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This time it was on The Quilt Show set, where cameraman Jim Hucks, showed Alex some vintage newspapers all about quilting in Colorado. We asked Jim's mother, Ruth, to share what she knew about the newspaper pages. They offer a wonderful peek into our quilting past.
Thank you to Jim and Ruth Hucks for sharing this treasure trove.
(Once you've opened the .pdf files, you may want to click on the Zoom in order to read the small print.)
From Ruth ~
IT ALL STARTED BY HAPPENSTANCE:
A newspaper publisher and a former newspaper reporter standing side by side in an Aerobic Dancing exercise class, one with knowledge of Colorado quilting history, the other just starting a quilting class, in itself a piece of history.
A newspaper publisher and a former newspaper reporter standing side by side in an Aerobic Dancing exercise class, one with knowledge of Colorado quilting history, the other just starting a quilting class, in itself a piece of history.
The two women, Barbara Walton and Ruth Hucks, became fast friends, lived in adjacent neighborhoods south of Denver. Together they worked on three untapped and narrow bits of the state’s history. The first was quilts.
How to find, and where to find the quilting information, led Ruth to the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library where she scanned for hours the films of many early Colorado newspapers, including The Greeley Journal, Rocky Mountain News, Littleton Independent,The Democrat Herald of Springfield CO, and the Boulder Daily Camera, plus collections from the Colorado State Historical Society. There were lengthy histories, brief paragraphs from Keota, CO., and Grand Junction with late 1800 and early 1900 datelines, too many tales to relate.
There were photos aplenty of quilts and the stitchers, one of a young Black Denver quilter, Florence F. Bell, who used 318 spools of silk to complete her project.
Joan Dix, Ruth’s quilting instructor, is shown with her prizewinning entry into the GOOD HOUSEKEEPING Bicentennial contest, the photo taken at the quilt’s first public display in 1978.
Ruth’s own favorite is of Lovey Philliips, a 92-year old resident at Home Lake, the veterans’ village north of Monte Vista, CO. taken during a birding trip to the area in southwestern Colorado. Ruth inquired at an antique shop whether there were quilters in
the town and the proprietor directed her to the delightful stitcher.
the town and the proprietor directed her to the delightful stitcher.
The Burlington CO quilters are shown in an early 1980s photo, as they met in a local church. Several stitchers were known to Ruth’s daughter, a Burlington High School teacher, and according to custom, the visitor was invited to stitch, albeit nervously, an inch or two on their current project.
.jpg "2019 Sponsor - BERNINA Q 24")
Thank you for illuminating a hidden history;
Shining a different light on an "old topic,"
& sharing this glimpse from the past that very few of the "modern quilters" would have known about &/or had access to!
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