When a young girl got a hankering to make herself a quilt you knew for a fact she had marrying in her head. That was back in the sunbonnet-and-calico days, a time here in the mountains when quilt making and crocheting went hand-in-hand with courtship and marriage. There may have been other ways of telling how the wind was blowing with the young folks, but a girl’s sudden interest in quilt making left no doubt about her intentions.
As a matter of fact, it was a heap more dependable because folks hereabouts were as unfamiliar with engraved announcements as there were with engagement rings, both being a wondrous rarity.
In a way, a young girl’s visit to a quilt maker was sort of like showing off an engagement ring and announcing that she was aiming to get hitched up. Such a visit was made on the pretext of just dropping by to admire the quilts which, the blushing bride was quick to explain, she had heard so much about from her mother and she wanted to see for herself.
Of course the quilt maker, now old but once young herself, recognized the real reason for the visit. But she never let on, knowing sooner or later it would all come out. Patiently, the quilt maker then would spread out her quilts and would go to great lengths to explain the design of each one, talking pretty about this one call Around the World and that one call Grandmother’s Flower Garden. She would show off the one called Forget-Me-Nots and the one named Johnny Around the Corner and another called Double Hearts.
The most meaningful one she saved until the last, one designed to bring an admission of intentions from the young visitor – the one that was called the Double Wedding Ring. Once it was spread out the quilt maker knew she would have to get busy and call in the other women folk right soon for a quilting bee. Together, the quilt maker and the prospective bride then would set a day to begin work on the quilt.
Just as some men back then were more skillful than others at house raisings and were picked to notch the corners, so some women were particularly clever at finishing the quilt corners. It was a hard day’s work for ten women to quilt one quilt. So if it was not finished by sundown the quilt was drawn up overhead by the ropes and another day set to complete their work. Of course, the bride to be was always in a hurry to get the quilt finished, albeit the wedding might be months away.
When the quilt was finally finished and taken out of the frames one of the older women would urge the younger girls to shake a cat on the new quilt. The old folks believed the girl toward whom the cat jumped would be the next to marry. Of course, if the cat happened to jump away from the girls there was a sad time. For this was a sign that neither of them would ever marry.
It was also believed that a bride to be who went to the oldest woman in the community to set up the quilt for her marriage bed would be insured a long life and joy.