By Rebecca Hudson
Murray County News Staffwriter
Once upon a time folks constructed quilts for one reason: to keep warm during the long winter months on the Midwestern prairies where the cold winds howled through the cracks of their frontier abodes. To keep their families toasty warm, the women used any and every source materials – from feed sacks to recycled clothing to piece together good hardy, warm blankets. It was a warm and inviting snuggling under the weight of the quilts during a long winter slumber, as long as you didn’t get out of bed that is.
Often times old blankets or mattress pads were reused for the quilt batting, and clothing no longer suitable for wear was put into service for the top and bottom. Making quilts could be pure tedium yet a necessary chore for those women who hand stitched the varied squares into a patterned quilt top. Yet often it was an enjoyable diversion to the routine of daily life when they gathered with other ladies for a quilting bee when the middle filler was sandwiched between top and bottom using precise stitches.
Back then quilts were made to be serviceable. Quilting these days is a different story altogether. Ask any member of the local Piecemakers Quilt Club, twenty-five members strong, and they will attest to that fact. “My grandmother would have shaken her head,” long time club member Margaret Kluis, “at how many people have a quilt hanging on their walls!”
Today’s quilts are works of art worthy of display and the Piecemakers are doing just that at the Slayton Public Libray’s art gallery.
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