Click here to subscribe today or Login.
WILKES-BARRE — When Olivemae Lewis began quilting, she never dreamt that one of her creations would be a true stitch in time.
The Osterhout Free Library hosted Lewis, of West Nanticoke, on Saturday afternoon to display her creation– a replica sample quilt based off of the patterns used by those involved in the Underground Railroad during the Civil War.
She was first inspired to create the labor of love over a decade ago, thanks to a television program.
“I was watching a quilting show, as I often do, and the host – Eleanor Burns – featured a sampler quilt based off of coded patterns used by those to help the slaves escape,” explained Lewis.
“For many years, it was heavily debated if the coded quilts were real, but Burns managed to find a woman named Ozella Williams, who was a direct descendent of slaves, and she verified that the code was indeed real and used often.”
Each square in Lewis’ quilt represented a different coded message used to help the slaves find directional hints and clues about their trek to the north.
Patterns such as the “bear claw” – which signified the slaves to follow the bear path to ensure berries and nourishment – and the “Jacob’s ladder” – which made the slaves aware directionally and also advised them to have tools ready – were usually the single pattern used in a given quilt, unlike Lewis’s sampler.
“Many of the slaves were trying to get up north to Canada, as a matter of fact,” added Lewis. “They had abolished slavery already up there and were promising free, unsurveyed land to the slaves who were able to make it up there,” she added.
The slave quilts were often hung outside, as a beacon of hope or a directional clue, with the secret codes being passed from “station” to “station” as the “conductors” of the railroad helped the slaves along their travels.
“If a slave was told to watch for the direction of the green bird in the ‘birds in the air’ pattern, depending on the way the quilt was hung up, they could follow it to safety,” said Lewis.
Unlike the slave quilts, which were often made quickly and tied by hand, Lewis’ quilt was hand-sewn and built to last.
“They didn’t have the time to be able to make something so painstaking,” she added. “Also, they weren’t making anything to be displayed, it was more for functionality.”
Lewis, a lifelong quilter, had been at the fabric arts diligently since she was about 17 years of age. She’s made hundreds of quilts, even going so far as to donate them to local nursing homes and the Ronald McDonald house.
“I made them for my friends and family, but after a while they had to stop accepting them,” laughed Lewis. “They simply didn’t have enough room to store all of them anymore.”
Quilts, handmade like the ones she specializes in, often are appraised in the hundreds to thousands of dollars. One made from the exact same Eleanor Burns pattern as the Underground Code quilt is selling online for upwards of $1800.
“I tried to put myself in the shoes of a black woman who was trapped in that situation, trying to desperately get my young children out of those horrible conditions,” she added. “That was my initial motivation.”
Lewis will be sharing her quilting skills with the youth of the region, hosting a quilting class at the Osterhout Library on Wednesday evenings for teenagers. Those interested are urged to contact the library.