Linda Otto Lipsett

An American Pioneer Saga Elizabeth Roseberry Mitchell's two sons were buried in distant Ohio graves. On the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, Elizabeth began making a quilted cloth graveyard with two walnut-dyed cloth coffins for each of her two boys. The quilt would not only be a mourning piece but, at a time when there were no photographs, it was also Elizabeth's representation of the actual graveyard in Ohio. In the collection of the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort, Kentucky, the Graveyard Quilt is an unusual piece of American folk art, as well as a quilt masterpiece. Using this well-known quilt as a document, Linda Otto Lipsett has uncovered a piece of American history never before written. The quiltmaker's pioneer saga begins with her grandparents before the Revolutionary War and continues until 1930, through five generations of her family. Throughout the book Linda Otto Lipsett weaves the story of the making of the Graveyard Quilt. Linda brings to her book over five years of research, which took her tens of thousands of miles from Maryland and Virginia to Pennsylvania and Ohio, to Kentucky near the banks of the Ohio River where Elizabeth Roseberry Mitchell began her famous Graveyard Quilt, to Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and finally to California (the author's resident state), where three of the quiltmaker's children lived at the end of their lives. This book focuses on the following family surnames: Mitchell, Roseberry, Hughes, Swan, Stallcup, Boyd, Garrettson, Biggs, Dye and McElroy. Elizabeth Roseberry Mitchell's Graveyard Quilt is unique--for the first time the detailed story of a museum quilt is set down in a full-length book. Elizabeth Roseberry Mitchell's Graveyard Quilt: An American Pioneer Saga by Linda Otto Lipsett, Halstead & Meadows Publishing, Dayton, Ohio, 288 pages with illustrations, photographs, and color photographs of the quilt, CIP/LC 95-41580, ISBN 0-9629399-2-7, $18.95.

Ellen Spaulding Reed's Letters and Story In 1854 in Ludlow Vermont, a friendship quilt was made for nineteen-year-old Ellen Spaulding Reed's wedding and going-away present. Ellen was married on September 5, 1854, and journeyed by train, stage, and wagon to Burke, Wisconsin, where her husband previously had built a one-room log cabin for their first home. Ellen began writing home the very next morning after arriving in Burke. All too soon she discovered that the only good things about the West were the quiltings. Homesickness, loneliness, and hardships overtook her pride, and she pleaded to return home to Vermont. The story continues after her young death with her husband's marriage, struggle in the Civil War, and realization that Ellen had been right after all--he would never get rich in the West. Pieced from Ellen's Quilt is the result of years of research. Through a will, Linda Otto Lipsett discovered Ellen's letters (now in the author's private collection). This book is the true story of a bridal friendship quilt in Ellen Spaulding Reed's own words through her letters with narration. A shortened version of Ellen's story ("A Piece of Ellen's Dress") first appeared in The Quilt Digest 2 and in 1985, in Linda's book Remember Me: Women & Their Friendship Quilts. This book focuses on the following family surnames: Spaulding, Reed, Bagley, Haven, White, McWilliams, Cline, Fowler, Patch, Talcott and Cady. Pieced from Ellen's Quilt: Ellen Spaulding Reed's Letters and Story by Linda Otto Lipsett, Halstead & Meadows Publishing, 224 pages, includes 16 full-color pages featuring Ellen's friendship quilt, as well as 37 nineteenth-century photographs important to Ellen's story, CIP/LC 91-16329, ISBN 0-9629399-0-0, $13.95.

Brides Remembered This rare and wonderful book presents a panoramic and lively picture of what courtship, marriage and married life was like for women across the American continent during the nineteenth century. Intimately illustrated with early photos and daguerreotypes, the text sparkles with the stories of hundreds of brides, their hopes, aspirations, sorrows, triumphs and loves. Filled with poignant and often hilarious anecdotes, this remarkable text is illustrated with lush full-color photos of many bridal friendship quilt and wedding gowns. The book abounds with complete descriptions and explanations of the many bridal traditions and customs we take so for granted today. Altogether this is an astonishingly comprehensive and beautiful book. This book focuses on the following family surnames: Nichols, Golden, Howard, Taylor, Dunsmoor, Spear, Place, Leonard, Hastings, McElroy, Rockwell, Abbott, Miner, Higggins, Fisher, Sawyer, Sumner, Mather, Steel and Wait. To Love & To Cherish is a stunning present from an extraordinarily gifted author. It makes a gift any woman will cherish. Includes patterns and complete instructions for three antique bridal friendship quilts. To Love & To Cherish: Brides Remembered by Linda Otto Lipsett, Halstead & Meadows Publishing