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A Quiltin' Gatherin' at Aunt Nora's

September 5, 1943
Detroit News Quilt History Project; Michigan State University Museum; Harriet Clarke
Detroit, Michigan, United States
A pictorial about a quilt gathering.
Joe Clark's Camera Takes You Down to Cumberland Gap, Tenn. to Attend A Quiltin' Gatherin' at Aunt Nora's
By Joe Clark

1. After Aunt Nora and Uncle Wild have ginned the cotton for new quilt on a homemade cotton gin, Aunt Nora then cards or combs it between two wire-studded boards to make it soft and fluffy. It is then arranged in batts or rolls for use.

2. The quilt lining is stretched and tacked onto the quilting frame. Then the batting is arranged neatly and evenly on the lining. When not in use, the quilting frame is pulled up to the ceiling out of the way. Work can be resumed quickly.

3. Before the quilting actually begins, the squares have to be made. Here, Dorothy McCreary gets some pointers from Aunt Nora on how to piece squares for the Friendship quilt. The hearts are appliqued with the feather or buttonhole stitch.

4. After the squares have been made, they are sewed together into the top cover. The top cover is then spread over the cotton batting on the quilting frame. Aunt Nora and her guests are shown here working on a quilt in the half-star pattern.

5. After the top has been pinned securely to the batting and the lining, busy fingers ply the quilting stitch while the quilters exchange news and views on topics of mutual and neighborhood interest.

6. Aunt Nora and her daughter, Julie, display some of their fine quilts. Left to right they are: Flower Garden; Ocean Wave and Friendship. Most quilting patterns go back to Colonial times.

Quilt-making, the antique art that is still an active American tradition, is very much alive with the southern mountain people. Old treasured designs are handed down - and new designs created and worked out in beautiful colors of pieced work or patchwork, in applique, or in combinations of both in one quilt.

In these pictures we take you to an informal quiltin' gatherin' at Aunt Nora Treece's near Cumberland Gap, Tenn.

Since several persons may work together on a quilt, this enables the busy mountain women to keep their fingers flying while indulging in the social relaxation of visiting.

When neighbors call, it is not unusual for the woman of the house to let down the quilting frame from the ceiling, where it has been wound up out of the way, and have her quilting friends continue willingly on the work.

She usually has a few extra quilts in the home being saved for the day when a daughter or son marries. She takes pride in showing the quilts that mean so many hours of piecing, fine sewing, matching, and quilting.

The quilting of a single quilt takes from ten days to six weeks when done alone.

The base or backing is usually a solid piece of muslin but may be feed sacks sewn together. The filling or batting may be a thin or even a fairly thick layer of cotton or wool or other soft material. The upper covering has the design which is tacked on through the filling and base into one permanent piece by quilting stitches.

​​Courtesy of The Detroit News Archives.
6119.43.17

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