“Bogan and Wilson Family Quilts” Exhibit to Open at Galveston Historical Foundation

Hand-made Antique Quilts Provide Link to Past

Generations of love, skill and creativity will go on display Feb. 12 when Galveston Historical Foundation opens an exhibit of hand-made historic quilts by Alma Spruill and Mary Cain Wilson.

Two Galveston women, Susan Bogan and Dawn Wilson, have gathered collections of their families’ quilts for public display. The exhibit, dubbed “Bogan and Wilson Family Quilts,” is scheduled at GHF’s headquarters in the 1861 U.S. Custom House, 502 20th St., Galveston. The display runs from Feb. 12 to May 21. It is free and open to the public weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a special showing from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on March 6, the evening of downtown’s Galveston’s ArtWalk.

Untitled quilt from Bogan Family collection (detail). Please click on the photo for a press-ready, downloadable version.

The late grandmother of Galveston art gallery owner Susan Bogan, Spruill lived in rural Oklahoma. According to Bogan, Spruill made her quilts as heirloom treasures for generations of mothers and babies in her own family as well as for needy neighbors. She even carded and fluffed the cotton batting for her quilts from cotton grown on the family farm. Eighteen of her quilts will be on display in this exhibit.

The late Mary Cain Wilson of Elkins, West Virginia, was the mother-in-law of Dawn Wilson, an active GHF member. Mary Wilson began quilting at the age of 69 as a “survival technique” late in life, for something to do while her husband was fishing. She had grown up in a home where quilting was considered an art. Her mother Lavinia Dove Cain had encouraged Wilson in the craft of quilting when she was very young, but with results that only bore fruit many years later. Seventeen quilts by Wilson and Cain will be on display in the exhibit.

Bogan’s mother, Juanita, has vivid memories of her mother’s quilt-work.

“I remember playing in my playpen under the quilt frame, which hung from the ceiling,” Juanita Bogan said. “My mother was always making quilts for everyone. Neighbors and fabric shop owners saved scraps for her.”

Juanita Bogan said her mother passed many winter days at her quilting frame.

“Whenever a baby was born, she made a flannel blanket for the new baby and a quilt for the mother,” Juanita Bogan recalls.

Her mother made quilts “with time, love and passion.” Each quilt, made entirely by hand, took up to a year to make.

“And she made them from the heart,” Bogan said.

Mary Wilson also took many months to complete each of her quilts. After spending her late 60s and early 70s making enough to give to all her family members, she began entering them in shows.

Her Brazilian embroidery quilt, which will be on display in the GHF exhibit, won three "People's Choice" awards and a Blue Ribbon in various shows.

In 1991 Wilson moved to the Penney Retirement Community in Jacksonville, Florida where at the age of 77 she began giving lectures on quilting.

Dawn Wilson remembers a particular piece of quilt folklore included from her mother-in-law: It is bad luck to sleep under a new quilt. To break the spell, the quilter should sleep under it once before giving it away.

For more information about the “Bogan and Wilson Family Quilts” exhibit, contact Galveston Historical Foundation at 409-765-7834.