Ontario Heritage Quilts

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Although there are several excellent books on quilts available,
Walker’s work fills a niche by concentrating on those produced in
Ontario, and by emphasizing the social context in which they were
produced and used. For her purposes, “heritage” refers to the period
from approximately 1830 to 1930; a few examples of modern quilts are
included to illustrate how a specific technique or style has evolved.

Color photos and text are given nearly equal weight and share the task
of presenting quilts both as craft and as folk art. The result is a
reference work that doubles as a coffee-table book.

For more than 100 of the several hundred quilts featured, there is a
photo that displays the quilt in an appropriate setting. These include
an enlisted man’s barracks, beautiful Victorian-style bedrooms, log
cabins, a car from the 1930s (when quilts were used as lap robes), day
beds, and a pioneer church. This attention to setting helps the reader
visualize the quilts in use and appreciate the cultural milieu in which
they were created. For at least another 100 quilts a glowing, full-color
photo is used to give a close-up of the quilt’s pattern or other
distinctive features.

Although the work assumes the reader is familiar with quilt
construction methods and neglects to define terms, the text is well
researched and informative. Walker discusses each quilt in terms of what
is known about the quilter’s life (e.g., social class, urban/rural
home) and technical information (e.g., fabric type, pattern,
construction method). In the process, the reader learns a lot about
traditional color combinations and patterns and about the role of
quilting in the lives of early Ontario women.

Mennonite quilts and summer quilts along with embroidered, appliquéd,
commemorative, paper-cut, and crazy quilts all receive special
attention. There are entire chapters devoted to patterns, including
traditional log cabin, honeycomb, double wedding ring, and Dresden
plate, and detailed instructions are given for creating the
Jacob’s-ladder, wreath-of-wild-roses, and friendship-circle patterns.
A section on the care, cleaning, storage, and display of quilts rounds
out a most comprehensive work.