The Quilt Index and Merikay Walvogel

Our 2009 Honoree, Merikay Waldvogel, has been deeply involved in The Alliance for American Quilts for a number of years and has been especially active in helping with two of their projects: The Quilt Index and Boxes Under the Bed.

The Quilt Index is a collaboration of The Alliance for American Quilts, Michigan State University Museum, and MATRIX: The Center for Humane, Arts, Letters and Social Sciences Online. If you haven't yet browsed The Quilt Index, you are in for a treat.

(photo by Sue Jones)

Coinciding with the launch of the new and improved Quilt Index site is the launch of their Signature Quilt Project. You can now search to see if there is a particular name on a quilt or even a place name. However, most Signature quilts uploaded to the Index before the creation of the Signature Quilt Pilot Project do not yet have names transcribed. This will all take time.


Three blocks from a New York Signature Quilt

Transcription can be challenging if signatures are numerous or difficult to read, but it is very rewarding to make the effort. In the process be reassured, you are adding important information to women's history, quilt history and community history.

To read the behind-the-scenes story of one research project in progress on a New york Signature quilt, click here.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

In addition, I have just finished transcribing 250+ names on a 1941-1942 Navy Signature Quilt now in the Quilt Index Signature Quilt Pilot Project.













I know Merikay Waldvogel—as well as our other Honorees—would encourage all of us to document all of our quilts but especially our Signature Quilts! You can download a form by clicking here and begin documenting your own quilts. If a museum or State/Regional Documentation Project wishes to enter a collection into The Quilt index, visit this link for guidelines.

In addition to quilts, The Index is also beginning to digitalize quilt ephemera beginning with The Quilt Journal - An International Review. You can now download individual issues of this journal as a pdf file by clicking here. Waldvogel is now assisting The Quilt Index with the digitalization of her own extensive quilt history ephemera collection.

Another exciting project to look forward to when completed — with NEH support, the Quilt Index project team andhe American Quilt Study Group (AQSG) have worked together to digitize abstracts for AQSG's journal, Uncoverings, and to develop a plan and budget for future inclusion of the journal in the Quilt Index.

The founder of AQSG, Sally Garoutte, is also an Honoree of The Quilters Hall of Fame as are several very early members of AQSG: Joyce Gross, Cuesta Benberry, Barbara Brackman and Bets Ramsey. You can read a short biography of each here.

Click here for an article by Merikay Waldvogel about the AAQ Crazy Quilts contest.

Click here for Part 1 of an interview of Merikay by "The Collector's Weekly".

Click here for Part 2 about collecting American quilts by Merikay Waldvogel in "The Collector's Weekly".

Until the next TQHF update,

Karen Alexander
Click here to reach me by email.



PS: You can read more of my quilt research by clicking here.

Merikay Waldvogel 2009 Honoree

Help us celebrate the induction of Merikay Waldvogel of Knoxville, TN, as our 39th Honoree, July 16-19, this summer! To access the CELEBRATION REGISTRATION FORM, CLICK HERE.

Merikay Waldvogel, one of the key players in the late 20th century quilt history revival, has served on the board of directors of both the American Quilt Study Group and The Alliance for American Quilts (AAQ). She has been a key player in building The Alliance’s online Quilt Index and has also taken a key role in the Quilt Treasures, two of the four programs that are the major contributions of AAQ to American cultural history. Waldvogel is a fellow of the International Quilt Study Center (IQSC) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she has worked with graduate students and has built an important database of quilt kits.

In 1983 Waldvogel began her collaboration with TQHF Honoree Bets Ramsey to co-direct the Quilts of Tennessee project through its mission of documenting the quilts of that state. Together they wrote the book Quilts of Tennessee: Images of Domestic Life Prior to 1930, and put together a traveling exhibit, one of many exhibits Waldvogel has curated over the years.

They later collaborated on the book Southern Quilts: Surviving Relics of the Civil War. In the Southeast, she is known for her writings about Southern women and their quilts in Appalachian Life and Smokies Life magazines. She also lectures frequently to quilt guilds, historical societies, and museums in the area.



In 2003, Rosalind Webster Perry and Waldvogel co-edited the first book of articles about the honorees, The Quilters Hall of Fame.

In addition to serving quilt history organizations, Waldvogel is recognized as an expert on quilts of the twentieth century quilt revival.

Her own book Soft Covers for Hard Times: Quiltmaking and the Great Depression is the key work on mid 20th century quilts and quiltmaking.




Her collaboration with 2001 Honoree Barbara Brackman on Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 World’s Fair was a major contribution to quilt research.



Left: examining a quilt made from a kit.

Waldvogel has labored over the creation of a Kit Quilt data base for a number of years, collecting images and manufacturing dates as well as other pertinent data.



Waldvogel's Uncoverings
articles for AQSG on the WPA Milwaukee Handicraft Project (1984), on Southern Linsey Quilts (1987), the Anne Orr Studio of Nashville (1990), Round Robin Pattern Collecting (1994), and the early history of Mountain Mist patterns (1995) were all groundbreaking research.



Waldvogel has written for Quilters Newsletter Magazine, McCall’s Quilting Vintage Quilts, American Patchwork and Quilting, and Quilting Today/Traditional Quiltworks.







Her latest book Childhood Treasures: Doll Quilts By and For Children highlights Lincoln, Nebraska quiltmaker Mary Ghormley’s extensive doll quilt collection.

Come join us in Marion to induct Merikay Waldvogel into The Quilters Hall of Fame!

Merikay Waldvogel is a graduate of Monmouth College in Monmouth, IL and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, but now resides in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Comments or questions? Contact the author Karen Alexander by clicking here.

For additional information about The Quilters Hall of Fame's Celebration, July 16-19, 2009, send a postcard or letter to CELEBRATION 2009, P.O. Box 681, Marion, IN, 46952 or click here to Email us.


PS: You can read more of my quilt research by clicking here.