Jonesboro woman’s handmade quilts will be sent overseas

The Jonesboro Sun

JONESBORO, Ark.—It was either make a quilt or freeze to death.

"I grew up with my momma quilting. If we didn't have quilts, we froze to death," Marie Rougeau, of Jonesboro, said. "You would set up a quilt in a room hanging from the ceiling, and everybody came and you quilted. That's how you got your quilts done. My momma could not abide with sloppy quilting, bad stitching. No, if there was a bad stitch, she'd take it out and redo it. Did everything by hand."

Eighty-four-year-old Rougeau started work on her first quilt at age 8. Today, her quilts are displays of love for family and, soon, for those met on mission trips.

"I never sold one," she added. "I never had time."

A retired registered nurse, Rougeau took up quilting once again at age 58. She had retired early to help her momma, and she needed something to do after her husband Amos, who died two years ago, became ill.

The Jonesboro Sun reports that she made quilts for each of her five sons and their wives, and then moved on to her 21 grandchildren and their children.

"I could set up my sewing by our bed and work while he slept or he would lay there and watch me," she said. "''He didn't care. He'd lay there and watch me work. He would say, 'Now, who are you making that one for? Whose that one go to?'"

Quilting also allowed her to continue providing for others. Rougeau moved to Jonesboro in 1957 after Amos began teaching at Arkansas State University.

She worked at St. Bernards, first in medical surgery then in home health. She said she enjoyed helping others. It's work she grew up watching her mother complete.

"My momma worked in a doctor's clinic at night. She would tell me about some of the patients who came in so I just wanted to go do something like that," she said.

She enjoyed the work and, later, quilting. Kathleen Rougeau said her mother-inlaw's quilts are beautiful, and it is exciting to know her daughters and Rougeau's grandchildren will have something from their grandmother that she made specifically for them.

"You might think it is just a quilt, but let me show you something I do so they will think of me when I am not here anymore," Rougeau added as she picked up a granddaughter's quilt.

She points to a small heart sewn on the quilt's back that says who it is for, who it is from and the year made. She said, "Somebody will always know where this came from; who made this for them."

Rougeau's grandchildren then began going on mission trips.

"I thought, 'How can people where they serve remember them once they are gone and that they cared?'" she said. "I thought they should leave something behind."

Two quilts are currently being assembled, while Rougeau is working on the 16-inch squares needed to assemble a third. A twin-sized quilt consists of 12 squares—a good size to work with since Rougeau has "really bad arthritis in my hands."

Once complete, the three quilts will be sent to Australia, Croatia, Africa and Wisconsin where Rougeau's granddaughters and another parishioner are stationed for missionary work. Each one has agreed to give the quilt to someone they have worked with.

"I wanted to let these people know that they are loved," she added.