Loose Leaf Notes

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press newspaper on September 15, 2011

Floyd centenarian Effie Brown attended an exhibit of her hand-sewn quilts and quilt block designs at the Old Church Gallery on Saturday.  Gallery director Catherine Pauley said that, along with Brown’s full-size quilts, the exhibit features close to 30 patchwork patterns that Brown quilted and donated to the community through the gallery.

With names like Bear Claw, Nine Patch, Rising Sun and Pine Tree, the squares represent traditional quilt pattern examples and are accompanied by handwritten descriptions and histories, written in longhand by Brown.  One pattern, the Log Cabin, dates as far back as ancient Egypt and was discovered wrapped around a mummy in a tomb.

Brown said she grew up with quilting and is self-taught, preferring to hand sew her quilts.  “I can’t get the corners to meet with a sewing machine,” she said.  After finishing her last quilt, Brown stopped quilting when her husband suggested that she spend more time with him.  He lived for five more years after that.

As the gallery’s guest of honor, the 100 year old former school teacher and Check Elementary School principal greeted a steady flow of visitors and told stories of growing up in the county.

When asked about her secret to long life, she said, “I worked on the farm my whole life.” She remembered when she was 15 years old, her father had a stroke and it was up to her mother and her to mow, rake and put up the hay. Her mother got stung by bees and so Brown was in charge of the chore, which was done with horse drawn equipment.

Her family (the Kings) had an apple orchard and it was Brown’s job as a young girl to cut apples for drying after school.  Her mother sold the dried apples to buy sugar and other supplies, Brown remembered.  The cut apples were spread out on the family wagon shed roof to dry.   In the winter, apples were strung by the woodstove and hung from the ceiling in the house.

“There were always apples in the fruit bowl,” Brown said.  Recalling the old saying about an apple a day keeping the doctor away, Brown joked that she ate three a day.

With her 101st birthday coming up in December, Brown is grateful for her good health.   “I saw the doctor a couple of times and he said, ‘I can’t find anything wrong with you,’” she said.   ~ Colleen Redman

Post notes: Brown’s exhibit of quilt blocks can be viewed on Fridays 4 p.m. to 6:30 and Saturday 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Old Church Gallery on Wilson Street. Watch a video clip of Effie Brown reciting a poem she memorized in grade school HERE. In another clip she talks about growing up on the farm in Floyd County HERE.