This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for March 17, 2022, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.
My youngest daughter in New York could have her baby any time now, even before I finish writing this column. We are sending her the baby quilt my mother (her grandmother) made for her when she was born in 1980. It’s a brightly colored quilt, each block with alternating kittens or puppies sewn on as patches, perfect for our new granddaughter when she arrives.
Both my mother’s family and my father’s family have been families of quilters (that is, the women in those families). My mother had a “quilting house” in the back yard, where she had quilts hanging all year long.
Of the hundreds of quilts she created in her lifetime, quite a few of them were baby quilts (which she made for grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins and friends). Each quilt was a work of art, the artistry of each motivating me to become a pen and ink and watercolor artist. As an artist, I have been a great admirer of beautiful quilts.
If you have any doubt that quilting is an art, you will change your mind by attending the Annual Houston Quilt Festival in Houston every year, or the International Quilt Festival. In 2021, the International Quilt Festival commemorated the 20th anniversary of 9-11 with an incredible display of splendid quilts. One of the outstanding quilts from that exhibit was “Spirits Rising” by Betsy Shannon. Photographs of it show it to be an extraordinary work of art (would like to have been there to see the actual quilt in person).
During my grandmother’s and my mother’s lifetime, it was not uncommon for women to have “quilting houses” in rural areas like Dime Box. In a little house in the backyard, they could keep their quilts hanging, to be worked on any time they wanted to. Neighbors often came over to help them quilt.
Today, these individual quilting houses don’t seem to be very common anymore. But what does seem to be a growing trend is quilt shops, or centers, or stores.
My wife took quilting lessons once at one of those in Richmond. It was Linda Caraway’s Quilter’s Cottage in the Pecan Grove area. When I was teaching in Wharton, I remember visiting Nancy Woodson’s splendid quilting store on the Square, across from the courthouse.
Considering my family was a family of quilters, it is not surprising that my cousin Dorothy has a quilt shop, “Meme’s Quilts,” located on County Road 119, Giddings, Texas (somewhere between Dime Box and Giddings). You’ll find lots of quilt material there, along with sewing machines. Local ladies gather there and work on their quilts, — seems like a quilting party. Rather than an individual “quilting house,” it seems to be a “community quilting house,” where you can create all sizes of quilts, including baby quilts. My wife enjoyed her visit there.
Well, I’m at the end of my newspaper column and my grandbaby still hasn’t arrived. My mother’s 1980 baby quilt might even arrive in New York before the baby does!
-o-
Ray Spitzenberger is a retired WCJC teacher, a retired LCMS pastor, and author of three books, It Must Be the Noodles, Open Prairies, and Tanka Schoen.