Free Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them by Marie D. Webster, Rosalind W. Perry

Lincoln,” gives a graphic picture of the labours and trials confronting those who made the first settlements in what are now the flourishing states of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, and Michigan.
    As in the colonies of New England, so here, the comforts of the family depended upon the thrift, energy, and thoughtfulness of the women. Practically every article of clothing worn by the entire family, as well as all household supplies, were the work of their busy hands. All day in the frontier cabin could be heard the hum of the spinning wheel, the clack of the loom, or the click of knitting needles. In many localities the added work of teaching the children fell to the mothers, and the home lessons given around the fireplace, heaped with glowing logs, were the only ones possible for many boys and girls. It is of particular interest to note how often learning and housekeeping went hand in hand in the first homes of this new country. The few lines following are extracts from the diary of a busy Indiana housewife of the period preceding the Mexican War, and show how fully occupied was the time of the pioneer woman:
    “November 10th. To-day was cider-making day, and all were up at sunrise.”
    “December 1st. We killed a beef to-day, the neighbours helping.”
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    CONVENTIONAL ROSE
    A very striking pattern, made in Indiana about 75 years ago. Colours: red, pink, and green
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    CONVENTIONAL ROSE WREATH
    This “Wreath of Roses” design has been in use for over 100 years. Colours: red, green, pink, and yellow
    “December 4th. I was much engaged in tryingout my tallow. To-day I dipped candles and finished the ‘Vicar of Wakefield.’”
    “December 8th. To-day I commenced to read the ‘Life of Washington,’ and I borrowed a singing book. Have been trying to make a bonnet. The cotton we raised served a very good purpose for candle-wicking when spun.”
    In the Middle West, without friendly coöperation, the lot of the pioneer would have been much more difficult than it was. Julia Henderson Levering tells of the prevalence of this kindly custom in her interesting “Historic Indiana”: “The social pleasures of the earliest days were largely connected with the helpful neighbourhood assistance in the homely, necessary tasks of the frontier. If a new cabin was to be built, the neighbours assembled for the house raising, for the logs were too heavy to be handled alone. When a clearing was made, the log rolling followed. All men for miles around came to help, and the women to help cook and serve the bountiful meals. Then there were corn huskings, wool shearings, apple parings, sugar boilings, and quilting bees.”
    About 1820 a new channel of commerce was opened to the inhabitants of the Ohio Valley, inthe advantages of which every household shared. This was the establishing of steamboat and flatboat communication with New Orleans. From out of the Wabash River alone over a thousand flatboats, laden with agricultural products, passed into the Ohio during the annual spring rise on their way to the seaport by the Gulf of Mexico. On their return voyage these boats were laden with sacks of coffee, quaint Chinese boxes of tea, china and silk from France, and mahogany and silver from England. In this manner the finest fabrics, which were hitherto obtainable only in those cities that possessed sea communication, were available in every river hamlet. Many of the fine old quilts now being brought to light in the Central West were wrought of foreign cloth which has made this long journey in some farmer’s scow.
    In England during the middle of the past century, the Victorian period was known chiefly for its hideous array of cardboard mottoes done in brilliant wools, crochet tidies, and wax flowers. It is particularly fortunate that at this time the women of the United States were too fully occupied with their own household arts and industries to take up with the ideas of their English sisters.By far the best