From Mother to Daughter

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 20  (May 17 - 23)

Prompt: Textile

#52ancestors

 In years past our ancestors didn't have time for the creative activities that we do now. Their lives were taken up with more practical endeavors. They did manage to use their creativity in creating some of the practical items needed by their families. They sewed  the clothes their families wore, often copying patterns from New York or Paris if they were from the city or needed a party or church dress.  Clothes for daily wear were practical and sometimes they only had a few outfits depending on their circumstances. The cloth scraps were used to make beautiful quilts that often commemorated an event or family. 

My mother had a red velvet quilt with blue velvet pieces that was made from the scraps of material left from making her wedding dress and bride's maid dresses.  The quilt was used on my parents bed for many years. It kept my brothers warm when they slept on an enclosed porch and it was used for picnics and other occasions. Overtime it became faded and worn and was folded and put away.

My Great Grandmother, Sarah Violet Herndon Sample pieced a wedding ring quilt before 1932 .  My Grandmother, Gladys Mamie Sample McCarley, quilted it sometime in the 1970s. After my daughter was born in 1978, she gifted it to Katharine Meghan.  Gladys was her mother's first and only daughter, my mother, Gwonda Jane McCarley was her first daughter and I was my mother's first daughter. Katharine (Katy) is my first daughter.  This quilt has passed through 4 generations of daughters to the 5th generation daughter.