Quilts

Growing up I never paid much attention to quilts.  We didn’t have any.  We used blankets.  And bedspreads.  I was so glad when I got older and comforters became popular.  I hated making my bed and if I didn’t have to put a bedspread on it then it was pretty easy to just pull that comforter up and straighten it.  I guess I didn’t know what I was missing.

I became aware of the aura of quilts upon my first visit to Fancy Farm.  They were everywhere.  The ladies of Fancy Farm quilt.  Well, not all of them.  In a family there would be someone who enjoyed doing embroidery or the needle-work.  Then there was someone who enjoyed piecing quilts and then the ones who enjoyed quilting.  Most families had someone in each of these categories.  Sometimes it was cousins, or friends.

I remember walking into the living room at the farm in the middle of winter and not being able to walk around because this huge quilt frame, with a quilt in it, was taking up the entire room.  It was hanging from the ceiling.  And everyone was sitting around it.  Some were talking, some were quilting, even the guys.  When they weren’t working on the quilt they just pulled it up to the ceiling and tied it off.  The next time they had time they would lower their home-made pulley and start working on it again.

At least once a week the ladies of Fancy Farm would get together and work on a community quilt.  This was one that they would raffle at the world-famous Fancy Farm Picnic.  If they could they would quilt 3 or 4 and have that many raffles.  They would work on baby quilts too.  Years later when quilts became very popular, and rare, they began to sell them at the Country Store on Picnic day.

There are ladies in Fancy Farm who have been doing this for over 50 years.  They don’t expect anything in return for the quilts.  Any monies made is donated to St. Jerome Church.  As it should be.  But they have come to realize the value of the quilts and they are priced accordingly.  They are still a bargain when you consider the time involved in piecing, quilting and finishing the quilt.

These ladies will quilt for you too.  If you have a quilt top they will quilt it and charge you for their time.  If you are lucky and they have a quilt they don’t need to hang onto for Picnic you might get lucky enough to buy one from them.

I treasure my quilts.  I treasure them more than a lot of other things in my home.  It is very rare for me to let anyone use them on their bed but I love to sleep under a quilt.  I just don’t want them to get messed up.  I don’t want to have to wash them because I know how fragile they are.  I sometimes feel that I need to protect them with my life.

Because I have a husband who will say “go get me an old quilt” so that he can use it to lie on while he’s working on the tractor or something.  I look at him as though he just slapped me across the face.  You don’t know how many times I have pulled up to see one of my precious quilts being used like it was an old rag.  I blame the availability of quilts in his life for this.

His mother wouldn’t have thought twice about pulling out an “old” quilt to lay across a bale of straw or to throw into a dog house with a new litter of puppies or something like that.  She would have just made a new quilt when she finished the one that was in her quilt frame.  There is no telling how many quilts she made in her life.  She didn’t really like to piece a quilt or do any fancy needlework so sometimes if she didn’t have anything to quilt she would get a set of sheets and quilt a sheet.  Some of those were just precious.  I wish I had some of those.

There are times that I will go out and visit with the ladies in Fancy Farm who quilt.  They love having visitors.  And they really do love anyone who appreciates their work.  They are thrilled to do the work but they get so excited if someone is thrilled by the work they do.

This year, after Picnic, one of our cousins who was visiting Fancy Farm for a family reunion told me that his wife was upset because she didn’t win the quilt at the Picnic.  I told him that I would bet there was one left over from the Country Store that was for sale.  I asked another cousin whose license plate reads “LV2QLT” (love to quilt) and she called up the keeper of all things quilt-related, Wilma Hobbs, and the next thing you know that quilt was right there for our cousin.  He was so excited that it was still available and was proud to write a check to buy that quilt from the Country Store.  When he opened that box and showed his wife what he had bought for her you would have thought she was going to break down.  She went around thanking everyone who had anything to do with his surprise.

I pray that the quilting ladies are still out there for another 10 years so that one day I can start going out there on Wednesdays and quilt with them.  I won’t be much help but I will gush all over their hard work.  And I’ll keep them entertained.