Keeper of the Cloth

I received a call recently from a woman who, while dismantling the old family homestead, had discovered several quilt tops made by her 93-year old mother. Not having a huge amount of space in her own home, she was not able to keep the quilts but was having difficulty letting them go. Neither a stitcher nor a quiltmaker, she wanted them to go to someone who would keep them and take care of them. I assured her I would do so, sight unseen.


The quilts pictured below, are made mostly with 1940's era fabrics. Most are quite utilitarian but were created with love and care. They are a study in extreme frugality and a testament to the ability to make something useful from nothing. Clothing scraps, feed sacks, shirting fabrics and perhaps mill ends (after all, North Carolina was once a huge textile manufacturing state) were used in each quilt top. In several places, small scraps were pieced together in order to make up for a fabric shortage.



It's always been my nature to rescue things, especially textiles. As a quiltmaker, I feel a certain responsibility to honor that which was created by another's hand. I am a "keeper of the cloth."