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Quilting Parties – They were once an important party of an Alabama woman’s life

QUILTING PARTIES

(Transcribed and unedited story from a WPA

(Works Projects Administration) author from Pike County, Alabama)

Written by Lois Lynn

11/12/1936

Quilting parties are still prevalent in the rural sections of Pike County. Usually, the home at which these parties are to be held have from 6 to 10 quilts to be quilted. Neighbors in the community are invited, (sometimes totaling 10 or 18) for a spend the day party. One quilt at a time is put in frames which are suspended from the ceiling; they are marked off in sections, each quilter having a section.

It is customary to give a prize to the women who finishes her section first and also to the one who completes the most sections.

Hostess prepares a feast

The hostess, with one or two of the quilters, or hired help, spends the morning preparing the dinner. It is usually a feast for there is always much rivalry among the hostesses of such parties who try to excel the other in serving an elaborate meal. As a rule every known tasty southern dish is served at these quiltings.

The entire afternoon is devoted to quilting; there is a certain amount of enjoyment for along with the work the quilters participate in telling jokes and stories of various kind. During the late afternoon, just before the batch of quilts are finished, cold drinks and cookies are served.

The parties disband about sundown for each woman has a certain amount of night chores awaiting them at home.

ALABAMA FOOTPRINTS Confrontation:: Lost & Forgotten Stories

Prior to statehood, Alabama was a vast wilderness with a large Native American population. It is only natural that when new immigrants from other states arrived, conflicts over the land would arise. Soon, these small conflicts exploded into war.

Alabama Footprints Confrontation is a collection of lost and forgotten stories that reveals why and how the confrontation between the Native American population and settlers developed into the Creek-Indian War as well as stories of the bravery and heroism of participants from both sides.
Some stores include:

  • Tecumseh Causes Earthquake
  • Terrified Settlers Abandon Farms
  • Survivor Stories From Fort Mims Massacre
  • Hillabee Massacre
  • Threat of Starvation Men Turn To Mutiny
  • Red Eagle After The War

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31 comments

  1. I used to sit at the quilting frame with my grandmother, her sister, and other ladies as they quilted. I was given a needle and thread with no knot.

  2. My great-grandmother, Mattie Lou Aandrews, worked for the WPA in Montgomery during the Great Depression. I loved watching all the older women in our family gather for a quilting party.

  3. Fred Grissom, I believe you’ve been to a few of these.

  4. I can remember my aunts sitting around my gramma’s quilting frame, dipping snuff

  5. I remember sitting under the quilt and watching all the needles

  6. I use to play under the quilt while the ladies of our community quilted. Sweet memories.

  7. My husband’s grandmother taught me how to quilt. Four of grandma Stacks girls husbands worked the evening shift in the coal mines here in Alabama. My husband did too. When I would get off work we would all meet up at Grandma Stacks and cook, eat supper and quilt until our husbands got home about midnight. This is one of my most favorite memories of her and her home.

  8. Remember them well when I was young and was included in the quilting bee as my family called it.

  9. Growing up, I wish I had say down with my grandma, and let her show me how to quilt.

  10. Memories of the ladies in Prospect community of Five Points in Barbour County. Alabama

  11. Remember having to change my route thru the house when my mother had the quilt rack hanging in the dining room. For a kid, sliding under the quilt rack on hardwood floors as a quick entry into the lesson of “Don’t ever do that again”!!!!

  12. Still are. My church does this. It is great.

  13. I remember those when I was young in Merengo county.

  14. I remember Mama Ruby and some ladies doing quilts in the back room. They looked great. They would sit in there for hours.

  15. About three years ago I visited a darling 94-year-old–and her quilting frame was still up and she was working!

    1. I think I would have to be the hostess planning the meals. No one would want me to hand quilt their quilt. Now piecing is a different story.

    2. I’m certain you are great at both!!

  16. My mother did this an I was there

  17. My grandmothers and family friends had entire rooms devoted to quilting. It seemed so natural to walk into a room with a quilt strung across it. Seemed so at home when I saw it.

  18. The second from the end on the left side looks like Mommy Mac.

  19. Elaine Porter thought of you.

  20. My Grand mother Fannie Goodson, had them at her house all the time in the late 30s early 40s.

  21. I can remember my Granny and Mama taking me to quilting bee’s in our little community in Etowah County. As a young child, I got to play under the quilt as it was being quilted and pretended it was my fort. Such fond memories!

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