Quilting | Thrive: Traditions S2 • E6
42 Video Views·Dec 31, 2024
Imogene Imotichey-Walker and Carol Fox are two Chickasaw women who are passionate about the art of quilting. They recall elders using materials like flour sacks and old dresses to create quilts when other fabrics were scarce, and they remember the quilting circle as a social time with family. With all the steps involved in making a quilt, Imogene says it could take her six weeks or more to emerge with a finished product. It's a skill that's been passed down through generations, and Imogene hopes it's one her grandchildren will continue too.
It's just passed down for years.
My mom and my other relatives would come down.
They'd all get together and sew.
And her and my aunt always did quilts.
Each one would make a quilt for their family.
My name is Imagina Mitachi Walker, and I'm a chicksaw,
and I'm a chicksaw quilter.
I'm Carol Fox, and I'm a chickasaw, and I'm a quilter.
You know, I remember hearing those elders
talk about materials hard for them to get.
A lot of them had to use the flour sacks,
you know, where they come in big bags.
And I remember my mom and them talking
about how they had to cut it.
And they used that to make some of their quilts.
And even those being used as pillowcases,
and they embroidered them.
And those were real pretty, like tea towels,
you know, where they embroidered those.
And I remember those, too.
They would make a quilt and trade it for food and stuff,
too, especially in the winter.
They didn't have no gardens and stuff.
My mom, she quilted a lot.
Some of her quilts were out of the dresses
that she no longer wore or something.
That was neat to know that there was part of history there.
It made you feel good about that.
The quilts that they did were hung from a ceiling.
And they'd roll the quilts down.
And so when they got tired, they'd just roll them back up
and, you know, get them out of the way and went to eat.
And, you know, they'd always go back to quilting.
We enjoyed it because we used to have some good laughs.
We enjoyed each other's company and all.
And she always made the grandchildren a quilt, too.
So now I try to make some, too, for my grandchildren.
The fabrics I like to use are the cotton.
And it's a lot easier to sew.
And a lot of these quilts, they're
thin that you can use them all year round.
And that's what I usually do.
We do it for about a good five hours, six hours sometimes.
You know, hey, it's already midnight.
When I start, I start with the blocks,
figure out what I'm going to make,
and measure my blocks out.
And then I get how many I'm going to make.
If I'm going to start a big one, I
use 12 to 16 blocks to make a full size to a queen.
And then I go and cut all my material out,
find the pattern I'm going to do.
And by the time I get that, it takes me one good month.
After I get all that, it takes two hours for me
to just to do the top, the strips and all that.
And then when I put it on the frame,
it takes me a good two weeks to do a full size to queen size
quilt, or a little longer.
My grandkids, they were at the cultural center last week.
They said, oh, Grandma, we've seen your quilts.
We've seen your quilts down there.
And you know, they're real proud of it.
And that's the way we are when we see our moms' handiwork.
I'm hoping that one day they'll want to do it too.