THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 16, 1995 TAG: 9507130209
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 38 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: MARY ELLEN RIDDLE
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
In the little white house with black shutters that sits in a beautifully kept yard, 84-year-old Dessie Rountree has worked her fingers, her eyes, her arms and her back for 20 years sewing quilts by hand.
The slender, spirited woman still works all day in her yard in rural Belvidere, cutting her grass and tending her flowers just a mile-and-a-half from where she was born.
But this spring, Rountree picked up her thread and needle for the last time and fashioned one final quilt. Arthritis and failing vision have taken their toll on her sewing.
The tradition of quilting in Rountree's family goes as far back as she can remember. Her mother quilted; her mother's mother quilted.
``I guess her people way back did it 'cause that's the only way they got cover,'' said Rountree. ``And we didn't have warm houses in those days.''
The long hours Rountree spent each winter evening quilting with her mother also gave them something to do. Whatever the family needed, they made.
Their food came from the garden, and they chased down a chicken each Sunday for dinner. The children walked 4 miles to school, but only went six months out of the year, working the land the rest of the time.
Rountree's mother spun cotton to fill the quilts and to knit her husband's socks. ``She'd sit just like she was asleep and knit right on,'' Rountree said with a smile.
Cleaning the heavy cotton quilts was a chore. ``We washed 'em in a tub and washboard,'' she said. ``It'd take two of us to handle it and get it on the clothesline.''
Rountree shrugged when asked if it takes patience to quilt. ``If you want to do it, you can do it,'' she said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Today, quilts made by hand are prized by many folks who have no time or inclination to create them. In fact, Rountree sold enough after her retirement at 65 to support herself. Many were displayed at the Newbold-White House, circa 1685, the oldest house in the state.
The quilts made later in life differed some from the quilts Rountree stitched while growing up. She gave up quilting from a frame hung from the ceiling about 14 years ago, turning to a tiny wooden chair and lap quilting instead.
She replaced the lumpy hand-spun cotton with polyester batting, because it doesn't get knotty like cotton. But her fabric pieces are still cotton and stitched by hand.
Her patterns are traditional: the double wedding band, bow tie, fan, star pattern and scrap quilt.
Most of the quilts Rountree made as a child were from scraps left over from making clothing. ``We would have made lots of them if we'd just had the material,'' she said.
It was not unusual for Rountree to make as many as 12 quilts in a year's time in her later years. She could finish a quilt in a month. Her work offers a mixture of solid colors and patterns.
``I always have a piece of flower into it,'' she said.
So while bachelor buttons, zinnias, pansies and snap dragons bloomed in her garden in the warm weather, tiny pink and coral roses and daisies appeared on her quilts in the cold winter months.
Rountree accepts the fact that she must give up quilting. Right now she spends her days working the yard, and she's too tired to sew at night.
``Now this winter, if it gets to snowin' and blowin', I might go crazy,'' she said. ``I like at night doin' things.'' by CNB