|
The
St. Jacobs Country Quilt Story
The Grace Frey Story
.............................................
The St. Jacobs Country Quilt Story
The St. Jacobs Country Quilt Story
In the homes of the
traditional Mennonites of “St Jacobs Country” the practices of the past
change on a pace much slower than the world that lives around them. Such
is the age old practice of the young bride receiving the gift of quilts at
her marriage. Still today it is the norm for a daughter getting married to
receive a number of quilts from her parents. These quilts have been made
over a number of years leading up to her marriage with the young girl and
her friends being involved in helping with their production. These quilts
are designed for the very practical purpose of being used for bed
coverings in her new home. Many of them are made from material that her
mother had in her collection of fabrics from various sewing projects over
the years. It’s also not uncommon to use good used fabric for these
quilts, so it is quite likely that a girl receives a quilt that has
patches in it made from a dress she wore as a little girl.
After the quilt top
is sewn together, in any number of traditional patterns, the girl will
invite her friends to a quilting, and they will spend a day together
working at quilting one of her quilts. This is a social as well as a work
time, something that many young girls look forward to. In this way all of
the young girls in the community are still taught the basics of the
practice of quilting. Not all go on to enjoy this craft with the same
measure and so for some they would only quilt when they are invited to a
quilting or if they are making a quilt for themselves later in life. For
others it becomes a craft that they very much enjoy and for some it even
becomes a thing of some passion. It is these women that become the
“piecers” and “quilters” that make the production of these quilts for the
purpose of enterprise possible. When their families are grown and they are
heading towards the “golden years” they make quilting the preferred way to
spend any extra time that they have between their other responsibilities.
It is these quilters that become skilled enough to work on the quilts that
are on display at Quilted Heirlooms.
The Grace
Frey Story
The Grace
Frey Story
On the back roads of
“St Jacobs Country” live a people, who still today, pass on from
generation to generation, the crafts and the arts of a world that we would
call yesterday. In the farm houses along these, picturesque roads, the
young girls are taught the art of quilt making just as their mothers were
before them. On the outskirts of the town of Conestoga, on a farm along
the banks of the Grand River, Grace (Shantz) Frey was one of these young
girls. Taught the quilt making craft from her mother, Grace, from an early
age, showed a natural talent for color coordination and attention to the
details in whatever she was doing. Today she uses these abilities in the
production of some the finest examples of the traditional “hand quilted”
quilt that can be found anywhere. These quilts are now renowned for their
excellence of quality and for following appealing, current colors trends.
This allows a craft of “yesteryear” to create the treasures of today, and
the heirlooms of tomorrow.
|
