MOKA Quilt Study Meeting April 2023

 

"Pleasant Valley...Homemaker's Club" in yellow thread

1935

We had a lot of fun at the MOKA (Missouri/Oklahoma/Kansas/Arkansas) study

group meeting last weekend in Harrisonville, Missouri.

John brought in a top he'd found at a local Cass County, Missouri farm sale for $5. It's

dated 1935, made by one of the quilt clubs that the Homemakers' Extension Units sponsored during the Great Depression. He knew some of the people who'd signed it (the year he was born.)

What could we figure out?

The pattern was familiar: Friendship Quilt

from the Kansas City Star

The EHU or County Extension agent was Margarett Nelson.

Her first name is usually spelled wrong in the newspapers of the day (one T)

but she is often mentioned.

I looked her up in Newspapers.com

And I looked for the Pleasant Valley Club in Cass County newspapers.

Here is a June, 1935 clipping describing their work on a name quilt, probably this one:

Other speakers included Jane from Tennessee,

Justly proud of her prizewinning Iris Rhapsody quilt based

on Ricky Tims's designs for Rhapsody quilts.

And Gertrude from Kansas City who grew up in Oklahoma with

string quilts (you can see what she thought of them in her face here)

She finally finished some blocks she'd inherited.

And decided she was happier remembering those

Oklahoma ancestors in portraits of her own design

rather than finishing their string quilts.

I also gave a talk on connections between Missouri & Kentucky silk quilts.

You can watch my 45 minute practice session by clicking here:

https://www.facebook.com/100011019971781/videos/491012059794156/

Barb E showed a quilt she'd bought in Missouri with design ideas from

Kentucky in that dotted pineapple or pomegranate.

Carol, old top + long arm = Found & Finished

And we saw lots of show and tell, primarily focused on finishing what others had started. Becky B showed her impressive stack of finishes. (There were a lot of Beckys and Barbaras there.)

Mohawk Trail or Rattlesnake finished by Becky B

Roseanne finished her mother's embroidered Bi-Centennial blocks as one of her first quilt projects. Do not, she advised, use sheets for sashing, borders or backing.

Becky C quilted an old top as the fundraising raffle quilt doing her fabulous feathers on the long arm.

Phyllis was the lucky winner of Fancy Nancy.

Next MOKA meeting in Oklahoma in November. Better go!

The MOKA Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/347915538732554