Textile Mills in Lowell, Mass and a New Quilting Friend
I’d never been to New Hampshire until this week, and only to Massachusetts once. It surprised me to hear locals call it “Mass,” as if Massachusetts is just too much of a mouthful.
Michelle of Little Pup Designs picked me up at the airport on behalf of the Hannah Dustin Quilt Guild in Hudson, NH.
Being from the Great Plains, I’ve sometimes been led to believe that New England folks are cold and aloof. But I haven’t found that to be true. When your hostess hails you at the airport holding a nearly life-size logo for your little quilting business, you know it’s going to be a good week.
We’ll get to the quilt guilds later, but first this:
I had a free day between guilds and so my hostess Michelle, who now feels like a friend, kindly offered to take me anyplace I wanted to go.
The back of New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts
There were endless fascinating options, but what kind of a quilter would I be if I didn’t opt for Lowell, Mass (see how easy?) which is home to the New England Quilt Museum as well as being the center of the textile business as the Industrial Revolution swept America.
Do I need to tell you that “textile” is just another word for fabric? Probably not. As a quilter, you understand that this piece of American history is part of our history, your history, if in fact you love fabric. I grabbed the shot above because it helps convey the sense of near-claustrophobia I felt standing between all those massive brick buildings near the Merrimack River. And I couldn’t help but wonder: Where did they get all those bricks?
I’ve written the National Park Service to ask.
If you’re interested in the history, read the short piece below from the UMass Lowell Library Center for Lowell History:
The Boott Cotton Mills are a fascinating look into what it was like to work in a textile mill in the 1800s. Visitors are treated to seeing a few of the looms up and running. The noise is deafening.
One can only imagine what it must have been like when all of the machines were going. One of the park rangers (the complex is managed by the National Park Service) chatted with us for a while and mentioned the need for leather belts that arose with the industrial revolution.
Where do you suppose the hide for the belts came from? Some came from cows, but most of the hides for belts to run the new machines of the day came from bison, which are commonly called buffalo (but that’s technically incorrect). Anyway, isn’t it interesting that the great bison herds of the Plains helped to run the industrial revolution? Who’d have guessed.
This glass-enclosed model shows how the mills were set up at one point. The earliest stages of making cotton into cloth happened on the lower floors and the process moved upward, floor by floor. The looms on which cloth was woven were on the top floor.
Things were constantly changing as improvements were made. So wrapping your head around how cloth was made is a tall order, and there isn’t usually one simple answer to any question you pose.
I am primarily a quilter, of course, but I’m interested in weaving, and I have a 12-harness Macomber floor loom on which I’ve managed to weave a few rugs. So I was fascinated by the warps, the heddles, the bobbins and the shuttles that were everywhere, flying so fast your eye could barely catch them.
I have a small collection of bobbins, which are easily found and reasonably priced, but I’d never understood how they fit into commercial weaving. Now I do.
This loom was warped with red, white and blue. Below is the plaid fabric which was woven on this machine.
You can see the warped loom in the background. Running the machines means that a lot of cloth is woven over time in the museum, and it’s for sale at $3.50 per yard in a gift shop. I had to get a little, and I think I’ll sew it into a souvenir of this delightful day.
There is a separate exhibit covering the life of “mill girls” and immigrants who came with a desire to work and improve their lives. It’s well done and I learned so much.
New England Quilt Museum
I enjoyed the quilt museum as well, with its extensive library and three distinct exhibits. Pictures were not allowed, but there were quilts from Social Justice Sewing Academy, quilts by Sue Garman and fabric sculptures by Priscilla Sage in an exhibit titled “Suspended.”
Tags: cotton mills, fabric, lowell mass, quilt museum
Nancy
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Thanks for sharing the great photos. I love the plaid fabric but think it must be a typo on the price of $3.50/yard. Can it truly be that inexpensive?
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Diane Harris
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Yes! It was really $3.50 a yard. It’s coarse with a much looser weave than we are used to but I loved it anyway!
Doris Lewis
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It’s a narrow fabric, the type old fashioned dish towels were made of .
LeAnn Frobom
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Wow! My oldest son and his family live in NH, and he and his wife met at U-Mass-Amherst. So I’ve visited New England at least once a year. It’s a beautiful place! But I’ve never been to Lowell. I must add the New England Quilt Museum and the mills to my Bucket List! You’ve inspired me. I’m a big Sue Garman fan, so I’d have loved to see her quilts “in person.”
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jacque riese
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Very interesting. I have been on the Merrimack River many years ago. Wish i had known about this when we lived there. Oh well. Sounds like a road trip is in order.
Thanks
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Jennifer Grist
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Thank you for this very interesting post. I am fascinated by the history of mills and with my husband have visited a couple in England where some of the inventions originated which helped get the industrial revolution started. Before I got hooked on patchwork, I was into spinning, mainly wool, but this craft has been sadly neglected since patchwork took over. I think the woven fabric on sale at 3$50 a yard was an absolute bargain!
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Maggie
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This is so interesting and so well written! Thanks for taking us along on your fascinating journey!
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Kathy Benger
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My brother, Billy, did all the restoration on the staircases in the mills. Some of them go around in a triangle, some in ovals! If you’re in Lowell, MA you should really check out those also. They’d make an interesting quilt!
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Diane Harris
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That’s so interesting, Kathy! I’d love to see those. Next time I will make a point of it! Thank you for letting me know.
Michelle Banton
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It was a pleasure having you visit our guilds in Mass and NH. And getting to play “tour guide” was a real treat. So glad you enjoyed your visit to ‘cold and aloof’ New England!
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Donna di Natale
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Fun to read about your visit “back east”. If you and your followers are interested in the mills and their story, check out AWAY FROM HOME by Nancy Rink and Oliver Rink. Oliver fills you in on the history of the textile mills and the “mill girls” which Nancy provides the beautiful quilts and patterns. I edited this book when I worked for Kansas City Star Quilts and I always felt bad that I had to tell Oliver to cut his text so we could fit in the quilt patterns. After all, it was a quilt book!
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Diane Harris
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What a great book that must be! I’ll check it out. Thanks, Donna!
Linda P
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I highly recommend a book by Nancy Zaroulis “Call the darkness light” It’s about the mill girls and much more.. be prepared to stay up late a night reading!
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Diane Harris
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I will check it out! Thank you!