The Things You Learn about Ancestors!

When I was a child I thought all women sewed, did needlework, created things.  The women in my family, particularly my mother and grandmother, made curtains, sewed pillowcases and dish towels, darned socks, repaired clothes and bed sheets, and sewed clothes for their daughters and themselves.  My mother embroidered, my grandmother crocheted.  And women of that time might sew quilts.  My mother cut and hand-stitched pieces of bright fabric to make Dresden Plate quilt blocks which she then sewed into quilts for my sister and me.  My mother and grandmother assembled a quilting frame in my college-student-brother's unused bedroom and they sat and quilted.  It was the only time I ever saw either of them quilt and I thought it was a one-off.  Women created what they and their families needed using needle and thread, and I thought they either learned the simple things when they were little girls and figured out the more difficult ones, like quilting, as the need arose.

Like my mother and grandmother, I learned needlework skills when I was a small.  My grandmother was Emma (Bickerstaff) Meinzen.  She taught me to crochet and my mother taught me to embroider and sew before I could read.  I stitched by hand, learned to hem, and sewed on buttons.  When I was a few years older Mom trusted me to use her old black Singer sewing machine.  I made things for my dolls and learned to sew clothes for myself.  These days, still using Mom's old black Singer, I cut and sew fabric to create quilt tops, then layer and hand quilt them.  They keep us warm for afternoon naps and on cold winter nights.

A few years ago my daughter and I visited my aunt, my mother's sister, who, at the time, was in an assisted living home.  She had a small apartment with a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and a bedroom.  She was eager to show us around her apartment.  When we arrived in her bedroom, a bright Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt covered her bed.  It was beautiful and I was in awe.

When I asked who made it she said, "My mother."  At first I thought I misunderstood so I asked her to clarify.  "My mother and your grandmother Meinzen made it."  I didn't know Gramma could quilt and wondered how I didn't know this about her.  My aunt went on to explain that when Gramma was younger she had belonged to the quilting group at church.  She and the women got together and quilted every week.  My aunt said Gramma was an excellent quilter.

Gramma was a quilter?!  A real quilter, not just a woman who cobbled together fabric and di the best she could to stitch together front, batting, and back into a quilt?!  It was such a surprise to learn this.  And yes, from the looks of the quilt on my aunt's bed, she was an excellent quilter.  When I came home I pulled out the Dresden Plate quilt my mother had made and she and my grandmother had quilted.  An excellent quilter, indeed.  The stitches were fine and even, probably award winning.

Gramma died when I was in my 20s.  (As it turns out, yesterday was the 46th anniversary of her death.)  During all the years I knew her, neither she nor anyone else ever mentioned that she was a quilter or that she'd belonged to a quilting group.  How did I only just come to know this a few years ago?!

The things you learn about ancestors can be surprising!

This post was written for Amy Johnson Crow's 2019 version of 52 Ancestors.  The post topic for the week was "Surprise."

--Nancy.

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