Our Heirloom Quilts

Growing up  there were no quilters in my family. But in 1966 my grandfather took my mom and me with him on a trip 'back home' to Milroy, PA to visit his Aunt Carrie. And Aunt Carrie gave him and my grandmother a quilt which was given to my mom, who gave it to me in the 1970s.

Carrie V. Ramer Bobb was my grandfather's mother's sister. When Gramps lost his mother and then his grandmother, he was an orphan at the age of nine years. Sisters Aunt Carrie and Aunt Annie Ramer Smithers took turns raising him. My grandfather Lynne O. Ramer got a sound education, and worked his way through college and seminary and gaining a teaching certificate.

Aunt Carrie (1904-1971)

The quilt passed down to me is a Dresden Plate. The layers were machine sewn, with the backing turned to the front and sewn down. Then the plates were hand appliqued to the quilt!

The background fabric is white, the plate centers are light blue or medium blue.

The quilt was likely made in the early 1960s shortly before it was gifted to my grandfather. I expect that like most quilters, Aunt Carrie had a collection of fabrics that spanned the early 20th century and came from a wide variety of sources.  In September 1965 my grandfather wrote a letter to the Lewistown Sentinel about just where Carrie got her stash:

“Well we have stitched on another vacation patch to the crazy quilt of life. At the Richfield ‘Ramer clutch” several widely separated cuzzins brought bags of patches for Aunt Carrie Bobb of the Mifflin County Home, who has another Postage Stamp Quilt under way.

     “Aunt Carrie sews on this quilt between times devoted to the guests and writing 10 letters each week.  This year the patches came from Bethesda, Camden, Annapolis, Indianapolis, Sinking Valley, Allen Park and Berkley, etc., etc.—and a crazy assortment they were to be sure!”

   “Yet when a quilt is complete there is some manner of symmetry and form to the total, be it a Dresden Circles, a Field of Diamonds, a Double Wedding Ring or just a plain Postage Stamp.

     “Such is life! Patches added willy nilly, seemingly with no central purpose, yet the total displays an amazing degree of purpose.  A quilt is hard to see because we look at the patches, just like it’s said we can’t see the forest due to the single trees."

The fabric scraps from Allen Park and Berkley were from Michigan: Gramps lived in Berkley and his daughter Nancy in Allen Park.  The scraps from Annapolis was my mom's brother, Uncle Dave and his wife Pat.

Aunt Carrie Bobb's grandson, Sid Bobb, shared with me a photo of the two Aunt Carrie quilts he inherited, a Drunkard's Path variation in red and white and a Grandmother's Flower Garden variation in pastels.

I also have a quilt from my husband's side of the family, given to me by my mother-in-law. It was made by her grandmother, Harriet Scoville (Scovile, Schoville) Nelson, and was given to her daughter Charlotte Grace Nelson O'Dell,  then came to my mother-in-law Laura Grace O'Dell Bekofske.

Harriet Scoville  (1877-1951)and Aaron Nelson. 

Charlotte Grace Nelson and John Oren O'Dell, 1896

Laura Grace O'Dell Bekofske

 The quilt is a red and white Single Wedding Ring, with a polka dot backing, and tied with faded red and white floss.

The cotton batting is quite lumpy!

 The edges were turned in and machine sewn. A thread was never cut. The floss looks pink, but is pin or red and white.

 The quilt was kept in Laura's cedar chest and never used. Tannin in the wood left brown spots.

Laura made Gary and I several quilts in the early 1980s, a blue Log Cabin and a multi-colored Sister's Choice, much beloved by our son.

By the time I started to quilt in 1991, my mother-in-law was ending her quilting career. Arthritis had settled in her thumb joint. She instead took up counted cross stitch. Her vision remained clear and she enjoyed this work until her death.

Feed Sack Fabric Memories

My brother is visiting and we went to local antique shops. I found some feedsacks for $4 each and scooped them all up. There were three each of two different plaids and a pretty medium blue with a large white flower. I am building up my collection again and think I will use them in a quilt soon.

Back in the mid-1950s my family would travel from Tonawanda, NY to the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania and visit the Putt's Farm. This was our typical outing on Easter Sunday or some time during the peak color season in the fall. I recall the moutain sides filled with trees leafed in oranges, russets, browns and yellows. I thought they looked like Trix cereal!

The Putts ran a working farm. I could pet the black and white cows, if I watched where I walked in the cow field. Once I saw Mrs. Putt candeling eggs gathered from the hen house. The boys would drive an old truck up the steep hill side, and we'd rattle back down...there were no breaks on the truck! Once Dad showed me how you could chew on the small twigs of a tree that tasted like birch beer.

My mother would get feed sack fabrics from the Putts and bring them home. My grandmother sewed them into summer clothes for me, simple sleeveless shirts and shorts. There are home movies of me running around the yard, jumping on and off the swingset, wearing the brightly patterned (and too large) feedsack clothes. Grandma made the clothes large enough for me to wear two summers, with 'growing room.' So I spent the first summer with shorts that stuck out like a skirt and sleeves that fell off my shoulder.

I inherited a quilt from my grandfather's aunt, a Dresden plate made in the 1950s that uses older feedsack fabrics. I have used feedsack fabrics in 1930's reproduction quilts and to repair Depression era quilts. I used feedsacks as borders and sashing for a crayon-tinted embroidered quilt. It is amazing to think how long these vintage fabrics have been kept in stashes, waiting to be put to use.

The zany plaids I found this weekend will inspire me and find their quilt.