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From: "shirley" <>
Subject: [HUBBARD-L] Fw: [TNSMITH] Sunday Afternoon Rockin'
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 21:49:15 -0500



----- Original Message -----
From: Charles Gregory <>
To: <>
Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2000 7:49 PM
Subject: [TNSMITH] Sunday Afternoon Rockin'


> From: "j" <>
>
> Bound by Common Threads (from the "Sunday Afternoon Rocking" series)
>
> Afternoon All,
>
> There hangs upon a wall of my home a quilt, sewn with tiny stitches by
> hand
> so many years ago I have no idea how long it was. It was created by my
> own
> grandmother and because she has been gone more than half a century and
> began
> her days as a wife and mother early in the 1900's I can put a forty year
> span on when it may have been created. It is carefully stitched, and
> only
> by hand, and because I know her circumstances, I know that many of those
> stitches must have been made by the light of an oil lamp...for she never
> lived with electricity. That in itself is a source of awe for me,
> imagining
> this young chestnut-haired woman bent over the bits and pieces of fabric
> on
> long winter evenings, imagining a slight frown now and then, or a slight
> smile as she looked over what she had completed.
>
> But the bits and pieces of the quilt itself are yet another source of
> wonderment, for as I look at them, I realize that what I am seeing is
> far
> more than the practical coverlet originally intended...and I wonder if
> that
> thought crossed her mind as she made it. My grandmother began her
> marriage
> in Victorian days, and photos of that time period show her in skirts to
> her
> ankles, modest and "proper" blouses that buttoned at her throat and
> wrists.
> She lived to raise five children, and she lived to see styles very
> different. I am well aware that none of those bits and pieces that make
> up
> this quilt were "store bought" for that purpose, but instead salvaged
> from
> what little clothing the family had as it became unwearable, or likely,
> from
> the tiny bits and pieces left from making that clothing. And what I am
> looking at as I see that quilt with all of its tiny pieces, is in
> actuality
> as surely a documentation of a family's history and past as any deed,
> marriage record, will...and perhaps more so. Nothing on the tiny scraps
> tells whose clothing each piece was cut from, or what that person may
> have
> experienced while they wore it....but each scrap is evidence of a piece
> of
> daily living that is not documented and no longer survives in any other
> way
> but that quilt.
>
> I look at this plaid and wonder if it was from a grandfather's shirt as
> he
> worked and sweated over the livestock and planting on his meager farm.
> I
> look at this faded but sky blue fabric and wonder if it once swaddled a
> newborn infant nestled in a big iron bedstead in the family's "birthing
> room". I look at this floral pink and wonder if it were cut from a
> feedsack
> that was used to make a daughter a dress to wear to the church house
> down
> the road. And could this red polka dotted fabric have been worn in a
> spirit
> of lively fun to a barn dance? This black fabric...might it have been
> worn
> to bury an elder in the cemetery on the hill above the homestead? ...
> and
> so
> the wonderings can go on for hours...each small piece an invitation to
> explore the past, an invitation to try for just a space in time to
> understand the years that are gone...and each one a tangible evidence of
> something this family lived with intimately in the daily mundane
> activities
> of their lives that are not recorded in any courthouse, any church
> minutes,
> any family Bible....but were, just the same as familiar to them as my
> own
> tablecloth is to me.
>
> If these days I were to create a quilt (and although I fully admit the
> skill
> will not be an easy one for me, I intend to do so), I would as I
> stitched
> each tiny piece, think lovingly of when it was a part of a piece of
> clothing
> worn by a family member. I would as I stitched each bit of fabric, see
> pictures in my mind of the person who wore it...and when. Much more
> than
> just careful attention to the length of each stitch, the care that there
> were no puckers...I think many stories would unfold in my mind, and my
> heart
> would both sing and cry as I stitched. And so, I think, it was the same
> for
> my grandmother. Within that faded and somewhat ragged quilt she must
> have
> stitched many loving thoughts, many caring memories as she worked. She
> was
> a mother and a wife...and because I too have known that experience...I
> suspect that quilt is much more than just a practical coverlet, and for
> her
> if for no other of her immediate family, always was. As it would have
> been
> for your own ancestors who created those quilts. And too, I believe, it
> is
> evidence that we all, no matter when in time we lived, like quilts...are
> bound by common threads.
>
> just a thought,
> jan
>
> c2000janPhilpot
> ________________________________________________
> (Note: Afternoon Rocking messages are meant to be passed on, meant to be
> shared...simply share as written without alterations...and in entirety.
> Thanks, jan)
>
> Sunday Afternoon Rocking columns are distributed weekly on the list
> Sunday
> Rocking. This is not a "reply to" list, and normally only one message
> per
> week will come across it, that being the column. To subscribe send
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> to
>
> _________________________________________________
>

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