More on Signatures

I haven't seen this block yet but it is flying halfway around the world to greet me.  Nancy from Tattered Garden Quilting was concerned about signing a block for the first time, and this is her maiden effort. How good is this signature!  A few comments on her blog asked about the pen she used, and Nancy has done a post about her pen trials. Nancy used a Pigma Pro, I used the Micron pens.  I have been tracing my signature from the laptop screen, but I can see that it is time to lift my game.

The best book I've seen on signing blocks is Pepper Cory and Susan McKelvey's "The Signature Quilt".  I re-read the section on "Embellishing Handwriting" and decided to give it a go.  I started with lined paper and the first ball-point pen I could find.  I followed the hints in the book and started doodling.

It was quite enjoyable.  I haven't quite got the look I want, although I am happy with the 'Australia' in the bottom left hand corner.

I need lines to keep my writing straight.  If I have some sort of stabilizer on the back of the block I will rule some dark lines on that, then  use them as a guide to write on the front.

Patti left this comment on the last post about signatures.  Thank you Patti, it's just what I needed to hear.

I've finally stopped worrying about how I sign my blocks. My handwriting has deteriorated lots as I've gotten older and my hands get more arthritic. I used to agonize about my signature, but now I don't. I make sure the writing is legible, but that's it. I don't try to be fancy. Remember, your handwriting is individual and belongs to you alone. I'd much rather have the block creator's own writing on a signature block as it is a part of who she is - just as much as the fabrics she selected when making the block.

Signatures and Such

The quilt history books tell us that often the signatures on a friendship quilt were all penned by one individual.  Someone with the best handwriting was given the job, and she or he wrote each name on the appropriate block.

There is no way to be sure if Rachel signed her own name.  But I found another item which Rachel did sign.

This is the front page of the thesis that Rachel submitted for her medical degree in 1867.  I found it online in the archives of the Drexel University College of Medicine. Do you think the same person wrote both items?

Speaking of signatures, I'm going to the Southern Cross Quilters Retreat in Bendigo in July (HOORAY) and I need to make sixty signature blocks.  I will have to sign my name and location sixty times.  My handwriting is quite ... unremarkable.  I would appreciate some advice on how to make a nice, neat signature.

How do you sign your quilt blocks?

Swap Blocks Across the Seas

I got a special package in the mail last week.  I received a Royal Palm block.

It's a swap block made by Wanda of Scrap Happy AKA Blended Quilter.  It's flown all the way from Oklahoma to Gippsland.  What's really special is Wanda's signature - she drew it freehand.  I'm impressed.

Of course, there's another block that flew from the Southern to the Northern Hemisphere.

I signed my block, but I didn't trust my calligraphy abilities.  I traced my name.

This is my light box.  I typed my words on the laptop, picked a nice font, then inverted the image.  After I turned the laptop around, the image was right side up again, ready to trace.  It wasn't quite as easy as it looks, but it did the job.  Different tools to Elizabeth Clendenen's inked stamps, but we both use the materials at hand.

Wanda and I are both pleased with our blocks, and we're ready to swap again.  Are there any takers?

The Autograph Age

Do you remember when Laura Ingalls received her autograph album?

Pa and Ma had taken Mary to the college for the blind and left Laura, Carrie and Grace on their own for a week.  Laura was 14 and Carrie was 10, Grace was even younger.  Not something we would do today.  Laura decided to do the fall house cleaning and the week was spent washing, scrubbing and blacking the stove.  When the elder Ingalls returned there were presents for the girls.

In Laura's package was a beautiful small book, too.  It was thin, and wider than it was tall.  On its red cover, embossed in gold, were the words, 'Autograph Album'.  The pages, of different soft colours, were blank.  Carrie had another exactly like it, except that the cover of hers was blue and gold.

'I found that autograph albums are all the fashion nowadays,' said Ma. 'All the most fashionable girls in Vinton have them.'

'What are they, exactly?' Laura asked.

'You ask a friend to write a verse on one of the blank pages and sign her name to it,' Ma explained.  'If she has an autograph album, you do the same for her, and you keep the albums to remember each other by.'

Ma signs Laura's book a few chapters later.

Autograph albums were indeed all the range in the 19th century.  Their heyday was from 1830 to 1850.  Signature quilts are a phenomena of this period too.  One important development was the invention of permanent ink in 1845; signatures written 150 years ago are still legible today.

The role of women changed through the nineteenth century as a rural farming lifestyle was overtaken by an urban industrial society.  Men went to work in the 'public' world;  women stayed at home in the 'private' world of family.  Women turned to each other for friendship and support, and their signature quilts recorded family relationships and rites of passage.

Sources: Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder; The Signature Quilt by Pepper Cory and Susan McKelvey

Family History and Quiltmaking

About fifteen years ago my Australian husband began his family tree.  He started, like we all do, with information from parents and grandparents.  Then off to the library for hours spent in the microfiche index records finding names, dates and places.  Once the right index was found, it was down to the mailbox to post a cheque to the Births, Deaths and Marriages.  A few weeks later a little slip of paper would arrive and, hey presto, a few more bits of information were added to the family tree.
We gave him a software program to transfer all his little bits of paper safely into the computer.  Then we changed computers and everything disappeared.  That was the end of that family history adventure.

Researching the makers of the Criswell quilt is similar to family tree research.  Ancestry.com is certainly my first port of call, especially as I live in Australia and the records are all in the USA.  The big difference is that I already know all the names; I just don't know how they relate to each other and to Mary McClelland Criswell.

I have made an online family tree called the Criswell Quilt Tree.  It not really one tree but more of a grove of saplings.  My starting place is the 1850 Federal Census records for Chester County; the quilt was made in 1852 and farming families didn't move around a lot.  There are about 80 signatures on the quilt and I have recorded about 400 individuals in the Quilt Tree.  I know something about a majority of the people on the quilt although some are reluctant to be verified.

Let me tell you about my latest 'win' in the family history game.  I was looking for that most elusive family name - Smith.  If you have a Smith in your family tree, you know how difficult it is to find your Smith and not everyone else's Smith.

James R and Nancy C Smith

This block is signed by James R Smith and Nancy C Smith, East Nottingham.  From the 1850 census I know that they have two little children.  In the 1860 census there are more people in the family; but when I looked at the original census page the image is too light to read.  I send a note to Ancestry.com that it was illegible and then went on with something else.
That was a few months ago.  I decided to have another look at the Smiths the other evening, went to the census page and ... the original has been rescanned and is now clear as day!  This is what I found:

James R and Nancy Smith still married and farming.  Mary and William are ten years older, and in addition there are Jane, Elizabeth and Alice.  But wait, there's more!  Dorcas Smith aged 60 and Jahn Carlisle aged 73 are also family members.
Many families in these records are multi-generational.  I take a small leap of faith here and assume that Dorcas Smith is James' mother and John Carlisle is Nancy's family. Nancy's middle initial C probably stands for Carlisle.   Dorcas Smith is a new person so I add her to the tree.  Carlisle/Carlile is a common name on the quilt - Mary McClelland Criswell's mother was a Carlile - so I look to see if I have a John Carlile of the right age.  Bingo!  John Carlile is in the tree, in 1850 he was living with his wife Mary and son James Taylor Carlile - who also has a block in the quilt.



James Taylor Carlile, Elk Dale

 That makes Nancy Smith and James Carlile sister and brother, another link is made, and my family quilt tree grows another notch.

(I made some more Smith discoveries, but I'll save them for another time.)