The things one ‘finds’ when you move…
A real feed sack quilt- This one is at least 60 years old… I folded it so you can see both the feedsack side, which is normally down, and the top.
And this one is my baby quilt, so it’s at least 64 years old… These are what is known as patchwork star quilts. 
I can remember the women at the reunions getting together in the old house and turning out two or three quilts over a weekend. I remember my dad referring to them as the ‘hen house’, and not a place for boys or men! 🙂
These will stay in the family, passed down to the next generation… Both my daughters and the oldest grandson spent time in that bottom quilt…
I remember those quilting bees in my family as well. Maternal Grandma and her daughters would bind a wood frame and make these quilts. A LOT of work. Grandma would ‘card’ the wool (pull it apart, making it extra fluffy :^), sitting on her back porch. A lot of gossip / learning and tallying what / who / why went on those bees – your Dad was right, let the hens cluck and leave them alone.
Quilts are important and you’re absolutely right that they are family history. It’s an art that seems to have passed, sadly. Everyone is too busy and it’s easier to buy crap that’s made in China.
Nice quilts you’ve got there. We sleep under a patchwork quilt my maternal grandmother stitched for us as a Christmas present in the ’80s. Mom has several nearly as old as the ones you pictured here, done by her mom, and HER mom. Nothing like ’em, is there?
Those are marvelous- I especially love the feed sack quilt!
Wonderful old quilts! I hope you put a tag on the back of each, so that the history of the quilt moves on with it. They are treasures!
My grandma didn’t quilt, but OMG could that woman sew, she made the most beautiful tailored wool coats for us when we were little. Mine are long lost to time, but the memories…
When picking up some furniture from my sister, I run out of packing blankets and she handed me an old quilt to use. After I got home my wife found the names of most of the women from my moms side of the clan embroidered in each block of the quilt.
Good stuff! Pretty sure the only quilt around here is one that was made for Isaac when he was first born…
Beautiful…just beautiful. It is truly an art that has, for the most part, been lost, except in certain communities and certain parts of the country.
I attempted to make a small quilt for my nephew one year. I “succeeded” in that he got the quilt on time (for the Christmas that I planned to give it to him), but I’ve had to repair it at least once or twice, and it wasn’t a pieced quilt like those. I used a material map of the US and “quilted” it.
I beg to differ with your comment that quilting is a lost art. Quilt guilds are very active all over this country and in other countries, as well. Guilds have public shows, both judged and non-judged, as well as make many charitable items for adults and children. Every city has a guild with older, middle-aged, and young adult members. Quilt shops are hurting financially due to the proliferation of ‘cheap’ fabric from China sold in big box retailers and large-chain sewing stores. Sewing clothing is making a comeback, as well. Good to see!
Mom made us nice shirts out of flour sacks.
Dad’s baby quilt, which was used for my sister, was one of the feed sack type, and it’s bags were labeled NRA. As in National Recovery Adminstration.
My daughter is a quilter.
I e-mailed this story to her.
She’ll be interested in the old quilts.
All- Thanks! Ed, I also have a ‘name’ quilt…
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Those are treasures – I especially love the feed sack!
Real treasures.
My wife and several of her friends get together in the late spring to have a quilting camp.
It is 6-8 women plus my daughters 10 &12
I remember the large quilting frame hanging from all of my aunt’s and uncle’s ceilings down in Southern Missouri Northern Arkansas. Every single house had at least one large frame and 1 small frame. The large frame always was hung from the ceiling, the small frames were usually on a hinge so they could be folded up against the wall next to the sewing machine. And almost all of the sewing machines had a foot treadle or a knee lever in addition to having an electric motor to run them.
What always blew my mind was several of my aunts using real spinning wheels to make thread and yarn. My Aunt Grace’s spinning wheel was actually from just after the Civil War and had a small brass plate on it saying it had been manufactured by the Eli Whitney Company, I can’t remember the date but it was from the 1800’s.
I also remember helping to go through many old trunks and cedar chests and seeing feed sack clothes, trousers and dresses, with many patches and repairs, many of those having patterns that feed companies used to make their feed and seed more likely to be purchased for farm wives.
My maternal grandmother raised my mom and six other children on a farm in Roxton, Texas just south of Paris, Texas in the 20’s-30’s. She had a quilt frame hanging from a ceiling. My grandpa was a tenant farmer who grew cotton and row crops in northeast Texas. Grandma gardened, picked cotton, raised chickens and nursed kittens by the wood stove. Making quilts out of feed sacks was a necessity. I quilt in north Texas using wonderful fabrics from my stash. I know she’s proud of me, alongside my mom in heaven.
All- thanks! Kathie, kudos to you for continuing the tradition!
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Thanks for your reply. We also moved to Texas…from wacko California. A native of that state and we raised our children there, but our entire family has moved to Texas and we love the freedoms here.