Textiles and the Triplett Sisters

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...

This is our final blog on the American Military Textiles, and it focuses on the pictorial style. To date three pictorial American Military textiles have been uncovered. The earliest is a table cover from Vevay, Indiana and depicts events from the founding of Vevay by Swiss immigrants. Research on this table cover is what inspired research into this group of textiles. Initially added to the Poos Collection in 2015, we connected with Annette Gero for guidance on this pictorial. Annette immediately identified the two panels associated with the story of Wilhelm Tell. From there, The Triplett Sisters continued the hunt to find an early Swiss Colony in America which matched the 41 different scenes detailed in the table cover. For detailed information on this textile please see our book “Hidden Treasures” at this link. The Civil...

Continuing our exploration of Geometric military textiles, we’ll start with the Wool In-laid Patchwork Quilt Top composed of wool broadcloth, printed wools, cotton corduroy, silk plush, and other wools used in men’s clothing, with the red and blue fabrics are thought to be from military uniforms. Barnet Kobler, who served in the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment, stated in his application for pension that he made uniforms for the troops during the American Revolution and some fabrics could be from revolutionary uniforms. However, since most of these fabrics date from the 1790s, many of the military fabrics are more likely militia not from the Revolutionary War. Additionally, even though the quilt top is called an “inlaid patchwork,” also known as intarsia, on closer examination the quilt is constructed using a variety of techniques. Traditional piecing and applique are...

As you may have noticed, my sister Kay and I recently returned from a trip to Greece and some of the islands. We did all of the regular tourist things: seeing the Acropolis/Parthenon, the archeological museum, the Acropolis/Parthenon Museum. We also had to visit folk art museums and history museums to find textiles. As always when visiting a new country, we have much to learn about the textiles of the area. We didn’t expect to find quilts in such a toasty climate, but we were thrilled to see all the different types of handwork…lots of amazing, detailed handwork! Each island and/or tribe had their own traditional costume filled with decoration. I have no idea how many hours of handwork went into making the clothing, sheets or bedding, but it was a joy to see. Greece is...

Curtis was born in 1847 in Montpelier, Vermont. He joined the 104th Regiment New York Infantry as a drummer at the young age of fourteen. He became a career soldier and served in Alaska to maintain the peace during the Gold Rush. No one knows when he was introduced to quilt making, although one theory is that he learned the art from British soldiers while in Alaska. This is presumed to be the first bed cover made by Jewett Washington Curtis (1847-1927) because the diamonds are a larger size than the pieces in the other two bed covers he made. Additionally, the design is not as complex as the later bed covers (the other two follows.) Jewett Curtis kept his masterpiece until before 1925 when it was given to his sister Julia Wilkinson in upstate New York....