Tag: craftsmanship

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A Love of Learning

Busy Hands

(Courtesy of GIna Prosch)

During the past two years, I’ve handstitched three thousand little bits of fabric together into what has become a king-sized whole which I’m now hand quilting.

My mom thinks I’m crazy.

Friends have volunteered to buy me a sewing machine.

For me, the fun of the process is the handwork. The soft feel of the material, the rocking of the needle, and the low whooshing sound as thread pulls through layers of fabric.

In a world where complex systems are valued and hectic zeal is prized, hand quilting’s simple methodology has a powerful pull. The progress I make each time I hand quilt reinforces steady, even-paced productivity. Creating beautiful patterns fulfills my need to be creative. The rhythm of nice, regular stitching quiets my mind.

Quilting by hand is like slipping back in time, a way of connecting with the people who developed and practiced this enduring, traditional craft generations ago.

A Traditional Craft

Though quilting might date back as far as the ancient Egyptians, one of the world’s oldest surviving quilts, the Tristan Quilt, was made in Sicily during the 13th century. This roughly corresponds to the first time the word “quilt” appeared in Middle English.

By the late 1500s, the English word “quilt” (noun) referred to three distinct layers—two pieces of fabric with a softer batting in between, and the word “quilt” (verb) referred to the activity of stitching those three layers together using a needle and thread. Late 1700s lexicons first saw the phrase “quilting bee,” to mean a gathering where women worked together to jump-start or complete a large project.

Historical quilts are such an integral part of a culture’s history, there are museums dedicated to their preservation, including the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska, and a large section of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

(Courtesy of GIna Prosch)

A Stitch in Time

Gathering together in groups is a hallmark of the quilting tradition. Quilt tops bring together fabrics with different colors and designs to create beautiful overall patterns, and the activity of quilting itself brings people together, too.

Author, quilter, and appliqué artist Barbara Burnham recalls getting her start sewing by hand when she was 6 years old, embroidering penny squares with her grandmother. After seeing a friend’s “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” quilt, she was inspired to take her first quilting class. She has since developed her skills to the extent that she teaches quilting and appliqué classes while also designing patterns. Burnham’s popular book “Baltimore Garden Quilt” delves into the history, development, and application of the popular and intricate 1840s pattern—a bucket list project for many hand quilters.

My own quilting story begins in much the same way as Burnham’s. As a child, I played with toys on the floor while my grandmothers and their friends gathered for their weekly quilting bee. Gradually, I moved up in the world (literally, from the floor to a chair!), and my grandmothers taught me how to hold a needle, do cross-stitch embroidery, and quilt. Every time I quilt, I feel a connection with them.

A PhD in Quilting

Quilters always seem to have more projects than there is time to make them. They joke about having multiple PhDs in quilting (Projects half Done) and UFOs (UnFinished Objects) hiding in their closets. Sometimes those PhDs and UFOs are tangible connections to the past.

When quilters see unfinished quilt tops and blocks at estate sales and antique shops, they often rescue them in order to complete some long ago quilter’s dream. Finishing what someone else started is simply another part of the quilting tradition.

Jeanmarie Nielsen, a quilter from Oklahoma, finished a quilt started at her grandmother’s bridal shower in the 1920s. All the guests signed muslin squares of fabric, and her grandmother traced the names with outline stitch embroidery and set the squares with sashing … and put it in a trunk. When the quilt top finally saw the light of day, Jeanmarie hand quilted it, bound it with prairie points, and gifted it to her grandmother.

My favorite quilt is a five-generation quilt I inherited from my maternal grandmother. Looking at the underside of the quilt top, the hands of time were visible, and I saw my family’s history stitched together in nine-patch blocks. My grandmother pieced the top together using a modern machine stitch. The nine-patch blocks pieced by machine were my great-grandmother’s. But the majority of the nine-patches were hand-pieced by my great-great-grandmother. My mom sewed the backing fabric together before I hand quilted it. It literally took five women and almost 150 years to finish this quilt.

Unplug … Literally!

Today, while quilters may have an arsenal of fancy, computerized tools at their disposal, for the majority of its history, quilting required no electricity or complicated tools.

Barbara Burnham says, “The ability to create beautiful, soft, and comforting things that are useful is very rewarding. You don’t need a machine, and you can sew anywhere with very simple tools.” Hand piecing and hand appliqué are easily portable and require nothing more than needles, thread, and scissors. (Quick tip: A pizza roller works great to press seams!)

(Courtesy of GIna Prosch)

Even the fabric used in quilting is simple 100 percent cotton. Because material was (and still is) expensive, traditional quilts were often made from scraps salvaged after making clothing.

Scraps of fabric too small to make anything else are still large enough to be quilt pieces.

Jeanmarie Nielsen recalls making her first quilt when she and her husband were cash-strapped newlyweds. A close friend was expecting a baby, and she wanted to give them a special gift. “I had a box of fabric scraps and cast-off clothing. Made from a dress, a top, a man’s shirt, the quilt was simple squares, set in a symmetrical pattern, determined by how many squares I was able to cut. I hand quilted it in my lap.”

Love in the Stitches

Today’s hand quilters are part of a long line of quilters stretching back through the ages.

And in fact, part of the draw is simplicity and connection with the past. Ann Kolpin has spent many Minnesota winters doing handwork. She says: “Hand appliqué has given me the ability to choose a specific technique for a given project. I’ve done the same with hand quilting. My desire was to create quilts in the same manner as our ancestors did years ago. Doing things by hand makes projects quite portable, and there’s no need for a sewing machine or electricity. I’m in no rush to complete a quilt. For me … it’s the joy of the process.”

The next time you see a quilt made by hand, whether it’s something new, maybe gifted to you, or something vintage found in an antique shop, take a moment to appreciate the long tradition of hand quilting and the love that went into every stitch.

Gina Prosch is a writer, home educator, life coach, and parent located in mid-Missouri. She is the author of “This Day’s Joy” and “Finding This Day’s Joy,” both of which are available at Amazon. Find her online at GinaProsch.com or TheHomeschoolWay.com. She also co-hosts The OnlySchoolers Podcast (OnlySchoolers.com). 

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Features

Iconic Posters for America’s Greats

Press site Hatch Print Shop general hanging posters. (Photo by CK Photo/Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)

Nashville being synonymous with country music, it’s no surprise that locals and tourists alike are unabashed in proclaiming their love for this genre. While most are familiar with the downtown live music scene, where many country music legends of yesteryear (and today) jump-started their careers by singing in bars and music clubs, fewer know about the print shop that catapulted musicians to fame through poster advertisements. From Elvis Presley to Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton, “Hatch Show Print” shop has produced iconic concert tour posters for America’s most beloved music stars.

Today, the shop still designs all its posters by hand (no computers involved) with the same wood types that have been used for decades, giving the posters a vintage look. The shop designs and prints posters, not only for today’s biggest stars, but also for major events, such as a 2020 presidential debate that took place at Belmont University in Nashville.

Hatch Show Print still uses the same presses and letter blocks that existed back when the shop first opened in the late 1800s. (Photo by Donn Jones/Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)

Hatch Show Print was established in 1879 by Charles and Herbert Hatch, who grew up learning the craft of letterpress printing—the earliest form of printing, done by pressing carved wood and metal letters, called type, onto paper with ink—from their father, William. The shop’s first job was to print handbills for a lecture series by minister Henry Ward Beecher, brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the 19th century abolitionist.

Over time, the shop became known for its simple yet sharp designs, and soon, many wanted to use Hatch Show Print’s posters to get their messages out. In the 1920s, with the advent of radio, music stars were born; and for the first time, Hatch began printing photos of popular names on tour date announcement posters. It was innovative at the time.

Such a poster was designed to promote Elvis’s first concert. As Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium became a pivotal performance space for country music singers—earning it the nickname “Carnegie Hall of the South”—the shop began printing posters for its musical acts. Eventually, Hatch Show Print became the go-to printer for entertainers touring in the South.

Today, Hatch Show Print is the second oldest print shop still operating in the United States. Presses from the same era as when the shop first opened are still in use, dating back to the late 1800s. The machines previously ran on steam power, but now they are connected to electricity. The shop no longer adds new letter blocks to its collection: all are stored in the shop’s shelves and type cabinets. And the shop’s printers, who are also its designers, insist on mixing their own inks in-house.

Custom wood or linoleum block carvings can also be created for the shop’s clients. One poster featuring TV journalist Anderson Cooper, which even depicted the lines of his nicely coiffed hair, took the carver just two-and-a half hours to complete.

Hatch likes to hold on to its history. During a recent tour of the shop—which is now located on an historic property within the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum—the guide pointed to an old wood block depicting Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover, who ran against each other during the presidential election of 1932. The block had broken in half, but the shop still kept it, for memory’s sake.

(Courtesy of Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp)
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Features

Silver Dollar City: Home of American Craftsmanship

Antique clocks harken back to the late 1800s—the time period that the Silver Dollar City festival is set in. (Laken Copeland)

With momentum building, the first curve sends passengers spinning front-to-back, disorienting any sense of direction and offering no mercy, before plunging straight down into the abyss. A diving loop, followed by a zero-gravity roll, both at hurling speed, challenges dimension awareness, as the backdrop of trees and sky blends into one big blur. Then, after twisting, turning, inverting, and dropping, it’s over. The roller coaster, designed to simulate an experience of traveling forward and backward through time and space, finally halts.

The $26 million record-breaking roller coaster, appropriately named Time Traveler, is an adventure, spanning time in more ways than one. A modern-day engineering marvel aimed at the current generation of thrill-seekers, the time-machine coaster ironically sits in the middle of a late 1800s-styled theme park.

The History

It’s known as Silver Dollar City, a name stemming from the practice of making change with actual silver dollar coins back when the park opened in 1960. In truth, however, Silver Dollar City’s conception began well before opening day.

As far back as the 1800s, explorers were intrigued by a huge cave located at what is now the park’s entrance. By the 1940s, it was known as Marvel Cave, and adventurous tourists waited in line to be lowered by bucket into the depths below—a slow process requiring many to wait their turn. The young couple who founded the park, Hugo and Mary Herschend, brought in craftsmen to exchange their goods and trades and entertain the crowds.

(Laken Copeland)

Today, the unassuming yet nationally known theme park no longer hands out silver dollars, and although the cave still remains, world-class adventure rides are what thrill seekers wait in line for. However, Silver Dollar City is also known as the Home of American Craftsmanship, a title officially given by U.S. Congress in 2010, and it’s the craftsmen who are front and center.

“Adhering to our roots while still looking at tomorrow’s generation—that’s what keeps us relevant,” stated Silver Dollar City’s Publicity Director Lisa Rau.

That strategy is how Silver Dollar City manages to perfectly unite old with new, past with present, and more importantly, parents with kids, and grandparents with grandkids. They are in the business of connecting generations.

Preserved like the Ozark Mountains, the park celebrates an era and creates a culture reminiscent of days gone by: when families completely depended on each other, and communities depended on families.

The Heritage

Heritage crafts, trades, and arts—characteristic of America’s history, and passed down from one generation to the next—are slowly disappearing behind a world of mass production and technology. Silver Dollar City invites guests to rediscover the former days, highlighting everything from blowing glass through a pipe extending deep into a 2,000-degree furnace, to hewing logs and hand-crafting furniture in an 1800s-style workshop powered completely by a series of pulleys, belts, and gears.

Entering through the gates is like stepping into a movie set dating back a century or more. The 110-acre park nestled within the woods weaves guests through old-time storefronts with cleverly created signs, sights, and sideshows. Woven into the rustic landscape are themed roller coasters, thrilling water rides, eateries, and one-of-a-kind shops—all brilliantly blended together like chapters in a good book.

Right away, you’ll notice that Silver Dollar City is not flat. From the top entrance where one might catch a bluegrass band or fiddler, the path immediately heads down, winding past a log-hewer, a blacksmith shop, a candy shop, and a working water mill used to grind wheat for fresh homemade bread and cinnamon rolls. In fact, most of the park’s food is made from scratch, prepared by hand, and might even be traced back to a grandmother’s kitchen.

Step inside Hazel’s Blown Glass Shop and walk through to the backside, where every day, second-generation glassblowers like Shawn Watt and Tim Aldridge invite you into their workshop. The large, spacious setting, with two glowing furnaces, offers visitors an up-close look at the glass-blowing trade in real time. While blowing a glob of glass into a magnificent vase or bowl, the duo work together like a tag team of true craftsmen, moving effortlessly through the process, all the while entertaining fascinated onlookers with an explanation of every step. Their beautiful works of art today were essential products of their era. Jars for canning, bottles for medicines, even windows for entire houses—each were once produced from glass-blowers and their trade.

Tim Aldridge is a second-generation glassblower who loves explaining the process
of glassblowing to Silver Dollar City attendees who visit the workshop. (Laken Copeland)

Around the corner, visitors will meet Jeff Walker, a master craftsman in the skill of pottery. With literally a lifetime of experience, Walker is nationally recognized for his talent. An impressive pottery shop highlights his work, but guests can come in throughout the day and catch him on the wheel himself, shaping up something new, and offering some fascinating facts about creating a colorful glaze or mixing the perfect recipe of natural compounds. Walker is passionate about passing down his trade, which is partially art today but yesterday was utilitarian.

Jeff Walker, a nationally-recognized talent, is at the wheel. (Courtesy of Silver Dollar City)

Dennis Smith is a knifemaker. His skill in blacksmithing led him to begin forging knives out of old railroad spikes. The learning curve led him to handcraft steel-layered Damascus knives, many of which are collector’s items. He prides himself in his work, determined to do the best job he can with every knife created, whether novelty or specialty. In his small shop showcasing beautiful knives, every piece reflects meticulous hand-garnered detail: a statement of quality in both craftsmanship and character.

The Entertainment

Watt, Aldridge, Walker, and Smith are just four of the more than 100 master craftsmen in the Silver Dollar City artisan family. With the annual October Fall Harvest Festival, however, the grounds are packed with even more award-winning craftsmen, legendary cowboys, and talented artists with nationally recognized work.

Commenting on the uniqueness of bringing all of these artisans into one setting, events manager Kelly Eutsler stated, “Many art fairs highlight the finished products, but our festival is long-known for showing how the crafts are actually created.”

The concept reaches beyond simple education or entertainment. History comes to life in watching how something is made. The demonstration of an art or craft reminds us of our heritage, and although the trade might be lost to time and manufacturing, the values inherent in that era remain timeless.

Those timeless virtues of morality, integrity, and hard work are rooted deep into the framework of old-school America. Catching a glimpse of those days fascinates onlookers and reawakens an appreciation for what they represent.

As knife maker Dennis Smith explained, “I think it is a form of nostalgia—maybe not for an exact time or era, but just for a time when things were simpler, things were handmade, when nobody had ever heard of planned obsolescence, and when many of your possessions would be passed down to your survivors.”

Passing things down from previous generations is Silver Dollar City’s story, but not without the excitement of some modern-day thrills. Loops, drops, twists, and turns can be experienced onboard one of the park’s breathless roller coasters like Wildfire, Outlaw Run, or Time Traveler, and whitewater rides like American Plunge or Mystic River Falls are not to be missed.

(Courtesy of Silver Dollar City)

Although it might be unusual for an 1800s-style park to carry some high-flying roller coasters and fast-moving water rides, long-time employee and food-and-beverage director Sam Hedrick stated, “When you come to Silver Dollar City, you need to put all other preconceived ideas about amusement parks behind you.”

The festival also serves up delicious fare like barbecue and succotash skillets. (Courtesy of Silver Dollar City)

As you make plans for your next destination, consider hopping on the equivalent of a time machine, winding and rolling through the Ozark Mountains to arrive at Silver Dollar City and the 1800s. It’s a place where experiences and live demonstrations are real, not virtual; where culture and character are fostered and developed; and where individuals, friends, and families can make a memory worth repeating—so much worth repeating, they probably will.

Kelly lives in the Ozarks, enjoying nature’s playground of lakes, rivers, trees, and trails. Camper, hiker, kayaker, and cycler, she loves spending time in God’s outdoor creation, and when inside, can be found teaching couples to dance.