The Alvin Sun (Alvin, Tex.), Vol. 111, No. 47, Ed. 1 Monday, June 17, 2002 Page: 14 of 24
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Brazoria County Area Newspapers and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Alvin Community College.
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squares, the newly decorated
pieces of fabric are rounded up in
the spring. Wareham sews—or
pieces—squares together to form
the quilt top and attaches the
batting (soft filling) and backing.
Other women pitch in to tie the
quilts—sewing the three layers
together with bits of yarn. That’s
the finishing touch.
This year’s graduates Nia Soane,
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Threads of inspiration
Preparation for the quilts starts early. Students select their fabrics in
the fall when they begin their senior year. Five yards of material and a
queen-sized sheet are cut and sewn to make 54 "friendship" blocks, each
measuring 12 inches square. Seniors then send those blocks to family
and friends for them to embroider messages, designs, and a Bible verse.
The center square is reserved for a special Bible verse selected by the
student. Wareham always embroiders that one herself and puts it under
an outline of the Wayside Chapel, which was built in 1953.
After the stitchers have had several months to embroider their
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Most high school graduates store
congratulatory notes and photographs from friends and family
among the pages of their senior yearbook. But memories of Gate-
way School graduates in the western Colorado ranching communi-
ty of Gateway are hand-embroidered on quilts they can use
throughout their lives, complete with messages and inspiration
from the friends who hand-sew them.
Women from Wayside Chapel, the rural town’s only church, began
in 1979 to make each high school graduate a quilt to be presented short-
ly before graduation at the baccalaureate ceremony. A pastor's wife first
suggested the idea.
This year, quilts were given to Gateway’s two seniors, but graduates
have numbered as many as 11. Regardless of the number, each quilt is
a testament to the enduring care of a small community of a few hundred
people, where many residents trace family ties through multiple gener-
ations of cattle ranchers and uranium miners.
Just one road leads into Gateway: Colorado Highway 141, with two
lanes twisting alongside a creek, through open range, past ranches, over
the Dolores River, and between redrock canyon walls. But many roads
lead out: college, marriage, and construction work among them.
Wherever students go, Aggie Wareham, 70, a rancher who organiz-
es the quilting, believes the teenagers are better for having grown up in
a town small enough to allow each child the kind of personal recogni-
tion the quilts give.
“They get more of a community feeling, a sense of belonging,"
says Wareham, who is also a longtime 4-H leader and a former cook
at Gateway School.
The school, with nearly 60 students enrolled in kindergarten
through high school, has a small campus that still retains the closeness
of an old-fashioned, one-room school.
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Brandy Lopez, left, embroidered on one of classmate Nia Soane’s quilt squares.
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Aggie ^Aftreham adds linishing touches.
by LAURENA MAYNE DAVIS participated in each other’s quilts. Ees
Photos by Gretel Daugherty Lopez’ quilt has a dark back-
ground punctuated with small,
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Schwind, Jim & Holton, Kathleen. The Alvin Sun (Alvin, Tex.), Vol. 111, No. 47, Ed. 1 Monday, June 17, 2002, newspaper, June 17, 2002; Alvin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1602836/m1/14/?q=%22~1~1~1%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Alvin Community College.