Quilting Adventures

Quilting is the oddest thing. We cut cloth into pieces so that they can sew it back together. There is a strong history of quilting in my family. I have my grandmother's quilting frames, which my mother used for years. I remember going with my grandmother to the W.S.C.S. (Women's Society of Christian Service) meetings where she sat with her friends around a great big quilt while I played with other kids underneath the center, the area underneath growing smaller and smaller as the sides were rolled in. I have two twin bed quilts that my grandmother made for me. Not only do I have a double bed, but the twin bed quilts are yellow. Everyone who knows me, knows that it is my least favorite color. I have a double bed quilt that I believe my grandmother made for me with an aqua binding, (picture attached) but it is possible that my mother made it.

My mother was an avid quilter. For years she spent her summer evenings cutting and sewing together pieces of fabric by hand. She would often be doing this according to a traditional design. After Christmas Grandma's quilting frame came out and she would sit for hours hunched over it stitching the quilt together. She often quilted with her cousins Lila Mae Moore and Elva Trowbridge as well as with her niece-in-law (her nephew's wife) Evelyn Russell. They shared fabric and technique as well as visits to work on each others quilts. For pictures of my mother's quilts go to www.associatedcontent.com/slideshow/79988/quilts_my_mother_made.html

One time I telephoned my mother to get directions for making bias binding for around a tied comforter. I made it specifically so we could put our shoes on it and throw it in the washer with no worries. She said nothing on her next visit, but when she got home, she wrote me a four page letter. Three pages of it were telling me that it wasn't really a quilt. She was really sensitive about quilting. In 1980 she entered one of her quilts in a quilt show. She only did that once. She was furious that it didn't beat the machine pieced and appliquéd quilts. I don't know what she would say about the machine quilted quilts that are the rage today.

When my son was born she made him a crib quilt with tumbling blocks. It had wonderful fabric with bears on the back. Later she made him an amazing double bed quilt called a Carpenter's Wheel. She enlisted the aid of her great nephew's wife to embroider carpenter's tools in the white spaces. It hung for some time at a friend's restaurant. They occasionally hung quilts for people to admire. She got lots of praise for that quilt. It was certainly a labor of love on her part for my son, and on the part of the embroiderer for my mother.

When I look at the last quilt that she made, I can see clothing that I remember. That is one of the things that makes a quilt special. I remember certain quilts, but have no idea where they went. I remember that there was one quilt which was not quite straight when it was finished, and it would never fold square. I don't remember which quilt it is, or where it went. I remember helping her put a quilt together on a neighbor's living room floor because it was too big for any of the open spaces in our house. That was how I learned how she put a quilt together and rolled them on the long poles of her quilting frame.

The quilting frame is unique. It consists of two long pieces of wood with a tape on one side of each. The quilt is pinned to that tape before it is rolled carefully onto the side bars. Usually she rolled both sides leaving an area about two feet of quilt in between to work on. The sides were held apart by shorter pieces of wood that are clamped to the long pieces. The trick is to keep the two sides as far apart as you can push them before you tighten the C-clamp. The long pieces of wood had holes drilled in various places that would fit around nails which were in the tops of four different stands that would hold the quilt at the right height to work on. I remember that my mother would often put the ends of the long poles through the slates on the back of the dining room chairs instead of using the stands. When it is apart the frame is quite compact with the stands taking up most of the room.

The ladies at my church quilted every Monday for years. I finally went down to see their quilts and gradually joined them. They were really non-judgmental and helped me learn what I didn't learn from my mother. When I quilted on a quilt that my mother was working on, she took the stitches out after I left. That was hard for me to understand until one of the church quilters who has macular degeneration decided to quilt on my quilt. Her stitches were beautiful, except she couldn't tell where her thread came out of the fabric, and so put it back in at unpredictable lengths. Because I had been on the other end, I knew not to let her know that her stitches had to come out.

That quilt was one of those appliquéd quilts that my mother so disliked. Not only that, it was sewn together by machine. That is because I have been using stitch witchery to hold together pieces of her last quilt as the seams fray apart. My quilt has my favorites. Not only does it have cats in different poses, it is made in shades of blue. I was glad to have my friends quilt on it for me. I drew paw prints in some plane squares so that the lady who likes to quilt curves had something she would enjoy and straight lines for those of us who prefer to quilt in straight lines. It is a fun quilt.

Unfortunately the number of quilters has diminished. The original group could be using two frames at a time because there were so many quilters. Today there are three of us in addition to the lady with bad eyes. I am the youth of the group. There is a notebook with pictures of many of the quilts that have been made. We have finally decided that we are doing the last quilt. It is a combination of diminishing numbers and a decision of the church to sell the building where we quilt. We have been offered space in the other building, but there are too many problems associated with moving. I am now in the process of trying to find a home for the quilting frame that we are not using, and the one we are using right now.

I have also finally set up a baby quilt on my grandmother's frames. My husband was challenged by how to put it together. We guessed and remembered close to right, before I found pictures of my mother standing beside it. When I put together the slide show of the quilts that she made, I found a couple of pictures of her with her quilts and with some on the frame. I quilt on the frame beside the same desk that my mother quilted in front of. I put it away on its side just like she did. I have no idea who will get the quilt, but I loved the bear in the center and want to have it quilted before we finish the quilt at the church.

I think that there have always been women gathering in groups to work together and to offer each other support. We called them quilting bees, or W.S.C.S. Our mothers and their mothers gathered in groups and talked about what was happening in their lives as they worked. They didn't have therapy groups or support groups. They had women who became their support group as they worked together. When I go to quilting, or to make lace, I think that I am doing the same thing that women have done for years. We meet together to share skills techniques and support, coming away with a feeling of accomplishment. I am not so different from my mother or grandmother.