Ernest B. Haight, Nebraska Farmer/Quilt Maker

By Elmer W. Haight

John Lange and I reminded each other at the FRAPA annual meeting in early November, that I owed him an article for the newsletter. My offer was a year old by now. My father Ernest B. Haight is a legend in the quilt making arena in Nebraska. It is an unusual hobby for a farmer. I will give some family background, then get into how he got started in quilt making. I hope you enjoy this article and share it. My father was born in 1899 and passed away in 1992. The farm, near David City, Nebraska was homesteaded by the Haight family in 1871. Through generations, Ernest eventually inherited it. He and my mother Isabelle raised five children. I was the second from the youngest and am now 82. Dad got his Agricultural Engineering degree, and an Arts and Sciences degree from the University of Nebraska in 1923. A much better student than I, because of his Phi Beta Kappa honor in Arts and Sciences. It was a dryland farm, but produced fairly good crops of corn, wheat, oats, brome grass and sorghum. With a 1931 John Deere GP, and an old crosswise engine Case he provided grain threshing for himself and some of the neighbors. The thresher was a “Twin Cities”. The JD had been burned in a JD exhibit tent fire at the Nebraska State Fair in 1931, and Dad decided to buy it and restore it. The fire was said to be so hot that the spokes in the wheels were bent. He restored it and used it continually into the late 1970’s. I have countless miles doing farm work on that old tractor. It is restored and “parade ready” in Rock Springs, WY now. Farming had its tough times, especially in the depression years. It was pretty much hand to mouth as one might expect. He hired some local town folk to help with the heavy work for $0.50 a day plus meals. We children were old enough to help later. During the cold of winter, the extent of farm work was mostly milking the dozen or so cows twice a day. Dad didn’t like to sit idle, so he busied himself in his shop. He forged tools, and I’m told built a small workable steam engine. But the shop wasn’t heated, so he needed an inside hobby for the cold winter hours. He carved a little, made wooden puzzles, and then came the quilts. My mother, and my grandmother sometimes had quilting “bees” at our farmhouse, or in town. Sometimes my grandfather did some needlework, too. There are two main things about quilting, “piecing” and “quilting”. Piecing is assembling and sewing the top, and quilting is the design stitching, done by machine, or (mostly) by hand in those days. One day Dad stopped to see their work. Since he was used to precision, he noted out loud, that some of the quilt top fabric corners did not match perfectly. This prompted a quick response from Mom and the others, “if you think you can do it better, go ahead and try”. That challenge was all he needed. The year was 1934. Dad specialized in designing and piecing/sewing the tops. He also sewed the back fabric on with “batting” in between. His work was done first with a treadle machine, and later electric sewing machines. He wore out a couple of electric machines. The treadle machine is in a museum in David City, NE. Within a couple of years, he mastered the challenge, and began winning blue (first place) ribbons at the County and State fair, surpassing ribbons won by the ladies. He did some quilting by machine, but many of his quilts were hand stitched by the ladies. My mother, Isabelle, was a master at the quilting, and of course contributed to the ability to win awards. It was in the late 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s when Dad produced most of his quilts. This was after most of us were away, out on our own. When visiting home, we found that his evenings were definitely for quilting. With a sharp pencil on his ear, a yardstick and large plastic triangle handy, he would use much of the dining room table, and an extension he put on his sewing machine, to measure and mark out his next creation. He liked geometric designs, and at times actually used a kaleidoscope as an inspiration. He usually drew his patterns meticulously, at small scale, and experimented with colored pencils for the color schemes he liked. Then he “scaled it up” to quilt size to mark out his pieces. He experimented with ways to minimize handling each little piece of a quilt, in ways I am not able to explain. A fabric store in David City or Columbus went out of business at some point, and I’m told he bought their whole inventory. Ernest was recognized for his contributions to quilt making methodology when he became the first man inducted into the Nebraska Quilter’s Hall of Fame in 1986. His quilts were displayed in Stuhr museum in Grand Island, Nebraska, and a museum in Aurora, Nebraska, as well as one at the Ford museum in Michigan. Also, there are a couple of full-sized prints of his quilts displayed in the hallway of the Dean of Engineering’s office in Lincoln. He liked designing his own quilt tops, but once in a while used old established patterns. He made over 300 quilts, and gave some to family for weddings, graduations, births, and other occasions. He also liked to donate quilts to fund raisers and charities. The International Quilt Study Center & Museum (IQSCM) has several his quilts in their possession due to family donations, etc. The assistant curator Jonathon Gregory of the museum did his Doctor’s Degree study and dissertation on Ernest’s work. Starting in July 2013, extending to March 2014, his quilts were exhibited at the IQSCM located on the University of Nebraska campus. In 1974 Ernest wrote a small book titled “Practical Machine-Quilting for the Homemaker”. His contribution was toward innovating modern quilting practice into older style quilting. We commend Jonathan for his tireless efforts over several years in gathering information, taking quilt photographs, doing interviews with our family, and researching magazine articles published over the years. He traveled to Iowa, Colorado, and Florida to visit with my siblings, and my wife and me. He stayed with us a couple of times and would be downstairs in the middle of the night entering data in his computer. His Doctor’s degree was well earned. Not being a quilter, I’m not able to discuss in depth Dad’s techniques, but I encourage you to use the following on-line sources for much more information than I have provided. There are several ways to get more information and see some of his quilts on the internet. I use Google. In Google, try Ernest B. Haight Nebraska Quilter; or type in Ernest Haight’s Half Century of Quilting to see videos and other information on Ernest’s work. You can also go to YouTube.com and type in Ernest Haight quilts, and a number of videos will be shown for you to pick from. To learn about the quilt museum, just Google search for IQSCM. We are thankful he found a way to express his design skills and touch the hearts of so many people.