Quilts and Willing Workers

Despite the popular belief, quilts probably didn't come over on the Mayflower because back then a quilt was a luxury item, and the Pilgrims were Puritans and not given to such ostentatious behavior as owning quilts. Instead they more than likely brought woven coverlets.

Quilts probably appeared in the South way before they did in New England. The earliest quilts were made of Indian chintz and Palamplores, and we should thank the English, Welsh, and Dutch immigrants for bringing the quilting tradition to this country.

A quilting craze exploded on the American scene in the early 19th Century when dyes and fabrics became less expensive and more easily acquired.

Broderie perse, Persian embroidery or later fine printed chintz, quilts are some of the earliest of modern quilts. These quilts began to be made in the 16th Century when England imported fabrics and dyes from India.

The heritage of quilts is quite fascinating, and they remind us of our families' pasts, as our mothers, grandmothers, and so forth, sewed love and history into these artist creations which were made for practical purposes.

The Willing Workers Quilting Club of Mineral Wells has some wonderful stories to share regarding their quilting and the quilts of their ancestors.

Veda Lee is the widow of Ambrouse Lee, former chief of police of Mineral Wells. Her father was Constable of Starr County, Texas, as well as a mule packer for Fort Ringgold. He traveled through Rio Grande City and on one trip, he saw a man wearing a beautiful handmade shirt. He asked to be introduced to the seamstress. Her name was Demetria Morales. Mr. Vela fell in love with this beautiful girl and soon they were married.

Veda grew up in Rio Grande City, Texas, where most of the quilts were made with wool batting. She says that you don't need many quilts when they are made with wool! Veda's mother, Demetria Morales Vela, made her a wedding quilt out of home-carded wool with a top pieced in Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern. The original top wore out so Mrs. Vela took it off, washed and re-carded the wool, then replaced the top with a four patch pattern.

Mrs. Lee has the wool cards and the thimble her mother used to make the quilt. The thimble is embossed silver decorated with engraved gold bearing the initial "D" for Demetria. Veda inherited the thimble and used it so much that she wore a hole in the tip of it. It was sent to a jeweler for repair and has now been restored to service. Veda uses it while carrying on her mother's quilting tradition. She states that her daughters all want to inherit the thimble but that the girl who learns to quilt will be the one to get it.

Margaret Manney has several old quilts belonging to her family. One is an unusual yellow and white star pattern quilt about a hundred years old made by Granny Clemmons and inherited by Margaret's daughter, Margaret Manney Clemmons. One unfinished quilt top is made from tobacco sacks with the printing still on them.

Another quilt was made for her daughter, Karen Sue Manney who died at the age of 13. It is a Southern Bell appliquéd quilt made by Margaret's aunt, Ada Fulton of Hollis, Oklahoma. Margaret was living in Wichita Falls during the 1979 tornado and her house blew away in the storm. Much of the debris landed in Burkburnett so the newspaper published pictures of items that might be claimed. Margaret recognized her quilt in one of the pictures. Although the quilt was slightly damaged, she was able to clean and restore it. She also found two quilt kits that she had purchased at the Yarn Shop in Wichita Falls and has recently finished them. One, an appliqué quilt, won first place at the Crazy Water Festival quilt show a few years ago. These "tornado quilts" will always be family treasures as much for their survival tales as for the beautiful workmanship that went into them.

Another quilt treasure is a Yo-Yo quilt made by Margaret's son-in-law's grandmother, Mrs. Robert Brooks from Gruver, Texas. The quilt is at least 90 years old and was first used on a feather bed in the master bedroom. Margaret has the both bedroom suite and the quilt.

Pat Falls' brother John liked to fish when he was a young man. Her grandmother decided to make him a quilt with fish on it. Pat had just purchased a new Montgomery Ward zigzag sewing machine so it was decided that she would sew the fish on the blocks and Grandma would sew the blocks together. Grandma never said anything about her less-than-perfect work. She said how nice they looked, regardless of what she may have thought. Grandma and Pat finished the quilt top in 1954 or 1955, but it was years later before it was quilted by the ladies of Immanuel Baptist Church. Pat's brother John never got to sleep under his quilt. Sadly, he died before it was completed. She is sorry she didn't finish his quilt earlier, but when she looks at it, she thinks of him, and of Grandma.

Although Erika Knowles did not inherit a quilting tradition from her family, she has certainly started one. She has made numerous treasured quilts for all of her children and grandchildren and has taught her granddaughters to quilt. She is an energetic young grandmother whose quilts her entire family wants to own. A dear friend, Margaret Riley, gave Erika two seventy-five year old antique quilts. She knew how much Erika loved quilts and wanted them to go to someone who she knew would appreciate them.

Ruby Holliman did not inherit a quilting tradition from her family, but she, too, has started one. She always loved hand sewing so when she retired from teaching, she began making vests decorated with handwork. Her friend, Joan Crowley, saw one of the vests and insisted that Ruby come to the Willing Workers Quilting Club the next week. Ruby learned to quilt easily since she had always been skilled at hand sewing.

She was working on an appliquéd quilt in the Southern Belle pattern while visiting her daughter-in-law, Pam Holliman, in Houston, Texas. Pam suggested that she use the pattern to make an African lady with a fabric headdress instead of the bonnet. It took Ruby two years to complete the first quilt, which was given to Pam for her birthday. It is a family favorite, and she has requests from her family for as many as she wants to make. She calls the pattern African Attire.

Quilts have always been part of Lida Clark's life. Her grandmother and mother both quilted, and she learned to quilt from an early age. When she was 3 or 4-years-old she and her sister were allowed go play "hid the penny' on an Overall Boy quilt. They would sit and play for hours. In the early 30's everyone was strapped for cash, and Lida's family cold only sell their cotton to the government, which would pay them but not take the cotton, so after weighing they would take it back home, card it, and make it into batts for quilts and mattresses. They would lay the batting on a ladder back chair and when the batts reached the top of the chair, they would know they had enough for a quilt. Lida also tells that when quilts wore thin, they were often used as batting and a new quilt top and bottom were made. If you feel lumps in an old quilt, you may discover an even older quilt inside! Waste not, want not!

Jerrie Brawley's family came from Mississippi about 1862 or 1863. Jerrie's aunt, Birdie Gambrell, has two of the quilts her great-aunt Lillian Gambrell brought from Mississippi in a covered wagon along with 4 slaves and their families. They settled in Milam County, Texas, and raised cotton. Two years before the Emancipation Proclamation, her great-grandfather set the slaves free, but they continued for work for him. One of the quilts is the Wagon Tracks pattern made by her aunt and one of the former slave women. They thought the pattern was appropriate to commemorate their journey to Texas. When Jerrie was a girl, she slept on a feather bed under the quilts made by Aunt Lilly.

Margaret McCasland was introduced to quilting as a child when the local Farmer's Grange in Orla, Texas, held quilting bees. The children would play under the quilt frames and watch the needles come through the fabric while the ladies quilted. While growing up, her house was always full of quilts since they were the main bed covers. Sometimes in the winter, the quilts were piled so high on the bed that the weight of them would press you down into the mattress.

Margaret's grandmother, Emma Shields, made a quilt in the Overall Boy pattern with pockets that could hold pennies. She and her sister would search the quilt to find the pennies and then put them in different pockets so they could be hunted again. They never thought of taking the pennies out of the quilt, it was too much fun to play the "Hunt the Penny" game. The quilt wore out and was eventually re-covered, ending the fun.

Margaret has an 80-year old Dresden Plate quilt made by her husband Barney's great aunt, Lila Harris of Center, Texas. When he was a young man, John G. Harris, Lila's husband, worked on a ranch near the Mexican border in South Texas. He was captured by Pancho Villa's men in a raid and in order to save his life, he convinced them he was sympathetic to their cause. He traveled with them for a number of months before he was able to escape and return to Texas. He had had enough of the border country and moved to the small town of Center in East Texas where the town was peaceful and the banditos were far, far away. He met and married Lila Smith, a Southern lady who kept an orderly house, cooked, canned, and sewed, including sewing quilts. When Margaret sees the quilt, she thinks of Aunt Lila and the peaceful life she created for Uncle John G.

What remarkable stories these ladies have told of quilting and how it affected the history of their families. Do you have stories like this? Would you like to learn to quilt so that the tradition will not be lost? You can, you know. Just go to the old Nazareth Hospital any Wednesday between 9 am and 2 pm, and these lovely ladies of the Willing Workers Quilting Club will gladly let you in on their love for quilting and its history.