I have really enjoyed The Pieces of Me Quilt Exhibit at the LDS Church History Museum, not only because of the beautiful quilts, but because of the interesting stories about the quilts and the quilters.
Can you enjoy the exhibit even if you don't quilt? Absolutely! Kids like the exhibit too because they can "make" a quilt on the huge magnetic board. The exhibit will run through January 16th 2012 so come and see me on Tuesday nights. That's when I serve as a docent and service missionary.
You can add your own story on-line : http://piecesofmeexhibit.lds.org
Here's my story of Ocie Mama's Quilt.
My grandmother Hurd passed away in Martinsville, Virginia in 1964 when I was twelve years old. After weeks of tending to my grandmother and helping to ease her passing, my mother returned home and brought with her a quilt top, saying that it came from my grandmother’s cedar chest and asked, “Would you like it sweetie?”
I know she hoped I would finish the quilt someday. The first problem with my mother’s plan is that I never learned to quilt; the second problem is that I didn’t particularly like the quilt top. Oh . . . the large appliquéd tulip in a pot pattern was cute enough, with its many bright colors, but I didn’t care for the fabric that had been used for the edging pieces and I was just too young to appreciate the delicate hand stitching. Still, I kept it, and the quilt top went with me, packed in the same box through the years.
Fast forward to when I was fifty one years old and needed to write a paper for a class on an item that had been handed down from one generation to another. I remembered the quilt top and it became my project. After discovering that the colorful appliquéd tulips were actually flour sack fabric from the 1920’s or 1930’s, my excitement mounted and I called my cousin Mary Ley from Virginia to get more information. As we visited, Mary referred to our grandmother as “Ocie Mama,” an endearment unfamiliar to me. She told me how Ocie Mama loved to make the quilt tops more than she liked to do the actual quilting. Mary experienced this first hand because she lived with Ocie Mama as a young girl. The only memory I had of my grandmother was from a trip my family made by passenger train from Salt Lake City to Martinsville when I was five years old. Mary and I talked late into the night, and when I hung up, I knew my grandmother on a deeper level.
I pieced together the life of Ocie Ola Sampson Hurd, just like the pieces of her quilt; some pieces came from the information Mary gave me, others from remembered stories my mother had told me when she was alive, and the rest from impressions given to me by Ocie Mama herself. She was there, coaxing and guiding my hands on the computer keyboard. I knew she was with me, because I felt her presence wrapped around me, warm, soft and comforting.
In 2005, I went to the beautiful Jordan River Temple and helped my Ocie Mama partake of the great work of Latter Day Saint Temples that bind families together for time and all eternity.
Our hearts are stitched together forever. The quit top, although still unfinished, is now a family treasure.
Appreciations:
Mary Hurd Ley, cousin, Danville, Virginia
Phyllis Buie, cousin, Garner, North Carolina
Adrian Buie, 2nd cousin, Benson, North Carolina
Sandra Tripp, quilt expert, Draper, Utah
Liz Montague, world class folklore instructor at Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, Utah
