Do You Want To See Where Quilts Really Come From?
10-29-2011, 10:02 PM
#203
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Texas Gulf Coast
Posts: 1,463
I live in a rural, farming area SW of Houston. Was at a Fall Festival one of our church families hosts every year - many of our members are farmers. Heard one talk about their cotton crop - planted 600 acres in cotton and had to plow under 500 acres. The drought caused them to not produce enough to make it worth harvesting. They did harvest 100 acres. So hard and so sad.....
10-31-2011, 10:16 AM
#205
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Nevada
Posts: 6,958
I was just in Spain and saw the same scenery there near the Navy base my son is stationed at. I was used to seeing cotton fields in CA (where I used to live), but didn't expect it there. It was kind of cool. :)
10-31-2011, 10:52 AM
#206
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Shreveport, LA
Posts: 733
My Dad's family grew cotton in central Louisiana, 1920's-early '40's. There are endless family stories from the cottonfields.Two things I haven't seen mentioned here are pricked fingers & snakes.
Apparently, cottonbolls are surronded by thorns/stickers. By mid-morning, they often had to wrap their fingers with strips of rags to not get blood on the cotton. They would drag bags to place the cotton in & a good day was when a woman could pick 115 pounds of cotton in one day ( in 100+ degree heat).
Another issue was snakes, at least in the lower south. My grandmother could "smell" rattlesnakes. They would send her into the fields to sniff them out. She said they smelled sort of "rotten-sweet". When she smelled one or more, the men would hunt it/them down & kill them. Remember, grade-school children were picking, and toddlers often rode on the ends of the bags that moms were dragging on the ground.
We have nothing to complain about.
When I became interested in quilting, my grandmother was gone. My mom would lood at the small pieces & intricate patterns I was making, and said "Your Grandmother would have said, 'Child, you must have a lot of time on your hands!'" :wink:
Apparently, cottonbolls are surronded by thorns/stickers. By mid-morning, they often had to wrap their fingers with strips of rags to not get blood on the cotton. They would drag bags to place the cotton in & a good day was when a woman could pick 115 pounds of cotton in one day ( in 100+ degree heat).
Another issue was snakes, at least in the lower south. My grandmother could "smell" rattlesnakes. They would send her into the fields to sniff them out. She said they smelled sort of "rotten-sweet". When she smelled one or more, the men would hunt it/them down & kill them. Remember, grade-school children were picking, and toddlers often rode on the ends of the bags that moms were dragging on the ground.
We have nothing to complain about.
When I became interested in quilting, my grandmother was gone. My mom would lood at the small pieces & intricate patterns I was making, and said "Your Grandmother would have said, 'Child, you must have a lot of time on your hands!'" :wink:
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