We missed January’s touch of winter while we were in South Carolina but it sure looks like we are going to get a hit of it today. Seems each year the weather gets crazier and harder to predict. Weather in South Carolina was cool and rainy while we were there and then they had 4 inches of snow a few days after we left.

We had a great time seeing our daughter, son in law and grandson. Their new farm and lake property is so different from what we think of farm land and lakefront. The lake is a dammed river that has 900 miles of shoreline. To get anywhere it seemed we crossed the lake 3-4 times. It is muddy with a reddish tint from the color of the surrounding clay.

One of the highlights of our trip was a visit to the Upcountry History Museum in Greenville. They had an exhibit of some of Ken Burns’ quilt collection. Most of the quilts were from the late 1800s. Hand pieced and quilted. I can’t imagine the hours that went into making them. I took lots of pictures of the quilts but was more intrigued with the narratives that Burns had provided. He is well known for his documentaries on PBS (The Civil War, Country Music, The Vietnam War, and many others). Here are a couple of quotes that really stuck with me:

         “’Do all your work as if you had a thousand years to live, and as you would if you knew you                  would die tomorrow.’ 

         The things we leave behind-our children, our land, the environment, but also these made                     things, the art-will commend us to posterity.”

Very few of us make scrap quilts anymore (which as a shop owner I am glad about). Quilting started as a way to make bed coverings out of the odds and ends of any fabric that could be found: a dress that no longer could be altered to fit anyone, scraps left over from curtains, old uniforms from a past war, pieces of blankets and feed bags. These were diligently seamed together, layered with batting of some sort and often times a pieced back. If time allowed there might be decorative stitching added to the quilting but often they were basically utilitarian. Burns recounts a quilt made by his grandmother.

            “My grandmother, when I was a little boy, made a big, huge, heavy quilt for me out of post –                World War II sweaters and blankets and fabric. There’s no quilting in it, but she pieced it                      together, and I lived under it until it started to fall apart. My grandmother would say, ‘That was              your father’s this, and that was your father’s that, and that was your grandfather’s this, and                  your uncle’s that, and this was my this.’

            In some ways it was my trip around their world.”

The quilts we make may come from new fabric, kits we found on our last trip out of town, or gathered from remnants in our stash. We don’t always think about the stories that they tell but they are a reflection of us and our desire to pass on a piece of our art. Share them generously with love.