May Issue 2000
Historic Mecklenburg Applique Quilts To Be Discussed
On Friday, May 26, Merikay Waldvogel, a nationally known quilt historian from Knoxville, TN, will present for the first time her latest research on center medallion chintz quilts made in the South about 1830. The title of her lecture is: Chintz Applique Quilts: High Style Improvisation in the American South. The lecture, in conjunction with the North Carolina Quilt Symposium being held May 25-27 at UNC Charlotte, will begin at 7pm at the C. M. McKnight Lecture Hall in the Cone Center at the university. The lecture will be highlighted by three of the actual quilts, and by slides of other quilts and textile panels. Admission is $5 at the door.
Several chintz quilts made in Mecklenburg County in the 1830s were documented during the North Carolina Quilt Search in the 1980s. Ellen Eanes wrote about the connections between the quilters in North Carolina Quilts. These quilts are unique in American quilting because of their size, their design, and the connectedness between the quilters.
While researching quilts from the Civil War, Waldvogel turned to Eanes's research and found a chintz quilt that was left on a battlefield. Coincidentally Waldvogel had acquired a chintz quilt herself with a cross-stitched date "1833" and the initials "E H R". The quilt's center floral panel was identical to a panel on a quilt Eanes had studied from Mecklenburg County.
Waldvogel sought out other similar quilts in published sources as well as private and public quilt collections throughout the US and Great Britain. For the lecture, she will show slides of quilts and chintz panels she has discovered. This is the first time research has focused on panels made for quilt centers. The history of the panels made in England specifically for quilt centers and their use by quilters in the American South opens a window to life in the South nearly 175 years ago. The audience is encouraged to bring antique quilts for a show and tell session following the slide presentation.
Waldvogel has written or co-authored four books, the most recent of which is Southern Quilts: Surviving Relics of the Civil War. Her chintz quilt research has been supported by a grant from the Charlotte Quilters' Guild. A companion exhibit of Chintz Center Medallion Quilts in the collection of the Charlotte Museum of History, opens May 8 and runs through mid-July.
For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings or contact Norie Sanchez at 704/542-1524.
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