“I use to could plow just as good as any man.  I could put that dirt up against that cotton and corn.  I’d mold it up.  Lay it by?  Yes ma’m I’d lay it by, too.

“They didn’t send me to school but they learned me how to work.

“I had a quilt book with a lot o’ different patterns but I loaned it to a woman and she carried it to Oklahoma.  Mighty few people you can put confidence in nowdays.

“I don’t go out much ’cept to church—­folks is so critical.

  “You have to mind how you walk on the cross;
  If you don’t, your foot will slip,
  And your soul will be lost.”

“I was a motherless chile but the Lord made up for it by givin’ me a good husband and I don’t want for anything.”

Interviewer’s Comment

According to her husband, Gracie spends every spare moment piecing quilts.  He said they use to go fishing and that Gracie always took her quilt pieces along and if the fish were not biting she would sew.  She showed me twenty-two finished quilt tops, each of a different design and several of the same design, or about thirty quilts in all.  Two were entirely of silk, two of applique design which called “laid work”.  They were folded up in a trunk and as she took them out and spread them on the bed for me to see she told me the name of the design.  The following are the names of the designs: 

  1.  Breakfast Dish
  2.  Sawtooth (silk)
  3.  Tulip design (Laid work)
  4.  “Prickle” Pear
  5.  Little Boy’s Breeches
  6.  Birds All Over the Elements
  7.  Drunkard’s Path
  8.  Railroad Crossing
  9.  Cocoanut Leaf ("That’s Laid Work”)
 10.  Cotton Leaf
 11.  Half an Orange
 12.  Tree of Paradise
 13.  Sunflower
 14.  Ocean Wave (silk)
 15.  Double Star
 16.  Swan’s Nest
 17.  Log Cabin in the Lane
 18.  Reel
 19.  Lily in de Valley (Silk)
 20.  Feathered Star
 21.  Fish Tail
 22.  Whirligig

Gracie showed me her winter coat bought in Chicago of fur fabric called moleskin, and with fur collar and cuffs.

She sells the quilt tops whenever she can.  Many are made of new material which they buy.

Personal History of Informant

1.  Ancestry—­Father, Andrew Wheeler; Sallie Wheeler, mother.

2.  Place and date of birth—­Alabama.  No date known, about 80 years old.

3.  Family—­Husband and one grown son.

4.  Places lived in, with dates—­Alabama, Texas till 1897, Arkansas 1897-1922, Chicago, 1922 to 1930.  Arkansas 1930 to date.

5.  Education, with dates—­No education.

6.  Occupations and accomplishments, with dates—­Cooked before marriage at 16; farmed after marriage; home sewing.

7.  Special skills and interests—­Quilt making and knitting.

8.  Community and religious activities—­Assisted husband in ministry.