1982-1986

QUILT KING: Mother & daughter share hobby By JOHN W. BRANNON

tern. As the needle emerges through the material and pricks the thumb, another dO:wn-thrust is made . "When the needle comes through , you prick your thumb ," Vickers said. "But to get nice, short stitches, it can't be help~d." About teIJ;;:;Prds of cotton or cotten-blend material are used in each quilt. To fill the quilt body , cotton batting -- bought by the roll -- is used . Vickers uses the 'old– fashioned frame quilting' method . "The modern way is lap-quilting," Vickers said. "That's where you do a square of a quilt in your lap , and when you're finished, you join all the squares together.'' Frame quilting originated in Europe hundreds of years ago , and was brought to the New World by early settlers. "With frame quilting, the whole top is put together with the lining and batting in the frame, " Vickers said. The frame she uses looks like a three-by-six feet frame of a table top, supported by X– shaped legs. "I think quilting has an unlimited future," Vickers said. "The fact that quilt shops are springing up all over attests to that. I think a lot o f it arises from the fact_ that the new look among young homemakers is the 'rustic look' -- cottage cu trains, ruffled pillows . Everybody needs an avocation, and when people discover the pleasure you get from quilting, it catches on and becomes a lifetime hobby. It's a wonderful hobby." Vickers also makes quilted pillO\\ s in a variety of designs. Each pillow requires about five hours work. " I quilt a little each day," she said, "something every day, even wi th teaching full time."

"when I'm gone, it's a shame none will be able to carry on the tradition of quilting." And so it began. "I had never picked up a needle other than to hem a dress," Vickers said. "I would go to her house and we would sit down and quilt. They when I left, she would pull all my stitches out." Like most anything else, she said, practice makes perfect. "The more you practice, the better you get, if you have the basic talent. I've quilted with increasing enthusiasm ever since . If I showed you the first one I quilted and the last one I quilted, you wouldn't believe they were done by the same person." And like so many other of life's ventures, a hobby evolved into a money-making interest. The women's quilts are sold at a Meri– dian shop, most bringing about $200 each. Jusitifably so, since about 100 hours of eye-straining and finger– pricking labor is invested in each quilt. Vickers built a cabin at the Neshoba County fairgrounds with money she made from selling her quilts. When a quilt is finished, she ex– periences a sense of relief, she said, because her fingers are so sore. "But after two or three days and you put it on the bed to look at it, you are greatly pleased with what you've done," she said. "Yes, you've got to sacrifice. Ruining your fingers is an occupational· hazard." As she sews intricate patterns, she uses both hands to hold the material and guid~ thread-and-needle. Finger-under and thumb-over serves as a "sense guide." When the down– thrust needle pricks her finger underneath the material, she reverts to up-thrust, back through the pat-

For a week at the World's Fair in New Orleans last July, Sunbonnet Sue, Dresdan Plate, Step Around the Mountain, and Double Wedding Ring were proudly demonstrated and displayed. All are traditional folk patterns of quilts, sewn stitch-by-stitch by two Newton County women for visitors to the Mississippi Pavilion during Crafts Week. "I saw an ad in a newspaper for craftsmen to go to the fair," Carol Vickers, an English instructor at East Central Junior College, said. "I saw it as an opportunity for mother and me. I sent in an application and a sample (of our work) and we were chosen." Her mother is Mrs. Elsie Farish, 72, of the Stallo communi– ty, North of Philadelphia. "It was a grand experience," Vickers said. "We talked to hun– dreds of people from all over the world, some of whom had never seen a quilt and most of whom had never seen a quilt in the making. We quilted for one week, six hours a day, the week of July 6th." Vickers said the popularity of the quilting exhibition was an indication of nostalgia, a remembrance of when grandmother somewhere, sometime sat and sewed quilts. The two craftswomen not only sewed quilts, but took time to explain the history of quilting. Even a deaf mute stopped by. Through motions and make-do hand language, they show– ed how stitches and squares formed the whole. Vickers is a veteran quilt-maker, but became interested in it only "to please my mother." A few years ago, she said, her mother remarked that she had four daughters and

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