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On Friday, 27 March, Gillian Vogelsang writes:

We have had several emails about what is happening to the TRC's current American Quilt exhibition, as we are shut because of the corona virus epidemic and may be for some time.

TRC's American Quilts exhibition temporarily being taken down, 27 March 2020.

The main question is: How can people still see the exhibition? Well, as soon as it is possible (hopefully in late April) we will re-open the TRC. We have also extended the exhibition until at least the end of August. We are also planning to remain open in July, and not close the premises for that month, as we normally do, so there will be much more time to see the exhibition! We are also making an online exhibition based on the textboards, with photographs of all the objects in the display.

Another question that is frequently asked is what is happening to the quilts while we are closed? Won't they get damaged when they are hanging for a long time? The answer is simple: we are giving them a ‘rest’! We have already taken the quilts down that were hanging on poles and we rolled them up. The other quilts have been folded and stored flat. As soon as the TRC re-opens they will be put back on display.

On Friday, 27 March, Susan Cave, who is a TRC-volunteer and co-curator of the current American Quilts exhibition at the TRC, wrote the following about the recent demise of the American company of Sears Roebuck: 

This year (February 2020), Sears Roebuck closed the last of its stores. A household name for well over 120 years, America has lamented its passing. The Mail Order Catalogue had already ceased in 1993 after the company began losing hundreds of millions of dollars in the heady days of re-structuring business and industry. The glossy thousand-odd pages of the most famous catalogue the world has ever known stopped being printed.

Just about every American who lived in the 20th century grew up with Sears Roebuck as a household name. It was a department store in paperback, a book of dreams that sold everything, from a plough to quilting thread. Stuck out on a farm in the middle of nowhere did not matter. Sears would not only deliver, but they would also guarantee the quality.

Quilters have a lot to thank Sears for, apart from providing billions of yards of fabric, batting and thread. They might well have been the one company on earth that gave quilts the hike up into the art world. Eighty-three years ago, in the January edition of the 1933 catalogue, a small 2-inch by 3-inch notice announced a quilt contest to celebrate Chicago’s ‘Century of Progress Fair'. In Depression America the fabulous sum of US$7000 was offered in total prize money. The hefty first prize was $1000. A lot of dollars, even on today’s standard. Adjusted for inflation, the sum is $19616.35. Just imagine a quilter winning that!

Quilt worked on pieces from the 1941 Sears Roebuck catalogue (TRC 2018.3129).

There were 24878 entries and a total of five million people visited the Fair. An enterprising newspaper reporter worked out that the exhibits represented 642 years of quilting for eight hours a day. Many of our quilts at the TRC have been inspired by that small notice in the Sears Catalogue. In fact, we have a 1930’s quilt that was made with fabric pieces sewn on to their pages (TRC 2018.3129)! What a powerful effect it had on a population that was living through such troubled times. The organisers must have been well pleased, if not horrified, at the sheer volume of the mail.

Detail of the pieced quilt, showing pages from the Sear Roebuck catalogue (TRC 2018.3129).

I am truly saddened that Sears went on the skids, especially as it was taken so much for granted through the years. But adapting to new technology and fighting the emerging giants of the internet were all too much. In the Quilting Hall of Fame, Sears Roebuck Inc., deserve, in my opinion, pride of place. If only we could find some modern day wonder to provide us with that that same kind of inspiration – and prize money – for these dark days ahead.

The exhibition “Fashion in Modern Serbia”. Photograph by Aleksandra Tosnan.On Thursday, 26 March 2020, Draginja Maskareli Senior Curator, Textile and Costume Collection Museum of Applied Art, Belgrade, Serbia, wrote the following:

The exhibition 'Fashion in Modern Serbia' was held in the Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade, Serbia, from 6 November 2019 until 31 January 2020. It presented a selection of 81 fashion items from the 19th and early 20th centuries held by the Museum’s Textile and Costume Collection, accompanied with reproductions of bourgeois portraits and documentary materials from different public and private collections.

The exhibited items witnessed the dynamic changes of the fashion system and society in 19th century Serbia, accompanied with the establishment of new cultural models with a local imprint and the adoption of cultural models common in middle class Europe.

While interpreting fashion as part of visual culture, the exhibition stressed its importance for visual representation and identity construction among individuals, members of ruling families and the bourgeois class in modern Serbia. Accordingly, the national costume, constructed after 1830 from the nationalised elements of the “traditional” Ottoman-Balkan clothing inventory, was interpreted in the context of the newly accepted European fashion system.

On Wednesday, 25th March, 2020, Beverley Bennett wrote:

As we are unable to give our guided tours at the moment, I thought I would feature some of the quilts I find most interesting in the current American Quilts exhibition. The particular textile I want to discuss (TRC 2018.2629) dates from c. 1935. It was made by Margaret Smart, The Dalles, in Oregon, USA (1914-2006), and was donated to the TRC by Sherry Cook.

A Dresden Plate quilt from the mid-1930s, USA (TRC 2018.2629).It comprises a simple Dresden Plate block, made from feedsack prints and possibly clothing offcuts. The blocks are set side by side with a pink sashing and white cornerstones.

On Tuesday, 24 March 2020, Gillian Vogelsang wrote:

An aspect of the TRC Collection that has been sadly neglected over the last few years has been the sewing equipment and related items. So the present situation caused by the corona virus whereby the TRC Leiden is shut for a longer period of time has given me the chance to work on some of these pieces (at home I should add).

Nanny brooch, The Netherlands, early 20th century (TRC 2020.0945).

The various objects are currently being catalogued have divided into three main groups, namely:

On Sunday, 22 March 2020, Gillian Vogelsang wrote:

A recent addition to the TRC Collection is a modern button sample (TRC 2020.0485), a simple object, but one with an interesting story behind it. It was actually made by me as part of the research carried out some years ago for a chapter about Egyptian regional embroidery that was published in the Encyclopedia of Embroidery from the Arab World (Bloomsbury 2016).

A button sample based on a Siwa tradition (TRC 2020.0485).

The sample is based on the way four-holed buttons are sewn onto dresses worn by women in the Egyptian oasis of Siwa, in the far west of country. The dresses come in white (ashera nauak) and black (ashera hawak azdhaf) and are first worn by a young women at her wedding. The dresses are then worn on special occasions, such as family and religious events. More details about these dresses can be found here.

Front of mid 18th century man's waistcoat (TRC 2020.0879).The TRC Leiden has just been given an intriguing 18th century waistcoat for a man (TRC 2020.0879). As with so many pieces, this garment found its way to the TRC in Leiden via a friend of a friend.

The waistcoat is of interest for various reasons, structurally, decoration-wise, as well as for the indications it gives about the original owner’s economic means!

The waistcoat is made from a twill silk and silver metal thread cloth with small flowers, which was woven using a supplementary wefts technique with floss silk of various colours. The flowers were set on a silver thread ground (now nearly black due to oxidisation). In addition, the garment has been decorated with applied, very small silver spangles, metal thread (passing and purl forms), as well as small shapes in red coloured metal foil. When it was first made and worn the waistcoat was must have been a piece of male bling!

One of the over 200 feedsack samples from America currently being added to the TRC Catalogue online database, donated by Sherry Cook (TRC 2020.0815).As with so many cultural institutes and other groups around the world, the TRC Leiden is shut until the end of March, or possibly longer. Sadly we have had to cancel or postpone various events, workshops and courses.

But at the same time we are looking ahead and busily planning lots of activities for when things settle down, including a summer school, a quilting week, a two-day embroidery identification course, basic embroidery and knitting lessons, a 'making' weekend and so much more!

We are also working on several digital exhibitions, so that you can still enjoy the TRC Collection without actually physically having to come to Leiden (although it is always best to see the real things).