Submitted to The Times-Journal

ORRVILLE &045; Lannice Barrett Mobley has given a handmade quilt to the visitor center at Old Cahawba in Orrville, a historic site of the Alabama Historical Commission.

It took her nearly a year to piece together the block quilt from fabric scraps she had on hand.

Between the colorful front and back of the quilt, she placed store-bought cotton batting to make the quilt thick and warm.

Mobley clearly remembers a time, though, when her family obtained their quilt batting by working the seeds out of raw cotton with specially designed hand combs called cotton cards.

Now a resident of Chilton County, Mobley grew up in Dallas County about eight miles from Plantersville.

Her mother initiated her quilting at the age of five when she became upset about being too young to go to school.

In an attempt to cheer her daughter, the mules were hitched to the wagon for a trip to the Boston Bargain store in Selma where Mobley’s mother bought her fabric pieces and other quilting supplies.

The five-year-old began her first quilt and quickly forgot her disappointment over school.

When Mobley married in 1935, that first quilt moved with her into her new home.

Like her quilts, this one-room farm house was also built by hand.

A friend gave the young couple a big tree as a wedding present, which her husband, father, and brothers converted into a house frame.

These are precious memories for Mobley.

As she handed the quilt to the staff at Old Cahawba, she recited these words, &8220;Will I be missed by those I love?

What will I leave behind? …. precious memories.&8221;

Site Director Linda Derry commented on the gift.