Friendship Quilts

Friendship Quilts

Do you have a Friendship Quilt? If you do, you know that is a special gift that was made especially for you or someone in your family.

Quilting is very popular today with the many fancy designs and difficult patterns, but a Friendship quilt made many years ago with it's simple pattern and hand embroidered name is a special thing.

Many times these quilts were made for a special teacher in the little county schools as a gift from her students. They would have the teachers name and year on the center block and then each student's name would be hand-written and then hand-embroidered by that student's mother. After all the blocks were finished the quilt would be assembled and then put on quilting frames at one of the student's homes and there the parents would gathered and finish their quilt by doing all the quilting themselves. Much laughter and good times were had by the mother's at these quilting sessions. Not all were experts at making the tiny quilting stitches, but everyone did their best and it was the love that went in the work that mattered the most. All the time this would be kept secret from the teacher so it would be a surprise at the end of the school year.

The 8th grade class at Crayne School in 1959 made one of these special Friendship quits for their special teacher, Mrs. Annabell Alexander. It was a special gift made especially for her from the students and their parents.

These wonderful times of doing things together in a small rural community are gone now, the closeness and friendships that were formed at these gatherings are only memories. I am so thankful that I have these memories of when I was growing up in the Crayne community and going to school and church in the same neighborhood. All these memories brought back by the sight of just one old worn quilt, maybe it should be called a memory quilt.