Quilt Rack Examples Wanted

Rick Yochim

Well-known member
Recently I've been searching for examples of racks or frames that would have been used to hang up quilts and blankets during the sumer months. I would like to make one but haven't come up with anything in my searches. I've checked the references I have (Hurst & Prown, Nutting, Sack and others) but I don't see anything.

Does anyone have any references for plans or photo examples that I could go to for use or copy? I think designing one from scratch in a specific period with the right decorative details would be a pretty simple task, but I would like to reproduce (or adapt) an existing period piece if one exists and it appeals to me.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Rick Yochim   
 
Hi Rick, not sure this is what you are looking for, but I made a couple of these for my wife and a friend who quilt. http://www.quilting101.com/images/supplies/quilt-hanger.jpg 

Advertized as "Shaker" they liked the design and it works well with the size of quilts they wanted to display.


Take Care, Rick
www.firstlightwoodworking.blogspot.com

 
Rick,

I'm not sure if this will help but here it is what I have.

As part of the Ohio River Valley chapter  SAPFM 2006 meeting we visited the Adena estate Museum in Chillicothe Ohio.  Is  the home of Thomas Worthington the 6th governor of Ohio, 1814-1818.  While touring that home I found this towel/linen/ blanket rack which I photographed and measured.  I built one the next year.  The pictures I have are too large to post as attachments so I will email them to you as attachments are limited to 165KB

It's dimensions are 38Hx38Wx9D.  The original and  copy is of walnut. I had fun making it as it involved carving the pineapple, clawed feet and forming the top and base parts.  I did make a mistake as it was traditional with twisted columns to have the twist turning opposite.  I failed to notice this in the original piece and that was a learning experience.

If this is what you are looking for you can send me an email : [email protected] with you address and I will be happy to send pix and if your interested duplicate my dwgs and patterns for your use or whatever.

John Goyer
 
Thanks for the replies.

Rick - hadn't even considered a wall hanging rack. Your example is very nice and wood be something I would look at if I wasn't pretty sure we might move the rack/frame from room to room (two quilts/4 bedrooms) and want to have a more traditional freestanding piece. BTW, I went to your blog/website. Keep up the great work! I wish my shop was as clean and ordered as yours looks. I have a tendency to spread out when I'm on a task and must struggle to reign in tools and materials as I go.

John, I will contact you via separate email to explore further your rack.

Thanks again.

Rick 
 
Rick being married to a quilter, the room to room problem is solved by building more racks/stands! Anyway good luck with your choice. John sent me photos of his stand and it is indeed outstanding. I am having fun with the blog, not sure how many actually visit. I should update the photos, it's still orderly I guess, but not all that clean anymore after a year and a half or so of working. few more things on the walls, new dust collector, but the clock is completed as you saw in the other pictues. Thanks for the comments. Rick
 
Rick

I've checked my selection of design and description oriented books and here are the only two examples I could find.  Both are in books on Shaker furniture, however neither of them are mentioned in the text.  Therefore, I cannot say with any certainty that they are actually period pieces.  However, though I cannot be sure, I suspect that they are period, given their presence in restored historical sites.       

The first rack appears in a picture of a writing desk at Sabbath Day Lake (http://www.shaker.lib.me.us/).  The picture is on page 66 of Christian Becksvoort's. The Shaker Legacy. City: Taunton, 2000,(ISBN 1-56158-357X).  You'll have to guess its authenticity and dimensions, but it is a start.

The second rack appears on page 78 of Sharon Duane Koomler's Shaker Style. Philadelphia: Running Press Book Publishers, 2000, (ISBN 0-7624-0719-0). Again, no measurements, but this rack is also at a historical village, the Hancock Shaker village (http://hsv.lsw.com/accounts/28/homepage/)

You might check with Christian Becksvoort (http://www.chbecksvoort.com/) about the first rack. I was unable to find a website or contact info for Sharon Duane Koomler. 

I'm including a list of the books I searched so you or others need not repeat the process.


Bowman, John. American Furniture. New York: Exeter Books, 1985.

Fairbanks, Jonathan, and Elizabeth Bates. American Furniture, 1620 to the Present. New York: R. Marek, 1981.

Burton, E.Milby. Charleston Furniture, 1700-1825. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1997.

Grotz, George. The Current Antique Furniture Style & Price Guide. Garden City: Doubleday, 1979.

Obbard, John, and Brenda Bechtel. Early American Furniture. Paducah: Collector Books, 2006.

Sack, Albert et.al. Fine Points of Furniture: Early American. West Chester: Schiffer Publishing, 2007.

Woodworking, Fine. In the Shaker Style. Newtown: Taunton Press, 2001.

Pierce, Kerry. Pleasant Hill Shaker Furniture. Cincinnati: Popular Woodworking Books, 2007.

Lang, Robert. Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture. Plano: Cambium Press, 2002.

Lang, Robert. More Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture. City: Independent Publishers Group, 2003.

Burroughs, Paul H.. Southern Antiques. New York: Bonanza Books, 1967.

Magazine, Editors. Wood Magazine: Arts and Crafts Furniture. New York: Sterling, 2006.

Huey, Glen. Building Fine Furniture. Cincinnati: Popular Woodworking Books, 2003.

Huey, Glen. Fine Furniture for a Lifetime. Cincinnati: Popular Woodworking Books, 2002.

Finally, I suspect, though I have no evidence, that quilt racks were rare until the advent of climate control.  The theory goes like this: 

Before the advent of climate controlled housing quilts were likely to stay on a bed throughout the fall and winter months and then be stored in blanket chests (an apparently far more common form than a rack) during the warmer spring and summer months. 

After we learned to heat and cool our homes,quilts were more likely to stay on a bed year round and extra blankets would be kept on racks and used as throws when the air conditioning was a bit to cold or the heat was just shy of comfortable.

Again, this is simply conjecture.
Hope all this helps.

F. James Ray
[email protected]
 

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F. James,

Thank you for the exhaustive research on my original question. I have to say that though I own and have searched many of the references you site, I see many references I don't have. And like me in my attempts to find something, you've come up dry.

I see in the Shaker examples you provide the same daintiness as in the (original) rack example John sent me. That, and the lack of examples of quilt racks in the classic books many of us go to for reference leads to me to the supposition that "quilt" racks may be a more modern adaptation of the older clothes or towel racks. So you may be on to something with your theory.

When not on the bed, quilts and blankets were probably stored in chests or presses.  And because their beds were smaller than ours today they could have thrown their lighter and smaller blankets and quilts over clothes racks if they wanted that furniture to do double duty. But if none of this was the case and specially made quilt racks were used, you'd think we'd see many more examples in books and antique catalogs. So I add my theory to yours.

That said, it seems I am left to design something or copy the fine rack John sent me. I don't know yet which way I'll go.  If I do design something, it will have period details and classic proportions and (hopefully) be something that is pleasing to the eye as well as functioning as intended.

Thanks again for your help.

Rick 

   
 
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