Quilts: Tangible records of our past

Cramahe Now thanks Cathy Galt for submitting this article about the quilt shsow that will be in Colborne United Church on Saturday as part of the Colborne 150th celoebration.


In the 1790s “Old Joe” Keeler came up from Vermont and settled at Lakeport (or Cat Hollow as it was called then) bringing with him several Loyalist families. These families would have brought quilts with them along with a few furnishings, for the winters were cold in their small cabins. Aaron Greeley, a surveyor, laid out the town site along the Danforth Road. He called the town Keeler’s Tavern, but the name was changed at a later date to honour Sir John Colborne.

Unfortunately few of the early quilts survived for they were used daily on beds or as coats etc. You will find one in our collection...hand-woven wool counterpane with carded fleece stuffing and a blanket backing. The wool was dyed before weaving on a homemade loom, the colour being obtained from tree bark, roots, or plant leaves and flowers. We can speculate they might have used goldenrod, onion skins or butternut shells for this brown, but rhubarb leaves or carrot tops would have worked also. The three layers of the quilt were held together with yarn ties, rather than being hand quilted.

As the town settlement grew, itinerant salesmen would have passed through, their pack horses laden with webs of cloth from England or Europe. Newcomers from England might have brought several webs of cloth with them in their luggage. In 1815 “Young Joe” Keeler opened a mercantile store where yard goods could be purchased locally. Quilts evolved into more decorative, finer bed covers with these fabrics. Every prospective bride was expected to have pieced or embroidered at least 13 quilt tops for her hope chest. When she accepted a young man’s proposal the community got together at quilting bees or socials to assemble and hand-quilt her tops. Again, because these quilts were used daily, few have survived to today.

So where do we find history recorded in quilts?

• In the patterns handed down through the generations. During the slavery period stars, pine trees, flying geese quilts were used to point the safe route for runaway slaves on the “underground railway” in this area. Whig rose or Whig’s Defeat reflected politics in England. Drunkard’s Path, usually done in the blue and white colours of the Women’s Temperance League, reflected Prohibition. Signature quilts record names of families who lived in certain areas. Elaborately embroidered crazy quilts reflect an era when having household servants allowed the lady of the house leisure time to spend on creating beautiful quilts.

• In the fabrics used in the quilts. . Shirting or ticking fabrics suggest there was a fabric mill in the local area. During war times fabric was scarce so scrap quilts made of tiny pieces without wide borders were common. Flour or sugar bag quilts reflect hard economic times. After war was over uniforms and ribbons were made into memory quiltsEven today maple leaf memory quilts are being made for families of fallen soldiers.

• In the styles of the quilts. The introduction of mechanical innovations can be confirmed. For example after 1793 the cotton gin produced finer fabric, and by 1840 the Jacquard loom produced medallion and Marseilles fabrics. The general use of sewing machines can be dated to 1856 quilts. Copperplate printing of the 1750s and roller printing of the 1800s are inventions confirmed by quilts of those periods.

The quilts here today have been chosen to reflect the history of our town from 1790 to today. In the signature and the photo quilts you can see the names and faces of the inhabitants of Colborne. The crazy quilts display the fair and school ribbons, the cigar bands and tobacco pouch labels of daily life in the late 1800s. The church banners and tree of life quilts reflect the role religion played in our lives. War time and depression quilts record the harder times in our lives, and friendship and album quilts record the peaceful times of the 1900s. The apple blossom quilt and the comfort quilts are examples of the 2000s and where we are going in the future.

We hope you enjoy the show.