Bama Planter

I'm ready to load my aunt's quilt top into the plantation quilting frame. This picture shows the wooden gears used to keep the fabric tight while quilting. Click the picture for a better view. Here is the quilting frame set up on the front porch. It is easy to take apart because only four little pegs hold it together.  One handle winds right and the other winds left so the fabrics are tightened for quilting.  This allows about two feet of quilt to be exposed at one time. I have the cotton batting from my field picked and in the basket for carding. Experts in these things tell me the quilting frame was made about 1850 which is nice to know.  I am glad that it is still useful for its original purpose.

I finally finished picking the last of the cotton from the side field. It is not hard to do, but it does take a lot of time.  I used one of the old cotton baskets but not for show or nostalgia but because it is what works best.  You can drag it along the row since it is so light weight.  It is also very easy to ring with the cotton as you pull it from the plant. Now I will quilt my Aunt Elizabeth's quilt top that she gave me. I use the cotton as batting with the seeds in it.  I have quilts over 100 years old and the seeds are there. It was not necessary to have cotton ginned ( seeds removed ) in rural Alabama!  The first cotton gins ( short for engine ) were little hand-cranked machines no bigger than a corn sheller.  If I could find one I'd buy it and use it. I got out my quilting frame ( still working after 150 plus years) and will get the process started.  I need Tasha Tudor to help me set this up. The gourd crop is out...

It's a beautiful day here. I chose three quilts to air out. On the right is a quilt my grandmother and two great grandmothers made in the 1920s. In the middle is a fan quilt featuring my favorite color, yellow. I bought it at an estate sale. On the end is a pinwheel made by a lifelong friend of my mother who used chairs for quilting frames and could whip out a quilt in less than a week. This is the front view of the house I live in. It was built in 1817 when my Wilson-Harless ancestors moved from Madison to Shelby County, Alabama. The house looks smaller than it is. The front log room is 20x30 ft. with a 9 1/2 ft. ceiling of 4x8 beams.

Primitive People agree that children's chairs aren't just for children any more. Primitive People don't think old portraits are spookly. They wish Staffordshire dishes were still the rage. They believe tea boxes under tin lights are a little glimpse of heaven. They know that one can never stack books too high.

They can't stop putting things under tables. They love small versions of big furniture. They don't agree that ducks and chickens are an 80's thing. They know what a hetchel is, and would use it if anyone was still growing flax. They light candles with names such as pumpkin pie and apple cobler .

They have New England redware even if they aren't in New England. They have theorems on the wall from artists such as Ann Rea. They hang homespun dresses in corners. They think sheep are cool. They put dried things in wooden bowls.

They have extra examples to trade sometimes. They like paintings of animals. They sometimes fill cupboards with too much stuff. They like game boards and will put them on tables, lean them against walls, or hang them on a door. They put rugs under tables. Primitive people fill cupboards with crocks and churns. They put more boxes and containers on the wall than most people would. They hang Jacquard coverlets from cranes. They fill grain painted wall cupboards with all sorts of old stuff. They hang hand dipped candles from grappling hooks suspended from ceiling beams. Now you know what Primitive People do.