Quilts

Quilts.  The old timey kind of quilt is an amazing thing to sleep under.  They had cotton batting in the middle, not some new miracle fiber.  A good quilt had weight to it.  And they were stitched by hand, not on sewing machines. 

The pieces they were made of were actually just an accumulation of scraps of material leftover from dresses, curtains...anything the women who made the quilt had made in the past year or two.  It was a beautiful way to use the leftovers, what could of been waste.  Many things in bygone days were put to use that way.  Those who lived this way were the first & foremost recyclers.  They recycled not with an eye on the environment, they recycled out of need and to stretch a buck. 

Feed sacks and flour sacks became garments.  Jars were washed and saved for home canning.  This is the generation your grandmother, Jessie Ruth, came from.  I remember always being covered by a quilt or multiple quilts in the winter months.  I remember a quilt was taken along for picnics and other such outdoor activities. 

There should be a stack of quilts in the far left corner of the attic in our old house.  Most of those were used during my childhood.  They all became tattered and worn in different ways over the years of use.  Who made them?  I'm sorry I can't tell you so & so made this one or any other such thing.  I know mama and her sisters knew how to quilt.  I know that mama's first mother-in-law, Mama Epsie, was a quilter.  Did she or Mama make them all?  Did Mama Ruth, mother's mother, have a hand in any.  I don't know.

It has always been my dream to take them to a master quilter.  To have them restored and put back to use within  the family.  But funds for such an endeavor has always stood in my way.  I haven't given up.  Perhaps there is still a chance I can do that and divide them between you before I pass on.  Then again, I may never be able to.  But now you know the story behind them...as much of it as I know.  And perhaps it will be one of you who can breath life into these masterpieces once again.