The Engineer Who Could - Ernest haight's half century of quiltmaking - Part two

[musical interlude] Part Two: Quilting: A Haight Family Project Jonathan Gregory International Quilt Study Center & Museum Ernest Haight made quilts for at least 50 years and he made more than 300 of them. For the first 25 year, however, he only machine-pieced the quilt tops, and other members of his family did the hand quilting. [Sewing machine sounds] When he first started sewing, he used a treadle sewing machine that his grandparents had brought to Nebraska in a wagon when they homesteaded. Ernest Haight's grandmother, Elizabeth Haight, made the quilt blocks in about 1910 or 1920. Ernest put them together and added an original border. And in tribute to his grandmother, he inscribed her name in the border. [musical interlude] Ernest married Isabell Hooper in August of 1928. Isabelle was a musician, she wrote hymns, she was a pianist at church, she wrote poetry and short stories. Isabelle had an active spiritual life, and she and Ernest were involved in the David City Baptist Church. And she recorded the daily events of their lives in her diaries for over 40 years. [musical interlude] Isabelle is largely responsible for Ernest's first effort in quiltmaking. Ernest told the story over and over about how he started quiltmaking in 1934. [Ernest's voice] My wife was hand quilting a quilt her grandmother had pieced 15 to 20 years before we were married. In many of the blocks, the corners of the pieces didn't fit too well. It was so obvious to me I had to mention it. She came right back with, "Well, if you can do it better, prove it!" "If not, keep still!" Sooo, what else could I do? Isabelle once wrote that Ernest's quiltmaking was a family secret. Until, a neighbor walked in and saw him at the sewing machine. After that Ernest embraced his hobby. In fact, he had an interview with the Omaha World-Herald, and he told them, "Quiltmaking doesn't necessarily make a man a sissy." As soon as Ernest started piecing quilts, his father Elmer Haight, started hand quilting them. The elder Haight had an idea for a great father-son project, too. [Ernest's voice] Back in the late '30s, when I started to piece a quilt, my father, when he learned I was doing this, he said, if I could learn to piece a quilt, he could learn to hand quilt it. He was about 78 years of age. Then he suggested I piece at least one quilt for each of our children, ranging in age then, from about 8 to 1 year of age. He would hand quilt them, they could be kept, and then years in the future, they each could have a wedding present with his hand work on it. He passed away in 1944. After Elmer Haight passed away in 1944, Ernest's mother, Flora Haight, took over the hand quilting, and later, Isabelle, Ernest's wife, also hand quilted for him. This quilt is a great example of Isabelle's hand quilting. She quilted many of Ernest's prize-winning quilts. She had these art nouveau motifs, sort of scrolling, backwards curves. These show up on a number of quilts that she did. Flora's designs were more classic, with feathers, and wreaths, in classic designs.