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!
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