Winter
Quilts
Outside
the weather was spitting snow. Inside Mama and Aunt Merica discussed
the number and kinds of quilts they needed to make: Which beds
had enough cotton quilts but needed wool? Which beds needed cotton?
Which quilt should they start first, the cotton or the wool? What
pattern should they cut? Over the winter months only two or three
quilts could be completed from start to finish.
Winter
after winter, Mama and Aunt Merica and all the neighbor women
cut triangles, squares and rectangles to form quilt squares of
cotton in designs called Ocean Wave, Dresden Plate, Flower Basket,
Flatiron and Nine Diamond. Fan was a favorite for silk. Many of
the wool quilts were the H pattern or Crazy. From coats and pants
that were no longer usefulness as clothes, enough pieces could
be cut to make a top or two. Good clothes no longer needed were
used; a beautiful gold and black Road to Jericho was made from
my dead Grandma's best black dress. Mornings, when I lingered
in bed, I sometimes kept myself entertained by finding my dresses,
those of Aunt Merica and Mama, or counting the strange pieces
that had made their way into our quilts by swapping scraps with
the neighbors.
Using a coarse thread and needle, the assorted sizes and shapes
of quilt pieces were strung into separate strands as they were
cut. Once the needle was cut off, the quilt piece could be slipped
off the thread, combined with a piece from another strand and
little by little made into a quilt square of the chosen design.
Day
by day the pile of squares grew bigger. Mama counted and recounted,
until one day she declared that the proper number were finished
and they could begin sewing them together for the top. She and
Aunt Merica discussed for some time whether or not, upstairs in
their guest closets, there was enough cotton batting left for
a cotton quilt; enough wool batting for a wool. It was better
to try to remember than face the cold of those unheated rooms.
From the mailorder catalogue, Mama ordered quilting thread, needles,
and enough unbleached muslin to back a cotton quilt; she ordered
a lightweight blanket and balls of colored tacking thread for
a wool. Sometimes she ordered several colors of embroidery thread
to use to do brier stitch around the wool pieces in the crazy
quilt. And, if the closets had not produced enough, she ordered
batting.
A
few mornings later the mailman, in his black buggy drawn by his
spirited horse, brought the package to the mailbox at the foot
of the hill. Anything that did not meet with Mama and Aunt Merica's
approval was bundled up with a new order inside and returned to
the company when the mailman and his horse made their way back
to our house in the afternoon from delivering mail all the way
to Cedar Springs and Camp.
Daddy
helped set up the quilting frames. The four corners were perched
on top of dining room chairs and clamped together. The backing
was secured to the frames; the batting and the pieced top carefully
spread on top and all basted together. Sometimes the quilting
was to be done following the shapes of the pieces. Sometimes Mama
and Aunt Merica wanted the quilt laid off in diamonds or squares;
if so, Daddy did that using white chalk and a yard stick, for
he was good at measuring and keeping things straight. The quilt
was rolled from both sides and left to wait the morning when three
or four neighbors were invited in to help quilt. Mama was particular.
For an everyday quilt, she didn't mind who came. But for a good
quilt, the person invited had to be able to quilt with little,
even stitches. Years later, she did all the quilting on her granddaughter's
satin baby quilt.
Mama
and Aunt Merica made company dinner the days they all quilted.
An old hen would simmer away an the black iron stove and-long
about dinner time Aunt Merica would make rolled out dumplings.
Or spare ribs cooked for awhile before Aunt Merica went to the
cellar for sauerkraut, rinsed it and put it in over the ribs.
Then, shortly before dinner, she made drop dumplings. Once she
had dropped them in the pot, no one dared touch the lid until
she said, "Well, I guess they are about done, so let's get
round the table." That wasn't all we had, of course, but
that was the main thing.
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