#52 Ancestors 2021 Week 49 Homemade: Ma Summers' Quilt

 One of the biggest homemade projects I ever participated in was the creation of a quilt for my Grandmother Evalina Sasscer Summers (known in the family as Ma Summers).  

My sister Louise had read an article about creating a memory quilt. We loved that idea and proposed to the family that we should make one of these as a present for our grandmother. Amazingly enough, my aunts and cousins bravely agreed to go for it. My sister and I shopped for the material and prepared a plan for a 24-square quilt, assigning various families to each square. Each square was supposed to represent something that reminded us of Ma or would be a happy memory for Ma. Since my grandmother had nine children and a large troop of grandchildren, there were plenty of families to go around. We sent out the squares in September along with instructions and suggestions.   Then we crossed our fingers. 

It took a great deal of coordination and some frantic reminders to get all the squares made and then sewn together and actually quilted onto a backing.  I remember sitting in my mother's living room with a number of my aunts and cousins and a few family friends recruited for the purpose putting together the final product.  As I recall, we finished it just in time for the family Christmas party in December 1981. Here is the picture of Ma opening the package. We had managed to keep the project a secret and I think Ma was genuinely surprised. My sister had written a poem which she read to go with the opening of the quilt, but that epic work is sadly lost in the mists of time.  

Truly a labor of love, but the result was quite spectacular and my grandmother loved it.  Here she is showing it off the next summer at her birthday party.Five of her nine children and several of her 50 grandchildren are helping her with the display. I am in the back in the purple shirt.

In the interests of preserving an important piece of family history, I thought it would be fun to review the different squares in the quilt.  Each one has a special family memory.  (With thanks to my Aunt Louise and a number of my cousins who shared their memories with me to fill in some of the details.) 

This square represents Mount Vernon, done by Joyce and Tommy Summers. At first, I was puzzled by this square, but then my cousin Tommy reminded me that their house was across the river from Mt. Vernon and in the winter with no leaves on the trees, they had a view of the estate from their front porch.  

This square was called "Ten Little Indians" and represents the ten children of my Aunt Evalina (Bennie) Summers Hall Mitchell.  Their initials are embroidered around the square.  

This square from Uncle Hill Summers' children, Carol, David, and Chuck, represents Ma's devotion to her "stories" in the afternoon soap operas.  If we should happen to be visiting when her show was on, we would have to be very quiet in the house so as not to disturb Ma's enjoyment and never ever interrupt her until there was a commercial break.  

This square was done by my mother, Anne Summers Scrivener, and represents Ma Summers birthday, July 5.  But we often celebrated with a July 4th theme.  And there was usually a very fancy birthday cake which Ma would slice up for everyone, surrounded by a gaggle of her grandchildren eager for a piece. (I notice in most of my pictures of the cake-cutting that my son Matthew manages to get himself right up front and center.)

This square was made by Pat and John Summers and represents their family talents as ice skaters. According to my cousin June, Uncle John took up skating in his 30's as a way to relax and the whole family joined him, skating and competing and participating in ice shows.  Their oldest son John Summers and his partner Stacey Smith, coached by famed Ron Luddington, were three-times national ice dance champions and skated in the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in 1980. Ma was a huge fan and travelled to New York with John and Pat to cheer for John.  The rest of the family was glued to the TV watching the ice dance competition and for me, it started a life-long interest in the beautiful sport.  John and his partner competed against some power-house Russian teams as well as the British team of Torvill and Dean (who went on to revolutionize the sport) and Americans Judy Blumberg and Michael Seibert.  They finished in a very respectable 9th place. 

This square represents Ma's youngest son, Robert. Uncle Robert was a man of many talents.  However, I'm fairly certain that Uncle Robert did not create this square himself, although I don't know which of his sisters helped him out.  In any case, the square brings up memories of summer crab feasts out on the lawn at Ma's house.  Tables covered with brown paper and piles of steamed crabs smelling of Old Bay.

This square was done by Louise Summers Dwyer, representing the Dwyer family's time spent in Germany.  Here is the story according to Aunt Louise: 

Uncle Gene was working for a firm with a contract to provide payroll services to the U.S. Army. The Army paid for our transportation and moved us to Germany.  And so the Dwyer family moved to Karlsruhe Germany in March of 1967 with our five small children.  We rented two apartments across the hall from each other, but shared a common balcony for quick access.  One of the apartments was our bedroom and laundry quarters, and the other apartment contained our living, dining, kitchen and spare room. In October of 1967, Mom and Dad and Aunt Eunice flew over to visit with us for two weeks.  Mom, Dad and Aunt Eunice took some trips touring Bavaria, and also enjoyed a Rhine River cruise up to Cologne and back . Dad was so interested to see tobacco hanging in the barns out in the country near us. We returned to Virginia unexpectedly in Sept. of 1968, as we were scheduled to stay for 3 years. DeGaulle and his gold amassing caused a gold flow problem and we were sent home early.

This square, done by my sister Louise, is a reminder of Ma's Christmas present to her grandchildren:  pajamas, which she made herself.  She kept this tradition going for many years, but as the number of grandchildren got to 50, she eventually was not able to keep up.  

This square, representing Uncle Tommy and Aunt Joyce's children, is the magic candy dish. It was always sitting out in the living room and it was a great treat when Ma or Pa Summers would lift off the ceramic lid and let us choose a piece of candy.  No matter how many times the jar was passed around, it never seemed to be empty.  I recall that it was usually filled with brightly colored hard candies. 

This square depicts Uncle John Summers, a Navy pilot, and Aunt Pat, a professional ballerina, who also used her skills to train ice skaters. I can remember an occasion when Uncle John landed a helicopter on the lawn at Ma's and allowed his awe-struck nieces and nephews to sit inside the machine.  

From Margo and Paul Summers, the children of Uncle Paul and Aunt Mary.  According to Cousin Margo, this represented a family Christmas tradition: 

On Christmas Eve, Ma and Uncle Robert would come for dinner at our house.  Dad would often serve roasted goose that he or Uncle Robert had gotten.  Paul and I would sing Christmas songs for them and we always read the nativity story from the Bible at the table.  

I made this square for my younger brothers, Phil and Dave.  Ma was a great fan of crossword puzzles, and I was always intrigued by the challenge of fitting the right word into the grid. 

This square shows the seven Dwyer children gathered around the Christmas tree.  It brings up memories of Christmas at Ma and Pa Summers with dozens of cousins sitting on the floor in the living room waiting anxiously for their name to be called for a Christmas present. And the mounds of paper as we ripped open our packages. The parents sat around the edge of the room sipping their eggnogs. (And Uncle Robert made a spectacular and heavily spiked eggnog, as I discovered once I was old enough to drink it.)

Christmas at Ma Summers' house

My cousin Wallis Hall Cain did this square, representing Ma and Pa Summers' house on their farm outside of Upper Marlboro.  It was the scene of many, many family gatherings: weddings, funerals, birthdays, reunions of all sorts. In summer, the great-aunts would usually gather in the shade of the screened porch to survey the action outside.    Wallis said that she particularly remembers learning to play croquet on that lawn and Uncle Robert showing us how to use a bow and arrow.  Most family gatherings, at least in summer, featured thick slices of watermelon and if we were lucky, homemade ice cream from the big old-fashioned churn that various uncles would take turns turning the crank.  I also have a strong memory of playing "Whose Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf" in the evenings as Uncle Gene Dwyer would hide in the bushes and jump out to scare us as we would circle around the house. 

Aunt Evalina and John Mitchell did this square representing the name of the Summers' home: Maplehurst.  According to Aunt Louise, the family moved to this home in 1944, leaving behind a small farmhouse with no running water and no electricity, with three bedrooms for the eleven family members.

 "Mom and Dad and baby Robert in one bedroom, the four girls in the next bedroom, and the four boys slept in the last bedroom in a pair or twin beds !! On the first floor was a parlor which was mostly kept for use on Christmas, Easter and the occasional family guest.  Our Aunt Mary (Dad's sister - a nun - Sr. Ange ) would come for a visit during the summer, and the parlor became her bedroom. The  dining room was used for meals, and as our homework and living room as well. It had the large walnut dining table that we all knew at Maplehurst later.  Then there was a kitchen with a large wood stove that never went out year after year.  There was also a small back porch with a pie safe that held food. " 

So spacious Maplehurst was quite a move up in terms of amenities for the family. (I believe that pie safe travelled to Maplehurst as I can remember it on the back porch there.) 

Maplehurst was named for the ring of maple trees in the front yard encircling the house.  After moving there, Aunt Louise said her dad planted a second semicircle of young maples beyond the first trees.  Maple trees do not have a really long life, and he wanted to continue the idea of maple trees at the home into the future. Around that same time, Pa bought and had planted the long line of pine trees along the fence line separating the front lawn from the pasture next to the lawn. 

Those gorgeous maple trees shaded those many family gatherings.  In the back, Ma raised chickens and had a large vegetable garden. 

This square was done by Uncle Hill Summers and Aunt Frances, representing the tobacco barn at the farm.  Uncle Hill was very involved in the tobacco farming and marketing with Pa Summers. You can see some tobacco hanging in the barn to dry.  The barn was a favorite place to play, although the adults did not always approve.  Cousin Margo remembers a time when a group of cousins decided to walk out on the roof of the lower shed portion of the barn.  When one of the parents spotted them, they all came running down the road to the barn to get us off of there. We always told the story later that there was a nasty bull in the paddock below.  (I later discovered that snakes liked to hang out in the barn.  If I had known that earlier, I would never have been caught in the barn.)

This square was done for the children of Frank and Patricia Gaegler.  If you spent much time at all at Ma and Pa's house, you would inevitably see the adults make up a table or two of bridge.  And they were quite serious players.  As the oldest grandchild, I was once or twice dragooned into taking a fourth seat, once I was a teenager. But it must have been a sore trial to whomever was my partner, because I was certainly not in the adult's league. I never really advanced beyond the rudiments of the game. 

This square was done by Cousin Eddie Summers and his wife Judy.  Ma Summers was a voracious canner.  She had a huge pantry off the kitchen that was always filled with colorful jars of applesauce, peaches, green beans, pickles, jams, etc. Especially in the winter, these jars formed the basis of many family meals. And almost every meal included a dish of Ma's pickles.  This was a habit that my mother also continued, and I have not-so-fond memories of hot summer mornings in the kitchen peeling the skins from boiled tomatoes and filling canning jars.  I have to admit, though, it was great to eat the jam and applesauce and salsa later. 

And speaking of food at Ma's house, Ma's custard was the highlight of any meal. It filled a hugh bowl and there was usually some of Ma's jam to fold in.  This square was done my sister Maripat Rogers. Maripat finally managed to wangle to recipe from Ma, although she swears that Ma left something out, because it is never quite the same as Ma's. (maybe a difference in the fresh cream Ma used.)   But it's still a treat when Maripat makes it.  

This square was done by Aunt Patricia Gaegler.  There was a running family joke that Ma was always out somewhere and loved to travel but insisted that she was "always home. " 

This square was done by Aunt Mary and Uncle Paul Summers.  Ma Summers was a huge Terps fan (University of Maryland). According to Cousin Margo, "we used to go to the Maryland games with Ma, Aunt Eunice [Ma's sister], and my father.  He would pick them up at Ma's house and they would have a big thermos of hot cocoa.  My father brought a flask and spiked their cocoa to help them 'stay warm' during the cold weather games. " 

Ma Summers was always very interested in family history, and I was lucky enough to inherit many of her notes and clippings and photographs so I could continue the tradition. This square from Rob and Anne Marie Scrivener shows the Summers Coat of Arms.  The motto [Mens Sibi Conscia Rest] translates, roughly, as "a mind conscious of its own integrity." 

Here is the original Anne Marie was working from. 

As I mentioned above, I inherited my grandmother's love of family history, so I thought this family tree was a good contribution for me to make to the quilt.  This shows my great-grandparents in the roots, my Summers grandparents in the trunk and their children, my aunts and uncles in the branches.  Plus my own family in the tire swing. 

So many happy family memories captured in this quilt. Although the quilt backing was damaged over the years and had to be removed, the quilt top is still in good shape after 40 years and stored safely at my sister Louise's house to provide family history to future generations.  I'm glad I had a chance to tell the stories and again thanks to all my cousins and my Aunt Louise for sharing their memories.