Family Quilts

As much as I enjoy making lists of things to do, I enjoy checking off the completed tasks even more.  One item which has been on that list for many years is to learn to quilt.  I absolutely love seeing the quilts in our fabulous DAR Museum and am amazed at the unique characteristics and fine workmanship of each quilt.

A few years ago one of my mother’s cousins brought me several quilts from the McMichael side of Mom’s family.  They are old and worn and would never be in a Museum collection, but the family ties they represent are precious to me.  Mom’s mother died at the age of 21 just a few weeks after Mom was born and we have little of her personal items.  But we do have quilts of my great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother.  I never met them but I am fortunate to have something they made.  From my Dad’s side I have a couple that his mother made. None were show pieces, believe me, but instead were scraps of fabric that were repurposed to keep their family warm in the winter.  Most were hand stitched, except for one made on the treadle sewing machine I have which belonged to my great-grandmother.

I cannot imagine the amount of time it takes to make a quilt, or what the women were thinking as they sewed.  They were using the resources at hand to provide for their family and I am grateful they have survived for over 100 years.

The pieces and patterns of the quilts remind me of our membership.  We are all unique yet bound together with threads of love for our country and appreciation for our heritage. 

The 2014-2015 DAR Museum Exhibit, Eye on Elegance: Early quilts of Maryland and Virginia will attract throngs of people to our beautiful headquarters.  The dynamic Museum staff is planning a symposium in the spring and anticipates it will fill up very quickly.  We are so fortunate to have so many treasures from our DAR family and be able to share them with the public.  Thanks to our fiber optic cable which increased our bandwidth, we will debut a new online exhibit very soon.

I am deeply grateful for each of you as you share your family history, your resources and your treasures with us.