Harvest Broom Making and Storytelling at the Company Store

 

 

" . . . .I love the activity harvest time brings to our old company store, where each year friends and family gather for a day filled with the folk traditions of broom making and storytelling. The sweet smell of field straw, dried grasses, and cornhusks fills the air, as we diligently work to make brooms and whisks from the mounds of natural materials harvested from the ditch banks and end rows. Turkey wing and hawk tail whisks, pot scrubbers and cake testers, clothes whisk and brush brooms fill our list. . ."

 The 2018 Fall Issue of Country Rustic is out. . .and can be found for the first time on news stands across the country. . .We are all so proud of it. . .I suppose you can tell who is in the photos. . .Yes. . .That's John. . .He was so enthusiastic about the article I wrote about making brooms that he volunteered for a photo shoot. . .Of course, it didn't take much arm twisting. . .He loves to dress in costume and interpret the folk crafts. . .And. . .I love writing about them. . .Not only do I tell about our broom making each fall, I can't resist a couple of good stories about yard sweeping and its connection to the Delta. . .

Unfortunately, I can't share the whole article with you, but you can order copies at: 

COUNTRY RUSTIC MAGAZINE 

or you can pick up a copy at many news stands. . .

I'll also be sharing parts of my Summer article with you soon. . .It's a story of the old post office, dedicated to Mrs. Brownlee, who was Dell's postmaster for many years. . .

Our Mississippi County Delta is gaining national recognition because of these stories and features. . .In October, there will be a photo shoot at our Country Farm Home which will be featured in the 2019 Fall Issue. . .bringing even more interest to our little community. . .Hope you will enjoy the upcoming events along with us. . .

Another Person's Trash Adds Color to the Tenant Houses

If you travel some of these back roads and see a white GMC pulled to the side and two people in the fields chasing discarded tires, just honk the horn and drive on by. . .We haven't lost our minds. . .We're not having truck problems. . .We're simply helping the local ecology and carrying on a Delta tradition. . .Old Tires. . .Spray Paint. . .Instant flower beds. . .What fun. . .

Originally, I wanted to make a border with the tires but we didn't find enough discards on our several trips out. . .Then one day I found a name brand spray paint for 1.50 a can and came straight home with it, painted those tires. and stacked them up. . .Still have to fill them with some dirt and flowers. . .That's later. . .I have another project that will bring even more color to the houses. . .Won't be long before I reveal it. . .

I painted more than the tires, though. . .Once I got started, I couldn't quit. . .benches. . .bins. . .rusted buckets. . .The only thing that stopped me was. . .I ran out of paint !!!!!

Certainly not Chic Decor. . .is it? . .but, it's exactly right for the old shotgun houses in the Historic District. . .Brings back some good memories for me. . .of the Turners. . .Cowboy. . .Cora. . .others I knew along the road. . .

So. . .in the future, if you see us on the roadside picking up tires, give us a honk and a wave. . .We'll be 'at it' again. . .

A Weekend of Broom Making

It's always a treat to share our knowledge about a traditional craft. . .so we jumped at the chance to spend two days at the Parking Archeological State Park, teaching one hundred Home Schoolers and their parents how to make a SIMPLE WHISK BROOM. . .We were part of several stations set up across the park that they visited during Home School Days. . .This year students learned about corn. . .making hominy. . .grinding corn. . .cooking kettle corn. . .making a corn shuck doll. . .and several other activities. . .

True, our whisk brooms weren't actually made of corn. . .although the straw is called Broomcorn. . .It is actually from the sorghum family. . .We fudged a little. . .In times past, though, many brooms WERE made of corn shucks, so we had photos of those for them to view. . .

Photo by Mel Harvey

  It was a perfect Fall weekend for Broom Making at the old Sawmill Schoolhouse, located in the park. . .In fact, the weather was so nice that we moved everyone outdoors to enjoy some of the last of our warm days. . .John gave each group of about 25 a little history about brooms and broom making. . .as Mel (Park Interpreter) and I kept him straight on his facts. . .He seemed to have a mindset that it was the Amish who perfected the flat brooms that we know. . .It wasn't. . .It was the Shakers who claim that honor. . .By the last workshop, we were still correcting him. . .It was all in fun. . .

Once our students had a little background. . .we began the broom making process. . .

Photo by Mel Harvey

with lots of one-on-one assistance. . .if necessary. . .

Photo by Mel Harvey

As with most crafts, broom making isn't hard if you have the right tools. . .See the board of twine on the ground? . . .That's the secret to a good tight broom. . .As the twine is wrapped around the bundle, the board keeps it taunt. . .

We had children from 5-15 years old trying their hand at it. . .The real prize was the finished product that each one took home with them. . .once John did the trimming. . .

Photo by Mel Harvey

I think all were happy with their creations. . .Lots of smiles and laughter. . .

I know that we had a really great two days. . .

We always enjoy working with everyone at the State Park. . .

They are a super bunch of people. . .

Mel learned to make a whisk broom, too, and ended up assisting us the last day. . . 

MEL HARVEY, PARK INTERPRETER

After the last group left. . .John and I headed over to the Visitor's Center picnic area for a quick snack before traveling. . .Others joined us. . .One brought the remainder of the kettle corn. . .and before we knew it, we almost had a party!!!!

Too quickly the sun began to set in the West, and it was time to head home. . .

with more memories of a wonderful weekend for our scrapbook. . .

By-the-way. . .

We've been invited to teach another workshop at the Park in May 2017. . .

for the Women's Weekend. . .

They'll be learning to make a Turkey Whisk. . .

Maybe we'll see you there?

Homeschool Sawmill Days in October

Parkin Archeological Park will host a HOMESCHOOL SAWMILL DAYS October 6 and 7. . .Guess who will be there 'WHISKING AWAY'? . .Among the many activities scheduled, we'll be teaching Homeschoolers how to make a simple WHISK BROOM like the ones above. . .

There are still some openings, so if you are interested, sign up at:

  

PARKIN ARCHEOLOGICAL PARK

Also: Check your AETN (Arkansas PBS) Schedule. . .

Our FARM is one of several in the new documentary

BACK ROAD BARNS

airing several time these next few weeks. 

Don't Miss It. . .There is some fantastic shots 

of Arkansas Barns and Their History

Building a Bottle Tree

This was such a fun project. . .Even though we still have more limbs to add, as well as more bottles, I couldn't wait to share this TUTORIAL with you. . .We'll add more bottles as we find them. . .Got any to donate? . .You'd be surprised how many it takes!

To READ about the HISTORY OF THE BOTTLE TREE and see what INSPIRED us in the first place:

 BOTTLE TREES: A Southern Tradition for Your Garden

DELTA QUILT SERIES: 'We Made Them to Keep Warm' The Untraditional Southern Quilt

 



LAZY GIRL VARIATION--source



"The descriptive words improvisation, strip pieced, multiple patterns, brightly colored and rhythmic were all true of African American quilts. But these features are also traditional in a number of white communities. The style is ubiquitous in the American South. Historians have found it to be a product of economics, not race, used by both blacks and whites to quickly make warm quilts out of whatever they had."

 

HOUSETOP



Most  rural Southern women had a difficult life. . .working from sun up to sun down, caring for their family in what was often a meager subsistence living. . .They did the best they could with very little. . .One of their challenges was providing warm coverings for the family beds.

Rural quilts were made for everyday use out of necessity. . .Warm blankets were expensive and fabric was scarce. . .The economic culture that these women were raised in taught them that everything had a use. . .so Southern women made quilts from scraps of fabric, discarded clothing, feed and flour sacks. . .Their make-do attitude reminds us that unimportant, trivial, and meaningless things can be made useful.

 



QUILT by CATHERINE SOMERVILLE



Traditional quilt making was slow and labor intensive, often taking months to complete. . .Southern women helped to speed the process up by improvisation and using the most primitive of quilting stitches to sandwich the layers together. . .At the same time, the aesthetic wasn't lost. . .There is something within women that they aspire to find beauty and purpose in the most mundane of tasks. . .and so it was with their piecing. . .They made quilts that were not originally created as pieces of art. . .as many are considered today. . .but they were pleasing combinations often compared to JAZZ. . .being described as exciting. . .improvised. . .vibrant. . .movement. . .  



COTTON WORK PANTS, Ga 1940s

 

Before learning about rural Southern quilt characteristics, I saw the old tattered pieces for years at yard sales and flea markets, thinking them of no consequence. . .just a rag-tag bunch of coverings. . .giving them no respect. . .never looking closely at them. . .How many I passed by still haunts me. . .It wasn't until I ran across the quilts of Gees Bend that I gathered a new admiration for the common 'utility' quilt. . .I suddenly had a new perspective for the rural Southern technique of piecing. . .



GEE'S BEND, Alabama

The African American quilting traditions definitely influenced that technique. . .There is no question about it. . .The best known source for documentation of African American quilting are those quilts made by the women of Gee's Bend, Alabama. . .They have experienced many recognitions for their particular style that has remained relatively unaltered. . .They were pretty much cut off from the world, so quilting styles were passed down from mother to daughter. . .friend to friend. . .without outside influence for well over 100 years. . .Because of their isolation, history tells us that this quilting knowledge remained fairly 'pure'. . .documenting the African-American technique without outside influence.

 

 

 

Their creations are distinctively different from our familiar Euro-American styles. . .They are irregular in pattern, color combinations, and fabrics. . .Experts for years called such quilts as 'mistakes in workmanship and design' or deem them as 'unlovely quilts'. . .Only in the last 40 years have these quilts come to be accepted for what they are--not mistakes but distinctive in their own style and loose set of techniques. . . Yet, Gees Bend quilts were not the only ones found in the South . . .My eyes were opened to other similar quilting styles while attending a Regional Farm and Gin Show in Memphis, Tennessee a few years ago, where I met an African-American artist from South Carolina by the name of Floyd Gordon. . .In several of his paintings and prints I found similar quilts to those of Gees Bend. . .

 

 

 I asked Floyd where he got the inspiration for the patterns of his painted quilts.

His answer was, "From my childhood and what I saw growing up."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I realized these South Carolina women probably never met anyone from Gees Bend, and here they were sharing the same traditions. . .This revelation certainly opened my eyes to the possibilities. . .It seemed apparent  that,  although Gees Bend quilts are the best known, the type of quilt making found there represents many Southern quilts found in other states. . .The use of symbols, asymmetry, bright colors, and vertical piecing are techniques that are found throughout the South. . .in white, as well as black, communities. . .I also found as I researched the cotton plantation lifestyle, that the piecing style took the same western route of cotton production. . .from the Carolinas to Georgia to Alabama to Mississippi to Arkansas. . .As Cotton depleted the soil of nutrients, landowners were forced to move ever westward. . .taking their slaves with them.

After the Civil War, many freed slaves began sharecropping, following the same landowners for whom they had been slaves. . .Moving from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi Delta and into Texas, so followed the African American style of quilting. . .acquiring the interest of white sharecroppers who incorporated many of the African-American techniques into their own covers. . .It is well documented that black and white sharecroppers often lived side-by-side. . .working close to each other. . .They shared. . .or observed. . .each others ways of cooking. . .of gardening. . .and certainly of quilting. . It appears that by the time farmers and sharecroppers reached this part of the Northeast Arkansas Delta, the rural Southern quilt truly had less to do with race than the economic condition of the maker. . .and that the lines of demarcation in culture were somewhat blurred. . .much like our food. . .To this day, my favorite meal is ham and beans or red beans and rice, cornbread, fried okra and greens. . .all influenced by the Southern black culture.

I would go one step further to say that here in the Dell area, economics didn't play as big a part as did the frugality of the times in which our grandparents lived. . .from pioneering new land to the economic collapse of the Great Depression. . .although sharecropper and tenant women did have a bigger challenge before them.

 

Possibly GEES BEND

 

 

For many years I researched the background history of our untraditional Southern quilts and my appreciation for them grew. . .I was drawn to them. . .and began a collection of my own. . .They are mostly made in Northeast Arkansas, but a few have come via other Delta towns in this state. . .I will be sharing those quilts with you as we journey through this series. . .For this post, I have only included representative quilts from the South, several of which are from Gees Bend. . .The place I started my research.

 

QUILT by  LAVERNA BRACKENS

 

 



BLUE JEANS POCKETS BY ESSIE LEE ROBINSON

 



"The naming of the quilts are as unique as the quilts themselves. . .names such as Mousetrap, Pig Pen, Housetop, Lazy Girl, Everybody, Slap Jack, and Britches. . .are not found in traditional quilts. . ."



MOUSETRAP--source

 

 

 

HOUSETOP VARIATION--source

 

 

 

EVERYBODY QUILT 



PIG PEN--source  





LAZY GIRL--source

 



SLAP JACK--source

 

THE UNTRADITIONAL QUILT IN NORTHEAST ARKANSAS

Compared to the other Southern states. . .and the Delta plantations in south Arkansas of an earlier date. . .North Mississippi County, Arkansas was a late bloomer. . .Only a handful of families lived in our local area before 1900. . .It wasn't until the swamps were drained and the forests were cleared that the farmers moved in around 1914. . buying up cut-over land for very little cost. . .We became a melting pot of many races and cultures. . .the last frontier of Arkansas. . .Class lines were not as distinctive as in other Southern states, although still present. . .Not taking anything away from the African American aesthetic and their influence on all Southern quilt piecing, I began to see how, through the years and from state to state, these quilts became a staple of many households whether black or white. . .



source



Quilters from Mississippi were probably the greatest influence of the rural Southern quilt here in the Northeast Arkansas Delta. . .although other states were also represented. . .I had the opportunity to visit Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, where the well-known Tutwiler Quilters craft their version of the Southern quilt. . .They make their quilts in a style reminiscent of the Gees Bend techniques . . .and certainly their choice of colors and combinations for all their quilts are in the Southern quilting style. . .For me, it helped to verify that we have a common history.



TUTWILER QUILTERS, MS

 

Quilt historians have found that, for the most part, black women made their quilts in the same styles that were popular with the general population during any given period. As quilters draw from a common history one cannot look at a quilt and easily identify the cultural background of the artist. There has always been a great deal of overlapping in quilting styles among different communities and cultures.

To add to the confusion, economic status usually dictated the kinds of quilts made by women regardless of their cultural heritage. Poorer women have always had to make do with scraps and discarded clothing. White and black women alike found "string" quilting to be an efficient way to use this fabric.. .Womenfolk 

 

ROOF TOP--Source

Out of curiosity as to the home state of early sharecropper/tenants, I went to the 1930 U.S. Census of Hector Township, Mississippi County, Arkansas. . .There I found a few of my Grandfather's farms close to the present day Roseland area. . . As a stroke of luck, the enumerator wrote the farm owner's names along the side of the page. . .I was better able to count successfully the states represented on and around my Grandfather's farms. . . the Martin and Magers Farm, the Earl Magers Roseland Farm beside R. C. Rose, and the Harding and Magers Farm. . .I also included that part of the Simmons plantation in the same sections but not belonging to my Grandfather. . .Many of the families working on different farms lived side by side, making it impossible to totally distinguish property lines on the census. . .Only counting the heads of households, it was not surprising that the top three states represented were Mississippi at 54%. . .Arkansas (south) at 16%. . .Alabama at 11%. . .and the remainder 19% from Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, and Tennessee. . .I also found that many of the families from Mississippi had parents or grandparents born in the Carolinas, Georgia, or Alabama. . .following the route of the Southern plantations.

 I wasn't surprised. . .



BRITCHES QUILT--source



IN SUMMARY

Many Southern quilts have surfaced in the last 20 years across the country and have absorbed the interest of the collectors and the public eye that responds to the arts. . . They are the ones that go way beyond the traditional pattern construction. . .making them interesting and full of surprises. . .These quilts speak to people in a way that a modern painting would if you came across it in a museum. . . The quilts rarely seem boring. . .They usually have movement. . color. . .modern art style. . .rural quilts from the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas. . .

With this little bit of background, in future posts I'll explore and share some of the basic patterns and symbols of the rural Southern quilt. . .and the various techniques. . .We may construct a few lap quilts together. . .as I share some of the actual quilts in my collection. . .TIL THEN. . .ALWAYS REMEMBER. . .

 



 

 





REFERENCES:

 

OLD SOUTH FOLK ART PRINTS BY FLOYD GORDON The Country Farm Home, 2012

 

DENIM BRITCHES QUILTS Duncan Farmstead 2015

 

THE BEGINNING An Introduction, Duncan Farmstead 2015

 

THE QUILTS OF GEES BEND by William Arnett, Alvia Wardlaw, Jane Livingston, John Beardsley, Tinwood Books, 2002         

 

GEES BEND: ARCHITECTURE OF THE QUILT by Paul Arnett, William Arnett, Bernard Herman, Maggi Gordon, Diane Mott, Dilys Blum, Lauren Whitley, Amei Wallach, Joanne Cubbs, Tinwood Books, 2006  

 

AFRICAN AMERICAN-GEES BEND STYLE QUILTS Rocky Mountain Quilts Website

 

WHY SOUTHERN QUILTING? Virginia Crossroads, University of Virginia

 

SOUTHERN QUILTING TRADITIONS University of Virginia

 

SOUTHERN AMERICAN QUILTS Welsh Quilts Blog, 2012

 

AFRICAN AMERICAN QUILTS Blog

 

TUTWILER QUILTERS Website

 

WOMENFOLK Website

 

When the nights became cold each winter, the women would scrounge up what small scraps of fabric they could find and fashion blankets to put on their beds, walls, and floors. . .to help keep the cold, whistling winds of winter at bay. . .