  It would be fun to work on the quilts along with others!

Have a super day, friends!
Fondly,
Penny

Comments

[Nancy Gibson (formerly Tuckhorn)]

Hi there-it is indeed wonderful to see that today's quiltmakers are still amazed by the work of those fabulous 19th century women. And, thank you Penny for recognizing my work at the DAR Museum many years ago. I am now working at the American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association in Rockville, Maryland as a public relations manager. Although I am working in a new field, I will never lose my love of old quilts and their makers. Please feel free to email me at nncgibson@aol.com.
Nancy

[Penny in Mississippi]

Well, COOL! Great to hear from our cousin in Merry Ole England! For those who have a Hamer line in their genealogy, we come from Captain Ralph Hamer or his brother Thomas Hamer, both of whom came to Jamestown 1610. His ship wrecked on Bermuda Island in 1609, or he would have made it to Virginia in that year. Ralph wrote a book about life in Jamestown before John Smith's book. Historians have indicated that some of John's Smith's information was picked up by John Smith for his later book.

Ralph Hamer went to Oxford (England, not Mississippi). He and his father invested in all three Charters.

One of these days, I hope to get to England and do some genealogical research on our Hamer line. We have one missing link between either Ralph or Thomas Hamer of Jamestown and John Hamer of Maryland.

I mention it here because these blog post replies get picked up in the search engines, and maybe someone who is searching on Ralph or Thomas or John Hamer will see it. We've had some amazing serendipitous experiences in genealogy!!!

So, Russ...we'll find out one day how your family connects to our branch of the Hamer line! Great to hear from you.

Fondly,
Penny

[Russ Hamer]

Hi cous,
was just passing through after glancing at a certain angel on the wall here. Just catching up.
Such a lot of info on this blog... going to be an hour or so reading.
All the best, Russ.

[Penny in Mississippi]

Hi Lisa! The price is for ALL of the patterns in the quilt.

The press release says, "The kit includes templates for each of the 25 squares and the border as well as a CD with color images of each block. The finished quilt measures 105.25 x 102.25 inches."

I've not received my Old Otterbein kit yet, but if it is like the two DAR reproduction quilt kits, there are no directions...just exacting drawing of each block.

May I also suggest two Yahoo groups that I discovered just a week or so ago. You may already be on one or both of them.

BaltimoreQuilts@yahoogroups.com
Applique-Addicts@yahoogroups.com

Thanks for commenting on this post! It makes my day that you gained info from this post. Sharing is SO much fun!
I look forward to seeing what you are sewing on at this time.

Fondly,
Penny

[Lisa]

Penny,

I am new to blogging and YahooGroups. Just discovered it all two days ago! This post is really serendipidous for me.
Great minds think alike?

This really answers some questions and gives me some starting points for a Baltimore album quilt. Is the pattern kit from Winterthur for all the blocks or just one? If it is for the whole quilt, this really is a great deal!