 Aspirations
Quilting Circles
by Jeanette Shanigan
You know how it is. You’re doing the same repetitive beadwork technique that you’ve done dozens of times before, your hands go on auto-bead, and your mind begins to wander. Most recently, I was putting together a bead quilt for the Bead Artists against Breast Cancer auction in June, when I began thinking about quilts in relation to the circles in my life.
I’m not a quilter in the traditional sense of the word. I’ve never made a traditional fabric quilt, nor been particularly interested in them. But that attitude changed somewhat 15 years ago, when out of the blue, I received a fabulous handmade quilt in the mail. I was shocked and surprised to learn that the quilt, passed to me upon my aunt’s death, had been in my mother’s family for about 130 years. My mother had already succumbed to cancer, so I contacted other family members to get the details. According to family history, it’s believed that the quilt was made in a quilting bee by my great-great-grandmother and other female family members as a wedding gift for my great-grandmother, Sarah Nevada Wright Basham. Upon her death it was passed to my maternal grandmother, then to my aunt and finally to me.
Front of Heirloom Quilt
When looking at the “Wright Family Quilt,” it’s immediately obvious that there may be something to genetic encoding, as both my great-grandmother and I share a fondness for red and black as a favored color scheme. Another amazing aspect of the quilt to me is the hand-stitching. The individual squares were sewn by hand, stitched together by hand, quilted by hand, and hemmed by hand. Finally, I cannot believe the age of the quilt, as it is in pristine, brand-new condition. This quilt has been a cherished family heirloom as it passed through the generations.
Being a beader not a quilter, I had to do some googling to find additional information about the quilt. First, I discovered that the pattern is an old one, pineapple log cabin. I learned that many log cabin patterns have a red square in the center to symbolize the hearth or the warmth of the home. In my case, this square is a red and black floral print. This is the one consistent fabric in the quilt. The others are a myriad of colors, prints and textures — what quilters refer to as scrappy quilts. I was also curious about the red thread that was used in much of the quilting. It seems that in the 1880’s a new thread in a turkey-red color was welcomed by quilters because the vibrant color did not fade or bleed. (source: http://www.womenfolk.com )
Back of Heirloom Quilt
As I admire the fabulous colors and even hand-stitching of my family heirloom quilt, I feel a connection to the women who came before me. I don’t understand the techniques and intricacies of making a fabric quilt, but I do understand handwork and the challenges of sewing together beaded squares, as it relates to beadwork and making a bead quilt. I understand the sense of purpose and the camaraderie when a group of women come together for a reason or cause. Also I understand the pride in passing along the traditions, when my 7-year-old granddaughter Savannah asks me to teach her back-stitch, so she can make a rose square. With the inherent nurturing quality of women, I suspect that all this has happened since the beginning of time. Somehow it makes sense in a circular way, that I’d choose a bead quilt to honor my mother’s memory and to raise money for breast cancer research.
Won’t you connect with the others in the breast cancer cause and contribute a rose square to the 2008 Bead-It-Forward Breast Cancer quilts? More information can be found here: http://shanigansbeadshenanigans.com The April 1 deadline is approaching quickly.
By the way, speaking of worthy beady causes, check out http://www.beadingforacure.org  Their auctions of beady items to raise funds for colorectal cancer begin March 2, 2008. |
