Break the Rules

Bertha Fairbanks was not one to break the rules. Here she is with Hilda at the age of about two.

Bertha Fairbanks, my maternal grandmother, would never break the rules, would she? She was straitlaced and I looked up to her as a child. But now I am involved in a sewing series of classes called Breaking The Rules in Quilting. It is a challenge to do things differently than I was taught by Bertha and the “quilt police.” 

My mother, Ellen Fairbanks Fred, hated sewing. She told me that when she was young she was made to clean up all the threads and fabric scraps from Bertha’s sewing and that seemed to have poisoned her against ever learning how to sew. 

Bertha was an expert seamstress when I knew her and for many years before that. As a business she made fancy Victorian-style satin dresses for plays without using patterns. She also made Victorian dresses for the play, The Old Homestead, which is still put on every summer in Swanzey Center. She made some of my clothes. I remember a pastel-colored dress she made that had ruffles on the skirt of pink and yellow. The first time I wore it was to Wilcox School, my elementary school in Swanzey Center, NH. I tore the dress climbing a tree, and I don’t remember being scolded. Bertha repaired my dress and I don’t think I ever climbed trees in that dress again. (I still climbed trees, however.)

Bertha taught me to sew, but I wanted to do it my way instead of following the pattern. Of course the results would have been better if I had followed the pattern. I learned the hard way there was a reason why the instruction steps came in a certain order. 

Marty models a Halloween costume from Bertha's attic.

The big square house we moved to in Swanzey Center in 1945 had a large third-floor attic. The attic was mostly filled with period costumes. Bertha rented them out for plays and for Halloween and other occasions. When a request was made that she couldn’t fill, she called upon an agency in Boston, Hooker Howe, that supplied the missing articles. My cousin Lucy and I loved to go to the attic together and try on high-button shoes, feathered hats, and other articles of clothing. At Christmas time we would find full-length stockings in the attic to hang for Santa to fill. There was usually an orange in the toe on Christmas morning.

"The big square house we moved to in Swanzey Center ..."

Lucy’s sister, Martha Grace Travis (Marty), and I also learned sewing in our local 4-H club, led by Margaret Boyer in her nearby home. I remember being required to darn Mrs. Boyer’s husband’s socks as a punishment if I forgot my current project at home. Marty stayed with 4-H and sewing and became an excellent seamstress and tailor. She took everything she did to the next level. Through 4-H she was selected to be an International Farm Youth Exchange Delegate (IFYE) and spent time in France as an exchange student. Marty and I both majored in home economics in college. We both taught the subject in public schools. Marty taught until she started her family and I started after our children were born. 

So now, many, many years later I am a quilter. I have followed the rules for the most part, but have itched to be more improvisational and spontaneous. The Breaking the Rules workshops have come at a good time for me to spread my wings. 

Bertha may not approve but I am not telling. 

(When Bertha gave up her sewing and costume business she donated the costumes to the Drama Department at Keene State College in Keene, NH.)