The Patchwork Quilt

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 9

The Patchwork Quilt

"What a waste of time!." observed a friend when I showed her the patchwork quilt which had fallen to my share among my grandmother's effects." (states t a writer in the "Manchester Guardian")- "Living to the ripe old age of ninety-one, she had kept with scrupulous cafe all the bedding and linen acquired. during long life,, most of which had been made by her own hands and, in the case of the patchwork quilts, cushions, wool and feather beds, hearthrugs, and so on, made out of material that in less thrifty households would have been thrown away. , .. "Apart from the question of economy, I strongly dissent from the viejy that it was a waste of time. The lives of our forcmothers must have been at times rather dreary, and the making of these household comforts brought interest and brightness, and enabled them to express their own individuality in their surroundings. "The preparation and dressing of wool and feathers for the beds was a lengthy, but not uninteresting, piect? of work. The worst part of rugmaking was the cutting of the cloth, into suitable lengths, about four inches long and three-quarters wide. This work was a trifle dull and had a tendency to blister the hands, but, given a good basketful of these pieces, ' a smooth peg, and a pieeo of clean canvaß, one was well equipped 'for the great adventure. The canvas was folded and held firmly while a hole was made with tho peg, and the pieces of cloth threaded through with the finger and thumb. The work was fascinating if one had the good luck to secure a fair amount of scarlet cloth to make a design' in the centre. Black and blues were reserved for the borders. Set off by a white hearth and a steeltopped, fender shining like silver, the home-made heartrug had no need, to be ashamed of either itself or of its creator. CUSHION COVERS. "The cushion covers also afforded much scope for ingenuity. For everyday wear they wore usually made of pieces of dark printed cotton, square* or triangles, joined together with due effect to tho blending of colours, and bound- at the edges with bright red braid. For best wear there were gorgeous affairs'niado from pieces of silk or 'velvet, the cuttings left over from generations of "best frocks," and each a page of family history in itself) glorious bits of silk and brocade in lavenders, lilacs, silvery greys, and golden browns, with conspicuous among them pieces of Great Aunt Somebody's wedding gown, of that peculiar glimmering silk one never s.ees nowadays, which in some lights is a soft shining blue, in others pale green,, and again in others a lovely violet, "rainbow silk;" my grandmother called it, but I think it had some more mundane name. These were tacked over stiff paper cut in diamonds, or in what was called a box pattern, then seamed together on tho inside. Sometimes the joins were ornamented with a fine, feather or hcrring-bono stitch in coloured silks. Edged with cord and finished off with tassels to match, these covers , would not have disgraced their maker had they been placed in any drawing-room in tho land. Waste of time, indeed! Their makers knew better. "My patchwork quilt hardly comes under the heading of beautiful needlework. Begun in grandmother's girlhood, and finished off many years later by some far less patient worker, who evidently regarded it as a tiresome piece of work, it is composed at tho centre of small triangular pieces neatly sewn together. , The pieces become larger and more shapeless, the stitches longer and more untidy a» tho quilt grew bigger. "While one would not wish the modern woman to spend her more Rcanty leisure in the domestic pursuits Df her grandmother's day, it may do her no harm to realise that the industry, and patience displayed in these simple arts not only went to the building up of character and provided an outlet for tho creative instincts, but had a more tangible result "in keeping for us many interesting relics of the past. Even so humble an heirloom as my patchwork quilt may set one dreaming of the days gono by and of the men and women whose labour as enshrined therein."