Hands All 'Round Quilts
Marie C. Almon and her two brothers are looking for twelve quilts that were made by their mother, Cecil May Almon. There were a variety of patterns including stars, but most were made with the Hands All 'Round pattern. The Hands All 'Round block shown to the left is an orphan block that didn't make it into one of the quilts.
Most of the quilts Cecil made were double bed size and she liked to use bright solids as sashing. She loved to match solid fabrics with prints in blocks that used two colors. Some quilts contained fabric from chicken feed sacks and nearly all contained scraps from the clothing Cecil made for the family.
All of the quilts were hand pieced and hand quilted and all were made before 1995. Cecil used the "Baptist Fan" or "Methodist Fan" on every quilt. The hand quilting is very precise on these quilts: each fan was exactly the same size and the distance between arcs is uniform. The quilting design was drawn on with white chalk and some chalk still shows on the vivid solid colors. Marie specifically remembers this in the hot pink sashing of one of the Hands All Around quilts. Marie's mother was very proud of the fact that none of these twelve quilts had ever been washed. The family still has one unwashed quilt that typifies the quilting of the twelve others. They also have two Hands All Around orphan blocks which were made by Cecil.
The quilts were last seen before 1995 in rural Canadian County, Oklahoma. It is unknown how they became missing.
If you have seen any quilts that fit this description, please contact Marie at [email protected].
Posted January 25, 2002.
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