What Makes a Quilt “Amish”?

By Beverly Hicks Burch

This is the second in our series on the Amish and their Quilts.

Because Amish families and family life tends to be patriarchal, most duties and chores carried out by Amish women are related to home and family. The women are responsible for creating a lot of the utilitarian items a family might use…for example, the family garden, food, jams, preserves, clothes, towels, bed linens and yes, quilts. Those wonderful quilts have kept many Amish boys and girls warm on cold Pennsylvania nights.

Just because something is “utilitarian” doesn’t mean it has to be unpleasant to look at or even uncomfortable. Most of us go to great pains to make our homes as comfortable and attractive as possible, but basically, a home…a house serves a very utilitarian purpose…shelter. The same can be said about well-planned, beautiful Amish quilts. Creativity, however subtle, can be present in a beautiful, breathtaking Amish quilt.

First, let’s look at a brief history of quilt making among the Amish. Quilting evolved a little differently among the Amish than it did among the “English” or outside world. At first, the quilts were basically nothing more than whole cloth quilts…a single piece of fabric sandwiched with batting and a backing and heavily quilted. The colors were usually brown, rust, blue or the black we associate with the Amish.

What made this simple quilts stand out? The quilting. These simple, solid color whole cloth quilts were embellished with intricate flourishes of hand quilting in feathers, shells, grids, and curves…patterns that covered the whole quilt. This elaborate quilting became the hallmark of Amish quilts. And, while the elaborate quilting may not be “simple” it is allowable because it is “needed” to hold the quilt together.

Eventually Amish quilting evolved and piecing began to show up in Amish quilts. But, even in piecing and patterns, simplicity ruled…at least at first. There were fewer and larger pieces. The Amish Center Diamond, also known as Diamond in a Square, is the quintessential Amish quilt. It is probably the simplest and best known. Many think it originated in Lancaster, PA and is perhaps the oldest Amish pattern.

The Sunshine and Shadows, or Trip Around the World (also called Postage Stamp) pattern is also thought to have originated in Lancaster, PA. It shows that piecing and patterns evolves and became more intricate. Also, pieces became smaller and more abundant.

Since Amish women tended to use what they had on hand and not go out and buy specific fabric for a quilt, the quilts began to develop a distinctive look. (An exception would have been for a wedding in which case fabric would have been bought.)

We know the Amish live by a simple and modest creed. Realism in quilts was discouraged by the Amish church and as a result appliqué was a rarity. Instead, as quilting evolved, so did piecing. More and more piecing became a standard in Amish quilts. The fabrics were…and are…the bold, bright solid colors juxtaposed with black, navy or dark gray….these colors became par.

Unlike their Mennonite cousins, Amish women do not use prints or tiny calicoes in their quilting…with one exception. That is for quilts they make for sale to the “English”. Yes, today, Amish women can be enterprising women. They will produce their quilts for a living for the outside world and many times, not always, but sometimes they will use the fabric of the “English”. I observed this personally when visiting Lancaster, PA in 1994.

In Lancaster County there is a little community called Intercourse. It is a wonderful place to visit and spend time and absorb the surroundings…especially if you are a quilter. The Old Country Store is run by Mennonites Merle and Phyllis Good since 1984 and they do an excellent job. The store vends fabric, quilts supplies, trinkets and locally made quilts for the tourist trade. Here you can stock up on any “Amish” color you could dream about…and I did.

Above the store is The People’s Place Museum that exhibits Amish quilts. When I visited, the quilts on exhibit were all antique…no quilt was more recent than from the 1930’s. It was a rare treat and an education wrapped up in one.

It was while viewing one of these rare antique quilts I discovered what I knew in my heart…that if Grandmomma or a smart Amish woman had a sewing machine…by Jove, she would use it when making her quilt! Thus killing the old adage that “all quilts have to be hand-pieced to be a real quilt”. You see, some of these antique Amish quilts had some machine piecing in them. What quilters don’t realize nowadays…if Grandmomma had a sewing machine back then…it was a real status symbol…and she was going to use it! (By the way, the Amish used the treadle type machines.)

A few things to consider…just like Amish communities vary, so do the quilts. The communities in the East, especially Lancaster were usually more economically stable and therefore more conservative. The more conservative the community, the more conservative the quilts. Likewise, quilts from Midwestern Amish areas tend to be brighter and have more and smaller pieces.

And just a little tidbit I always found interesting and showed the Amish were, well, “equal opportunity”…it wasn’t unheard of to hear of men participating in the quilting process. Especially as they got older and couldn’t work in the fields, the men were known to help cut the quilt pieces and do other little tasks around the quilting frame…

So if you wanted to make an “Amish” quilt what do you need to do? Well, first understand this…you can’t make an Amish quilt. You are not Amish. But, you can make an Amish reproduction using a few guidelines:

Guidelines for making an Amish reproduction:

1. Keep it simple

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2. Use wide borders. DO NOT miter your borders! It’s okay to piece your borders.

3. Use solid color fabrics only. Keep the “Amish” palette in mind. They use colors from left over fabric used in everyday life from projects such as clothes making. Color hues run light to dark.

4. For a traditional Pennsylvania Amish look avoid warm colors like bright red, red-orange, orange, yellow, yellow-orange and yellow-green. DO use cool colors like burgundy, blues, purples and blue-greens.

5. Amish quilts outside Lancaster, PA – especially those from the Midwestern USA add the warmer color palette like orange and yellow.

6. Use white sparingly.

7. Don’t forget the black! Think of this as “basic Amish”. Some quilts used dark grey or navy instead of black.

8. Many colors can be used in a quilt, but try to avoid more than two colors in one block. The exception would be in patterns like Roman Stripes or Ocean Waves.

9. Use black quilting thread when quilting! Be sure to use a generous amount of quilting…remember…antique Amish quilts are covered with fine hand quilting!

Amish Pinwheels, by Beverly Hicks Burch

© 2008 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.

The Plain People

By Beverly Hicks Burch

*This article is a revised and updated version I wrote for The Heartbeat, (Feb 1992) the guild newsletter for The Heart of Dixie Quilters Guild in Birmingham, AL where I was guild founder and served as guild President for several years. I was also the establishing editor and publisher of the guild newsletter, The Heartbeat.

This revision will begin a two part series on Amish quilts and the Amish people.

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For many years I’ve held a special place in my heart for Amish Quilts. I’ve even made reproduction versions of my own. I don’t recall how or when I first discovered this wonderful world of bright, bold colors juxtaposed with black, made up of geometric designs and patterns and all done with solid…not patterned, mostly 100% cotton fabric or sometimes wool.

I might have overheard a quilter talking about a trip she took to Amish country as if it were a mystical pilgrimage to Mecca. For many quilters, it is. I had a chance to have such an experience when I spent time in Lancaster, PA in 1994. It is a time I will never forget.

But, who knows, my affections for Amish quilts may have started before then…

What attracted me to Amish quilts? It could have been the colors…the designs and of course in many cases the excellent workmanship. The solid bold colors splash across the quilts not unlike colors in abstract paintings or modern art.

The fact that such bold colors and statements come from a group of people often labeled the “plain people” or “plain folk” is astonishing. Maybe it is the contrast of the people and their quilt that has teased my curiosity and interest. Examining these bright, bold textile “paintings” lead me to ask one question…”Who are the Amish?” I discovered the answer goes back several hundred years.

The historical roots of the Amish go back to the Reformation Movement that swept Europe in the 16^th century as former Catholic priest Martin Luther broke with the Roman Catholic Church. Like Luther, the Amish believed in a break from the Catholic Church, but unlike Luther they wanted the break to be deeper and more severe and as a result were part of the Radical Reformation. The people seeking to form the early Amish faith felt the break from the Catholic Church should see people returning to the simplicity of faith the early Christians had.

They believed in the basic doctrines of the Christian faith: the Creation, Redemption, Resurrection, etc. But, they also had a strong belief in purity, modesty, separation from the world, separation of church and state, etc. Since the Amish did not believe in infant baptism and instead in voluntary adult baptism they were part of the Anabaptists movement.

The Anabaptists were sought out and persecuted by the Catholic Church and the Reformers. The Anabaptists beliefs were considered heresy and during the Holy Inquisition the Anabaptists were persecuted with the same vigor the church persecuted witches and Jews. Many Anabaptist were tortured or killed, and the State Church banned the Anabaptist movement.

Originally, the Anabaptists were educated, urban people, but under persecution they were forced to spread out to rural areas. Faced with such harsh persecution and many times penalties such as double taxation, they would migrate from one country after another throughout Europe seeking relief from persecution. Mostly it was to no avail.

Zurich, Switzerland is recognized as the birthplace of the Anabaptist Movement. On Jan. 21, 1525 the first group took turn baptizing each other in Zurich. They called themselves The Brethren. Eventually a man named Menno Simons emerges as their leader and they became known as Mennonites in recognition of Simons.

In 1693 a Mennonite elder named Jacob Amman became dissatisfied with the Mennonites and decided to form his own sect. Amman believed the Mennonites had become too “worldly”. In addition, he wanted to establish a practice called “shunning”. Shunning is a method of punishment used to ostracize transgressors of the faith. Followers of Amman’s sect became known as the Amish.

The Amish also experienced tremendous difficulty in Europe. They eventually immigrated to the United States in pursuit of religious freedom. Although the Amish can be found in at least 20 states, the greatest concentration of Amish communities in the US are in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana. A smattering of communities can be found in Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and Florida.

Although the Amish are considered more backward, simple or plain and the Mennonites were and are seen as more accelerated or advanced, both groups have many similarities, especially in Scriptural doctrine and belief.

The most notable differences are one of practice. As a result, you see many different sub-groups, or denominations, within the two main groups of Anabaptist…the Mennonites and Amish. The basic divisions fall into two categories: the “Old Orders” and the more Modern Orders.

It is among the Old Orders (in both the Amish and Mennonite) that you will find the people we, the “English” (the outsiders) would consider the stereotypical “Amish”. The people with the horse drawn, black buggies, men in black lapel-less suits and straw hats, women in long sleeved dresses, capes and bonnets. In the Old Orders the emphasis is on simple and modest.

But, even here you will find a difference in practice. For instance, buggy shape and color varies regionally. Some men wear beards, others don’t. Some wear buttons, others don’t. To some, a zipper is considered vain.

Formal education in the Old Order usually terminates after the eighth grade. Most occupations are agrarian. Some of the most beautiful farms I’ve ever seen were Amish farms. Also, being Amish doesn’t necessarily mean being poor.

Family life is very important and families are usually very large. Life centers around the family, church and faith. The Old Order of both the Mennonites and Amish tend to shun electricity and most modern conveniences. They will use traditional machines for farm work such as plow and in some cases they will use gas powered machines and generators for their homes and farms. Some in the Old Order will ride in an automobile of an “English” friend if need be, say if they need to go to a near by phone to make a call. On the whole, they prefer not to socialize with the “English” as they call the outside world…or us.

If you travel through or visit Amish country I would offer a couple of things for consideration. First, remember the Amish do not like to be photographed unless you have asked for their specific permission. Secondly, when around and near them, do not treat them like circus freaks or oddities. They’re human beings like the rest of us and deserve to be treated with respect. Don’t talk about them as if they can’t hear you. When you’re visiting their area, you’re in their home…be respectful!

The most modern groups and Orders are not so strict in some of their practices. Electricity isn’t as readily shunned by the modern orders. People of the Modern Orders tend to seek higher education and among the Modern Order it’s not uncommon to find educators, lawyers and other professionals.

But, even the Modern Order is full of paradox. For example, the Beachy Amish use electricity, phones, cars, tractors, etc. Their manner of dress though is very conservative, the very traditional Amish dress with one exception…they use zippers! I can remember in my travel through Pennsylvania Dutch country seeing an Amish car with a bumper painted black to symbolize “separation from worldliness”. I guess there’s more than one way to throw off the shackle of worldliness and a black bumper is as good as any way…

Traditionally the church services of the groups were conducted in German…or Deutsch…and that is where we get the name Pennsylvania “Dutch” Country. Actually, the descendants who live there now are mostly fluent in English.

On October 2, 2006 a man named Charles Carl Roberts IV went to a little Old Order Amish community in Lancaster County, PA and perpetrated a terrible thing.

On that day Roberts entered an Amish schoolhouse with a 9mm gun and took hostage 10 innocent Amish children…all little girls. When the ordeal was over Roberts had killed five of the girls execution style by shooting them in the head. The girl’s ages ranged from age 6 to 13. No one knows why Roberts did these monstrous things against the little innocent girls. There is no excuse.

Beyond your grief, how would you have reacted? How did the aggrieved Amish community react? Some communities would have rioted and started burning in the streets. But, the Amish? With forgiveness. Even in their loss and grief they reached out to the family of Charles Roberts…to his father and his widow. They understood the shame, humiliation, loss and devastation the Roberts family felt knowing one of their own had committed such an awful act…and the Amish community reached out to that family with love, forgiveness and understanding…and healing.

So, my friends that is a very brief history and background concerning the Amish people. Just remember this. The “plain people” have a history full of persecution, twists, complexities and nuances. That combined with their spirit, and their wonderful quilts can teach us at least one thing - never…ever underestimate, undervalue or take for granted something or someone labeled as “simple” or “plain”.

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Matthew 5:7

© 2008 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.

How Not to Pack a Quilt

By Beverly Hicks Burch

In the last three years Tall & Handsome and I have moved twice and since 2003 I have moved four times. That sounds almost unbelievable when I say it, but it’s the honest to goodness truth.

 

 

Now I’ve moved a few times in the course of my life, and I’ve picked up a tip or two along the way. For instances, wrap jars of honey, boxes of salt, and for sure wrapping up boxes of straight pins, etc. are all worthy tips to follow when packing. I have done those very things on many occasions.

Another “novel” idea is to pack like items in the same box. A good example here would be to pack all food in one box or several boxes together, cleaners in another box, clothes yet in another box and so on. And even better idea is to mark these boxes with something more descriptive than “décor” or “lines” or “wicker” or “glass”.

Pack books in the small book cartons, mark them as books and mark what room they come out of and for goodness sake DO NOT SCATTER THE BOOKS AMONG 500 DIFFERENT BOXES…ok, excuses me…that was a little frustration slipping out, ya think?! Take if from me…there is nothing as frustrating to think you are unpacking “wicker” and find Tony the Tiger.

The last two moves I went through were some of the most traumatic experiences of my life…and they were “professionally done”…by a major national van line. I don’t know if I’ll ever recover. But, remember…most “hits” are “professionally” done…there are a lot of people out there swimming in concrete overcoats…and they just never got over it…

Our first move was in 2005 with this van line. T & H and I had very little time to find the place we were going to stay. We ended up getting a place that was decidedly way too small for what we needed and what we were use to. Then a series of situations took place and to make a long story short we stayed in the house longer than we wanted to, needed to, and should have (and that is yet another story). We never really were able to unpack except for the bare essentials…it was like living in a warehouse.

The few boxes we DID unpack gave us a glimpse into insanity. It was truly “nightmare on…well, our street”. Most boxes were marked “décor” giving us no real indication what was inside. Some boxes contained a hodgepodge, some food and some a cruel glimpse into a demented mind…it was truly anyone’s guess what was inside a cardboard cube. One day we thought we hit a true goldmine when we hit a box marked “clothes”. Sadly, inside there was one pair one underwear…and the rest was food…yes, food for human consumption.

A lot of the food for the kitchen was in the garage and a lot of the garage items were in the living room…and that was with me trying to give them direction and tell them where things needed to go. Take into consideration I had to be taken to the emergency room before we left Alabama. I had become so ill before we left because the trauma of the move became too much for me. So, by the time the moving truck arrived in Tennessee, I wasn’t in the best of condition. It also took them over a week to get our refrigerator and freezer delivered on a second truck and as a result we lost over $1,000 of food.

As I mentioned, many of our boxes were not unpacked by the time we got ready to move again…but, I had a really bad feeling about the contents…we still didn’t know what kind of havoc the first packers had done. Now what would these guys do?!

When we transferred again last year…and the same van line moved us. It was an even bigger nightmare from the very start. One of the male “packers” discovered a box of pennies I had been saving and he came and asked me for them as a “tip”…there was probably about $75 worth of pennies in the box.

Again, what we went through should never happen to anyone…especially during a move…and especially if you are chronically ill.

Now, what does any of this have to do with quilting? Tons!! Imagine my heart attack when I saw one of the guys tote my Bernina sewing machine off the moving truck in his hands, sans a box or its case!!! Now for you guys who do not sew, let me give you a comparative example…imagine seeing Mr. Van Line Hauler tote your best Tiger Woods golf clubs out of the truck cradled in his arms or over his shoulder without a bag…loosey, goosey…no protection! Or, he’s hauling you new plasma TV out of the truck without a box or protection and bouncing a set of kitchen steak knives on the screen…you get my drift…

Then, I discovered they had taken my Bernina serger out of the factory box with its heavily reinforced Styrofoam protection, wrapped the serger in brown paper and put it in a packing box with a BUNCH OF JUNK! (Of course I don’t really have any junk…but, you get my drift…)

Would you like to know how NOT to pack an award winning wall hanging or quilt? LIKE THIS!!!

Quilt in a Box - wrong way to pack a quilt…evidence of insanity or laziness! Do not let this happen to you quilts!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do not rip the wall hanging off the wall and insert the wall hanging/quilt into a picture box with a multitude of other pictures (another subject all together).

 

Then there are the “landmines”. Those are the little goodies you find when you unpack. Some are emotional landmines, but others are like these…landmines complimentary of van line employees. This box was particularly bad. It was full of shrapnel. This was a large box and it contained what at first looked like quilt room items. But, upon closer inspection I discovered the horrid truth.

 

 

First, a box of silk pins had been tossed in, unsecured, not wrapped or bagged or taped or anything and as a result the box burst open spewing pins throughout the moving box. There was a heavy scotch tape dispenser, some even heavier coasters made out of metal, three shoes…each from a different pair of shoes, an expansion table for one of my Bernina sewing machines and wrapped up in brown paper under all of that weight was one of my thread racks. Of course it was shattered from the weight of everything on top of it.

Now, don’t give up there…because digging even deeper into this bottomless box was a vintage turntable. Yes, the weight of everything was sitting on top of the turntable…AND tons of silk pins had fallen into the insides of the turntable. This was past insanity…past a nightmare…this was almost psychotic.

There is more where this came from…my garage is still full of boxes…

All I can say is this folks, if our forefathers had tried to come over to the New World on the same Mayflower…well, we’d all be sitting over on the other side of the Atlantic right about now…

Heavy Duty Weight on top of the box of goodies in the cardboard cube…

 

 

 

 

 

© 2008 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.

 

In the Beginning…

By Beverly Hicks Burch

My yellow brick road began a long time ago. I was actually a young girl. It started with a splash of color…and stories of a family “castle” in a far away place.

My baby steps on the yellow brick road “around the block” were pushed along by two different women in the beginning…and others along the way. I guess it started with my first consciousness of a quilt my maternal great-grandmother made. She was my mother’s father’s mother.

Her name was Rebecca “Becky” Shaffer McGee. She was born in Middle Tennessee…Lawrence County to be exact in 1874. Becky McGee was the loving matriarch of a large family. I don’t think there was much she couldn’t do. She cooked, gardened, raised her family, was the midwife of the county…and in her spare time she quilted. As a matter of fact, I think Becky made a quilt for each one of her grandchildren, and believe me there were several because she and my great-grandfather Daniel had ten children.

Mom’s quilt was what a lot of people call a Lone Star or a Star of Bethlehem. It was wonderful, bright splashes of red, purple and yellow with a balance of black thrown in. It was almost Amish-esque. She made one of those Lone Stars for each of my Mom’s siblings, each one in a different color palette.

In my eyes, “BoBo” as she was known to her family was a textile artist and a folk artist weaving together her colors and cloth to create magic, memories and heritage for her family. She was my muse and my inspiration and the impetus that eventually lead me to pursue quilting in 1986. That was the year I embarked on my on adventures in quilting…and I am basically a self-taught quilter, with a little TLC, tips, nudges and help along the way from guilds, fellow quilters, women in quilt shops and one special neighbor who I lived next door to in Birmingham, Lola Lovelady. Mrs. Lovelady was from “up home” as she used to say, which meant Double Springs, AL and she was what I call a “salt of the earth” person. She was my “other” grandmother and a rock for me many times. She gently and creatively did many things to foster in me a desire to sew. I was in my late 20’s or early 30’s and she was in her 60’s…and we rocked!

So, quilting became part of who I am…what I do…a passion. If you are a quilter you will know what I mean when I say I can’t resist feeling and touching the fabric when I walk into a fabric store or quilt shop. I see quilt designs in everyday items and places.

Before I became chronically ill I was very active in the quilting community in Birmingham, AL…and then IT happened. Cancer…autoimmune disorders, etc., etc. I can’t quilt like I use to, but I can admire, write on occasion, and yes, still quilt…slowly, just as often and as for as long. I just have to be the little train that could…like Dorothy on that yellow brick road on the trip home.

The other push along that yellow brick road came from my maternal grandmother Lellah McMahan McGee, my mother’s mother. Her people were from East Tennessee and her mother had been an Ogle of Sevier County, Tennessee.

Lellah McMahan McGee, ca 1986 - the castle lady

Well, if you know anything about the Ogles of Sevier County, you know there were a lot of them…they were a big clan back in the Smoky Mountains and a sleepy little burg you might have heard of…Gatlinburg.

My grandmother use to tell of hearing stories from when she was young about a family castle in far away England and about knights and Sir Ogles in the family. If that’s not fanciful enough for a little girl, what isn’t? I mean all little girls dream of being a princess, right?

My grandmother’s mother was Letha Iva Ogle McMahan, daughter of Levi Evans and Nancy Ann King Ogle. Now, if you’re from East Tennessee, and from the mountains of East Tennessee and one of the mountain clans, those surnames are beginning to ring a bell. The Ogle, Husky, Clabo/Clabaugh, King, Reagan, McMahan families are were and are prevalent in the area and I’m related in some way or the other.

Great-grandmother Iva had a sister, Mary “Polly” Ogle Creswell. It seems Great-Aunt Polly was the genealogist in the family and back in the 1940’s she put together a family history for…well, the family. She had done some research, and in those days it wasn’t as easy to do as it is now…and it can be hard now! But, now we have the internet and computers to aid our research. Great-Aunt Polly put her work together, mimeographed it, “self-published”, bound it in blue construction paper and shared it with the family.

In later years, my grandmother gave me her copy and a copy of a letter from a nephew from my grandfather’s family in Middle Tennessee and that planted the seeds for a growing interest in “who am I” “where did I come from”…and “where is that castle”? Of course I knew my Daddy’s people were mostly from East Tennessee…the Hicks, Walker, Dunn, Shields, and Henry families of Blount, Greene and Sevier Counties. Then, there was a smattering of Western North Carolina thrown in there with my grandmother’s Allman family.

So, years later down the yellow brick road of my life the two family memories collided, intertwined and became hobbies and really more…sometimes they became one. How? Well, for instance when on one of those rare instances I find or see a quilt an ancestor made. It’s one of those eureka moments! Like that Lone Star my Great-Grandmother Becky made or that scrappy quilt top I have my great-aunt made…those are priceless.

Did I ever find that castle? Well, kind of, sort of. It seems there was an Ogle “castle”. The Ogle family was originally from Northumberland, England which lies close to the border regions near Scotland. It appears the Ogle family had been in England since at least 1066. At some point the Ogle family was granted the right to fortify their land by the crown. Because of their loyalty to the king and their devotion and service to their country, the Ogle family produced seven lords and 30 knights. Additionally, Sir Robert Ogle (1380-1436) married Matilda “Maude” Grey who was the daughter of Sir Thomas Grey. Matilda was a descendant of King Edward I and a distant relative of Lady Jane Grey. It’s said that many of the US Ogle descendants in America are descendants of Sir Robert, Matilda and King Edward I.

I guess it just shows ya…you never know what or who you’ll find up in those East Tennessee mountains. I just love my yellow brick road…quilts and genealogy and castles…oh, my…

© 2008 Beverly Hicks Burch All Right Reserved.

Welcome to Around the Block with the Bamasteelmagnolia!

This is the place I hope to share two life long passions and loves…quilting and genealogy. Yes, the two do and can intertwine and quite often do.

I’m sure from time to time there will be some of my other “favorite” things that will sneek their way into Around the Block.

If You have anything creative and on topic you’d like to share, please feel free to stop by and share!

Bev…the Bamasteelmagnolia