Thread: Kentucky Explorer

Howdy y'all 😊

Yesterday I had to spend some time in the ER with my daughter. She's been sick for nearly 3 weeks, the antibiotics she was on didn't beat it, and I couldn't get her in to see her doctor until next week. While we were waiting, I was looking through an old issue of "Kentucky Explorer" a magazine that comes out every 2 months. Since this particular magazine was 2 years old, they let me bring it home with me when I asked.

In the "Tidbits of Kentucky Folklore" section there was an article titled "Paying the Doctor" that was written by the son of a doctor. It talked about how many doctors had all sorts of odd objects they had been given as payment for their services. The paragraph that caught my attention and made me ask for the magazine read:

"My memory goes a long way back to the elderly widow and her three old-maid daughters who showed a very commendable zeal in trying to pay for the long illness of the father of the family. These women were almost professional makers of quilts. Slowly they quilted a dozen or so quilts for us, quilts that became a storehouse of cover for each of the children, as we married off and established a home of our own. Three of the seven quilts that Mother gave me, in 1913 when I got married, came from this hoard of honest efforts to pay one's 'just and honest debts'. I regret that earthly things have to wear out; I wish I could say that some of those same quilts are still around. They were a part of our rearing of our two children and getting them started out into life, the same strange old cycle that makes a genuine home. But quilts, like strength and patience and other valuable things, wear out, leaving only a memory."

I thought those last two sentences explain very well why we do what we do. 😊

Donna

This is why I try to buy the best quality of fabric that I can afford. But these quilts were loved and used. Sometimes when a quilt starts to show wear, I have known people to cut up the antique quilt to preserve what is left of the quilt and have the pieces professionally framed for members of the family.

This brings to mind an old wooden ironing board I bought at a flea market years ago. The cover on it was an old scrappy quilt, hand-pieced and quilted. Makes me wonder about the weary hands that put this together and then someone else, perhaps, thought to extend it's life as a covering for her ironing board.

Thanks for sharing that with us. It brings a warm feeling to think that after all those years that was a memory the writer wanted to recount.