Textiles/ July 9th, 2021

Today we are going to be looking at the art of Quilting! Quilting was of course a common practice to keep warm, but it was also to create something beautiful. Many women spent their time quilting a variety of patterns and styles of quilts, using the materials available to them!

Today at the Homestead we have many examples of quilts made by the O’Hara family, as well as by a number of individuals from the same time period which have been donated to us. Each quilt has a very unique style and the hard work that would have been required to make these quilts is easy to see by simply looking at them!

The O’Hara Quilts (made ca 1905-1910)

Located in the O’Hara museum house, we have a handful of quilts made by the O’Hara family themselves. At least one of these quilts is what is known as a Crazy Quilt! Wondering how they got this name? It’s because of the large number of random materials involved and the fact that there is no coherent pattern!

Crazy Quilts were often made using scraps of luxury materials left over from other projects or simply found in small quantity. Many of these materials were extremely delicate and in order to avoid ruining the fabrics would be tied together.

The O’Hara crazy quilt has hand stitching along its seams and includes a variety of materials including: velvet, silk, and a number of uniquely patterned fabrics!

Donated Winter Kitchen Quilt

Made in 1904 by R. Roy Blake, the quilt in the winter kitchen of the museum house is a collage of unique patterns and embroidery. The quilt is featured on the day bed, which was situated in this room for its occupants to lay by the warm stove. It was a common spot for sick children so they could be near the heat of the stove and near their mothers who were hard at work.

In his youth, Mr. Blake was ill with Typhoid Fever. During the time when he was recovering he made this quilt!

After carefully piecing it all together, the finishing embroidery with his name and date was added as both a way to practice embroidery and to sign off his piece of art!

Log Cabin Quilt

We couldn’t talk about the quilts at the Homestead without sharing the Log Cabin pattern quilt from the Log Cabin!

This piece was donated to the museum and is hung on the wall in the Log Cabin.

Early log cabin blocks were hand-pieced using strips of fabric around a centre square. In traditional Log Cabin blocks, one half is made of dark fabrics and the other half light. A red centre symbolized the hearth of home and a yellow centre represented a welcoming light in the window.

Especially in the early days when the O’Hara family first settled here, a warm quilt was needed to keep the family warm through the night!

We hope that you enjoyed learning about some of the quilts that can be found at O’Hara! Quilting was and still is a very interesting art form that requires lots of skill and time. If you ever are interested in learning a new skill, why not give quilting a try! You can even make a quilt out of old t-shirts you don’t want to get rid of but no longer wear!