Gordon and Becky Gray with Gordon’s vintage quilt
Do you have a vintage or special quilt? The Quail Creek Quilt Covey is producing a Vintage/Special Quilt Show in the Madera Clubhouse Ballroom on January 6, 2018 (yes, 2018) which will display vintage and special quilts owned by Quail Creek residents.
“We will solicit quilts throughout next year, take photos and then create information sheets on each quilt, arrange to pick them up shortly before the Quilt Show and return them after the show,” said Marlene Walker from the Quail Creek Vintage Quilt Show Committee.
Gordon and Becky Gray have many vintage quilts with a family history: how they were made, who made them and how Gordon inherited them. The quilt pictured was started before he was born.
“My mother and both of my grandmothers were talented quilters. I remember as a child seeing a quilt in frames in the living room of each relative’s house. Whenever the family got together, the women would end up sitting around the frame — busy talking and quilting.
She reminded me that I was the first male grandchild on both sides of the family. When she and my maternal grandmother had found out I was on the way, they knew I was going to be a boy and they started quilting. The request from the grandmothers was that this quilt was to be kept safe and given to me upon my graduation from high school. It was a beautiful quilt consisting of a mule in each of the twelve blocks. The material for each mule was taken from a piece of clothing for each immediate family member. The one exception was the blue mule in the middle of the bottom which was made from the same material used to make a blanket for me when I was born.
My paternal grandparents were strong Democrats, so my Grandmother Gray told me the quilt was a “Democrat Donkey Quilt.” Years later, my mother told me it was a “Missouri Mule Quilt.” I was born and raised in southwest Missouri, as were three generations of both sides of my family. My maternal grandfather, Russell, was a farmer and had raised mules to till his farmlands.
“Hopefully, Gordon’s quilt will be one of many special quilts displayed at the show,” Walker added. To enter your quilt, contact Marlene Walker, 520-207-9814, or [email protected]. The committee will schedule a visit to your home and take a photo of your quilt, gather interesting facts or history about the quilt/quilts. “So many of the vintage and special quilts have a special story that go with them, so we are starting this process now,” Walker said.
For snowbirds whose special quilt is still back home, you can let Marlene know and you can bring your quilt back next year.
“This quilt is one of my most treasured family heirlooms,” added Gray.