Saturday Stories 01-09-16

When Diane and Marie returned from California at the end of WWII both their mother and her new husband were working full time.  It was necessary to find a caretaker for the girls.  For a while, Diane went out in the country to stay with her maternal grandmother and grandfather.  What help she was on the farm chores was minimal since she was only seven.  To keep her occupied, her grandmother, who was a life long quilter, gave her some squares of fabric and needle, thimble and thread, and showed her how to sew them together.  After about a week Diane had enough squares sewn together to make a quilt for her doll.  Then her grandmother took her to the grange quilting bee where she could thread needles for the quilting ladies and see how quilting was done.   Since her quilt was too small to put in a frame she put together the layers and used an embroidery hoop.  It was not a pretty sight with many blood stains and crooked stitches, but before taking out the blood stains Diane had to learn to bind her little quilt.  This was the most tedious part of making the quilt and probably embedded her lifelong dislike of the binding process.  Finally it was done and into the wash tub it went.  Somehow the blood stains mostly came out.  The trick of removing one's own blood from fabric by spitting on it was unknown to grandmother and her quilting friends.  Diane's mother was not please about the workwomanship shown in the quilt, but Diane cherish the quilt and used it for her dolly for years.
 
Finally her interest in her doll diminished and she went on to other things.  Meanwhile, with her grandmother's help, she made baby quilts and eventually her mother showed her how to use the treadle machine that had been her grandmother's at one time.  As a teenager Diane was no longer interested in the "homemade stuff" and quit making quilts.  Then as a senior in high school her friends started marrying and having babies, so she went back to making quilts for those new babies.  And from then on she made quilts when there was a special occasion until in her fifties quilting became an obsession and she helped start a quilters guild.  Now her life revolves around the quilting community.  That first little quilt disappeared into the flotsam of life and is long gone. 

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