Quilting Women's History
On August 26, 2010, America will celebrate the 90th anniversary of women securing the right to vote. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the other women who gathered at the Seneca Falls First Women’s Rights Convention in 1848 likely did not imagine it would take 72 years to attain this fundamental right accorded in 1920.
In honor of this significant anniversary, a quilt pattern was created by Sarah Maxwell and Dolores Smith of Homestead Hearth in Missouri, which features twelve appliqué blocks, each dedicated to a leader of the Women’s Rights Movement. The quilt pattern and subsequent book, published in 2009 by Kansas City Star Books, is called Women of Influence: 12 Leaders of the Suffrage Movement. Accompanying the biographies of these twelve women are the instructions for creating each of the special appliqué blocks and for putting them together in a finished quilt.
The BBGs, a Thursday quilting group of local women, volunteered to create this large 88” x 112” Women of Influence quilt and they donated it for an ECSHA raffle, with proceeds to benefit the organization’s Student Scholarship fund. Raffle tickets are $5/each or 3 for $10 and will be sold until August 26. Tickets are available from the Fulton County Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Gloversville-NY, the Johnstown Public Library, ECSHA members or by calling Debra Kolsrud (518) 848-3552.
The quilt was unveiled on March 23 at the reception for the Women’s History Exhibit at the Fulton County Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Gloversville-NY and was on public display at the chamber through mid-April. It is now on display at the Johnstown Public Library until late August. The raffle drawing will be held at the ECSHA Women of Influence Luncheon on August 26, 2010 at the Johnstown Holiday Inn. The quilt’s design is a mixture of piecing and appliqué in the patterns illustrated in the photos. The fabric selected by the BBG women is Civil War-era reproduction.
The BBG Quilters are: Anita Hanaburgh, Stephanie Hoff, Nancy Kested, Joan Laubenstein, Karen McComb, Linda Pintuff, Barbara Reffitt, Marilyn Samperi, Diane Seeley and Betsy Waldron. Each quilter paid for the fabric used for the appliqué block assigned to her and Diana Marshall, owner of Gloversville Sewing Center, generously donated the rest of the quilt’s fabric. Sandi Christman of Lassellsville, NY volunteered to put together all the blocks. Loretta Christiano of Gloversville, NY embroidered the quilt’s name; and for each appliqué block, she embroidered the name of the influential leader, the quilter’s name and the pattern type. Karen Gibbs of Ballston Spa, NY (Quilt Studio www.thequiltstudio.com) completed the final quilting of this masterpiece.
Thank you, BBGs, for your generous gift of creativity and kindness to ECSHA and our Student Scholarship fund.
Below is the list of the quilt’s 12-featured Women of Influence,
the names of the quilters, and the appliqué block patterns:
Love Apple for Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Quilter: Anita Hanaburgh, Johnstown, NY
Oak Leaves & Flowers for Susan B. Anthony
Quilter: Barbara Reffitt, Hope, NY
Tulips for Lucretia Mott
Quilter: Diane Seeley from Broadalbin, NY
Log Cabin for Sojourner Truth
Quilter: Marilyn Samperi, Johnstown, NY
Whig Rose for Julia Ward Howe
Quilter: Stephanie Hoff, Scotia, NY
Four X for Jane Addams
Quilter: Betsy Waldron, Johnstown, NY
Missouri Puzzle for Lucy Stone
Quilter: Linda Pintuff, Northville, NY
Centennial Lily for Amelia Jenks Bloomer
Quilter: Joan Laubenstein, Mayfield, NY
Whirlwind for Frances Perkins
Quilter: Marilyn Samperi, Johnstown, NY
Framed Variable Star for Mary Church Terrell
Quilter: Karen McComb, Speculator, NY
King’s Crown for Fanny Jackson-Coppin
Quilter: Nancy Kested, Johnstown, NY
New York Beauty for Carrie Chapman Catt
Quilter: Stephanie Hoff, Scotia, NY
Elizabeth Cady Stanton Hometown Association
P.O. Box 753
Johnstown, NY 12095-0753
© 2010
