Sue's News

Arizona Quilt Documentation Project – Tucson

By Sue Franklin

In May, Tucson team member, Judy Breneman, presented a Brief History of Bed Rugs and Wool Appliqué. She noted that in the 1700s and early 1800s rugs or “ruggs” were made not for floors, but to decorate household tables and other furniture, eventually beds.  In 1810, the Oxford English Dictionary defined a floor rug as “a little rug for your hearth stone.”

Rugs were made by varied methods.  Some consisted of wool yarn sewn unto a firm ground in a looping manner while others were made with closely embroidered stitches that gave dimension without the looped style.  Often, embroidery was added for further embellishment.  By the middle of the 19^th century, hooked rugs were popular in America.  Penny rugs also became fashionable at that time.  Details of this program are available on the AZQS web site www.azquiltstudygroup.org/.

Quilts documented included the following:  Sandy Woods Saguaro Harvest, a reproduction Goldie Tracy Richmond quilt.  This beauty was Sandy’s first needle turned quilt.  Peggy Hazard brought two quilts made by the second Guild President, Phyllis Kroggel.  Peggy now owns these lovely wall hangings.  One was a Pink Sampler and the other a Blue Sampler.  The final quilt belonged to Sue, Petite Dear Jane, a wall hanging.  She made this in the manner of the famous 1863 Jane Stickle quilt, but a much smaller version.

Anyone is welcome to visit our meetings!  We love guests.  For questions about either quilt documentation or joining the team, please either call or email Tucson liaisons Sue Franklin, (520.490.4721; suevette63@comcast.net) or Terry Gryzb-Wysocki, (520.749.9326; terry-gw@mindspring.com).  New team members are welcome. Monthly training sessions are held from 9:30 until 12:30 at the Ellie Towne Flowing Wells Community Center on Ruthrauff Road.  The next meeting is Monday, June 5^th.

Information about quilt documentation teams throughout Arizona may be obtained from Lynn Miller at either 480.202.1230 or azquiltdoc@yahoo.com.  Lynn also needs people familiar with the computer to aid her with data entry for the Quilt Index.  Lynn does distance training which takes about two hours.