I spent a whole day last week in the archives of the Maine Folklife Center at the University of Maine at Orono. Started 50 years ago by Edward “Sandy” Ives, the Folklife Center is a repository of folklore and oral history of Maine and Maritime Canada. Back in 1977-1978 the Sandy Ives and students associated with the Center (the University offers a Minor in Folklore) conducted a project on the History and Architectue of Veazie, ME (my rather colorful hometown). They have in their archives the transcripts and tapes of interviews conducted with all of the participants including my great grandfather, great-great uncle, great uncle and grandmother. It was amazing to sit there in the building (South Stevens Hall) where I had gone to college years before and be able to hear voices that I had not heard in some cases for many decades.

Here is my grandmother describing her mother’s typical day (from whence the quote in the title comes – courtesy Maine Folklife Center):

I collected some wonderful family photos to use in the project (and stocked up on jam) while on this trip north. I also learned it’s going to take several more trips over the course of the project to complete all of the necessary research to create all of the memorial quilts and accompanying materials.

On my way out of town I stopped into the Veazie Congregational Church. My mother remembered seeing a crazy quilt in the back entryway with squares from many of the local women in Veazie including my great grandmother Grace Jordan. It’s a wonderful example of a pieced, signature crazy quilt. Each individual did a single square which they signed then hand embroidered over their signature:

Signature Crazy Quilt at Veazie Congregational Church

Thanks here go out to Karen Jones Walker who graciously took time out of checking in folks for the community supper to help me move a case out of the way so I could take some photos of the quilt.

When I got back to Portland I made some prints to go along with the theme of cake making for my grandmother’s quilt (I’ll dedicate some posts in the future to the printmaking process). Then I laid out my grandmother’s button collection (temporally loaned to me by my sister Diana for purposes of the project) and sorted through it so I could pick out buttons to use for the quilt:

Boo’s Buttons

Ok, so I’m a little obsessive and had to put them all back into little organized containers – but now when I sew the individual squares I’ll be able to see the buttons easily all at once to pick out appropriately sized/colored buttons to match.

I found some amazing things in the collection: hand-made buttons of alabaster, ivory, porcelain and abalone. Buttons so small that I had to use my husband’s reading glasses to see the hand-drilled holes.  I love the hand-stitched button-boards, ‘guaranteed machine-washable’ seemed to be a big selling point.

Handmade alabaster buttons

Next week’s post will have in-process shots of the squares for Boo’s quilt coming together. Have a good week!