August 2011

Have you been to the New London lighthouse? Many LMM fans think she had this lighthouse in mind when she wrote Jane of Lantern Hill. Our kindred spirit Carolyn Strom Collins had a chance to see inside this light recently, and shares her stories and photos with us in this edition. Also this month our dear friend Sandy Wagner shares the illustrated talk she gave this summer at the Bideford Parsonage Museum on the quilts of L.M. Montgomery. Quilting was a lifelong passion for our author: “I could sit and quilt happily for hours,” she wrote. I hope you’re enjoying your summer! ‘Bye for now

George Campbell, managing editor

Anne & Gilbert make summer visit to green gables Photos on page 11

from the LIGHT AT “LANTERN HILL”

Story and photos by Carolyn Strom Collins

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ome followers of L. M. Montgomery’s work believe that Lantern Hill (the fictional setting of Jane of Lantern Hill) was located near the mouth of New London Harbour and that the New London light could be the one described in chapter 17: “At sunset Jane and dad went down to the outside shore . . . as they were to do almost every night of that enchanted summer. All along the silvery curving sand ran a silvery curving wave. A dim, white-sailed vessel drifted past the bar of the shadowy dunes. The revolving light across the channel was winking at them.” S

The New London Light has shone brightly across the narrow entrance to New London Harbour since it was completed in 1876. (Before the 43-foot tapered square tower was built, two small lanterns marked the entrance for fishing vessels heading to and from the wharves at French River, the South West River, Stanley River, and Hope River.) The lighthouse was moved about 200 feet southwest from its original location to its present location in 1891.

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A small two-storey house at the base of the tower provided a home for lighthouse keepers through the years, beginning with George McKenzie who built the lighthouse and who remained as keeper for twenty years. Other keepers of the New London light were James H. McLeod, James Pidgeon, Hugh John MacRae, Charles MacRae, Claude Adams, Maisie Adams, and Roland Paynter. Maisie Adams was one of the first and only women* to have charge of a lighthouse in Prince Edward Island; she was the keeper of New London light from 1943 to 1957, officially taking over the job after her husband Claude, who was keeper from 1940-1943, died. (Shortly after becoming keeper, Claude fell ill with cancer and Maisie took over most of his duties while caring for him and their three young children. Their daughter Mary had been born in the lighthouse.) Maisie was a legendary figure in the New (continued on next page)

London area. After living at the lighthouse for four years, she moved into French River, about two miles away, so that her children would be closer to the school. But she walked to and from the lighthouse every day and every evening from her home in French River to see that the light was lit at dusk and extinguished the next morning. (Maisie also took part in the “Emily of New Moon” television series in her 80s and “had the time of her life” during the filming, which took place in Malpeque, PEI.) In 2000, five of Hugh John MacRae’s nine children — Mary Brander, Isabelle Picketts, Evelyn Picketts, Joan Simpson and Janet Murphy — published a book about their growing-up years at the New London lighthouse called Living Under the Light. Their father was keeper of the light from 1931-1940. One of their many memories was having to haul drinking water from a cottage “about 250 yards from the lighthouse.” The light was electrified in 1960. The Canadian Coast Guard leased the living quarters as a cottagerental for the next forty years; however, that practice was discontinued in 2000. There were two floors of living space in the lighthouse. On the first floor were a large sitting room (converted to a kitchen in later years) and two smaller rooms beside that. Upstairs was a large landing and a bedroom. Narrow, steep ladder-style stairs rose two

At left are the first set of steep stairs to the landing and bedroom, above, on the second floor of the lighthouse.

flights from the landing up to the light. A small kitchen wing once jutted out from the first floor; a separate building was used to store the oil for the light. One interesting feature of this lighthouse is that the angle of the house walls match the angle of the light tower, tapering slightly toward the peaks. The New London Light is officially classified as a “range light.” The light in the lantern was a fixed light (not a revolving one) and a red light shone from a window below the lantern to designate a ship’s alignment with the channel as they crossed from the Gulf of St. Lawrence into New London Harbour. The light is now considered less necessary with the use of global positioning systems by modern fishing boats and the community is petitioning to keep the lighthouse in its present location. (continued on next page) K IN D RED SPIRITS / A U G U S T 2 0 1 1

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* After Capt. William Bell died at the Cape Tryon Lighthouse in 1915, his housekeeper maintained the light for a time until a permanent keeper could be appointed to take over the duties. (See “A Visit to ‘Four Winds’ Lighthouse” in Kindred Spirits of December 2010, and the Shining Scroll, Part 3, 2010, for more on Capt. Bell and the “Four Winds” lighthouse from Anne’s House of Dreams.) NOTE: Some information for this article was found on the “Lighthouses of Prince Edward Island” website: www.virtualmuseum.ca/ Exhibitions/Lighthouses); The History of French River and Park Corner 1773-2006; and Living Under the Light (by the MacRae Sisters: Mary, Isabelle, Evelyn, Joan and Janet). Jane of Lantern Hill, by L. M. Montgomery, was published in 1937. The PEI Lighthouse Society is dedicated to preserving the lighthouse of Prince Edward Island. Contact Carol Livingstone at [email protected] for information on becoming a member of that Society.

The second set of steep stairs going up to the light itself.

Around our Kitchen Table

Georgie’s Cinnamon Loaf 1/2 cup butter

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup white sugar

1 cup milk

2 eggs

1 tbsp. white vinegar

2 cups flour

3 tbsp. white sugar

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tbsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. baking soda

“. . . Grandmother Macneill knew naught of calories and vitamins or balanced rations but she was the best cook I ever knew in my life. Aunt Annie was also a wonder and all her girls inherited the gift . . .” - J O U R N A L S O F L . M . M O N T G O M E RY, V O LU M E III

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Combine butter and white sugar; blend well. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat well. Sift flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda together. Have the milk mixed with vinegar, ready. Add flour and milk alternately to butter/sugar mixture. In a separate bowl, mix white sugar and cinnamon. Spread batter and cinnamon mixture in layers. End with batter. Bake in 3250 oven for approximately 1 hour. Georgie Campbell MacLeod was the youngest granddaughter of Aunt Annie Campbell at Park Corner, PEI. Born on August 15, 1918, Georgie inherited the gift of good cooking. This recipe was contributed by her daughter-in-law Sybil MacLeod.

When was I was twelve years old “crazy patchwork” had just come into vogue. It was “all the rage.” Everybody made at least a “crazy” cushion. Some few attempted quilts. I was among the latter . . . Well, after all, it gave me pleasure in the making and so what matters if the result was not worth while? I had “the joy of the working” and that was the essence of heaven. - JOURNALS

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L.M . M O N T G O M E RY, V O LU M E II

The Quilts of L.M. Montgomery by Sandy Wagner

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t 19 years of age, Maud Montgomery was quilting with the Missionary Sewing Circle in Cavendish. She and her friend Amanda sat together sewing a long pleasant chat into their seams. When she received her first teaching position in Bideford, PEI she immediately joined the Sewing Circle there. Maud was an exemplary needlewoman and quilter all her life. In her short quilting story published in 1906, ‘The Burton Girls’ Patch Party’, Rosemary Lloyd explains: “Patchwork is all the rage at home now, — the old pieced quilts have all come in.”

quilts of this style prove it. When Matthew Cuthbert drives by, she puts her knitting aside and is off to Green Gables to find out from Marilla “where is Matthew going — what is he going for?” For a time, the popularity of these quilts — or spreads as they were called — overtook the patchwork ones. When Anne and Gilbert were married (Anne’s House of Dreams 1922), Mrs. Lynde gave them a tobacco-stripe one and an apple-leaf one. These knitted quilts of cotton yarn were made in squares that were sewn together. Maud Montgomery knew these quilts, for she knit her own apple-leaf quilt which is housed today in the L.M. Montgomery Institute at UPEI. In Magic for Marigold (1929), with knitting humour, Maud added: “Old Grandmother told Marigold ‘I could have been married at sixteen. But I was determined I wouldn’t be married till I had finished knitting my apple-leaf bedspread.’ ”

And so, Maud proceeded to stitch a ‘Quilter’s Dozen’ throughout her novels and short stories. They were obviously the patchwork patterns she was most familiar with — crazy So far, we have been unable to locate a pattern for the patchwork, Irish Chain, red and yellow tulip, fan, Rising Star, Tobacco Stripe quilt. Blazing Star, Rising Sun, Log Cabin, Autograph, and Wild (continued on next page) Goose. Apple-leaf and tobacco stripe are the cotton warp knitted variety. With her keen sense of observation and hidden sense of humour, Maud often stitched those into her quilts as well. This past July 6, 2011 at the Bideford Parsonage Museum in PEI, eleven of the author’s ‘quilter’s dozen’ were on display. Their quilting patterns and stories written around the quilts, formed the presentation for the ‘Wednesdays with L.M. Montgomery’ summer series.

The Apple-Leaf and Tobacco-Stripe Quilt When you open the book Anne of Green Gables, can’t you see Mrs. Rachel Lynde sitting at her kitchen window knitting a “cotton warp” quilt and keeping a sharp eye on everything beyond the window? She never seems to miss a stitch and her sixteen

Crazy Patchwork Quilt As recorded in her journal, Maud Montgomery began work on her crazy patchwork quilt when she was 12 years old. She delighted in collecting pieces of velvet, silk or satin for it and confessed there were pieces from dresses that had belonged to her mother and aunts. Embroidery of intricate stitching added to the richness of this quilt. She felt that future generations might regard it as a curiosity. However, visitors that see this quilt on display at the Anne of Green Gables Museum at Silver Bush in Park Corner, PEI, marvel at the detailed work which took Maud five years to complete. She later made a second crazy patchwork quilt, smaller than the first one, and it is housed in the Archives of the University of Guelph in Ontario. Three samples of this work are stitched throughout her books. In the short story of 1905, ‘Aunt Olivia’s Beau’ — “the tassels of the crazy cushion lay just over the arm of the chair.” In Emily Climbs (1924): “Miss Royal of New York predicted Emily would want a crazy quilt on her spare-room bed.” However, when Anne of Windy Poplars (1936) saw the crazy quilt on the bed she was to sleep in at Tomgallon House, she thought: “I wonder if I will be as crazy as it is by morning!”

The Irish Chain Quilt This quilt is a fine example of a two-color quilt, pieced from cotton fabrics in a simple geometric pattern. The popular single, double, or triple chain designs are variations on the theme Irish Chain. Two color quilts in blue and white or red and white were very popular during the early 1900s. Montgomery’s preference for the blue and white is shown in several of her stories: A sentence from ‘The Burton Girls’ Patch Party’ (1906) reads: “Wilhelmina, who had brought down a point lace collar, smuggled it unobstrusively out of the room, and came back with her mother’s blue-and-white ‘Irish Chain’. ” We learn that Grandmother Ward had given the jilted bride a blue and white counterpane found in the Blue Chest of Rachel Ward (The Story Girl, 1911). When Emily moved into her mother’s old room at New Moon, the “look-out” — the high black bedstead — was covered with an Irish Chain quilt (1923). Jane placed the blue Irish Chain quilt that Grandmother Stuart had pieced on her white spool bed at Lantern Hill (1937). Mrs. Lynde was busy cutting patches for a new “double Irish chain” quilt when Anne arrived home to Green Gables from Windy Poplars, bringing little Elizabeth with her. A double Irish Chain cross stitch pillow designed by Mrs. Michelle Wilson of Kensington, PEI, with instructions, was placed in The Sewing Circle of the summer 2005 issue of Kindred Spirits. (continued on next page)

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The Red and Yellow Tulip Quilt When Anne and her friends set up house in Patty’s Place, Mrs. Lynde gave her a patchwork quilt and loaned her five more. They reeked of mothballs and had to be hung out in the orchard thereby showing aristrocratic Spofford Avenue a marvelous display of colour and stitching. In Anne of the Island (1915),we read: “The gruff old millionaire who lived “next door” came over and wanted to buy the gorgeous red and yellow “tulip-pattern” one which Mrs. Rachel had given Anne. He said his mother used to make quilts like that, and by Jove, he wanted one to remind him of her. Anne would not sell it, much to his disappointment, but she wrote all about it to Mrs. Lynde. That highly-gratified lady sent word back that she had one just like it to spare, so the tobacco king got his quilt after all, and insisted on having it spread on his bed, to the disgust of his fashionable wife.” The first issue of Kindred Spirits in Spring 1990 carried our tulip quilt pattern. The late Mrs. Edith Thompson of Margate, PEI, an excellent quilter and fan of Anne, made this quilt. It is shown here displayed at the Anne of Green Gables Museum Tea Room in Park Corner. Unfortunately, the yellow tulips embroidered on either side of the centre red one, seem overshadowed. This tulip quilt was purchased by the Anne Academy in Japan.

The Fan Quilt This quilt is more often referred to as Grandmother’s Fan and was designed around the Victorian fascination for the use of fans in Japanese culture. Anne of Windy Poplars, visiting the ladies at Maplehurt, noticed the quilt on their spare room bed. Always one for big words, Anne thought it quilted in infinitesimal fans. She meant small fans! In Montgomery’s novels it is the traditional fan design of quilting she refers to, and not the cutting and piecing of fan pieces. In Pat of Silver Bush (1933), Pat writes a letter to Judy Plum telling her “Aunt Hazel has the loveliest blue quilt, quilted in fans, on her spare bed.” Anne of Ingleside, Maud Montgomery’s last published novel in 1939, gives us the hidden humour of a quilting bee; while deciding to quilt in fans or diamonds: “The quilts were set up on the broad verandah and everyone was busy with fingers and tongues . . . Walter, who had been kept home from school that day because of a slight sore throat, was squatted on the verandah steps, screened from view of the quilters by a curtain of vines. He always liked to listen to older people talking.” As they quilted, their tongues never stopped. One story after another followed and gossip flowed all afternoon. Finally this bit of news . . . ‘Did you hear what happened to Big Jim MacAllister last Satur-

day night in Milt Cooper’s store at the Harbour House?’ asked Mrs. Simon, thinking it time somebody introduced a more cheerful topic than ghosts and jiltings. ‘He had got into the habit of setting on the stove all summer. But Saturday night was cold and Milt had lit a fire. So when poor Big Jim sat down . . . well, he scorched his . . .’ Mrs. Simon would not say what he had scorched but she patted a portion of her anatomy silently. ‘His bottom,’ said Walter gravely, poking his head through the creeper screen. He honestly thought that Mrs. Simon could not remember the right word. An appalled silence descended on the quilters. Afrer a bountiful Ingleside supper, walking home, Mrs. Simon announced, ‘As for that young Walter, I could spank his bottom with relish. Such a turn as he gave me!’ ” (continued on next page) A UGUST 2 0 1 1

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The Rising Star Quilt

The Blazing Star Quilt

This is also known as the Lone Star quilt, or the Bethlehem Star quilt. By simply changing the colors or types of fabric, these star blocks can be given an entirely different star appearance. Maud fully realized the exactness needed in cutting and stitching diamond pieces for such quilts.

This is the same old and reliable pattern of the Rising Star. Often sewn in varying choices of color, there is none so attractive and old-fashioned as the dazzlingly red and white fabric diamonds of a Blazing Star. When Jane of Lantern Hill and her father unpacked Grandmother Stuart’s box containing three quilts — “Jane set aside the scarlet Blazing Star on the boot-shelf against the day when they would have a bed for the spare room.”

The Rising Sun Quilt Recently I came across a Rising Sun quilt pictured in Heritage Quilts of Ontario by Marilyn I. Walker. It was brought to Canada from Country Tyrone, Ireland in 1860. The ‘suns’ are handpieced and appliqued in bright orange in a circular design with points around the circle. In this picture of L.M. Montgomery’s needlework given to the L.M. Montgomery Instititute at UPEI, it represents to me that rising sun pattern and what I envision in Magic for Marigold:

In her short story of 1904, ‘Polly Patterson’s Autograph Square’, Polly is presented with a parcel of dozens and dozens of small diamond-shaped patches cut out of red and white cotton. She is to stitch them together before Mr. Trent will give his name and monetary contribution to the Mission Band autograph quilt. In Anne of Green Gables, Anne said dolefully: “I do not not like patchwork,” as she hunted out her patchwork basket and sat down before a heap of red and white diamonds with a sigh . . . “But of course I’d rather be Anne of Green Gables sewing patchwork than Anne of any other place with nothing to do but play.” Once again, we refer to the short story ‘Sara’s Way’ of 1904 to realize the difficulty some quilters experience with the star quilts: “Sara was sewing the diamonds on another ‘Rising Star’ with a martyr-like expression on her face. Sara hated patchwork above everything else.”

“They took a drink from the truly delightful stoned-up spring behind the granary, which Uncle Jarvis called the barn-well and then mounted the outside granary stairs to the loft. Its bare boards were beautifully white-washed, and Aunt Marcia had made up a bed on the floor and covered it with a charming white quilt that had red ‘rising suns’ all over it.” In the short story ‘The Burton Girls’ Patch Party’, Maud Montgomery wrote: “ . . . Rosemary unfolded a half-patched square of the very self same Rising Sun pattern at which Amy Lewis from aross the road was working.” Stored in the Blue Chest of Rachel Ward from Maud’s favourite book The Story Girl, we find another Rising Sun quilt. However, there is another Rising Sun pattern of the early 1820-1840 period of quilting, made the same as an enlarged Star of Bethlehem. Placed in the center of the quilt top, the star of diamonds covers the entire quilt top displaying intricate needlework. (continued on next page)

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The Log Cabin Quilt The pattern name Log Cabin places the pioneer home in quilting history. The red centre square of the quilt block represented the hearth fire. The darker outer strips of material symbolize the northern side of the cabin while the southern side of the cabin is depicted in lighter strips of fabric down the other side of the quilt block. When Emily and Ilse are canvassing for subscriptions to the Shrewbury Times in Emily Climbs, they come to the home where an older woman is piecing a long cabin quilt by the window. This is so reminiscent of the years in the Cavendish farmhouse Maud spent stitching, reading or writing with the last rays of daylight on her work by the window. The frugal quilters cutting strips of old coats and worn woolen blankets for quilt blocks are upstaged by Grandmother Lesley’s silk log cabin quilt in Magic for Marigold. She tells this story to young Marigold: “Ben’s sister Laura was jilted by Turner Reed. He married Josie Lesley and when they appeared out in church the first Sunday Laura Lesley went too, in the dress that was to have been her wedding one, and sat down on the other side of Ben. Alec said she should have been tarred and feathered, but I tell you I liked her spunk. There’s a piece of that very dress in my silk log-cabin quilt in the green chest in the garret.” At the L.M. Montgomery Birthplace in New London, a miniature log cabin quilt is displayed. Just as Montgomery was born in November 1874, so was Sue Muncey. At eight years of age Muncey began stitching these intricate strips together into

log cabin blocks. Along life’s road she married J.B. Leigh Lowther and they resided in Carleton, PEI. Before her death eight months short of 100 years of age, she donated that incredibly-stitched quilt to the L.M. Montgomery Foundation Trust.

The Wild Goose Quilt This is not the same pattern as the poular Flying Geese pattern. Similarly named and designed patterns are The Brown Goose, and Flock of Geese. Their names give thoughts of autumn, but their appeal is ageless and always in season. Maud Montgomery placed two Wild Goose quilts in her novels: Jane placed The Wild Goose Quilt on her father Andrew Stuart’s bed in the large north facing bedroom at Lantern Hill. Anne found her room to be the dearest spot at Windy Poplars. We read: “The floor was covered with round, braided rugs, the big bed had a canopy top and a ‘wild-goose’ quilt and looked so perfectly smooth and level that it seemed a shame to spoil it by sleeping in it.” The Wild Goose quilt pictured here covered a bed in one of the small bedrooms over the kitchen wing at Green Gables. Today, that room has been converted to office space for National Park guides at the house.

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The Autograph Quilt The excitement of collecting names and raising money for a worthy cause formed the background of the autograph quilt. When visiting her cousins in the Campbell homestead at Park Corner, Maud would see the 1898 autograph quilt made by the Methodist Ladies Aid with her own father’s name embroidered on it. Polly Patternson’s Autograph Square story of 1904 explains the Mission Band’s quilt. Maud’s book The Golden Road adapts this story. Told a bit differently by Cecily King, she begs Mr. Campbell for his name and monetary support in her zeal as “a Missionary Heroine:” “It’s our Mission Band autograph quilt, Mr. Campbell. There are to be as many squares in it as there are members in the Band. Each one has a square and is collecting names for it. If you want to have your name on the quilt you pay five cents, and if you want to have it right in the round spot in the middle of the square you must pay ten cents. Then when we have got all the names we can we will embroider them on the squares. The money is to go to the little girl our Band is supporting in Korea. I heard that nobody had asked you, so I thought perhaps you would give me your name for my square.”

The Green Gables Quilt This is the bonus to the ‘Quilter’s Dozen’ of Maud Montgomery’s quilts. Many years ago this quilt lay folded on Marilla’s bed at Green Gables house. An out-ofprint book, 300 Years of Canada’s Quilts by Mary Conroy, owned by the late Mrs. Glen Murphy of Seaview, PEI, shows this pattern. It is actually the old red and white Dutchman’s Puzzle pattern. In the quilt at Green Gables House, the larger triangles were of various coloured small prints. The smaller triangles were a soft shade of rosy pink. The stripping was a soft spring green. Mrs. Murphy explained that the tiny flowered print materials were the wild flowers of PEI; the smaller rosy pink triangles mirrored the sunrise and the green stripping represented Green Gables House. Mrs. Murphy was a wonderful woman and an excellent

In Pat of Silver Bush, Maud places a huge autograph quilt on Judy Plum’s bed: “The Silver Bush children all liked to sleep a night now and then with Judy, until they grew too big for it, and listen to the tales of the folks whose names are on the quilt.” Visitors delight in seeing an autograph quilt at the L.M. Montgomery Birthplace, quilted by the New London Women’s Institute in 1916. Older than this is the Trust & Obey Mission Band quilt of 1896 (shown here) on display at the L.M. Montgomery Heritage Museum in Park Corner — the home of Maud’s Grandfather Montgomery. The 1933 Women’s Missionary quilt of Union Presbyterian Church, Ontario, has an autograph on it that the other quilts do not. It is of L.M. Montgomery, stitched in as Mrs. Rev. E. Macdonald. Her embroidered signature is a quilter’s stamp to a journal entry of 1925, written after an afternoon of quilting in Zephyr: “There is something about the homely old art of quilting that I like. I could sit and quilt happily for hours.”

quilter. I can see her yet — feet rocking the treadle sewing machine in jig time as she sewed the pieces of a quilt together. Here is a sample of hers in the Green Gables quilt pattern. Maud Montgomery’s words come to mind: “I felt many a tug at my heart as I looked over it . . . a compact of old memories.” The winter 2003 edition of Kindred Spirits printed the Green Gables quilt pattern, inspiring Mrs. Agnes Thompson of Newcastle upon Tyne in England to make this quilt. She and her quilt of 81 squares are featured on the cover of our August 2010 Kindred Spirits. No further proof is needed that finding quilting inspiration in the stories of L.M. Montgomery keeps us connected to the times and their stories she shared with us surrounding her stitching.

Cavendish church marking anniversary To mark its 110th Anniversary, the Cavendish Church is holding a special Anniversary Service on Sunday, September 11, 2011 at 10:30 a.m.. Everyone is welcome. L.M. Montgomery grew up in the shadow of this church and served as its organist from 1903-1911. At right is the organ she played, which is still in the church today. It had been her own, given to her by her father and her grandmother when she was a child. She donated it to the Church when she left Cavendish to marry Ewan. During our author’s time in Cavendish this church was Presbyterian, but today it is a United Church, part of the Cavendish Breadalbane pastoral charge.

We’re chagrined . . . In July’s edition of Kindred Spirits we featured photos of the Trossachs, courtesy of Diana Hemphill. The correct spelling of Trossachs is with an “h” rather than a “k”, and the correct spelling of Callander is with an “a”, rather than an “o.”

Anne and Gilbert charm visitors to Green Gables The cast of the musical Anne & Gilbert brought their singing and dancing talents to an outdoor stage at Green Gables this summer, then stayed on to sign autographs and pose for pictures with the many fans gathered around. Lots of fun!

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