Originally Posted by
noveltyjunkie
This question gets asked a lot. I havent read all the answers but i bet someone resurrects the urban myth about some culture which deliberately puts in mistakes. No such culture is known to exist!
I learn so much from this board. I stand corrected. I had always heard that the Amish put a deliberate mistake in each quilt. After reading noveltyjunkie's post, I did some research. This quote is from Machine Quilting in the 19th Century.
"The subject arose in a June 2000 Quilt History List discussion. Quilt historian and AQS appraiser Bobbie Aug, who has taught pre-1940 Old Order Amish-style quiltmaking, said she once spent a week with an Old Order Amish family. The Amish quilters she asked about the "humility block" were aghast. To them "an intentional error is saying just the opposite - that their work is perfect and that they would have to be purposeful in order to make mistakes."*
After 20 years of research among the Amish in Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, Bettina Havig has developed close connections with Amish quiltmakers; she's written two books on the subject. Ask an Amish quilter about the "humility block," she says, "and the answer will be 'I make enough mistakes without making them on purpose'." Havig dismisses the story as "just one more attempt to romanticize an aspect of quiltmaking." She notes that not only has she found no evidence supporting this tradition among the Amish; she hasn't found "any sort of quilt superstition" in that community."
I also make enough mistakes without having to put a deliberate mistake in a quilt. I guess I will have to claim creative license! lol
Norma