Mildred Choate Taylor lives in the home her great-grandparents built on land near the Dwight Mission in Marble City. The home was built using the couple’s Cherokee “strip money,” which were payments to Cherokee citizens following a controversial sale of a strip of land in eastern Oklahoma in 1893.
Mildred is proud of her Cherokee heritage, and she and her children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren are all enrolled citizens of the Cherokee Nation. When Mildred retired, she decided she’d use her time every day to volunteer and help people in her community, especially her fellow Cherokee neighbors and organizations that preserve and protect Cherokee culture.
In addition to volunteering, Mildred also decided she would return to quiltmaking, a hobby she’d loved since she was a child and young mother.
“I started quilting again about 20 years ago,” Mildred said. “I first started quilting as a child with my mother. Then, when I had children of my own, I made quilts for necessity. We needed warm bedding. Then, as my kids were growing up, I didn’t really have time to quilt.”
These days, Mildred’s quilts are so exceptional that she has won countless ribbons. Recently, she won a blue ribbon from the judges at the Cherokee National Holiday Quilt Show, and the same quilt also won the Principal Chief’s Award.* Mildred also loves making quilts alongside her family, especially her granddaughter, Casi Morris, and great-grandson, Ben, as well as with her longtime friends who call themselves the Crazy Quilters. “We’re just a group of ladies who get together every Tuesday to quilt,” she said.
“When my son, Ben, was diagnosed with cancer, Granny and her Crazy Quilter friends stepped up and supported us in so many ways,” Casi added. “They made stuffed toys for Ben and masks, and this was even before the pandemic. They also made him special capes to wear to the clinic. And the fabrics they chose were so amazing and fun—everything from superheroes to SpongeBob SquarePants—and these are 80-year-old ladies from rural Oklahoma.”
The Crazy Quilters also came together to make blocks for a Friendship Quilt for Mildred during the time Ben was being treated for leukemia. Mildred was thrilled, but she told them they’d have to make the blocks without her because she intended to stay at Casi’s home and take care of Ben for as long as needed. She wouldn’t have time for quilting. It took a year or so after Ben recovered for Mildred to put those Friendship blocks together and quilt it, but now, that quilt is very special to her. She is honored that her Crazy friends took the time and effort to make these blocks for her.
“My Granny and these ladies are what inspired me to want to take up quilting,” Casi said. “I sensed this overwhelmingly positive connection to quilting and how that translated into love for the community. Quilting ties right back to community and family and is a way to participate in giving back.”
But first, Casi had to learn how. She turned to the most capable teacher she knew. “Granny taught me every step of quilting,” Casi said. Once Casi got the quilting bug, she got her own teenage sons involved too.
Casi Morris in her quilting space.
“We divide and conquer. My oldest son, Ethan, doesn’t really like to make quilts, but he is willing to help us iron. Ben loves to design quilts and sew. And I end up doing all the cutting,” Casi said.
Ben and Casi are also budding quilt experts, and their quilts have captured a few ribbons in local quilt shows. Ben is especially proud of one of his quilts that Granny entered into the Sequoyah County Oklahoma Home and Community Education quilt show. He won a second-place ribbon. His mom, Casi, won first place.
“Ben has recently gotten into playing with Legos, and he’s figured out the geometric shapes of Legos are perfect building blocks for quilt designs,” Casi said. When it’s time to translate Ben’s Lego designs into a quilt pattern, it’s Granny who figures out how to do that. Granny has also made Ben’s Halloween costumes for years, and he enjoys the creative time he has with his great-grandmother.
“I love being with my kids and grandkids,” Mildred said. “It feels very good to know that, when I am not here anymore, a part of me will still be with them.”
*The Cherokee National Holiday Quilt Show is featured in Quiltfolk, Issue 31: Oklahoma, along with Avis Choate and her daughter, Debra Harl, who organize the quilt show. Avis is good friends with Mildred and is part of the Crazy Quilters group.
Teresa Duryea Wong is a writer, quiltmaker, and antique quilt collector, as well as a member of the International Advisory Board of the International Quilt Museum. Learn more on her website.
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