Article: 10536 of fa.future-culture Path: ifi.uio.no!internet-mailinglist From: Debbie Wilson Newsgroups: fa.future-culture Subject: My First Quilt Date: 8 Aug 1994 14:06:52 +0200 Organization: Internet mailing list Lines: 48 Message-ID: <32574s$jhg@ifi.uio.no> Reply-To: Future Culture NNTP-Posting-Host: ifi.uio.no Return-Path: <<@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU:owner-futurec@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU>> Original-Message-Id: <199408081206.20009.ifi@ifi.uio.no> Original-Date: Mon, 8 Aug 1994 04:06:22 -0500 Comments: To: future culture To: Multiple recipients of list FUTUREC I pieced my first quilt this summer. Nannie, the woman who kept me when I was a child, is 82 now. She could never have children of her own because of an accident after she was first married. Her eyes are green with copper flecks, and they glitter when she smiles. Her real name is Nancy, but "Nannie" will do. She used to let me play/sew on the quilts she made. Her stitches were delicate and uniform. My chubby little hands made zig-zag stitches that hopscotched across her meticulous work. She always left my stitches in the finished quilts, saying, "Sister, they are pretty 'cause you made them." I thought she was foolish, but I loved her anyway. She had learned to quilt from her mother. Back then, quilting was something that all women were expected to know how to do. People gossiped about a grown girl that didn't know how to sew. During the Depression, Nannie made quilts out of worn out clothing. And I mean _worn out_ clothing. (She still wears the pair of houseshoes I bought her when I was six.) She put pieces of my old baby clothes in one of the quilts she made for me when I got married. I moved away from her. The year I moved away, she sold her farm and moved to town. Diabetes is blinding her. She is dying in town. Sirens have replaced whipowills, a heat pump doesn't warm her like a fireplace did, and a cement stoop took the place of her shady front porch. There is no garden to make, no chickens to tend, no hogs to butcher, no wild berries to pick. . .none of those things are her job anymore. But there was a quilt to make. Her hand shook while I guided it to the quilting frame. It had taken me weeks to piece a simple top, made from my son's old baby clothes. She began to quilt by feel, inserting the needle from memory into a quilt she saw in her mind. Her stitches were hesitant and scattered, but they were as delicate as a spiderweb. I watched her face while she worked; every stitch seemed like a whisper from prayers she had said a long time ago. She was telling me her life. She had no daughter to pass these things on to; the secret of an unbroken stitch was dying with her. I watched and listened to those whispers. She finished a block and asked, "Do you understand?" She was talking about sewing, but I understood "pretty 'cause you made it" like I never had before. She smiled, and kissed me like she did when I used to ask where people go when they die. My boy is sleeping with that quilt tonight. And generations of fears, desires, prayers, and dreams are sewn in the seams. What a sacred endowment. Nannie has green eyes with copper flecks that glitter when she smiles. Deb Article: 10540 of fa.future-culture Path: ifi.uio.no!internet-mailinglist From: Paula Davidson Newsgroups: fa.future-culture Subject: Re: My First Quilt Date: 8 Aug 1994 18:47:41 +0200 Organization: Internet mailing list Lines: 63 Message-ID: <325njd$rgg@ifi.uio.no> Reply-To: Paula Davidson NNTP-Posting-Host: ifi.uio.no Return-Path: <<@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU:owner-futurec@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU>> Original-Message-Id: <199408081647.28167.ifi@ifi.uio.no> Original-Date: Mon, 8 Aug 1994 12:46:24 -0400 Comments: To: Debbie Wilson Comments: cc: Multiple recipients of list FUTUREC To: Multiple recipients of list FUTUREC In-Reply-To: <199408081207.IAA07027@mercury.interpath.net> I make quilts too. Sometimes I start a quilt just because I have a good piece of fabric or I found a pattern I like. Then, as I start cutting and stiching, someone will creep into my mind. I'll think of eir while I'm working. I'll dream of eir at night. And then I know who the quilt is for. Quilting away I can see and taste the person. E is here with me, sitting round the frame, drinking endless cups of tea, threading endless needles. Sometimes I start a quilt with someone specific in mind. Right now I'm making a baby quilt for Claire, my best friend, who is pregnant with her first child at the late, great age of 40 (are we *really* 40 so soon? Just yesterday we were 20). She is so far away. As the needle moves in and out of the cloth my friend is with me. The quilt binds her to me as truly as our many rambles through a long ago city, as tightly as our letters. Every stitch brings her to me though she now lives a thousand miles away. How is a quilt made? Well first you drag down all the bags of scraps and dump them out on the floor, spread it all out. The floor gleams and throbs with color. The cats all join in, helpfully digging, scratching; kneading soft nests. Ah! There's the shirt I wore when we first met (yes, I throw nothing away. I'm a librarian, an archivist of words and deeds and pretty fabrics). The quilt will be based on this print. And perhaps that skirt is not *too* worn (Claire used to tease me when I wore that skirt, saying P, no one will know you even have legs, you cover up so much). She will laugh in delight when she sees this, and remembers our bold adventures. Then endless quilt books must be perused, do I like this pattern or that. How will this one look, wrapped around Claire's baby? Finally I decide on the Bears Paw. A little bit of North Carolina wildlife to rub off on a babe born and reared in the city. I cut and mark the cloth, building little bunches of color. I piece for days, always amazed that the seams match. Only quilting can draw me away from the net so effectively (but it's so much like the net, which is a patchwork of old and new, memories and sensations blended together in a hodgepodge that, while not perfectly aligned, presents a dazzling image when seen as a whole (almost said 'finished whole', but no, not finished). When the top is pieced I drag it over to another friend, who is capable of drawing straight lines and spirals and we mark the top for quilting. This is my favorite part. The larger, overall designs are drawn in pencil. The smaller areas will be drawn on when the quilt is up in the frame, as I move across it plying my needle I can quilt in whatever tickles my fancy at the moment. Friends come over and sink a stitch for luck. I love the thick nubby feel the quilt takes on after quilting. Substance, endurance, dimension. There is weight to the quilt that one can hide in, safe and protected from all but the inner-most demons. And when the quilt is finished, I will fly away to the city of Claire. We will eat chocolates and I will pat her huge belly. Claire will wrap her child in me. ================================================================ Paula Davidson T h e A l t e r n a t i v e R e a d i n g R o o m an unconventional library <> free & open to the public Wed-Thur 11-6 Fri-Sat 11-9 Sun 11-3 40 Wall St. Asheville, NC 28801 (704) 252-2501 tarr@mercury.interpath.net ================================================================ Article: 10549 of fa.future-culture Path: ifi.uio.no!internet-mailinglist From: Marius Ibenhardt Watz Newsgroups: fa.future-culture Subject: a thank you to the quilters Date: 9 Aug 1994 10:24:14 +0200 Organization: Internet mailing list Lines: 6 Message-ID: <327efe$enp@ifi.uio.no> Reply-To: Future Culture NNTP-Posting-Host: ifi.uio.no Return-Path: <<@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU:owner-futurec@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU>> Original-Message-Id: <199408090824.15093.ifi@ifi.uio.no> Original-Date: Tue, 9 Aug 1994 10:23:45 +0200 Comments: To: Future Culture To: Multiple recipients of list FUTUREC that was truly beatiful. thank you. -- Marius mariusw@ifi.uio.no http://www.uio.no/~mwatz/ Article: 10552 of fa.future-culture Path: ifi.uio.no!internet-mailinglist From: "Graeme \"Grazoid\" Hoose" Newsgroups: fa.future-culture Subject: Re: a thank you to the quilters Date: 9 Aug 1994 16:18:38 +0200 Organization: Internet mailing list Lines: 2 Message-ID: <32837u$oae@ifi.uio.no> Reply-To: Future Culture NNTP-Posting-Host: ifi.uio.no Return-Path: <<@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU:owner-futurec@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU>> Original-Message-Id: <199408091418.24907.ifi@ifi.uio.no> Original-Date: Tue, 9 Aug 1994 15:14:54 +0100 Comments: To: Future Culture To: Multiple recipients of list FUTUREC In-Reply-To: <"relay1.pip.771:09.07.94.08.24.45"@pipex.net> tugged a cord with me as well,again thanks. Grazoid Article: 10554 of fa.future-culture Path: ifi.uio.no!internet-mailinglist From: Frances Sendbuehler Newsgroups: fa.future-culture Subject: Quilter's songs Date: 9 Aug 1994 18:36:49 +0200 Organization: Internet mailing list Lines: 4 Message-ID: <328bb1$rms@ifi.uio.no> Reply-To: Future Culture NNTP-Posting-Host: ifi.uio.no Return-Path: <<@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU:owner-futurec@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU>> Original-Message-Id: <199408091636.28377.ifi@ifi.uio.no> Original-Date: Tue, 9 Aug 1994 12:34:07 -0400 Comments: To: Future Culture To: Multiple recipients of list FUTUREC Thank you both, Deb and Paula. It was wonderful to read your rememberances of such touching moments -- you have very precious memories. Sweet tears. Fran Article: 10556 of fa.future-culture Path: ifi.uio.no!internet-mailinglist From: Trond Buland Newsgroups: fa.future-culture Subject: Re: a thank you to the quilters Date: 9 Aug 1994 21:48:15 +0200 Organization: Internet mailing list Lines: 18 Message-ID: <328mhv$49v@ifi.uio.no> Reply-To: Future Culture NNTP-Posting-Host: ifi.uio.no Return-Path: <<@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU:owner-futurec@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU>> Original-Message-Id: <199408091948.4406.ifi@ifi.uio.no> Original-Date: Tue, 9 Aug 1994 21:48:59 GMT-0100 Comments: To: FUTUREC@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU To: Multiple recipients of list FUTUREC Marius: > that was truly beatiful. thank you. YEAH! as i've already said to one of you; as i read my eyes filled with tears. and i haven't cried so good tears in a very long time. now i'm playing old gram parsons-records and thinking blue thoughts 'bout things i've lost, things i thought i'd forgotten..... you made me do it! thank you! :-) <-------------------------------------------------> < Trond Buland > < e-mail: trond.buland@ifim.sintef.no > < phone:+47 73 59 25 65 home:+47 73 52 78 21 > <-------------------------------------------------> Article: 10558 of fa.future-culture Path: ifi.uio.no!internet-mailinglist From: "Jodi J. Showers" Newsgroups: fa.future-culture Subject: Re: a thank you to the quilters Date: 10 Aug 1994 16:52:49 +0200 Organization: Internet mailing list Lines: 49 Message-ID: <32apk1$1p9@ifi.uio.no> Reply-To: Future Culture NNTP-Posting-Host: ifi.uio.no Return-Path: Original-Message-Id: <199408101452.1819.ifi@ifi.uio.no> Original-Date: Wed, 10 Aug 1994 10:53:00 EDT Comments: To: FUTUREC@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU To: Multiple recipients of list FUTUREC >that was truly beatiful. thank you. > here, here.. I was touched in a way that was not initally apparent to me. Upon some reflection I found I was touched by the cross-generational connection between Debbie and Nannie, and the intra-generational connection between Paula and Claire. Thanx very much ladies for sharing this with us. These relationships are rare, and they deserve tremendous respect. In this western culture I live in, which is void of generalized traditions, it's particulary important to deliberately find opportunities to build cross-generational connections. Intra-generational relationships are less rare, and easier to build; but no less important. trying to relate this topic to FC... If I think of western culture, and men. Not being a woman, I talk about what I know. * boys without fathers, girls without mothers * even for boys with fathers, rites of passage have basically disappeared - where is the connection to our fathers? to what we may aspire to? The men of an african tribe, steal the boy children from the women when they have reached the*age. And from here the boys learn what it is to be a man. to drink from the father water. * in the age of mass media, there are no-heroes. Everyone is having an affair, stealing something, killing someone. what hope is there to be an adult. If there is a need for some hope, for something to aspire to, for some heroes and father-water deep, where do we find it? Jodi. >-- >Marius >mariusw@ifi.uio.no >http://www.uio.no/~mwatz/