Creating Heirlooms

Creating Heirlooms

Visiting a quilt-maker is like stepping into another world. There are cotton fabric of every color of the rainbow; designs that dazzle your imagination and a vocabulary that lets you know it is a whole different world. For instance “batting” has nothing to do with baseball. Nor is “bonding” related to the stock market and “triangles “ and “squares” didn’t appear to be connected with math except to add another lovely block to a quilt. I really drew the line at “fabric sandwiches” and “basting, ” surely we couldn’t still be talking about quilts?

I was visiting with Dorothy Jones in my hometown when the one-woman quilt show began. Quilted items were all around her home covering her beds, hanging on walls and adorning tiny tablecloths and pillows. Dorothy spread out a quilt of various shades blue-flowered material on a stark white background. She called it a Double Wedding Ring. Then she told me that long ago this design was the start of her 25-year career in quilting.

To fill up lonely hours after her mother passed away in 1969, she decided to put her sewing skills to work. Meticulously, stitch by stitch, tiny pieces of cotton material were made into blocks. When the blocks were put together they formed interlocking rings to make a large multicolored Double Wedding Ring quilt with a lovely scalloped edge.

To save time Dorothy had it quilted by machine, which was becoming the popular way to quilt. But she was not happy with the results. So hour upon hour, day after day, she worked to remove the minute machine stitches until all trace of them were eliminated. She stretched the result on a frame made by her husband, similar to the one her mother let her use for her first quilt in 1933.

Many more days and night-time hours were used in placing tiny hand stitches to outline the intricate quilting design to complete her first heirloom. I received received this labor of love in gratitude for researching and keeping the Martin/Joy family history up-to-date.

Dorothy is the oldest of Charles Lorenzo and Cora Myrle Martin’s eight children. She remembers going with her Grandmother Joy to search for materials in just the right colors to make a Rainbow Around the World quilt when she was eight years old. This farming family grew up during the depression years near Madison in rural Greenwood County. Many quilts were needed to keep the large family warm in the early 1920s and 30s.

Dorothy sets up her quilt frames in the living room, the largest room in the house. Here she can listen and “sorta” watch TV, besides keeping abreast of the outside world through her front windows that also allows lots of light. Good light is essential for a quilter to place the tiny stitches neatly through the three layers---the pieced top, the cotton batting and the backing---that forms a quilt.

I also learned that all quilters wear a thimble on their middle finger to push the needle down. But nothing protects the finger underneath the quilt that guides the needle in its tiny stitch back to the top. Needless to say that finger becomes sore from the constant pricking.

Many of Dorothy’s quilts were created for her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, who usually chose their favorite as a wedding gift. Others have been given away to relatives and friends for births, marriages, anniversaries and other special events. Each colorful quilt has been photographed an recorded for reference with pattern name, date and recipient. The heirlooms have found homes in Texas, Colorado, Kentucky, Arizona, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Iowa, California and Nebraska, all over Kansas and even in far-away India.

I saw a picture of an old classic pattern in soft pastels called Grandmother’s Flower Garden that was pieced in 1987. The quilting was finished just before Christmas time to give to a granddaughter. A striking twin-sized spread finished in 1982 was another favorite shown. It is called Nonesuch and it is one design that can be made using only two pattern pieces. Rearranging the pieces can result in Drunkard’s Path or Rocky Road, both are traditional Kansas designs.

Dorothy has made the Log Cabin pattern into some really striking quilts. On version, a small 40-inch square, makes an eye-catching table cover in a floral mix of pink, blue and white. Instead of cotton batting, a piece of outing flannel filled the inside.

Dorothy is an artist not only with her needle but with a pencil and ruler. When a quilt pattern catches her eye, she draws it, and then makes the pattern pieces from even as small as a 3 ½ inch size pictures. She finds ideas in advertisement, magazines and quilt catalogs. Sometimes the color is what attracts her, in others it’s the design. One vibrant green and red star on a black background radiating across a queen-size bed was made from one of her drawings. This large quilt, shown in a quilt show in Emporia in 1984, was her interpretation of a picture of Vasarely Star II.

Besides the Emporia shows, she has shown in quilt shows in El Dorado and at “Madison Days,” an annual festival in her hometown. Dorothy also had three of her quilts documented for the Kansas Quilt Project in 1986. That statewide undertaking catalogued 13,107 Kansas quilts resulting in the book Kansas Quilts and Quilters.

The Brick Walk or Garden Path pattern was one made from scratch that resulted in a very large quilt. Besides the long hours stitching the blocks together, this one took 57 hours just to quilt on half of the quilt that measured 94 ½ X 106 ½ inches. Families today have king and queen-size beds, so quilts have become much larger. When Dorothy made her first quilt in 1933, the summer after high school graduation, most beds were called full size. Dorothy told me “I was in love and hoped to be married soon so I decided to make a wedding ring quilt for my own. I could work on the quilt at home and still help my parents. During those depression years it was out of the question to purchase new material so I used scrap material left over from various family sewing projects.”

Dorothy has made small quilts as wall hangings and donated them to the Methodist Church auction held annually. One was a version of Ships At Sea made in four shades of blue with white accents. Another small quilt was made from an illustration of the distinctive Clam Shell design. The clam motif is set off by wave-like quilting and contrasting borders.

One unique pattern that Dorothy used to make several old-fashioned looking quilts was an adaptation of the Early American craft called Candlewicking. This is achieved by embroidering with a contrasting color of candlewick thread. The quick-to-do French knots form the design as well as holding the fabric, backing, and batting together one square at a time. The comfort style quilt can easily be made in any size by just adding more square and is reversible. The expense of the unbleached muslin, candlewick thread and material for piping soon passed the hundred dollar mark. Counting hours spent in sewing, these quilts definitely become worth a small fortune to the recipients.

Dorothy appliqués some of her quilt tops. A beautiful cherry wreath design took 6 hours to appliqué one block after the pieces were cut out and the edges basted. Time consuming? Yes, but the pleasure and pride are the rewards when you view the finished masterpiece. The quilt, Cathedral Window is another very slow process to complete but its overall beauty gives you the same feelings that a window in a cathedral inspires.

The arrow motif is found in many traditional quilt patterns and Dorothy made an updated version similar to "Every Which Way" pictured in a quilt magazine. Some other quilts Dorothy has made were "Autumn Harvest", "A Thousand Triangles", "Circle ‘n’ Squares", "The Great Circle", "Reverse Applique" and "Amish Pinwheels." Dorothy has tried almost every type of quilting.

Dorothy told me, “My quilts aren’t perfect by any means but I am never satisfied with seams that aren’t straight; corners that don’t match; or blocks that aren’t square.” She went on to say “I do a lot of ripping. I am never as concerned with how many I make as I am with how well made they are.”

Through the 25 years this quilt maker has fashioned over 60 queen, full or single size quilts and many small coverlets, throws, wall hanging and pillow tops all made one tiny stitch at a time.

Story ID:	297
Written by:	Gail Lee Martin (bio, contact, other stories)
Organization:	Kansas Authors Club
Story type:	Family History
Location:	El Dorado Kansas USA
Year:	1970
Person:	Dorothy (Martin) Jones