15 minute read
Quilts, Warmth and More
Quilts, Warmth, and Tea Cakes
by Patsy McCrory
Have you ever eaten Thanksgiving dinner under a quilt? The Coffey family in Oxford, MS, frequently did.
I was a journalism/English liberal arts student at Ole Miss in 1969 when I did a feature story about Mrs. Gladys Waller Coffey, the mother of my supervisor at the Bank of Oxford. I worked there to put myself through college after my father’s death. Mrs. Wilma Coffey Bunch, who later became one of the bank’s vice-presidents, took me to meet her mother to help me complete an assignment for Dr. Jere Hoar’s feature writing class at the Ole Miss Journalism Department.
Mrs. Coffey was a lovely lady with the same crinkly eyes as her daughter. Both had that warm, winning smile. Her specialty was beautiful, elaborate French-style hand-embroidered designs with bright colorfast threads on solid background fabrics. Her frames were in her dining room and hung from chains from the ceiling above her dining room table. When family came for Thanksgiving, she would simply roll up the frames above the table and they ate their meal literally under her latest, incomplete quilt creation.
I was drawn to quilting as a subject for my feature story because my own grandmother, Zelma McCullar of Ashland, MS, made beautiful hand pieced quilts. She was “Ma” to me and the other 13 grandchildren and to dozens of foster children she took into her home. She was left a widow with three daughters to raise during the Depression. She often hired herself out to ladies in the community to do quilting for them for $2 or $3 a week. Her second husband also died of cancer and left her with two more children and a farm to keep up. She died at the age of 80 in 1983 having made quilts and pillows for every family member.
Our town had a shirt factory where most of the ladies were hired to sit at sewing machines all day to sew shirts, skirts, blouses and dresses for sale by a manufacturer under several different labels. It was a “sweatshop” operation literally because the building was not air conditioned in the 1950’s and ‘60’s. Community ladies knew when the maintenance staff would take the leftover fabric scraps to the dump. They would be waiting to pick through the many boxes of scraps to take home for their own quilts. My grandmother, mother and aunts were some of the first to take advantage of the huge source of free quilt scraps. Before then, local quilters recycled the family’s old clothes to make their quilts -- a necessity in drafty
farm houses with no insulation and only fireplaces or pot-bellied, wood-burning stoves for heat. Most homes did not have electricity in Benton County, MS, until the 1950’s when TN Valley Authority finally installed power lines out into the countryside. My grandmother had handmade quilting frames supported by two wooden saw horses. She laid out her lining fabric on the floor and covered it with soft, hand-carded cotton she grew in her own cotton fields. She allowed me as a child to card the cotton filler to remove the seeds and debris and to fluff the fibers. The carding combs were two flat wooden paddles with wire bristles mounted with fairly long handles. She sewed her quilt top pieces together in all kinds of designs first with the help of a foot-pedal Singer sewing machine and later with an electric Singer sewing machine. Once all the blocks were sewn together in strips, she put colored fabric strips between the Recipe for basic Tea Cakes used by her grandmother Zelma McCullar: blocks to make a variety of designs. The pieced top was applied last on the lining on the floor. One-inch Ingredients: wide white fabric strips about six 2 eggs 1 c. sugar ½ c. shortening or butter (or 1 stick of margarine) 1 Tbs. milk inches long were pinned at threeinch intervals along the top and bottom edges of the whole quilt. There 1 tsp. vanilla flavoring were holes in each end of the tops of 2 ½ c. self-rising flour. her saw horses. She rolled up the lining and the batting and the pieced Instructions: Place your flour in a bowl, making a hole in the center. Slowly add sugar, shortening/butter/ margarine that has been softened to room temperature, eggs, milk and vanilla. Mix like making biscuits quilt top with the two frame poles. She secured them to the two saw horses by inserting old Ford tractor by hand. When all ingredients are mixed, pinch off lit- gas intake valves to hold the frames tle balls and pat them flat. Place on a greased cookie in place. She would sit leaned over sheet. (You can spray it with Pam.) Bake at 350° until the frames and would quilt one twolight brown on the bottoms. Place on a cooling rack. foot strip at a time. Then, she would roll that completed strip and move to the next two-foot strip until the whole quilt was completed. As a child I played at her feet under those quilting frames. That was my playhouse as I served my dolls tea on a Blue Willow metal toy tea set. Ma always had tea cakes she made for her 14 grandchildren whenever they visited. The recipe was a simple one that called for flour, sugar, her homemade butter (which I often churned for her), Watkins vanilla flavoring, a little milk and eggs produced by her chickens (which I helped to feed). She needed many quilts in her antebellum farmhouse because none of the bedrooms was heated. Only the living room had a pot-bellied stove and the kitchen had a Home Comfort woodburning stove for cooking. It had a warming bin on top, four “eyes” for cooking and a place for burning the logs under each. Beside the oven was mounted a tank for heating water to use for doing the dishes afterward.
When I spent the night, she would lay bricks or metal flat irons on the stove to heat. Then, she would wrap them in towels to place at the foot of her beds to warm the covers for us. The mattresses were homemade feather mattresses made from hand-plucked, boiled, fluffed and cleaned chicken feathers. Almost every Saturday morning she would kill a chicken by either wringing its neck or by chopping its head off with the ax. Then, she would dip the carcass in hot boiling water to make it easier to pull out the feathers. If small, fuzzy feathers were left, she would singe them off over the fire in the stove or would light a newspaper to hold over the feathers to get them off near the skin. She would cut up the pieces to store in the refrigerator overnight until she could cook them before church on Sunday morning. Afterward, we would sit down to a family meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, purple hull peas, fried okra, cornbread and tea, sweetened with saccharin tablets crushed and dissolved in a spoon of tea or with regular sugar. The vegetables were all grown on the farm. She either canned them or froze them in the large Coldspot Sears freezer; she stored potatoes in a cellar she dug out herself under her house.
The only things she bought at the grocery store five miles into town were coffee, tea, salt, pepper, sugar and flour. Everything else was produced by her on the farm. She even took her corn to a tractor-driven grist mill operated by her neighbor to mill the corn for her cornbread. Some was finely ground to use for her bread; some was coarsely ground to feed to the chickens.
Nothing was wasted - not even dish water. She saved it, along with table scraps, in a large “slop bucket” with a handle and fed the contents to the pigs. All pork drippings were saved to make homemade lye soap, which she used to wash her clothes in a large black cast iron boiling pot in the backyard every Saturday. Later she got one of those “newfangled” wringer washing machines, but no dryer. The clothesline outside was good enough for her.
The chickens were a necessity for food and for warmth. Those mattresses and soft homemade pillows cradled us grandchildren in warmth. When each of us graduated from high school, she made us a handmade quilt and a homemade pillow to take to college with us. My quilt was a double wedding ring quilt, which I still cherish today.
Although she married at the age of 13 to her childhood sweetheart and never finished school herself, she always valued education for her children and grandchildren. Several of us became teachers whose values were shaped by our grandmother’s simple but hard life. What I would not give to sit with her again in the old porch swing as we listened to the whippoorwills in the distance as the sun went down. The warmth of her quilted creations and sweetness of her tea cakes will remain a part of me forever.
Patsy McCrory is a Sapphire Sister and member of MS Chi. She retired after 42 years as an English teacher in Desoto County, MS schools. She worked as reporter, photographer and news editor for “The DeSoto Times”.
Quilting - Craft, Decorative Art and History Lesson
The quilt has been called America’s most available art form. Not only are quilts practical and beautiful, they are a living history and a lasting memory.
Quilting is both a craft and a decorative art. Quilting, basically stitching a batting between two layers of fabric, is a craft that involves both the hands and the brain to create something both beautiful and functional. Art expresses emotions and feelings. Quilting is a combination of these two.
Quilting goes back as far as Ancient Egypt and the Crusades. Crusade soldiers coming home to England from the Middle East wore quilted cloth under their armor, introducing quilting to the West. The Puritans brought quilting to America in the seventeenth century. Their quilts were mainly used as bed coverings for warmth and to cover windows and doors to keep out the cold. Applique on quilts became popular in the mid-1700s. Only the wealthy could afford the expensive fabric that went into those kinds of quilts. The Amish created their own distinctive style of quilting. Women gathered together in Quilting Bees to quilt. All quilts were handmade until the introduction of the sewing machine, which made it possible to create more decorative and colorful quilts.
Prior to 1860, Black Americans were brought over to do the difficult labor on farms and plantations. The Underground Railroad, not a real railroad but a series of hiding places, was the name of the secret route the slaves took to escape to freedom. It got its name because slaves traveling on it seemed to vanish as if traveling underground. Although slaves were not permitted to learn to read, they shared a history of storytelling along with a knowledge of textiles and African art. They discovered they could communicate in the stitches, patterns, designs,colors and fabric of the quilt.
In the book “Hidden in Plain View, a Secret Story of Quilts” by Jaqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard, Ozella McDaniel Williams, a quilter, tells a story passed down to her through the generations. She describes how coded quilts were displayed on the front of homes to help slaves escape. Dobard is also a quilter and a professor of art history.
While teaching American History, I read “Under the Quiet of Night” and “Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt” both by Deborah Hopkinson and James E. Ransome to my fifth grade class. I explained to them the meaning of some of the different patterns. The Monkey Wrench pattern meant that the slaves were to gather all the tools they would need on their journey. The Log Cabin pattern told the location of safe houses. I had my students create their own six-inch quilt squares from construction paper with hidden messages in them. They were displayed in the school hall.
Article by Shannon Lorenzo-Rivero, TN Chi and a KAPPAN correspondent. Shannon researched the history of quilts and gathered the stories and photos in this issue.
Diana Hayes, WA Alpha Upsilon. My quilt started in late 2020 as my granddaughter’s high school graduation was approaching in 2021. Her mother and both grandmothers decided to make a quilt for her. We started with her high school sweatshirts and sweatpants. Then we each made several individual squares. When family members found out about the quilt, they made squares as well. We received squares from two great aunts, an aunt and uncle, her dad, and her brother. The finished product truly demonstrates my granddaughter’s love for elephants.
Honoring my mother, Mary Johnson, who made this quilt with my dad’s help (Keith Johnson) with A∆K colors in 2008. Later mom used the same pattern, Dresden Plate, to make my sister, WV A∆K president 20122016 Karen Alexander, a lovely quilt. I so appreciate all the love and prayers that went into each stitch.
Amanda Ross, AK Zeta.
This quilt is made from 20 t-shirts that I collected as I visited S/P/Ns during my term on the International Executive Board. It was made by AZ Iota sister, Mary Peoples who loves to quilt. It holds a special place in my heart.
Betty Jo Evers, International Vice President for Membership.
Another Look at Quilting
In the March issue of the KAPPAN, Hawaiian sisters share the story behind what is called Hawaiian quilting. Read about how needle and thread connect us. Katy Adams, NE Zeta. Sewing with fabric has been a passion of mine since I made my first garment (pajamas, robe and slippers) at the age of seven. My mother was an accomplished seamstress and she guided me on her treadle sewing machine as I made this ensemble for my 4-H club. I later modeled it for the fashion show. In later years, it was strictly clothing and crafts that I made, but after I was married and my children were grown, I became interested in quilting. My husband Jerry and I bought a small acreage in rural Blair, Nebraska and that is where I took my first quilting class. I was fascinated with the design and the endless possibilities of color. I joined the Blair Bunch Quilters’ club and have been a member of that group for 32 years. Our club’s mission is to create quilts for others, and over the past years we have donated quilts to the Nic-Q Unit at Nebraska Women’s Hospital, Women’s Shelters, the Crisis Center, Boys Detention Center, Habitat for Humanity, and every year we present a Quilt of Valor to one of our local veterans on Veterans Day.
The quilt that is pictured is a Lori Holt design and has over 4000 pieces of fabric in it. It took about nine months to finish and took Best of Show at the Washington County Fair.
My Library Quilt contains fabrics representing many of my favorite books: childhood choices- “The Secret Garden”, “Girl of the Limberlost”, “Journey to the Center of the Earth”, “Tom Sawyer”, and more recent choices- “Outlander”, “Wicked”, “Playing the Jack”. I also include travel journals from places like Rome, Paris, King Tut’s tomb, Arizona and recipe books- peppers, bread, Christmas. I have collection albums of snowflakes, rock crystals and quilts.
I have made personalized library quilts for my three sisters, including Linda Parker, KS Alpha Rho.
Ellen Wixom, AZ Zeta.
“Alaska’s Beauty” is a handmade double-sized quilt pieced by Jessica Litera Willis, AK Alpha, and machine quilted by Mary Lou Frahm, AK Alpha. It was the state raffle prize in 2018.
Alaska’s wildflower bloom on “Wild Prisms”, a queen size quilt is handmade and pieced by Jessica Litera Willis, AK Alpha and machine quilted by Mary Lou Frahm, AK Alpha. It was an AK state raffle prize in 2016.
Vanessa Jackson, AK Alpha. Vanessa says that she was experimenting with Bargello techniques and a rainbow jelly roll when she made this quilt in 2019. It was quilted by Mary Lou Frahm, AK Alpha
The quilt will be raffled off at the NW-SW convention in Honolulu, Hawaii in 2022. AK Alpha sisters hold it for display.
Creator Judith Ross, GA Beta Psi “Double Irish Chain.” This is the most successful of several that I’ve tried with Alpha Delta Kappa colors. Someday, I may donate it to Beta Psi for a fund-raiser, but for now my husband likes it too much to let it go. Judith is a new quilter.
Nancy Riley, NE Iota. My mother made both my sister and me each full sized quilts out of our bonded wool and bonded knit fabrics that we wore as clothing in the mid to late 1960’s. We can still identify the clothing. It is tied quilt in a block pattern with a blanket used as batting.
Members of VA Sigma honored Virginia’s two International Presidents. Lucille Sebren and Judy Ganzert , with a wall hanging embroidered and quilted by Joann Ervinwall to be hung at International Headquarters. It was presented to Judy at the end of her biennium by Joann at Judy’s home in Richmond.
Emblem on COVID Quilt
A face mask featuring the A∆K emblem and made by members of TX Beta Omicron is featured on the COVID quilt, a project of the College Club of Buffalo, NY. NY President-elect Betty Kulpa donated her mask to the project. Beverly Thomas, NY Upsilon, assisted in collecting masks for the quilt. The quilt was stitched to memorialize over 1,800 residents from Erie County, NY who died as a result of the pandemic. It was given by the College Club to the Buffalo History Museum and will be displayed at various venues.
Thank you to the quilters who so generously shared their art with us. We only wish there was enough space to share all of them.
