Hearts and gizzards, one of the heirloom quilts stitched by Rick Cook’s great grandmother and his grandmother, had a story behind it about raising chickens. Cook introduced me to the idea of quilt storytelling when he told me about the Oregon Quilt Project he participated in.
The Oregon Quilt Project, a group of experienced volunteer quilters who conduct quilt documentations, is an arm of the National Quilt Index. Inspired by an idea started at Michigan State University, the National Quilt Index is a national online clearinghouse of stories, images and information about quilts, the quilt makers and the quilting process. The database comprises the information collected from the quilt documentations. Once the documentation process is completed and the information recorded, each quilt owner or responsible party receives a copy of the data and is asked if they would like the data to be submitted to the National Quilt Index.
Although the Oregon Quilt Project ended in 2019, quilt documentation goes on and what is learned continues to be entered into the database. I had a fairly good idea of the documentation process based on Rick Cook’s description, but it wasn’t until I had the opportunity to see the volunteers at work, examining minute details of fairly large quilts spread out on an equally large frame, that I came to appreciate the quilting process, the quilter and the story behind the quilt.
The Oswego Heritage House hosted a quilt documentation day at the end of May 2024, which I was invited to attend. This came about as a result of an article I had written about Helen and Wally Grigg (Lake Oswego Review May 23, 2023: “She disliked fishing; he was in the fishing business”). Helen Grigg started the Oswego Quilters in 1959. Margaret Ward, a member of the quilting group, saw my article and contacted me, wanting to know if I could help her locate any Grigg family members. She had a quilt of Helen’s that Helen herself had quilted and felt the family should have it. The quilt is red and white and has the names of her three children, her husband and her name quilted around the border. At the time of Helen’s death in 2011, Oswego Quilters had quilted more than 300 quilts.
Not being able to contact any of the Grigg family, I suggested that Margaret contact Oswego Heritage House to see if they would be interested in having a Helen Grigg presentation and quilt show as one of their First Wednesday Chatauqua programs. That’s still in the works, but in the meantime the Oswego Heritage House offered to host a documentation day. Spearheaded by Margaret Ward and Claire Kellogg, a quilting and documentation guru, the two women began searching for quilts Helen had stitched or that the group had worked on collectively inspired by Helen.
Claire Kellogg relates, “That day we documented 14 quilts — some over 100 years old with unknown heritage and others made by talented Lake Oswego quilter Jeannie Pickens. Ten were related to Helen Grigg, not that Helen Grigg made all 10 — some were inspired by her.”
Claire goes on, talking about the stories a quilt can tell: “Quilt documentation consists of two steps. First we record any known history of the quilt — just like any story the who, what, when, where, why — who made the quilt, what type of quilt is it, when was it made and where.
Part two is a careful examination of the quilt. This is where any mysteries from the first question might be answered. People have been making quilts for hundreds of years, but the popular styles of quilts change over time. The bright, cute quilts of the 1930s don’t look anything like the richer-colored quilts of the Civil War era for example. This is the first thing we observe when documenting a quilt. Then the types of fabric are examined because they have also changed with time. Colors used in the fabrics can be a clue to dating since dying technology and fabric printing has also changed over the years.
One could be easily fooled about a quilt’s age because today we have fabric reproduced to look just like fabrics from centuries ago. This is why other aspects of the quilt need to be examined. A machine sewn quilt is probably from the twentieth century or later. However, the sewing machine was invented in the mid-1800s, so more clues are needed, like the type and color of the thread. Hand-quilted stitches have changed over the years. Few quilters today are able to make the tiny close stitches made by ladies in the 19th century.
Telling a quilt’s story — documenting it — is a chance to appreciate the art and craft of an object that was made to serve the simple function of warmth or maybe was made to wow us with its artistry. When the Oregon Quilt Project does a documentation and enters it into the Michigan State University’s Quilt Index (quiltindex.org), it is as if that quilt is hung in an online worldwide museum to be viewed by millions.”
If you are interested in quilting, join the Oswego Quilters. Contact Alice Greene at 503-520-2179 for time, date and location.
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