Quilting in the Summertime August 2001

The quilt is on the frame and the frame raised up toward the ceiling so the floor space can be used.  In olden days the frames were hung from the ceiling, too; however, then the twine was wound around the ends of the frames and then raised  up all the way to the ceiling — there was no electricity and, thus, no lights and/or fans in the way.  Today my project has to stop at the light fixture, which also carries a ceiling fan, but it helps to have 9 foot ceilings.

As I sit here and stare up at the bottom side of the quilt (in progress), I mull over the work yet to be done and how little has been accomplished up to this point.  I have not had a quilt in the frame in several years, but when it’s too hot to work outside I can quilt. I have not found that much quilting time though since it’s canning/freezing season.  I’ve already started praying for frost.  I’m tired of all this “stuff” to be dealt with and, on top of that, my kitchen stays in a mess – even the surface unit looks as though it’s had canning done on it!  The pickle factory is about to close. I now have only two gallons on the counter — it’s nice to have a head start on that business of Christmas shopping though.  We are fortunate that the inherited grandchildren and their families like the pickles and are glad to get them for Christmas.

Should some reader not know what a quilt is – it’s a cloth sandwich with a top, a bottom and a filler.  Quilting is the process of stitching the three layers together and I did just that last week.  I enjoy reflecting on quilts and quilting in days gone by.  Quiltings were a social event — the ladies would gather and quilt all day and the gentlemen would come in the evenings for food and fellowship.

I well remember when the Geraldine First Baptist Church was built (my mother and I were charter members)  the basement was built first and ladies of the church met there and quilted one day a week.  As I remember it, they would quilt a quilt for $3 and two quilts could be quilted in one day. Wow!  I need those ladies around here for a while. Those were the days before schools had lunchrooms and the teachers at the school heard what good lunches were available at the Baptist Church and began sending out there for their lunch on Thursday (or whatever the quilting day was).  And this was a little more money that went into the building fund. Ladies who did not make nice stitches usually volunteered to work in the kitchen, although the meal was a covered-dish event.  Quilters were, and still are, critical of those who made (or make) long stitches — the term used was “one could their toenails hung in the long stitches.”  I well remember that Mother did not want to sit by a certain lady (I’m so thankful I can’t remember who the lady was) because that person made long stiches and somebody might think Mother had quilted there.

Children used to enjoy playing under the quilt as it was being worked on and the quilters had to be very careful what they talked about — the children would hear.  As the quilting was accomplished, the sides were rolled up so the unquilted area could be reached — of course, the quilt would become narrower which meant the heads of the quilters were closer together.  That was the time when they could whisper about “private” things — such as a neighbor down the road being “in a family way” again.  Those kinds of things were not talked about openly as we hear (and do) today.

I know and have known oodles of quilt-related stories.  Once I heard about a new lady in the community being invited to the quilting and she made long stitches.  After she went home the quilt owner started picking out her stitches and the lady came back to get her scissors.  I don’t know the rest of the story, but I have picked out a few stitches myself. I once picked out stitches of a lady who now teaches how to make short quilting stitches!  Someday I may tell her just what I did to her work many years ago.  I think she would just laugh — at least I hope she would.

This is just some of what’s going on at the Windy Knoll with its style of country living.