My FIL and his wife are visiting with us. I showed him the string block quilt, and he was so surprised (above is one of the 3 blocks quilted thus far). Turns out I got the wrong information about the blocks before. They were actually pieced by my FIL's GRANDmother in the 1930's. Her name was Minnie Parker. Of course, my dry sense of humor had the label in mind..."Started by Minnie Parker, quilted by Maxi Parker."
Back to true history. FIL's aunt kept her mother's quilt blocks and tops, and FIL inherited them when his aunt died. So Aunt Ruby didn't sew any of them, she just saved them for posterity.
The string used to piece the blocks? That's another story. FIL's grandfather was a farmer. He became crippled when a mule he was riding threw him then stepped on his back. Grandfather eventually opened a mercantile. My FIL personally wound the strings from feedsacks and the string "zippers" at the top of meal bags and animal chow bags into a ball so his grandmother could use them for piecing quilt blocks and tops.
So there you have it...the rest of the story.
~Joan
Thursday, January 3, 2008
The Rest of the Story...String Quilt History
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3 comments:
How wonderful to have the history of these blocks to pass along to future generations.
Mom used to always have a ball of string in the drawer. It was fun to watch that ball grow larger and larger over the years. And a lot of fun to be allowed to pull off a piece of string to make a cat's cradle or Jacob's Ladder.
Neat story!
I freak if I have to use a 40wt thread to piece, I can't imagine having to use string! Of course, I haven't hand pieced, so maybe I'm full of baloney.
Those are just so awesome!! I fast forwarded (or reversed)in your blog to see the quilt as well as the blocks. I just love them so much!
JulieQ
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