Home » Sandy Mush Quilt Gallery » Sandy Mush Quilt Gallery: Rieta Wells & Kathleen Sluder Quilt

Sandy Mush Quilt Gallery: Rieta Wells & Kathleen Sluder Quilt

Our Sandy Mush Quilt Gallery is now on display in the SMCC Gym.  Stop by to enjoy!  Currently, we have eight community quilts on loan.  We will share a photo and information on each quilt over the next few weeks.  Stay tuned!

colonial ladies quilt blocks large quilt

Quilter:  Rieta Wells and Kathleen Sluder

Quilt Name:  Colonial Ladies

Quilt Created:  2010

On Loan By:  Rieta Wells

The quilt squares with ladies appliquéd on them were actually found in a closet when I cleaned out my aunt’s house after she passed.  As a point of interest, my aunt and mom, Elva Ball and Mary Kathleen Ball, taught school in this building in 1944-1945.  They boarded during the week with Roy and Drama Rogers, then caught a bus on the weekends to go back to their home in Marshall.  They taught 5th and 1st grades respectively.

I trimmed the squares to make them each the same size and noted that some of their dresses appear to be made from “feedsack” fabric.  My aunt was a knitter and crocheter, not a quilter, so I don’t have any idea where they came from.  I was impressed with their dresses and the quality of hand embroidered buttonhole and stem stitches used around the ladies.  They all needed to be together and “marching” in rows.  I got my own fabric “stash” down, found coordinating cottons that matched the dresses and pieced the narrow borders around them.  I then chose to stay in the yellow and white fabric family for borders around the ladies since the unknown creator had chosen a solid yellow for the ladies background fabric.  Because I thought all the ladies should be together, the quilt became quite large.  Once all the piecing was done, I took it to my mom.  She is an avid hand quilter who put it into a floor frame and began the quilting process.  She spent about two months of her “spare” time hand quilting.  Not bad for an 89 year old quilter!  ~Rieta Wells

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