Quilts: Homespun And On Display

A piece of wedding dress here. A bit of a man's tie there. Fusing together worlds and attires, quilts are a functionally decorative textile that date back hundreds of years, and dozens of them are currently on display at the Water Mill Museum's 29th annual Quilt Show and Sale.Every year, quilt-makers throughout Long Island and on the East End deposit their stitched goods at the museum for this special event, producing a wide collection of contemporary and antique options.

Traditionally, quilts were made to commemorate major life events like a marriage. While most on display at the museum are intended as bed covers, some have a more decorative purpose, such as holiday table runners. There are also bags, aprons and even individual patches for sale for a dollar apiece.

The antique quilts make up a large portion of the exhibit and are often dropped off at the museum by collectors or relatives who discovered these family heirlooms. In order to be deemed an antique, the quilt must be at least 75 years old. Some reveal the quilter's original pencil markings, and every quilt has a tell when it comes to its age—its back.

On a contemporary quilt, they always have a nice back. Your antique quilt is always plain," explained Joani Wilson, the museum's mill manager. The backs of antique ones were often unfinished or sans design, with no intention for them to be turned over. "You never would’ve decorated anything you didn’t see, it would be a waste of effort," Ms. Wilson said.

The names of the patterns are often as charming and elaborate as the quilts themselves—Lone Star, Dresden Plate, Trip Around The World, Crazy, Log Cabin, Mountain, Wedding Ring and Postage Stamp, to name a few. Some are quite obvious in their descriptions, others are a bit more subtle.

A typical Crazy pattern, for example, is a patchwork of fabrics, such as silk and satin taken from elegant dress clothes, which are pieced together with decorative, if not idiosyncratic, stitching. Patterns of figures or animals are added. More delicate in nature, these quilts would have been used in a decorative manner, such as for piano throws.

Meanwhile, Robbing Peter To Pay Paul (more recently known as Drunkards Path) describes the technique for taking a piece of one square and stitching it into another, separate pattern.

One kaleidoscopic pattern went through an evolution of names, starting with Mosaic and Honey Comb during Colonial times. It was later called French Bouquet, before finally settling on Grandma's Flower Garden.

In addition to the show and sale, the museum has a raffle quilt. This year's raffle quilt is for a king-sized bed and features a white background with 12 embroidered squares trimmed in blue. The drawing will be held on October 10 at the "Bowls of Plenty" benefit at the museum.

The museum, which is on Old Mill Road in Water Mill, is open daily except Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The annual Quilt Show and Sale will close this Sunday, September 13.

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