Handmade Family Quilts - Platt Estate - Tigerbend, Louisiana

The quilts listed are family quilts from the Platt Estate. I have given several to family members and I still have some to downsize. These were made in a rural community called Tigerbend, located in Union Parish, Louisiana. They are made mostly of feed sacks or as the up scale people called it, “Chicken Linen”. This is the life of these quilts. My Grandmother would go to the feed mill to buy chops or laying pellets. Keeping in mind that her or someone else had a garment in mind, she would pick out the print wanted and the number of bags it would take to make the piece of clothing. When the bags were all emptied, they would be laundered and cut up to make the garment. The scrap pieces were then cut into quilt pieces, pieced together, then appliquéd onto squares. They would let the quilting frames down from the ceiling and put the top, batting, and lining in the frame. Then the ladies from the community would come in and quilt, laugh, and enjoy the afternoon. While the “quilting bee” was going on, we kids would go out and play. My Granny was the best. She showed all of the grandchildren LOVE instead of trying to buy it. Her motto was waste not, want not. She even saved the string stitching of the feed sacks and would sit and roll it into a ball for us to play with. She died in the mid 60’s, but she lives on in our hearts everyday.