Jeff Hajny

    Nebraska is a state of many stories. Tales of Nebraskan history go back to before it was even a state.
     This is also a state of many historical artifacts, from Native American relics to old farm equipment.
     On April 22, the Seward County Genealogical Society heard about some pieces of Nebraska's history.
     The society was treated to a presentation from quilt collector Jan Stehlik.
     Stehlik showed the society some of the quilts she had both made and those she had collected over the years.
     She began by reflecting on her connection to Seward.
     "I lived in Dorchester and Lincoln growing up. During the summer, we would work camps," she said. "We went to a camp in Seward and we were close enough to Lincoln that many of the members had significant others there. I ended up meeting my future husband in Seward so the town will always have a place in my heart."
     She spent time doing some preliminary work for a quilt at the county fairgrounds.
     "That work helped the start of the Blue Valley Quilt Guild here in town," she said.
     She showed some of her oldest quilts and styles for quilts, which date back to the latter part of the 19th century.
     "It's amazing what happened to cloths after the Victorian Era," she said. "The styles in my collection had a large connection to east coast styles of quilting."
     Stehlik then talked about how a style of quilting called Crazy Quilting came to be at the beginning of the 20th century.
     "Americans were adopting Japanese Crazy Quilts at this time," she said. "Some were made for comfort and warmth, but the majority were made to put over parlor chairs for decoration.
     "We didn't have many good dyes in the U.S. back then. Indigo and red were good natural dyes, but they were hard to come by. Many of the browns in older quilts were made from iron rust, so you can imagine what good that did the material."
     Stehlik discussed the styles that followed during the 1930s and 1940s, which included feedsack quilts and the patchworks which can be seen today.
     "In that time period, there wasn't much money to go around, so people wanted a way to make quilts and blankets without using much money," she said.
     "After the first world war, it was make quilts for France, after World War II, it was make quilts for war-torn Europe. Being of German descent, I thought who knows? I may be saving a cousin."
     She finished her talk by showing recent quilts made, some for America's bicentennial in 1976 and one she made with patches representing stories from the Bible.
     Stehlik then unveiled a new quilt she had just finished for the Milford Historical Society showing pieces of Milford's history.
     In 1984, Stehlik published a book entitled Sod House Treasures, which gives an insight on quilt making.
     "It was delightful after I finished this book because I had orders from all over from people who had grandparents grow up in sod houses and saw many of those old styles of quilting."