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| Due to technology getting the better of me once again, the following story, in very rough draft form, was included with our e-mail this morning. The story was so incomplete, that I'm breaking my own rule of not sending too many e-mails out, and sending it again. I hope you'll forgive me. Linda |
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A Bridge Across Generations
Last Saturday, a lady, Nancy, together with her Aunt and husband, came into Quilter’s Attic with 18 beautiful Dresden Plate appliqués to find suitable matching fabric for a top. She told us the story that these Dresden Plate designs turned out to have been made by her husband’s great- grandmother during the Depression. As they were cleaning out her mother-in-laws house, they found these beautiful pieces, along with a treasure trove of other pieced designs, tucked away in the basement, carefully wrapped in newspapers dated 1932.
Nancy told us the story that she’d heard about how women in those days of scarcity and frugality would write to the manufacturers of the commonly worn dusters and house dresses to request scraps left over from the manufacturing process. The garment companies would mail the odd shaped and sized scraps to women all over the country who would use them to make many of the quilted items we treasure today. |
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This was an era when nothing went to waste. If you look closely, you can see that some of the fan pieces in the Dresden Plates have been pieced together from smaller pieces of fabric since there wasn't a rectangle large enough to make the entire fan. The workmanship is excellent and you have to look very close to find these pieced sections. Many other women who happened to be in the shop at the time oohed and aahed over these gorgeous pieces which, because of how carefully they had been stored so many decades ago, looked as bright as the day they were made.
How fortunate it was that Nancy and her husband found these beautiful appliqués and, knowing quilting, recognized what a treasure they are and saved them. We can’t help but wonder how many other priceless links to a family’s past are thrown away because their value isn’t recognized when they surface. We're struck by the thought that had they gone undiscovered for just one more generation, the family history they represent; the story they tell about the life and times of the remarkable woman who made them, might all have been so easily lost forever. What a priceless link to a loved, and now newly remembered, ancestor, Nancy and her husband have. The sacrifices and hardships of a generation told in the small scraps that represent such a labor of love now come full circle to remind us of where we came from and of the debt we owe to those whose lives so enrich ours today.
Nancy’s plan is to highlight these Dresden Plates in a new quilt that will allow family members for generations to come to share in this amazing legacy. In the next several months, Nancy will be appliqueing them onto to a beautiful background she picked out. We'll be sure to take a picture of the finished quilt so you can enjoy it too.
The Gals at the Attic |
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Store Hours
10-6 Monday - Friday
10-5 Saturday
Closed Sunday
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