Eleanor Burns to be Inducted!

Celebration 2012

Click here to read an earlier post about Eleanor

                                                  

Featuring the Induction of Eleanor Burns

Please add your own Eleanor Burns story in the comments field at the end of this post!  All congratulatory comments will be passed on to Eleanor at her Induction.

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Click for Schedule & Enrollment Form

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Workshop Supply Lists to be added soon.

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Celebration 2012

Teachers and Lectures

Sandi Blackwell

Sue Bouchard

Eleanor Burns

Arlan & Pat Christ

Susan Cook

Phyllis Hatcher

Mary Kerr

Patty Knoechel

Linda Luggen

Marylou McDonald

Merrily McKim

Sharon Pinka

Mattie Rhoades

Mary Jane Teeters-Eichacker

Theresa Varnes

Merikay Waldvogel

Quilt Contest “A Salute to Eleanor Burns”

1.         All quilts must use at least one block from an Eleanor Burns pattern or book. The pattern or book used must be identified on the entry form and the quilt label.

2.         Quilts may be pieced, appliquéd, or mixed media. The quilt may be hand or machine quilted. All the work must be done by the person named on the entry form.

3.         Each quilt must measure 24" x 24", and include a 4" hanging sleeve and fabric label with name, title of quilt, Eleanor Burns pattern or book inspiration, and date.

4.         All entries will become the property of TQHF. Quilts will be on display at the McCulloch School during Hall of Fame Celebration July 19-22, 2012. They will be offered for sale at Celebration 2012.

5.         Quilts will be judged, and prizes will be awarded as follows:

First place         $100.00 
Second and third place         $ 50.00 each

Viewers choice will be decided by penny votes at Celebration 2012.

Finished quilt and $10.00 entry fee (check made payable to TQHF) must be received by June 30, 2012.         

Send entry to: Sharon Pinka, 6323 Possum Run Rd, Bellville, OH 44813.

Click HERE for CONTEST Entry Form 

Baltimore Applique - William R. Dunton

William R. Dunton

(1868-1966)

 Quilt Collector, Author, Psychiatrist

by Karen B. Alexander

It’s hard to realize just how many years have passed since I saw my first exhibit of Baltimore Album Quilts at the Baltimore Museum of Art in the early 80s. I was new to quilting at the time but loved appliqué and was stunned by these beauties and intrigued by their history.  I would soon learn that the first person to research and document this particular style of quilt was male and among the first 5 people inducted into The Quilters Hall of Fame in 1979 – Dr. William Rush Dunton of Baltimore.

1997.007.0319, International Quilt Study Center, UNL, www.quiltstudy.org. To access more traditional  Baltimore Album quilts in the IQSC collection, see end of article.

Born in Pennsylvania in 1868, Dr. William R. Dunton was psychiatrist at Sheppard-Pratt Asylum in Baltimore for many years in the early part of the 20^th century, had a long association with Johns Hopkins University as an instructor in psychiatry and was a founding member of three professional societies within his field.
Bunnie Jordan’s chapter on Dunton in the book “The Quilters Hall of Fame” goes into interesting detail about his professional career as a psychiatrist as well as an occupational therapist. In fact, he wrote the first complete textbook on occupational therapy and is often called the “father of occupational therapy”. How very appropriate that the “father” of occupational therapy would include quilting from the very beginning of his exploration of the benefits of occupational therapy! Today many millions of women (and men) know of quilting’s many emotionally satisfying benefits.

Dunton is said to have been influenced by his mother’s love of needlework for in 1877, the year of its founding, she was an early pupil at the Philadelphia School of Art Needlework. However, he acknowledges in the introduction to his book “Old Quilts” that he can recall no quilts in his home as a boy and speculates “their making was too unfashionable in large cities to interest many during the 1870s.” However, much later in life when he came across a long forgotten box in his own closet, he wrote,  “a tea box of diamonds of colored silks in which I recognize some of my childhood neckties….and I believe I assisted in cutting these.”

Dunton credits TQHF Honoree Marie Webster’s 1915 book “Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them” with awakening his interests in documenting and recording early quilts and their history, although he writes, “it seems that I must have had an interest before that time or I should not have wanted to read the book.” He also quickly realized that the process of selecting color and pattern, as well as the social interaction that quilts traditionally engendered, would be of great benefit to his “nervous” patients. As a psychiatrist, he thought his female patients could benefit from the quiet calming influence of needlework as well as the sense of accomplishment it brought.

Copake Annual Textile Auction - ca. 1850 MD Album Quilt - sold June 30, 2007

Although Dunton did not focus exclusively on needlework as a fitting form of occupational therapy for his patients, quilts took on a special meaning for him personally. Or, more specifically, the documentation and collecting of quilts took on new meaning for him and quickly became one of his many personal interests after he fell under their spell and began a correspondence with Marie Webster, soon after her book was published in 1915. Eventually he would correspond with a small cadre of quilt scholars who undoubtedly encouraged him to publish his own book.
Unable to find a publisher willing to take on his book, Dunton self-published 2,000 copies. Every book is hand-numbered and today copies command a hefty price in the market place, if you can even find one.

From our perspective today, we find it rather amazing that any male, but perhaps especially a psychiatrist, would be planning and executing a quilt exhibit in 1916. But on September 5, 1916, when Dunton held his first quilt exhibit for his patients, he would in fact exhibit 50 quilts — quilts borrowed from the families of patients and friends, as well as three loaned by Marie Webster herself.  Dunton would go on to curate three quilt exhibits for the Baltimore Museum of Art as well, with the 1944 exhibit featuring the quilts that had come to intrigue him the most —Baltimore Album quilts.

*Members of the Baltimore Appliqué Society made tracings of the original Mary Mannakee quilt that resides in the collection of the Daughters of the American Revolution and then made a reproduction quilt which was raffled to raise money for the DAR. Marylou McDonald, Past President of the BAS, and her stitch group, called Friends from the Heart, also decided to exchange blocks made from these tracings. Marylou made one block (top row, far right) and the borders. In early 2002, the finished quilt top was sent to a quilter in Kentucky to hand quilt.

Dunton is responsible more than any other early quilt historian for documenting quilts that had a special affiliation with the Baltimore area. His groundwork research on this style helped later quilt historians trace the influence of the Baltimore-style as it evolved and made its way into other regions. Plus, Dunton's research covered much more than just this one style.

Dunton was a meticulous record keeper and archivist. In late 50s to early 60s his extensive collection of research materials and photographs was donated to the Baltimore Museum of Art. The Baltimore Applique Society, founded in 1993, raised $5,600 in 1997 towards stabilizing the Dunton papers so that they could be made available to researchers. This passionate group of appliqué-lovers and quilt historians continues to support the preservation of the Dunton archival material as well as the Baltimore Album quilts in more than one museum collection.

Beginning at top: Dunton article from TQHF Honoree book, Katzenberg book, AQSG’s Uncoverings 1994, Dunton book bearing his signature.  Photo courtesy of Karen Alexander.

In 1980 Dena Katzenberg created an exhibit of 50 Baltimore Album quilts and produced a thoroughly researched catalogue. Out of print very quickly, the catalogue continues to command a high price.

The point I am making is that the exhibit traveled and created such a national awareness of Baltimore Applique quilts at the time that prices soared, bringing more and more quilts out of family closets. The end result — more and more of the old beauties began to be documented.

Jennifer Goldsborough’s presentation at the 1994 AQSG seminar in Birmingham, AL, shed additional new light on this genre of quilt and is well worth studying. The Baltimore Album style continues to enjoy a strong resurgence among quiltmakers today thanks to the many new teachers.
Elly Sienkiewicz of Maryland, with her many books, is perhaps the most well known. Somewhere in the depths of all my quilt history files, I have a photo of Elly from the early 1980s in our guest room, cuddled under one of her spectacular appliqué quilts that featured her daughter.

Speaking of early quilt historians, Dunton mentions the work of five women — in addition to Marie Webster — who furthered his own education about quilts and suggested these authors could do the same for his readers: Florence Peto, focus of the first article in this series; Ruth Finley, focus of the 2^nd article in this series article; plus Ruby McKim, Carrie Hall, and Rose Kretsinger, who will be covered in future articles. Peto was in touch with Carrie Hall and Rose Kretsinger, though I am unaware if Dunton ever had direct contact with these last two Honorees.

Be sure to keep up with the doings at The Quilters Hall of Fame here at the blog or the TQHF website.  Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

Meanwhile, keep those needles flying and spread the word about how quilts enrich your life and the life of our communities!

Karen Alexander

Past President, The Quilters Hall of Fame

Member of AQSG since 1981, Western Washington Rep.

Of Note:

Be sure to visit the International Quilt Study Center’s Collections Database  to see more Baltimore Album quilts. There are several ways to query the database and how one does it determines, of course, the results. If you enter only "album" as pattern or key word, you will get ALL album quilts, not just Baltimore. If you enter "Baltimore" in keyword you get only the Baltimore Albums plus other quilts with Baltimore origins. The latter does give you fewer, and does include the Baltimore Albums. The images retrieved by the Collections Database are low resolution, not "zoomable".

The second way to see the IQSC quilts is via Quilt Explorer. Give it a few seconds to load. There are fewer quilts in this area; however, they are all high resolution, therefore you may zoom in for great details. If you search by "Style/Type" and select Baltimore Album, there are three gorgeous quilts in high res. Note that when you start to zoom in on one of these images you may drag the image around with your mouse to see all parts of the quilt close-up, a dandy little feature.

The Quilt Index, sponsored by the Alliance for American Quilts, is another great place to see Baltimore Album quilts and their derivatives and you search it in a very similar way as the IQSC’s data base.

UPDATE: April 2020 - Here is an exhibit to watch for in May 2020 of Dunton's discovery of Baltimore album quilts.

Bibliography:

Debby Cooney, “A Legacy Revised: New Access to Dr. Dunton’s Work” in Blanket Statements, Issue 55, Winter 1998/99, (Lincoln, NE: American Quilt Study Group)

William Rush Dunton, Jr., MD, Old Quilts (Baltimore: Privately printed, 1946)

Jennifer F. Goldsborough, “An Album of Baltimore Album Quilt Studies” in Uncoverings 1994, ed. Virginia Gunn (San Francisco, CA: American Quilt Study Group)

Eileen (Bunnie) Jordan, “William Rush  Dunton, Jr.”, The Quilters Hall of Fame, ed. Merikay Waldvogel and Rosalind Webster Perry (Marion, IN - The Quilters Hall of Fame, 2004)

Eileen Jordan, “Dunton Papers Available Soon”, in The Quilters Hall of Fame Newsletter, No. 14, Fall 1998 (Marion, IN: The Quilters Hall of Fame)

Dena S. Katzenberg, Baltimore Album Quilts (Baltimore: the Baltimore Museum of Art, 1981)

Elly Sienkiewicz, Baltimore Beauties and Beyond (C&T Publishing, 1989)

*The quilt made by the members of Friends From the Heart owned my Mary Lou MacDonald 1st Row (l to r):

Inge Scheumann                       Ft. Meade, MD

Kay Twit                                  Cockeysville, MD

Marylou McDonald                   Laurel, MD

2nd Row

Jan Carlson                               Severna Park, MD

Lucinda Mayan                         Hartley, DE

Anna Holland                            Heathsville, VA

3rd Row

Polly Mello                               Ellicott City, MD

Chris Miller                              Columbia, MD

Anita Askins                             Annapolis, MD

4th Row

Barbara Brown                         Odenton, MD

Darlene Christopherson             China Spring, Texas

Kathy Suita                              Cockeysville, MD

Yvonne Porcella: A Retrospective

PRESS RELEASE

Carnegie Arts Center

Turlock, California

MEDIA CONTACT 

Rebecca Phillips Abbott

                                                                         

YVONNE PORCELLA:  A RETROSPECTIVE

January 18-March 14, 2012

DISTINGUISHED ARTIST 2012

 The Carnegie Arts Center is dedicated to recognizing excellence in regional artists through its Distinguished Artist program, an annual event that includes an award and retrospective exhibition for the honoree.  “We are extremely proud to honor Yvonne Porcella in this first year,” says Rebecca Phillips Abbott, Executive Director and Curator, “She is a remarkable textile artist whose works today are in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, the de Young Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Art & Design in New York, NY, the Phoenix Art Museum, and numerous others.”  The Carnegie’s retrospective exhibit will trace Porcella’s career from her earliest works up to and including the present. “In the process,” says Abbott, “we are all given the opportunity to celebrate and honor a life’s work.”

A native Californian, Porcella was born in Watsonville, CA, studied nursing at the University of San Francisco, graduated in 1958 and worked part-time as an operating room nurse until 1979, and raised four children with her husband, Bob.  All the while, she was also working as an artist.

Porcella’s gift for artistic expression began in the 1960s with observations that the same fabrics were used again and again in the garments people were wearing.  She began spinning her own thread, weaving her own fabrics, and making her own garments, and was soon involved in the Conference of Northern California Handweavers.  In these early years, Porcella was influenced by ethnic clothing, primarily from Guatemala and by pieced and embroidered textiles from Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.  In 1972 she had her first exhibition of weavings and wearable art.  In 1977 she published Five Ethnic Patterns, followed by an ethnic pattern book Plus Five then Pieced Clothing in 1980 and by Pieced Clothing Variations in 1981.  More publications would follow, including Yvonne Porcella: Art & Inspirations, published in 1998.

Her shift from weaving to quiltmaking began when she started to make garments out of patchwork. In 1979 she attended the West Coast Quilter's Conference and by the following year she had completely stopped weaving.  It was a pivotal moment, so much so that she can tell you the date and time she last wove:  28 April 1980 at 8:30 in the morning!  By 1981, she had created "Takoage," her first art quilt which was later acquired by the Smithsonian Institution for its Renwick Gallery, located across the street from the White House in Washington, DC.  It was a promising start for Porcella who rapidly emerged as a visionary force artistically and in the art quilt movement as a whole.  As founder of the Studio Art Quilts Association and President of the Board of Directors, she worked tirelessly in those early years to establish art quilting as an artistic genre in its own right.

Takoage, 1981

Yvonne Porcella’s art quilts are known for their bold originality as well as for their intricate narratives which inevitably treat the experiences of everyday life with a great deal of energy, substance, and nearly always humor.  Waiting for Pink Linoleum, 2001, laments the lack of an arts center in Modesto.  At the time this quilt was made, it appeared there would be no funding for building what later became the Gallo Center for the Arts.

Waiting for Pink Linoleum, 2001

In it two figures  can be seen running from the prospect of funding an arts center.  A vaudevillian hook at the center helps to propel their flight. There is as well a subtle poke at the absence of the visual arts, in view of the prominence of the musical clef.  The visual arts were surrendered early in the preliminary discussions involving the arts center. In this image, bold colors divide the quilt on the diagonal.  One senses that the figure to the right is moving extremely quickly out of the image frame to the right while the figure to the left is flustered and running in the opposite direction. Form and color are merged here for a sophisticated artistic statement that takes life on its own terms and finds all the joy there is to find in it.

Early Weavings, 1970s

As a retrospective exhibit, this exhibit includes works representing distinct sensibilities in Porcella’s artistic output for a rich and varied selection, including the early weavings; ethnic-inspired garments; a series focused on the kimono form; American iconography; quilts for grandchildren; quilts for an especially whimsical take on life; quilts as autobiography, and hand painted quilts. 

Asked to reflect on her career, how it began and what drives her as an artist, Porcella says:  "As a child, motherly love taught me to knit and sew, and rip mistakes and make it right. Curiosity led to self education, enhanced by a collection of books, visits to museums, and exploration of textiles from other countries. Imagination generated inspiration and freedom led to invention. I learned creativity comes from making your own rules, understanding the limits of your chosen materials, and having confidence in personal skills.”

“I do what I love with determination,” she continues, “A need to finish each action has developed into a major collection of creative work full of color, filled with events in my life, things that I have heard, emotions of the moment, exploration of American iconography, revisiting experiences as a wife, mother, nurse, weaver, mountain climber, author, teacher, world traveler, craftsman; living amidst the beauty of California’s central valley."

“Through Porcella's works we appreciate these everyday moments more clearly and perhaps enjoy them more fully as a result,” says Abbott.

As is her custom, Porcella’s wearable art works frequently have humorous titles, including  Kaleidoscopically Yours, How Old Are You Now?, Walking the Streets of Tomorrow, the latter a reference to a vest made with leftover fabric.  Many of the early garments were made from a rich mixture of ethnic textiles, re-cast by Porcella into a style that is uniquely her own. 

While the early garments were intended to be worn, Porcella made others with the intention they would not be worn.  The series was titled “Kimono as Quilt” and it was a subtle affirmation of the art quilt as an artistic genre.  These garments were made to be viewed as works of art.  Porcella experimented with strip piecing and black and white checkerboard blocks in the early kimonos.  The interiors quickly became as important as the exteriors.  Pasha On The 10:04, for example, features a dynamic exterior of black, white, and red with small accents of rainbow colors.  Its interior reveals a printed fabric with a hand painted figure.  In other works, hand painting would become a counter to bold colors.

Pasha on the 10:04, 1984

Mickey Mouse, McDonald’s, a cheeseburger, a pink flamingo, spinach, even 99¢ become the stuff of American iconography in Porcella’s hands.

I (Heart) American, 1988

All can be found in a series of quilts she made in the 1980s that explore and celebrate what a foreign visitor, in particular, might consider quintessentially American.  Youthful, energetic, unstoppable—these quilts suggest all this and more. 






Of the autobiographical quilts, In Loving Memory serves as an early example of its type. It is rich in detail and poignant.  Porcella writes, “Memories are part of the family experience.  When I was young, memories were not something to dwell on…. Only later in my life, now that I am old enough to remember the losses, does memory play an integral part in my creative life.”  Family photographs transferred to fabric are surrounded by fabrics intended to convey time as a continuum here.  Other quilts such as Memories of Childhood, 1988, reflect memories that are uniquely hers.

In Loving Memory, 1987

Quilt for a Grandchild, Vittoria Lee, 1990

In this same spirit are the quilts Porcella made for each of her grandchildren and now great grandchildren.  Stylistically they trace the progression of her techniques and are filled with references to family and the passage of time.  In Quilt for Vittoria Lee, Porcella selected some of the fabric she used to make curtains for her own children.  Filled with symbols, this quilt includes roses that serve as a reference to her own grandmother, whose name was Rose.  The color pink honors a female child while the heart signifies love.  The black and white checkerboard found in this quilt echoes her early works in still another reference to time.     

Wisteria le deuxieme, 1995

The bold colors that are the hallmark of Porcella’s work were often countered by a softer, pastel palette achieved through hand painting silk.  Porcella believes the inspiration for this may have come from living among the almond trees of the Central Valley.  Suggestive of watercolor, these subtle colors introduce nuances.  There is a stillness to them and with that a timelessness.

   

There may be nothing more joyous than a purple dog leaping over a lady with green hair.  Much of Porcella’s work is about living life fully, joyously, and imaginatively and Purple Dog and Green Hair, 2003, is no exception. Words, symbols, and musings have been seamlessly incorporated into the overall design.  One can find “P&B” at the top right.  The word “Textiles” appears at the bottom right-- below the heart for “I (Heart) Textiles”—all a reference to a line of fabric Porcella developed for P&B Textiles in 2003.  The question mark is more pronounced.  It is self-referential and has its origins in a defining exchange with a store clerk. “What is your last name?” he asked.  "Porcella," she replied.  “First initial?” he asked.  “Y,” she responded.  “Because we need it," he explained.  There was surely a moment’s pause on her part as she absorbed what had just happened, but from that time on “Y” and “?” became interchangeable in any number of her works.   

Purple Dog and Green Hair, 2003

The series Four on the Square, begun in 2000, was an experiment in bringing different themes together: rain, olive, iris, holidays.  Pictured here are several of each including months of the year expressed in color or mood. This series featured silk fabrics and fusible web, allowing for free hand cutting and leading to a more painterly abstract effect in the process.

Four on the Square, 2000

Series of Faces were made between 1998 and 2002.  Many were for hospital installations.  The faces began as self portraits but soon took on a life of their own.  For Porcella, the series pictured here harkens back to thoughts of Mariah from Paint Your Wagon, or Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, or simply frightening faces from childhood.  The Mariah of Paint Your Wagon “throws the stars around, and sends the clouds a’flyin’!” 

Series of Faces, 1998-2002

                 

                  Yvonne Porcella: A Retrospective

            Carnegie Arts Center Distinguished Artist, 2012

                  On view January 18 through March 14, 2012

                  Carnegie Arts Center

                  250 North Broadway

                  Turlock, CA  95380

                  Telephone:  209-632-5761

                  Open:   Wednesday - Sunday, 10 am – 5 pm

                  www.carnegieartsturlock.org

                 

                  $5 admission (member discounts apply)

                  Children under 12 are free

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[1] It can take more than several moments to find the second figure in this, at the left center and top. It is part of the fun of encountering a work by Porcella!

PRESS RELEASE                                                                                       

December 9, 2011 

MEDIA CONTACT  

Rebecca Phillips Abbott

209-632-5761                                                                                           

                                         

Ruby Short McKim Revival

Ruby Short McKim, July 27, 1891- July 1976

by Karen B. Alexander*

 “What is the compelling fascination of quilts?” is a question I hear frequently once someone discovers my passion for quilt history. One of the reasons I give is because quilt history is a natural vehicle for learning about the changing theories of social history and, more specifically, the changing tides of women’s history.  But quilts also have an amazing thread linking them to the study of economics, trade and the industrial revolution.

After the 1880s, quilts also gradually began to reflect the shifts in Western attitudes about children and childhood, i.e. childhood as distinct from the world of adulthood, a trend that blossomed as we entered the 20th century.

Children, Art and Ruby Short McKim

"Love From Sarah". Art by Sarah Alexander (age 3-7) interpreted through needlework

by quilt-maker Wini Alexander, 1976.

Children and art naturally make me think of Ruby Short McKim, the 33rd Inductee of The Quilters Hall of Fame. McKim's first quilt designs focused uniquely on themes that would entertain children.

McKim's first series: Quaddie Quilties - 1916

Ruby Short was born into a time of great change for women, as was Marie Webster, in whose restored home TQHF is now headquartered. Marie was born in 1859, just as the American Civil War was about to fire its first shot. Ruby was born 1891, the year Marie turned 32 and the year Thomas Edison patented the motion picture camera.

Interestingly enough, both Ruby and Marie launched themselves into a quilt-related business just about the same time in the 2nd decade of the 20th century, only one was in her early 50s and the other not yet 20. They surely knew of each other at some point but I am not aware that they ever corresponded with one another. But I could be proven wrong. Historians are digging all the time for new material and information.**

McKim and Cottage Needlework Industries 

Cottage needlework industries were certainly not unheard of in the first quarter of the 20th century, but not all of them impacted the direction of quilt design to the degree that both Marie Webster and Ruby McKim did. An excellent paper by quilt historian Cuesta Benberry (1922-2007), “Quilt Cottage Industries: A Chronicle,” established groundbreaking research on this subject. You can find Benberry’s article in the 1994 hardback book, Quiltmaking in America: Beyond the Myths, published by AQSG and edited by Laurel Horton. AQSG still has copies available.

Both Webster and McKim were forerunners of an explosion of similar quilt-related businesses that emerged during the late 20th century quilt revival. One only has to track the ads in the popular needlework and quilt magazines of the time to see this phenomena emerge. The Internet and other new technology has only added to women’s ability as well as opportunity to create and work from home at something they love.

Another version of Quaddie Quiltie as seen on eBay 2009

McKim's Early Life

Ruby’s father, Morris Trimble Short, was 47 when she was born and died when she was 10. Viola M. Vernon Short, her mother, was 24 years younger than her husband and a powerful role model in Ruby’s life. Viola had already proven herself quite capable as a teacher prior to her marriage and as a missionary’s wife following the family’s move from Illinois to Missouri two year’s before her husband’s death. She was an avid promoter of children’s education and believed that children should be allowed to make their own mistakes and then deal with the consequences. She had her own unique way of training her children how to manage their own meager resources that could well be used as a model today. I found this aspect of Ruby’s childhood as described in Jill Sutton Filo’s AQSG research paper particularly fascinating. (Click here to read more about Filo's research.)

McKim_Jolly Circus Quilt Series - 1921

Early Interest in Art

Ruby showed a very early interest in drawing and was known to carry a sketchbook with her everywhere to the point that some family and friends, Filo discovered, jokingly referred to it as part of her wardrobe. Her senior year of high school she served as art editor of the yearbook with twenty-five pages bearing her pen and ink sketches, harbinger of much artwork to come. At age 19 she headed for the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts in New York City where she studied while rooming with her married sister.

The renowned Frank Alvah Parsons, pioneer in graphic design and commercial illustration, was joint administrator of the school the four years prior to Ruby’s arrival and became the director during her one year of study, 1910-1911. Without a doubt, Parsons’ philosophy had great impact on Ruby’s artistic and entrepreneurial development. Parsons’ influence was far reaching in American cultural history.

McKim_Jolly Circus Quilt Series - 1921

McKim Begins Teaching Art in Public Schools

Ruby returned home to Independence, MO, after one year in New York. Previous  researchers have written that Ruby did not graduate from Parsons. However, in 2013, I was informed by granddaughter Christina Jones that the family found Ruby Short's original diploma signed by Frank Alva Parsons himself. This original is now with the McKim collection at the Jackson County Historical Society in in Independence, MO.

Back home Ruby began to teach in the public schools and in 1912 became the Supervisor of Drawing for the Independence School system, overseeing all grades elementary through high school. Jill Sutton Filo’s ground breaking research on McKim published in AQSG’s  Uncoverings 1996 reveals a delightful interview Filo conducted of a 93 year old former student and neighbor of Ruby’s. Ruby was apparently an extremely popular teacher among her pupils.

AQSG Uncoverings1996

Designing Career Officially Launched 1916

“Bedtime Quilt”, or the “Quaddie Quiltie” series as it soon became known, launched Ruby’s “official” career on May 7, 1916 in the Kansas City Star. It was Ruby’s first published series. Barbara Brackman writes in Women of Design: Quilts in the Newspaper that “the ‘Quaddy Quilties’ … are thought to be the first syndicated pattern series” by a quilter, as well as Ruby’s first published series.

McKim_Quaddie Quiltie Series - 1916

The quilt from my collection whose blocks you see here bears only 9 of the 20 different patterns from this first series. A fabric tag on the back says: Carol Burr Baby quilt made for Richard born 1918. Although the red sashing is badly worn in places, especially across the top border, I was thrilled to stumble upon such an early copy of Ruby’s first series.

Ruby Short McKim's First Quilt Series

Ruby's opportunity to create a quilt pattern series for Thorton Burgess came about as a result of her winning a contest. The contest was jointly sponsored by the Kansas City Star newspaper and Burgess's publisher to advertise Burgess's new series of books. 

Thorton W. Burgess, who died in 1965 at the age of 91, was already a well known author at the time of the contest, writing over 170 books and 15,000 stories before the end of his life.  His characters, such as: Peter Rabbit, Joe Otter, Hooty the Owl, Jerry Muskrat, and Bobby Raccoon became famous worldwide. (For a list of his books, click here.) It was a red letter day in Ruby's life to win the contest and land this incredible opportunity.

Up to the time of winning the Kansas City Star contest, Ruby had been the director of art for the Independence School District and later taught at Manual Training School in Kansas City, Missouri. According to her granddaughter Christina, the 1916 contest win came at a fortuitous time because Ruby would have to retire from teaching once married. The wedding came about in August 1917. (At that time married women were not allowed to teach unless they were widowed or divorced!)

McKim_Quaddie Quiltie Series - 1916

As seen on eBay in 2010

Early Wife and Husband Team Hit the Road Together 

to Promote McKim's Business

After marriage and soon after the birth of her first child (Betty) in 1918, Ruby’s career quickly resumed. She and husband Arthur, a public relations man by profession, were often on the road visiting with publishers in an effort to build relationships that would help increase her syndication network. While away on business, Ruby often wrote home to the grandparents who were caring for Betty, and sketched delightful scenes of children busy at play or work as she had witnessed or imagined them while on her trips.  A second daughter (Marilyn) was born in 1923 and a son (Kim) in 1933. The family kept Ruby’s letters and sketches and treasure them today.

A Rare McKim Find

“The circus is coming to town!” 

In 1921, Woman’s World presented Ruby’s whimsical angular Jolly Circus Quilt and offered pre-stamped kits. I have inserted blocks thru-out the article from this pattern series.

McKim_Jolly Circus Quilt Series - 1921

I was very fortunate to stumble across a summer spread made from this pattern a few years ago. It is the only example of this pattern that I have seen in person, though I have seen photos of other examples. It had apparently hung in an antique shop for a good long while and its muslin background on which the embroidery is done is discolored, perhaps from tobacco smoke? But, fortunately, there are no holes.

In spite of all the modern forms of entertainment that have come along to distract all of us since my childhood, it is still the memory of the news “The circus is coming to town!” that stirs some of the most anticipatory memories of childhood. There was truly something magical about the circus in the late 1940s and early 50s before our culture had become so saturated with more sophisticated forms of entertainment.

McKim_Jolly Circus Quilt Series - 1921

Business Expands to Mail Order

In January 1922, Ruby became the Children’s Art Editor of a new publication, Child Life Magazine. This relationship, which included quilt patterns and needlework projects for children, continued into the 1930s. With the birth of their second child in 1923, the grandparents begged the couple to end their many road trips.

With the growing wide-spread exposure of her more distinctive designs, Ruby’s efforts soon evolved into a mail-order business. Their wide-spared traveling for the purpose of meeting businessmen and newspaper editors face-to-face had paid off. From her pen would flow a veritable flood of some 20 embroidery and quilt patterns that were syndicated in various publications as she competed for space with the Nancy Page Quilting Clubs during the 20s and 30s.

A Crayola version of McKim's Jolly Circus series as seen on eBay 2009.

Click here to see more about Crayola quilts.

McKim's 16-year association with Child Life began in 1922. 

March 1927 cover

Early Recorded Children's Quilt Contests

Nursery Rhymes series - 1922

The Nursery Rhymes series seen in Laura Fisher's on-line store in 2009.

According to Jill Filo's research, Ruby’s Nursery Rhyme series (examples above) was the vehicle of one of the earliest recorded children’s quilt contests as seen in Ohio’s Sunday Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1922. Filo also articulated in her nomination letter of Ruby to The Quilters Hall of Fame, “The 1926 Colonial History Quilt, an American Sesquicentennial celebration, instigated the January, 1927 “Old-Time Quilts” show and contest in Seattle, Washington sponsored by the Post-Intelligencer.

1926 Colonial History Series 

As seen on eBay 2011

1926 Colonial Series from collection of Karen Alexander

A few weeks before the stock market crash, the 1929 Flower Garden Quilt contest set the stage for the 1930 Indianapolis Star’s two and a half day quilt show which attracted 468 quilts and 14,004 visitors…”

1929 Flower Garden series.

In addition to the 1930 Indianapolis Star contest, the near-by Marion Chronicle in Grant County sponsored its first public quilt show. The show was judged by none other than Marie Webster, Indiana’s leading quilt history expert at the time, and a nationally known quilt designer and author in her own right 1911-1942.

Modern Merchandizing of Quilting

As the popularity of syndicated quilt pattern series grew, more and more newspapers held contests and exhibits of the best completed quilts, which in turn generated more and more publicity and business for quilting supplies and patterns. One could say that McKim helped begin the tradition of the modern merchandizing of quilting long before the late 20th century quilt revival emerged and took it to an even higher level with its seemingly endless array of patterns, new tools and gadgets.

McKim - The Audubon Bird Life Quilt - collection of Karen Alexander

.

The Audubon Bird Life Quilt from McKim's 1931 book

See more quilts made from the Audubon Bird of Life series by clicking here.  Quilt makers experimented with a variety of mediums with this pattern, it seems.

Successful Farming magazine ran five of Ruby’s features from 1922-1928 with Ruby selling transfer patterns for the first time in this publication in November 1928.

Farm Life first published in 1930

McKim Continues to Expand Venues of Publication

How much more could this amazingly productive woman juggle? For starters, she began writing her “Adventures in Home Beautifying” column January 1928 for Better Home and Gardens Magazine, focusing on a different room of the house each month. In that same year she and her husband Arthur founded McKim Studios in Independence, Missouri, which  soon became a successful mail-order needlework supply and pattern business.

Sketches of McKim's Peter Pan series as seen in McKim's 1931 book and now Rose Lea Alboum's 

The American Legacy Quilt Index Series 

Key Player in Launch of the Kansas City Star Newspaper Quilt Series

Although Ruby’s first patterns appeared in the Kansas City Star in 1916, it wasn’t until September 1928 that Ruby became a key player in the launch of the Kansas City Star’s on-going promotion of quilt patterns, beginning with her traditional Pine Tree pieced pattern. This was the beginning of a 33-year tradition by the KCS newspaper of offering full-size quilt patterns, although Ruby herself would stay involved only until September 20, 1930, at which time Eveline Foland took over.

McKim's Early Quilt Pattern Anthology

Ruby’s self-published 1931 book, 101 Patchwork Patterns, one of the earliest quilt pattern anthologies that had detailed instructions, was a natural next step in the progression of her career. It is still considered a classic and revised reprints are readily available, but it’s far more fun to track down a copy of the original hard back shown above.

McKim's Influence in Quilt World Compared to Tiffany's in Diamond World

The book cemented Ruby’s place as one of the giants of early 20th century quilt history. As the Dayton Daily News declared Oct 2, 1932, “wherever quilts and quilt patterns are known, the name of ‘McKim Studios’ is as famous as the name Tiffany is famous in the diamond world.”  Ruby was included in the second edition of Who’s Who Among American Women and her influence on American quilting continues unabated, as her patterns enjoy still another revival in the 21st century.

1932 McKim Studios Mail Order Catalogue

(page from mail order catalogue for the Toy Shop Window series)

I don't know the name of the little girl for whom the doll quilt (below) was made. Thanks to my quilt history friends, however, who pointed me to the above McKim catalogue, I do now know that if you ordered all 12 stamped blocks (each 9 inches square) of the Toy Shop Window series, you received a doll size pre-printed quilt top as a premium. The little doll blanket in my collection measures all of 19x14 inches and has a salt bag as its back.

If you ordered the complete series of this pattern from the catalogue, you were
given a free pre-printed doll quilt top.

(from the collection of Karen Alexander)

(back of the pre-printed doll quilt is an old salt sack)

Example of McKim's Toy Shop Window pattern series (below) 
carried in the newspaper.

McKim Steers a New Course

Doll collecting is considered in the top 5 collection topics in the world today. (See what they were in 1942 by clicking here.)  Arthur and Ruby McKim traveled through-out the US in the 20s and 30s drumming up business for Ruby's syndicated columns. In 1933 they visited Europe. One of the purposes of the trip was to see if they could interest European newspapers in Ruby's syndicated series. I have never heard of any success with the European newspapers but it seems to have been this same trip that they got interested in importing dolls, resulting in their Kimport Dolls business. By the late 1930s Ruby was focusing more and more on her doll business. Though Ruby and Arthur started Kimport Dolls by importing dolls from around the world, the company eventually began manufacturing dolls itself. Granddaughter Christina Jones wrote in her recent email,

"The dolls made at the Studio were composition, not porcelain. They were character dolls -- Presidents & First Ladies, famous 'real' people, and famous characters from books. They were called Kimcraft Dolls, made by American doll artists and sold by Kimport. The foreign dolls were called Kimport -- for the 'import' in the name."  

George and Martha Washington composition dolls made by Kimcraft Dolls.

By the late 1930s, the McKim Studio needlework business had fully transitioned into Kimport, a doll business. Together Ruby and Arthur once again worked as a team managing Kimport Dolls. They also published Doll Talk for Collectors for decades, a magazine for the Dolly Hobby Club.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Kimcraft Dolls, Ruby's new business.

Granddaughter Christina recently shared that eventually her Uncle Kim became owner of the business shortly before his father's (Arthur) death in 1967 and continued the doll business for many years. Ruby died in 1976. The Studio was finally closed in 1985. In 2006 the site of the old McKim Studios in Independence, Missouri became Woodstock Inn Bed & Breakfast.

The Third Generation Steps Up to the Plate to Revive McKim Studios

It has been exciting to see two of Ruby’s granddaughters, Christina and Merrily, take on the challenge of carrying on Ruby’s legacy by re-issuing her designs and even creating them in some new forms. Click here to go to their website. Then scroll to the bottom of their page and click on this phrase: VIEW THE PHOTOS of RSM featured at the Quilt Show in Ilwaco, WA (opens in a new window) to see some of the McKim quilt patterns being made today.

The family has also been encouraging and assisting the Jackson County Historical Society to begin the process of collecting any historic ephemera related to McKim Studios’ design and business history. 

If you have additional information about Ruby McKim or would like to share one of your quilts in this post, please feel free to contact me. Questions? You can reach me by clicking here. I don’t claim to have all the answers but I may be able to help point you in the right direction.

To see more vintage McKim quilts, click here to visit the blog Quilts-Vintage and Antique and see what one quilt collector has managed to find.

Meanwhile, keep those needles flying and the flame of curiosity burning,

Karen Alexander

Past President

The Quilters Hall of Fame

*This article was 1st published 27 July 2009 in the TQS Quilt Pioneer Series; updated in November 2011 for the TQHF blog; and updated again April 2013, thanks to new information shared with me by Christina Jones, a granddaughter of Ruby Short McKim.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

(1) Rose Lea Alboum, Index To The Ruby Short McKim Quilt Blocks (no date but my guess is about 2005) http://www.americanlegacyquiltindexes.com/

(2) Christine Bowman, “Jill Sutton File — One Researcher’s Road”, AQSG’s Blanket Statements, Winter 1996

(3) Barbara Brackman, Women of Design: Quilts in the Newspaper, Kansas City Star Books (2004)

(4) Chris Jones, “Ruby McKim” in The Quilters Hall of Fame, ed. Merikay Waldvogel and Rosalind Webster Perry (Marion, IN – The Quilters Hall of Fame, 2004)

(5) Heidi Kaisand, Better Homes and Gardens: Century of Quilt.  Meredith Corporation (2004), publishers of Better Homes and Gardens and American Patchwork and Quilting

(6) Jill Filo Sutton, “Ruby Short McKim: The Formative Years” in Uncoverings 1996, ed. Virginia Gunn (San Francisco, CA: American Quilt Study Group, 1996)

(7) Jill Sutton Filo, “Ruby short McKim’s Roly Poly Circus Quilt”, 75th anniversary Edition 1923-1998, Charlottes, Press, Akron, Ohio (1998)

(8)McKim nomination letters from the files of The Quilters Hall of Fame

(9) AQSG member Rose Marie Werner has been doing research on companies and designers of the quilt kits of the 20th century. McKim Studios has been included in her research. Watch for her website to go live sometime in the next 4-8 weeks at quiltkitsID.com.

(10) Jackson County Historical Society. Researchers are welcome to make an appointment and visit the Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society's Archives to research into the Ruby Short McKim Collection. The collection is organized into three main categories: 1) Personal Papers (including those of Ruby’s parents/grandparents); 2) quilt and appliqué patterns (including both her syndicated materials in newspapers and magazines; and, those which her Independence-based business published); and 3) Doll Talk magazine, and doll-related materials of Kimport Dolls. JCHS welcomes donations, and are appreciative to the individuals who have kindly transferred selected materials to help build a more complete McKim collection. www.jchs.org/archives/archives.html

11) Rose Lea Alboum's  The American Legacy Quilt Index Series

12) April 2013 email from Christina Jones, granddaughter of Ruby Short McKim and daughter of Ruby's first child, Betty, to Karen B. Alexander.

List of SERIES QUILTS by Ruby Short McKim

This is a “work in progress” list and input is greatly appreciated.

The QS code designates items from the new McKim Studios series as created by Ruby’s granddaughter, Merrily Tuohey. Merrily is a daughter of Ruby's only son.

1916 - QUADDY QUILTIE BOOK • Item #QS 204

Originally offered by Ruby Short Published in 1916

1916 – MOTHER GOOSE

1921 – JOLLY CIRCUS series offered in Woman's World 

1922 - NURSERY RHYME QUILTIE BOOK • Item #QS 202

Originally offered by Ruby Short McKim Pub in 1922

1923 – ALICE IN WONDERLAND

1923 – BETTY BLUE & BOBBY SHAFTOE

1923 - ROLY POLY CIRCUS QUILT BOOK • Item #499

Originally offered by Ruby Short McKim Published in 1923

1924 – CHILD LIFE

1926 - PETER PAN QUILT BOOK • Item #QS 201

Originally offered by Ruby Short McKim Published in 1926

1926 – COLONIAL LIFE

1927 - BIBLE HISTORY QUILT BOOK • Item #400

Originally offered by Ruby Short McKim Pub in 1927

1928 – AUDUBON SERIES

1929-30 - FLOWER GARDEN QUILT BOOK • Item #401

NOTE: Includes patterns for alternate quilting block and border

Originally offered by Ruby Short McKim Published in 1929-30

1930 - FARM LIFE QUILT BOOK • Item #403

NOTE: Includes patterns for alternate quilting block and border

Originally offered by Ruby Short McKim Pub in 1930

1930 – BONNET BABIES

1930 – PATCHWORK QUILT

1931 – PARADE OF STATES

1931 - STATE FLOWERS QUILT BOOK • Item #QS 205

Originally offered by McKim Studios Published in 1931

1932 – FRUIT BASKET

1932 - TOY SHOP WINDOW QUILT BOOK • Item #439

NOTE: Includes pattern for alternate quilting block

Originally offered by McKim Studios Published in 1932

1933 - WILDWOOD FLOWERS QUILT BOOK • Item #QS 203

NOTE: Includes pattern for alternate quilting block

Originally offered by McKim Studios Published in 1933

1934 - THREE LITTLE PIGS QUILT BOOK • Item #481

NOTE: Includes border pattern

Originally offered by McKim Studios Published in 1934

1934 – FLOWER BASKET

1935 - RHYMELAND QUILT BOOK • Item #QS 207

Originally offered by McKim Studios Published in 1935

1937 - AMERICAN SHIPS QUILT BOOK • Item #QS 206

Originally offered by McKim Studios Published in 1937