St. Andrews United Church Quilt

One of the quilts featured in our exhibition; Common Threads: Stories from the OCM Quilt Collection, is the St. Andrews United Church Quilt.  Recently our curator, Melissa Cole received this lovely poem that goes along with this quilt.

This poem was written by Betty Warnica (nee Moore) who was Christened and married at St. Andrews United Church in Oshawa.

From the Oshawa Community Museum Quilt Collection, 997.2.1

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever;
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness.”
– John Keats

 

So it is with this signature quilt
Lovingly stitched in 1983 by
dedicated Christian hands,
Honouring the sesqui-centennial of
St. Andrew’s United Church,
71 Simcoe St. S. Oshawa, Ontario.
Here is the flag of St. Andrew
The white cross bearing the names
of clergy having served the church
Since its doors were opened to the community
one hundred and fifty years earlier.
The blue background bears the names
Of many members of the congregation
during the years 1833-1983
With the closing of St. Andrew’s
Possibly the oldest church in Oshawa,
In December of 1996, this small piece
of its life was given to the care
of the Oshawa Historical Society.

Quilting Stories: An Epilogue

With our newest exhibition, Common Threads: Stories from our Quilt Collection, opening soon, we thought it would be timely to follow up with one last quilting blog post.  One challenge with digitizing and cataloging the quilts was identifying the patterns.  The repeating patterns on our quilts are beautiful, and every square is unique; however, each one has an underlying pattern, some common with quilts, while some were more unique.

While digitizing the quilt collection, we kept our own reference to the different patterns which appeared in our quilts, and we thought we would share them here.

To see more quilts, and to learn the stories behind them, be sure to visit the Oshawa Museum and take in our newest exhibit, Common Threads: Stories from our Quilt Collection, opening in June.

Blazing Star Pattern

‘Broken Dish’ (Variation) / ‘Hourglass’

Carolina Lily Pattern

Churn & Dash Pattern

Crazy quilt – this quilting ‘pattern’ was popular in the Victorian Era. There is no structured pattern to it, but, in keeping with the Victorian ‘Waste not, want not’ philosophy, it was an ideal quilting method to use up scrap fabrics.

Crosses & Losses Pattern

Friendship block – this example in particular features a signature in the centre

Irish Chain Pattern

Lemoyne Star Pattern

Log Cabin Pattern – easily recognizable – we have several in this pattern in our collection

Maple Leaf Traditional Quilt (a very popular pattern in the 1920s. It resembles star patterns)

Orange Peel Pattern

Pinwheel Pattern

Baby Block Pattern