Quiltless

Margaret Doherty & Dave O'Connell Family
Ann (Ma), Margaret, Alice, Dave, John
But look past them to the quilt!

     Here is the only photo of ancestral type people that has a quilt in it.  If you've read any of the pioneer stories or looked at quilt books, they discuss how women saved every fabric scrap for inclusion in a quilt for the home and got together on winter days at a quilting bee to help each other get a quilt made.  People often bought feedsacks by the fabric it was packaged in so the bag could be reused in a quilt.
     The quilt behind them is a tied quilt. This wasn't meant to be decorative, just functional.
     I don't remember anyone in the family talking about quilting or quilting bees.
     The quilts most people make today, by buying yards of material specifically for a quilt, would probably seem wasteful to many of the ancestors.

Crafty Women

                                                                                                                                                                                                 For some reason, I was in the mood to embroider.  I remember embroidering pillow cases in the summer.  It was at Jefferson, so I had to be older than 9.  I think it was Mom who taught me to embroider.

I remember mom doing more knitting than crocheting.  I think she made most of us an afghan on those really big needles and 3 strands of yarn.  Mom sewed too.  I remember when she took a sewing class through community ed.  She made a couple of shirtwaist dresses while taking the class.

Ma did knit.  She made Jimmy some heavy wool socks.  I think she preferred crocheting.  She made doilies.

 Our big project together was a bedspread.  I got a notion to make Mom and Dad a crocheted bedspread for their 25th anniversary.  They didn't get it until their 30th!!

The bedspread had 2 kinds of squares.  One was plain and the other one had an Irish rose in the center.  Ma could not be fussed doing the rose.  So she did the plain squares and I did the rose squares.  It was pretty amazing that our tensions were about the same.

If you want to hear about someone who beats all, Colette Keniry can knit, read and watch TV all at the same time.

I continue to be a slacker!!!