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WAKEFIELD

The Wakefield Historical Association has organized an exhibition about textiles, which will open on Saturday, Oct. 5, at the Wakefield Foundation. This will concur with the Family/Homecoming Day, and be located on the first floor of the building from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.

A book written by Thomas O. Huber will also be available featuring a wide range of homemade textiles with interesting stories connecting the items to local families. Visitors will see bedspreads, clothing, buggy lap robes, quilts and rugs, including a dress made from a World War II parachute and a handmade 1907 wedding gown. Also on view will be some of the tools used to make these items: a spinning wheel, yarn winder, treadle sewing machine, large lace stretcher, quilting frame and a barn loom.

Also on display will be bedspreads from Rocky Hock Methodist Church, Ivor Methodist Church and Spring Hill Christian Church. In the early 1900s, the Ladies Aid Societies of these churches made and sold squares to raise money, according to Gayle Lanier. The spreads with over 1,000 hand-embroidered names will be on display with a typed list of names that are on each square.

Wakefield High School is 100 years, and there will be some artifacts such as a checkerboard made of wood by Ishmuel Branch with student and faculty signatures dating back to the 1930s and 1940s. The display and the book will include items from Southampton, Sussex and Surry counties.

For more information, call Ralph Seeley at 899-5591, or Gayle Lanier at 899-6451.