Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Mama And Her Quilting Church Ladies

One of my friends shared an old quilt this morning and a memory of my Mother popped into my head. It made me realize that although my Mother left me at 18 months old with Daddy, that she came back to stay more times than I had remembered.
I have shared the picture of my Mother in church at Ebenezer and 5 of her children are with her. The only one missing is my brother LeeRoy. He was about 12 then so he may have been working that day. Mama went to church often during that time when I was 3 or 4. I remember going with her but more than going to church, the thing I remember are some of the church ladies coming to our house to sew on a Quilt.
I think that many homes had quilt frames in that day and generations before, so it wasn't unusual for a home to have one.
My Mother's was in the back room where Daddy's bed was in later years and where I slept when I came home to visit Donna in 2011. The quilt frame was on the ceiling with the working quilt stretched out on the frame. When the ladies would come to visit and work, My mom would go over to the wall where a rope pulley system was installed. She unwound the rope and the frame would lower. She would tie it off on the hooks at just the right height for the ladies to slide their wooden straight back chairs underneath it with their legs and in a perfect position to made beautiful even stitches over the section, they were working on.
I remember coming into the room to see my Mama and there were 6 ladies in there, including her. Three on each side of the quilt working away. I know that Aunt Dell was there.
Aunt Dell or Adella Morris was my Grandmother Ola's Sister and the mother of Aunt Jody. She lived right next door to her daughter Aunt Jody who married my Daddy's brother Robert.
Aunt Jody was the mother of my 1st cousin that I have talked about recently with Downs Syndrome, Glenda. They were a huge part of my sister Donna's and my life because they lived so close and we visited them all the time and we went over to see Aunt Dell often too.
The reasons were different for visiting each one. Aunt Jody had Glenda And Diann who we loved to play with but Aunt Dell had coconut Bon Bons!!!! They were all different flavors and my favorite was the Pink. I can still taste biting into them for the first time and every time thereafter. lol
The Church Ladies came often because it took a lot of stitches to make a full quilt. I don't know what they did with the finished quilt. It could have been a raffle at Church or it could have been for one of the church ladies. For as many quilts as they made, each one could have had one for those cold winter mornings.
Thank you Sherry for posting your old quilt this morning. I Loved how the memories exploded into my mind this morning. I remember the colors of the quilt this morning. It almost looked like Flour sack material patterns that they were using and it was beautiful.
It reminded me of those amazing people in my life that made quilts. My dear Aunt Thelma, Daddy's sister that made at least a hundred or more during her lifetime. My sister has one of the prettiest ones of hers with rings all over it. It is gorgeous. I gave my daughter Wendi one of her last ones and I am thankful to have it.
I lived among the Amish, some of the greatest quilt makers in the world, in my opinion, and I was lucky enough to buy one of the last ones that Grandma Sophia Miller made. When my sister Donna and I went up to get the last things from my home, I purchased a full sized quilt from Mrs Miller and I was privileged to have her sign it. They don't usually do things like that because it is considered prideful but I knew them from being the Amish Nurse so she did for me. It is a prized possession and one that is proudly displayed on my antique cedar Chest.
The last quilt that I will talk about is one my sister Ruby sent to me when her son and family came to visit me at my home in Upstate NY. She wanted me to have something of home so they brought me the biggest basket filled with goodies of Jay and home. Yellow pine, pine cones and leaves from Papa's old place, A boll of cotton, some boiled peanuts, home canned jams and jellies, countless hand made cookies and candy. (My sister makes the best fudge and divinity I have ever tasted), and this amazing quilt. I was overcome when they walked in with this huge basket of my childhood. The smells of the peanuts, the pine, and I remember burying my face into the cotton.
You don't realize what you might miss until you are away from it for 40 years. I thought I would get through one of these remembrances without a tear, but just thinking of that basket of home makes them fall freely.
We were so lucky to grow up in Jay, with its many churches where we become families and most of us were family. The many streams where we could take our shoes off and walk in for those hot summer days. The acreage to roam free playing in gullies, collecting edible plants, eating bullices (sp) off the vine til we were sick and catching crawdads for dinner.
I hope that you all have a wonderful day today, with remembrances of Church Ladies, old Quilts, Pink Bon Bons and our wonderful families that made us who we are. The times may have been hard for many of us, but we survived and we thrived to have our own families.
God bless all of you Jay people that helped shaped me and thank you for being a part of helping me be a better me... Much love, Kimmee














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