Antiques show highlights quilts

These antique quilts, most from the early 1900s, will be among those on display at the Bay Village Women’s Club Antiques Show Feb. 14-15. Photo by Darin Snyder

For the past few years the Bay Village Women’s Club Antiques Show has spotlighted specific antique collections. Last year it was trains and this year we will display a number of quilts at our show, Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 14 and 15, at Bay High School.

Quilts go back many years; they can be found in ancient Egypt. The word quilt comes from the Latin meaning a stuffed sack. The quilt we know is a cloth sandwich with a decorated top, a filler in the middle and another piece of fabric on the back. One of the quilts we will be showing has feed sacks for backing.

Patchwork quilts come in three types, plain or whole cloth, appliqué quilts and pieced or patchwork. From our standpoint we look to the quilt history here in the United States. The women were busy spinning, weaving and sewing for their families. They made blankets, but when they wore out they would patch them. They also used old blankets between two blankets for warmth, not only for the family but to put up in front of windows and doors to keep out the drafts. 

Between 1750 and 1850 fabrics were being manufactured, thus freeing women from making their own yarns and fabric. In the 100 years that followed, thousands of quilts were made and a number of them are preserved today in quilt museums across the country.

Locally there are quilt guilds as well as small quilt groups in churches, various clubs and senior centers. The North Coast Needlers are one local group, and will hold their semi-annual quilt show on April 10 and 11 at Westlake High School. Two quilts hang at the Bay Village Senior Center. One is an appliquéd quilt that was made in 1976 to celebrate our country’s bicentennial, and a second is a blue work and patched quilt which celebrated Bay Village’s 200 years. In addition some quilters meet weekly to hand quilt items, with the money they receive going to charity.

The Bay Women's Club Antiques Show will be exhibiting a number of different quilts made by one of our member’s grandmothers from Pennsylvania and New Jersey and quilts from the early Bay Village family, the Aldriches.