- If you collected quilts for 20 years, what would you have and where would you put them?

After all, there are only so many beds in one house.

Meet Mary Barton and discover her extensive collection, which is now housed at the State Historical Society of Iowa in Des Moines.

♪ Could you imagine a more clever object ♪ ♪ Warms of body, ignites the mind ♪ ♪ A child sleeps under mother's creation ♪ ♪ Together forever ♪ ♪ The art of the heart and design of the mind ♪ ♪ Puts you to bed one day at a time ♪ ♪ The art of the heart and design of the mind ♪ - [Announcer] "Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel" is made possible in part by grants from Omnigrid, the original patented black and yellow ruler, by Leisure Arts, publisher and distributor of Needlework and Craft Publications, including an assortment of quilt books and related products.

Additional funding by Fairfield Processing, maker of poly-fil brand products for the home, sewing, quilt and craft industries, and by Bernina, delivering sewing technology and education to sewers worldwide wide.

- Our theme today is history, everything from cloth of long ago to quilt patterns, to study panels which have found a new home.

We are indebted to Mary Barton, who has generously given her 20 year quilt collection to this museum.

Now meet Mary and then we will do some stitching.

We would like to hear about your love affair with quilts and how you got started in collecting quilts.

- My family made quilts, my great-grandmothers made quilts and grandmothers made quilts for me, and I had some given to me after my grandmother died.

- [Georgia] What got you started collecting quilts here in Iowa?

- Oh, we went to an auction and there was a quilt for sale.

I had never bought any and they wanted $3 for it, and I bought that and I bought a box of fabrics, mostly indigo blues and somebody said, "I bought a lot of work," and I did.

- [Georgia] Well, now you're holding a precious block.

Mary, that's what really got you started.

- About that time that we had started going to auctions, I seemed to be collecting and I know I truly was when I saw my mother kneeling on this quilt fragment while she was weeding in the garden and I asked her for it.

- [Georgia] You felt like you were rescuing it, right?

- I did, I really did.

- [Georgia] Why were people selling their things?

I mean, was it just they had an accumulation and wanted to, were going on to something else or?

- Well, lots of them started selling them when they realized they could get some money for them.

- Ah.

- When we first started going to auctions, the auctioneer didn't think they were worth anything, he just considered them rags.

- Hm-mm.

- But when he saw us come to auctions through the years, then he would look to us right away and very often we would get a quilt that way.

But sometimes people did bring quilts to me.

- [Georgia] Well, I think just by looking at the exhibit today, we recognize the value of what women can do with their hands and how the patterns have been passed on through the years.

And I like to look through your books and see how you recognize the origin of tiles and all sorts of mosaics, the crossover between that and what we see in cloth cut up geometrically.

I found that very- - It's fascinating.

- Fascinating.

- Right.

- [Georgia] Well, I think it would be interesting for us to walk around together and look at some of the quilts and perhaps you have some comments about the color or the fabric.

So let's take a few minutes to do that.

- All right.

- Mary, what a pleasure to talk with you about these particular quilts that were chosen for their beauty and also to illustrate changes in patterns, fabrics, and technology over time.

Now, this first star quilt, you actually remember when you bought.

- Right, I did.

I had a nurse come to my home with it.

A patient needed money for her medicine and so I bought the quilt.

- Tell me about it.

- [Mary] It has some of the most elegant fabrics that I think must have come from other countries.

- And this star quilt?

- And the star quilt is a wonderful design.

The dark points on it and the white centers add so much.

- [Georgia] Oh, and tell us about this next one, not only its name, but how you refer to it.

- Well, its name is coffin patch but I call it one patch color control.

This cox comb is a counter pane, it's hemmed, never quilted, but the most unusual part is the quilt, the applique stitch.

Can you see from here what that is?

- Is it a cross stitch?

- No, it's not a cross stitch, it's more like a feather.

- Oh my, it certainly is.

- A feather stitch.

- [Georgia] Beautiful, were the raw edged... - And you see there's no, the [indistinct] are covered with that stitch.

- I see.

- So they aren't turned under.

- And perhaps because it's hemmed, it was intended to be just a spread.

- Just a spread.

- Tell us about this wonderful quilt called Hit and miss Quilt Top.

- [Mary] Well, it's probably made of samples of fabric that women agents had for selling.

I have found ads in the old magazines where they could send for these pieces.

- [Georgia] It's so simple, but has such a strong graphic appeal, doesn't it?

- Well, this quilt was made by an ancestor of a neighbor of mine, and this girl was an apprentice of mine one year.

But it has a kind of plate design to it.

And I call it a plate because there was a pattern years ago that was called a dinner plate or a Dutch plate, and I wouldn't call it a sunflower, the Oklahoma or Kansas sunflower, because the fabrics are earlier than the birth of those states.

- Garments are a part of this collection too.

Mary, elaborate a little bit on this display.

- Well, I do feel that cotton garments are important to save because that's what was used mostly for quilts is cotton, and my grandfather's [indistinct] dress is up in that corner and it doesn't feel like a real cotton, it feels like a mixture.

But this indigo blue was very important for women because it could be washed and washed and still would stay blue.

And this wrapper, evidently the woman might have done her washing when she wore that because the front of it is so faded.

And this petticoat, quilted petticoat would be very warm if you were riding in a buggy.

And if you were going to market, this blue dress would be perfect.

- Very stylish.

- Very stylish.

I call these learning tools.

I would buy quilt blocks and put them on the muslin because I felt like that way they would be preserved by whoever had them eventually.

This airplane one is a real interesting one, and the block right above that is actually an airplane print.

- Oh.

- But sometimes I would take a top apart.

And this piece was very interesting to see all the shades of color that the woman had used, and that was very typical of a certain era in the 19th century.

- So they really have become study panels.

- They really are for learning, right.

- [Georgia] The favorite quilt of the entire show was Mary Barton's own Pioneer Quilt.

- Well, it took seven years to make it, and I just kind of dreamed as I went along.

I got the first part God and country, then I designed to my woman and I put the cabins between pine tree blocks because they were supposed to be in the clearing.

And all of those fabrics are old except one tiny little piece and that was a piece of a dress that I had when I was in grade school.

- [Georgia] This collection is in the good hands of Michael Smith, Chief Curator, and Jody Evans, Registrar for the museum.

Tell us exactly what you do, Jody.

- My job as registrar is to know what everything is, where it came from and where it is right now.

I also have control over the legal questions about the items in the collection, and I also create and maintain the information about those objects.

- [Georgia] So you've been a busy lady with all of this?

- Yes.

- [Georgia] Well, I know you're both excited about the collection, and Michael, you put the exhibit together upstairs.

What sort of feedback did you get and have you heard from quilters?

- Well, we've heard from a number of quilters and the primary comment we get is, "We wanna see more about this."

- [Georgia] Well, how are you to plan on do that?

What's in the future for this collection?

- Well, I think we have two basic phases we want to go through, I think Jody can speak to the first phase, and our overall vision for this collection is to combine the Mary Barton Quilt Research Collection with other resources that the state historical society has to create eventually a regional quilt study area for the Midwest.

- Oh, wonderful goal.

And soon what's gonna happen, Jody?

- Since February of 1992, the Des Moines area Quilters Guild has been donating their time to catalog the collection, and they will be done by the end of 1993.

That information will be entered into a computer database, and then we will start trying to get money to photograph each quilt in the collection, and that way we can make sort of a catalog of the collection and make it available.

- Once quilters get a chance to view the exhibit and with the goodness of their hearts and their pocketbooks, I know that we're going to see a lot more of the Mary Barton collection and you're gonna reach these financial goals to make it possible, and we thank you so much for sharing your time with us today.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Since we have traveled to Des Moines, a generous donation has been made by the Meredith Corporation and three of their magazines.

The funds will allow the society to improve conservation methods and especially to photograph the 67 quilts and the tops.

We wish them good luck.

As always, contact the museum for the current exhibits on display or for an appointment to see the Barton Collection specifically.

Now our featured quilts today have a floral theme, one piece and the other applique.

Diamond flowers is based on a 60 degree diamond and is what we call a continuing pattern to piece, not isolated blocks, but run on shapes that fit into each other.

This eye-catching geometric floral design made by Martine House from Columbus, North Carolina is composed of just two diamond units.

The dark background makes the solids just sparkle.

The original inspiration for this design came from a little logo pin of the Blue Bonnet Quilt Guild from Texas.

We have isolated one area of the quilt with tape to give you a better idea of how it was pieced, I'm gonna concentrate on the three diamond units.

The first one is a diamond flower, then a bright accent diamond, and then just one large diamond itself.

Now, when I first made this design just on grid grip to play with it to begin with, I realized very soon that it was based on a log cabin style.

Instead of starting with the normal square and log cabin where you add the concentric rectangles all the way around, this time, it was going to need a 60 degree diamond to begin with.

So I didn't need to use templates anymore because it's so easy just to go ahead and cut out strips.

In order to start with our diamond flower and create this particular unit one side, we're going to cut two strips and if they're going to be sewn together, why not cut them out together, a light and just the other side of your bud to begin with, a quarter inch seam on one side.

And when you've gotten that sewn, go ahead and press the seam to the one side and then relying on your 60 degree angle, I would come up to the raw edge and go ahead and cut that angle off.

Once you have that 60 degree angle, you can just keep cutting the successive units and that same measurement is used, two and an eighth each time, you just keep cutting.

And once you cut those, you'll have many units of those.

Once those are all cut, you then can line those up right underneath this particular two in an eighth band and sew that together.

And when you've sewn those and see how you can butt that right up next to each other, I like to press that all the way back.

And once again, you're relying on that same 60 degree angle.

Look how that comes and lines up right here.

And then I'm simply going to cut off and come down here and find your 60 degree again and cut off and look what we've got.

It's this particular unit that then starts by adding another darker lavender to one side.

This time, you're cutting an inch and a quarter long strips that are added on each time use your 60 degree angle.

Then you go to another one.

That brings us up to the stem portion, which includes a light sky background.

In order to piece this on, I would cut the sky three and a quarter inches wide and a long crosswise piece.

You're going to machine stitch to that a one inch stem piece.

Now, because we have mirror images, what I do is fold the two inside or wrong sides of the fabric together, and then I'm going to cut 'em out at the same time.

I'm going to rely on that 30 degree angle right on the raw edge and cut once and then come up every two inches.

That creates these wonderful background edges.

They are going to be sewn and flipped back and sewn and flipped back.

And then the final seam on each side, first on the left side, and you can always tell where that one goes the first time, and then this is the last one will be an inch and a half.

And that completes your bud or the the diamond flower portion.

Then we have the bright accent and it relies on the same dimension.

That would be two and an eighth to begin with opening up and doing that same, once you've made your initial 60 degree diamond cut, turn this and you're gonna be cutting two in an eighth again, and this time you're gonna be adding one solid dart to make that nice bud, and then we're gonna go back to a little larger diamond and that is cut three and three quarters crosswise material, and then I'll be coming.

And once that's been established, that 60 degree angle, I can come and do my three and three quarters again, and that is the diamond that will be connecting those.

You'll need two on each side of this.

Now the last diamond, it's getting bigger now, is seven inches wide, and this particular measurement is eight in an eighth.

Oh, we can go to our calculator to remember that.

Remember how good we got at 8.125.

That is from this obtuse angle to our acute angle, we're going to be cutting off each time.

And let me give you a hint, sometimes when I get a nice one cut, I'll just use that as a pattern to cut successive diamonds all the way across.

I hope you'll enjoy and try your hand at the diamond flower quilt.

And now we're gonna go to fan flower.

Fan wedges, maybe the grandmother's fan kind, take on a new life as a repeated pastel flower amid flowing gentle leaves.

Machine stitching completes the applique and quilting with all sorts of wonderful shortcuts on this quilt.

Dress up your special bedroom scene with this lovely design.

When I made this quilt, I decided to do it in sections.

So there are 12 blocks that make up this entire quilt.

Now the two center ones are square, they're 21 inches, but the perimeter blocks, especially the corners are larger.

The reason for that is that there is a 10 inch border and I decided to simply include that in the measurement.

So you have four larger corners, and then the perimeter blocks are rectangles.

And so I went ahead and did all of my applique work here on the machine and added the outside border and that sets in the quilt.

I did use a cotton batting, which adapts so nicely for machine quilting.

I'd like to point out that the machine quilting was done in a somewhat of a unique style in that as always, I started in the center and worked out, but this time used some of my novelty stitches on the sewing machine.

I had my walking foot on, and it gave me the opportunity to use variegated thread going from light to blue.

Notice that I even used some butterflies.

And when I did that, I dropped the feed dogs and put my blocks, my sections in the hoop, and of course made these out of some plastic.

And once I have those down, I was able to just lightly go around with a chalk wheel, and I like that because as I'm quilting, it sort of wears off.

I'd like to share some secrets with you in making this quilt.

It takes a minimal amount of templates.

As you can see, there's a large leaf, and that large leaf is cut out in duplicate with the two wrong sides together because they are mere images.

You even cut out that center little slice of the leaf, and that is used again in the border.

There is a stem down the center, and then there's a small leaf, there are four of those in each block, and I cut out some extra of those in pastel to go on the border.

We have a fan wedge, six of those for each wedge, and then there's a little accent, little flower doobie we call that, that goes right underneath the the opening.

One thing that makes this particular quilt unique, especially in this area, is that I used all raw edges.

Now a little tip there is to spray the fabric with spray sizing.

It gives you some extra body in that before you would go ahead and cut out the templates and add stability when you do the machine work.

I also found it very nice to make an open window template that you can just press on very lightly on each of the foundation pieces that will aid you in placing and knowing that you have everything placed in just the right manner.

I think to further understand how this is done, we need to go to the sewing machine for more tips.

Here are some segments in progress.

As for the fan, go ahead and stitch units in twos, and once they are put together, I would make sure to always stop at the quarter inch, both the top and the bottom, which allows those raw edges to be turned under.

Quite often you can go ahead in this case and press those seams open.

As for the large leaf, I used the grid grip because it stabilizes those edges to use the scissors then to cut around the the odd angles.

Use your rotary cutter and a ruler, and remember, you can go ahead and just slide the rotary cutter and the ruler together, which will free up that center unit that's gonna go on the border.

As for the sequence of putting these pieces on your foundation, I would start with the large leaf first, then your stem goes on top, and then I would place the fans in each on this side, and then the opposite side, because that will tell you where your little pastel doobie goes and then you'll have the amount of fabric on either side of the small leaf.

Once that's in place, you can start your stitching.

Now I'd like to point out that I used two different kind of buttonhole stitches for that application, and I've done it in dark here, so you can see it very nicely.

One, for the fan itself, I used your traditional buttonhole, you could use a zigzag.

Then I reversed the the position of that so that I create what is known as a mock embroidery purse.

And I'm just sewing that right now so you can follow what I'm doing.

When you get to the corner, make certain that you always end on the outside for your obtuse angles.

And then I'm turning, and when I get to that inside angle, I'm going to then try and end on the fabric or on the the calico, so that I turn.

And the important thing is to do it uniform every time you do it.

I hope you enjoy fan flowers.

We end our show today with a wall hanging that will go all the way back to the State of Iowa.

It's covered bridges.

I made it for the Honeybee Quilters of Madison County and the Art Center Monday Quilters.

It will go in a Dutch auction to help preserve the bridges with needle and thread.

Speaking of needle and thread, that's what I need to baste it.

I like to use a nice long basting needle.

And this time, a thin basting thread, it breaks very easily, and once you're all quilted, you can remove it very quickly.

This time, I've threaded my needle with a long, long thread so that I will simply start in the middle without a knot and only pull the thread in halfway.

And I will continue basting.

And once I start and come to the end and turn and run outta thread, then I'll simply go back and rethread that unknotted end.

It saves putting so many knots in and allows me to stabilize this before I decide on how I'm gonna quilt it.

We look forward to seeing you next week.

Our show is called "All Tied Up," so sneak in and get some of those ties, we're gonna make quilts outta ties.

See you then.

♪ Once of body ignites the mind ♪ ♪ The art of the heart and design of the mind ♪ ♪ Puts you then one day at a time ♪ ♪ The heart of the mind of design of the mind ♪ - [Announcer] "Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel" is made possible in part by grants from Omnigrid, the original patented black and yellow ruler, by Leisure Arts, publisher and distributor of Needlework and Craft Publications, including an assortment of quilt books and related products.

Additional funding by Fairfield Processing, maker of poly-fil brand products for the home, sewing, quilt and craft industries, and by Bernina, delivering sewing technology and education to sewers worldwide wide.