Your reunion quilt could appear in a book: here's how
Journalist and traditions expert Meg Cox, author of The Book of New Family Traditions and The Quilter's Catalog: A Comprehensive Resource Guide, is writing a book about quilts made for and with loved ones for special occasions.
Naturally, this includes reunion quilts. She is interested in learning about how, when and why your reunion quilt was made as well as seeing photos of your quilt. She is looking for how-tos like the techniques and patterns you used, and whether people signed or wrote on the fabric. But she also wants to learn what the quilt meant to your tribe, and what happened to the heirloom quilt after it was completed: who gets to keep it?
Contact Meg through her website, www.megcox.com, or write to her at Meg Cox, 301 N. Harrison St, #399, Princeton, NJ, 08540.
Quilted reward
Many reunion quilts we hear about are used for fundraising purposes ... for general funds to help pay for the reunion or to raise money for scholarships. So, we were delighted to learn this new twist. Sydney Gine's annual family reunion tradition is to have the host family provide six inch quilt squares to each family to decorate. Family seamstresses turn the squares into a finished quilt given as a reward to the hosts. Fine remembrance! reported by Meg Cox, Princeton NJ
More Reunion Fundraising by Edith Wagner
Paying for your reunion may be among your most creative challenges. There are many reasons why you may want to raise money, from paying for basics to the altruistic reason of helping younger family members attend college. Planning fundraisers will require time to develop properly. When done well, fundraisers can be both entertaining and profitable. The best fundraisers are ones that are not only profitable but also contribute to the enjoyment of the reunion. Long term projects require extra time to plan. These include soliciting corporate support, decorating and making quilts, collecting recipes and producing cookbooks and many other publishing projects such as directories, memory and history books. In this article, we'll focus on quilts and cookbooks.
Reunion Quilts
"We are proud of our quilts and pleased they allow us to encourage our young to pursue higher education." So wrote Opalene Mitchell, Palo Alto, California, whose brainchild resulted in such overwhelming family involvement that the Carter-Jordan-Pennington Family Reunion raised $3,000 for scholarships. Only one quilt was planned. Enormous interest increased the number to four. Then, enough painted, appliquéd, embroidered, computer-scanned, cross-stitched squares arrived to make six quilts. The intrinsic value of the quilts is in family history and memorials, not dollar value.
Quilts are traditionally embroidered, appliquéd or patched pieces of fabric. Modern materials and technology have broadened the scope of quilt making and enable non-stitchers to participate. Color Xeroxes can be printed on heat transfer material (commonly used for making t-shirts) and ironed onto fabric. You can use slides, photographs, drawings or any small picture. For best results the transfer can be fused to the fabric with a dry mount press. Many copy shops which do Xerox transfers will also apply the image to your fabric. Textile paints are machine washable and recommend working on natural fibers. Some paints come in tubes for drawing or writing, others come in jars for brushing onto the fabric. With the popularity of hand decorated t-shirts, new products are rapidly being developed for working on fabric.
Modern materials and technology have broadened the scope of quilt making and enable non-stitchers to participate.
Check art, craft and fabric stores for new products and ideas. Below are themes and techniques for unique reunion quilts that can be combined with old techniques and patterns or used to create something completely new.
Try traditional patterns relevant to your group, such as Pennsylvania Dutch patterns.
Signature quilts record the names of family members. Each person stitches or paints his/her name on panels to be sewn together.
Story quilts are an African American tradition that adapt well for fundraisers. One of the most famous, "The Creation of the Animals" by Harriet Powers, has appliquéd squares depicting a biblical tale. This idea works well for long distance quilt making. Each member could make a square to be stitched together later.
Other story quilts are traditional for Hmong and Chilean families. The Hmongs of Laos make story quilts that have one continuous story embroidered across a single fabric panel. Chilean women make appliquéd tapestries about everyday life similar to the Hmongs with the addition of three dimensional stuffed figures.
Symbolic quilts depict organization logos, family crests, military insignia, school mascots, etc.
Ancestor quilts display the names or pictures of antecedents and could be used with story-telling to relay a family's history.
Album quilts with photographs of members or baby pictures make unique, novelty items.
Gravestone rubbings can be reduced by a printer onto high contrast photo paper. The black and white image can be changed into color by a color Xerox machine.
Children's drawings can be Xeroxed and transferred onto one color fabric and alternated with squares of a different color. This would make a particularly good family fund-raiser. The youngsters could tell the story of their ancestors, depict their homes, families, friends, pets and ancestors.
Pulling Together a Quilt
It may be wise to present your quilt idea at one reunion and the finished quilt at the next reunion. One person must coordinate the details. Distribute muslin squares with instructions about size and materials. Expect to do some prodding to get all your squares submitted. Recruit quilt sewer(s) early and provide materials they'll need with enough time to have the quilt finished for the reunion. Most experienced sewers can tell you how much time they'll need.
Here's how Opalene Mitchell's family carried out their quilt project: Reunion area chairpersons distributed and collected muslin squares for assembly. Designs included a family cake recipe, doilies brought by slave in the underground railroad, an award emblem from an early space shuttle mission, sports, hobbies, portraits, infant hand prints, buttons from a grandmother, material from grandchildren's clothes and much, much more. Each quilt had an envelope in back with quilt committee names, a record of who made each patch and what it commemorates. Each square immortalizes some event, experience or person. Going beyond the traditional uses of quilts, the committee also photographed the quilts and then made stationery, puzzles and posters to sell.
