Pieces In Time -- The Quilt

Quilts are pieces in time.

My grandma quilted long ago. I was told she sold them for $5.
Grandma pieced for warmth, today many people piece for beauty.

Remnants of an old quilt pieced by Grandma.

Old quilts sometimes don't age too well. Portions can be salvaged and made into throws...

or teddy bears!

I made this teddy bear from a quilt I received from my aunt when I got married. I used it for a long time on the kid's beds. Mom and I repaired many of the blocks down through the years. The material used in the quilt was old and beginning to tear. I put it away for safe keeping. When I retrieved it from the linen closet one day, I was sad to discover the material was beyond repair in most of the quilt. I salvaged what I could and made a teddy bear to display and remember my aunt by. Now every time I look at it, I think of my Aunt Goldie.

An old cheater quilt covers a trunk at my house.

Open the trunk and look inside.

An old quilt top I got at a yard sale. I believe the pattern is called Drunkard's Path.
I hope to some day make a quilt with it.

An old quilt from my childhood.

Another old quilt.
It looks like one that my grandmother may have made.

Another old yard sale quilt. I love yellow.

It looks like part of the backing was made from an old bedspread.
People made do with what they had.

I still make do with what I have. I make blue jean quilts for my children.

The handprints on this comforter I made holds memories of when my children were little.

Baby quilts made with love by friends and family.
My boys are no longer babies, but these quilts are pieces in time
which bring back memories of when they were little.

The yellow one on the bottom was made by my mother.

Tiny quilts I made for dolls.

Now, all I need is a little granddaughter to give them to.

And my children can look at these some day and say,
"Mom was going through a pink phase when she made these throws."

Yes, quilts are pieces in time. Made with love down through the ages.
Made with scraps, made with feed sacks, made with whatever they had on hand.

Do you have any pieces in time?

Remember When...

Remember when. . . . you bought penny candy from under the glass counter at the local store.

We had a little country store up our holler and I loved going down there. I'd point out which candies I wanted and Shorty put my treats in a small brown bag. I also remember Young's Dept. Store on the west side of Charleston, they had a candy counter, too.

Remember when . . . the gas station gave you gifts when you bought gas at their station!

Wouldn't that be nice, instead of them taking all your money to fill her up today.

These tall frosted West Virginia glasses were give aways at gas stations

Remember when . . . companies put items in their packaging, not the little toys that cereal companies put in their boxes today, but glasses, towels, dishes (some of which are worth a lot of money today) and such.

These wheat dishes were packed in Duz detergent.

Remember when . . . you didn't drink coffee from big mugs, but dainty cups and saucers.

They would pour the coffee into the saucer and sip. Mom used to fold light bread (another word for store bought sliced bread) and dunk it into her coffee and let me take a bite when I was little. It was delicious. We were told coffee would stunt your growth. I don't think they wanted us kids drinking their coffee.

Remember when . . . you not only had milk delivered to your door in glass bottles, but you also had Dr. Pepper in a glass bottle at 10..2.. and 4.

We lived in the country, so we never had milk delivery, lots of times we would buy milk and butter from my Aunt Gracie, who lived up the road from us. How many of you remember buying those little bags of salted peanuts and dropping them into your bottle of Pepsi. Now, that was good!

Remember when . . . you stayed up late to watch Chiller Theater. The station would play the Star Spangled Banner at the end of programming and display a test signal when TV went off the air for the night. And remember when they were experimenting with color TV and they would place this symbol on the screen for you to stare at to see if you could detect color.

No matter how late you stay up now, TV shows are always there. Funny, though, with all the channels we have to choose from and programming all through the night, seems like there's never anything good to watch. Not like the old days when the kids and adults loved Wonderful World of Disney and we came home from church on Sunday night to watch Bonanza. And how about the Mr. Cartoon Show which was on at 4 o'clock every day. My oldest son was actually in the audience when he was 5 years old. It was live and we recorded the show while we were there. My son Andrew is in the opening sequence when the camera spans across the group of children, but that's the last you see of him. He promptly ran off the stage to me and went to sleep on my lap during the rest of the show.

Remember when . . . schools sent truant officers out to check on students that didn't come to school.

Remember when . . . you suffered through the measles and mumps.

Kids don't know what they're missing today. I had mumps on both sides at the same time. Besides looking like a chipmunk with his jaws full of nuts, I was miserable. I remember sitting at the kitchen, with tears in my eyes, trying to eat. About the only thing that didn't hurt me when I ate it was mashed potatoes.

Remember when . . . you got the small pox vaccination?

I got mine before entering first grade. It developed into the ugliest scab and I remember being told not to touch it. Didn't they know that when you tell a child not to touch something, it makes them want to touch it even more. You can barely see my scar, but it's still there, along with the memories.

Remember when . . . schools believed in punishing kids for being mean.

I remember the paddles with the holes drilled in them. I think the holes were supposed to make it hurt more. I was only reprimanded once. It was in the 2nd grade when the teacher held my hand in hers and smacked it with a ruler. That stings! The teacher left the room at recess and told us not to get out of our seats. Well, I returned my carton of milk to the crate after drinking it, and someone told on me when she got back.

Remember when . . . we covered the food left after supper with a table cloth.

I suppose this was to keep the flies off. But the table sure looked pretty with the decorative cloth draped over it.

Remember when . . . quilts were made to keep warm with, not for decorative purposes.

My grandma and Aunt used to make quilts and sell them for $2 and $5 each. Wouldn't I love to have one of those. I remember the old quilting frame sitting in grandma's front room.

A few old quilts in my dad's old trunk.
I believe the one on the bottom and left were made by my grandma.

I could go on and on. And I think I will in another post on another day.

Do any of you . . . remember any of these?