New Britain herald., 1929-10-15

New York, Oct. 15-Modern decorative fabrics, imported from Europe. with their sharp angles and startling color contrasts, seem new and foreign until you consider the old patchwork quilt, which was the pioneer woman's contribution to art Then you realize she was ahead of Paris and Vienna, by more than a century.
 She went modernistic years ago, while her husband was clearing up the land, building log cabins, pros- pecting for gold in California and building railroads across the plains. And she wrote the epic the era that began with the Revolutionary War period and closed with the Spanish American War with her needle and thread.
 The patchwork quilt has received scant attention from authors until Ruth Finley came along with her "Old Patchwork Quilts and the Women Who Made Them" and un- covered a wealth in information, not only about this picturesque, American folk art, but of the life it. self in these days when it was as much of a social asset to be a good 1 quilter as it is today to play a good hand of bridge.
 Brides Quilt Elaborate 1 Contrasts in life are startling in | deed.
 For instance,' said Mrs. Finley, the dover chest of the old-time bride was supposed to contain at least bakers dozen of quilts. | Twelve of these were fashioned with a view to everyday use: the thir- teenth was a brides quilt "a piece de resistance so elaborate of design in both pattern and quilting that it was to all intents and purposes, q counterpane."
 "The brides quilt was planned and executed only after girl was engag- ed. The others, so far as piecing went, were the work of years in maidenhood And as top after top was finished, they were laid away to await quilting. There were several reasons for this latter custom, the most important being that the real cost of a quilt came only when the wadding and back had to be sup piled, This expenditure was point less until such time as a new home was about to be furnished.
 50 to invite guests 10 the quilt ing of a girls tops was equivalent to announcing her approaching mar riage. The modern engagement dinner can do no more"
 Mrs Finley herself comes from { line of New Englanders, who migrat- ed to Akron, Ohio, to settle on the Western Reserve. Her own collec. tion of patchwork is one of the fin est in the country.
 When, after her marriage, she moved east and found herself tn, mistress of a fine old Colonial home came interested in early American furnishings. After she had a house ful of those, she began to focus he collectors attention on quilts. Sh motored all over the east, and int the middle west, finding new pat terms.
 She needs only to look at a quil and tell where it came from, an, tell it's history.
 Quilts Are Varied
 Pennsylvania Dutch quilts ar easiest of all to identify" she saiG They are gaudy, bold and elabor ate, more often pieced than appli qued, and have superlative quilting
 Until the pioneer period, whc New Englnader, Southcrncr an Pennsylvanian met in the settlin of the west, quilts had characteris tics so local they could be classi fled geographically almost as eas fly as the Yankee twang, the south ern drawl, and the inverted sentenc formations of the Berks and Lar caster counties in Pennsylvania.
 New England quilts are noted fc their originality in pictorial pattern Exquisite needlework was done b the mistresses of great plantations the south. developed in pink an white only, and made of fine clotI the quintessence of refinement an taste.
 To-day the art of quilt making l. still widely practiced in the southel mountains, Blue Ridge, Ozark ar VI Cumberland, where life has remail / cd simple and the women unhurrie =, Good work is done, but it is not Il ', convent-like stitchery, delicate ,s lace, that is the hall mark of u
 time southern quilt