(Originally Published Monday, January 9, 2012 – Blogger: One Daughter’s Point of View)
I remember when I was a little girl, my grandmother purchased fabric to make a quilt for me. It wasn’t an intricate design of stars, ribbons, birds, or baskets. It was simple panels in bright shades of pink and green. But she made it just for me; and that’s what made it so special.
I was reminded of that simple quilt from my childhood recently when I opened my mail to discover the National Society DAR’s 2012 calender. The 2012 calendar features quilts from the impressive collection maintained by the DAR Museum in Washington, DC.
The quilt is a wonderful art form, a preservation of our American Heritage. Young girls often made quilts to celebrate their wedding, or families would make quilts together to present to a young bride or honor the birth of a new child. They were keepsakes and mementos of their day, almost a picture album or scrapbook of sorts. Sometimes they were made from scraps of cloth saved from worn or outgrown cloths, and thereby created a literal scrapbook of experiences and memories for the quilt maker.
The quilts in the DAR Museum showcase a variety of colors and fabrics, designs and sewing techniques that would challenge the best among us today to re-create. The quilts represent a necessary item of their day while advertising the quilters skill and prowess. Remember, these were all made without the aid of the sewing machine from your local Sears store.
Quilts in the DAR Museum are part of The Quilt Index, an online index of beautiful quilts that represent our rich American heritage and unique art form. To find out more about The Quilt Index, go to http://www.dar.org/natsociety/content.cfm?ID=959&hd=n.
The quilt chosen for the month of January in my 2012 DAR calendar was made by Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Harkness Darst of Circleville, OH to celebrate her marriage in 1840. It is trimmed in a light blue, reminiscent of a mild January sky with five rows of five sunbursts in what appears to be perfect symmetry. The white areas of the quilt are offset with stuffed work, giving the quilt incredible depth and adding to it’s rich beauty. An image of this quilt can be viewed at The Quilt Index via the following link: http://www.quiltindex.org/search_results.php?page=5&page10=0&pattern=Sunburst.
I’m looking forward to the beauty I’ll find in the February quilt!
A Robynn’s Chirps 