Family Hands: Quilts and Threads from History

Family Hands: Quilts and Threads from History - A talk by Dr David Hume

Larne Museum & Arts Centre

Thursday 26 June 2025, 7.30pm – 9pm

The singer Mary Chapin Carpenter inspired this talk with her song “Family Hands”, which talks about the women who made family quilts in the past.

These “weavers of the cloth” inlcuded the ancestors of Mary Snoddy Black in South Carolina, who were Ulster Scots from County Antrim.

Mary collected the family quilts and they now form a permanent exhibit in the Mary Black Memorial Hospital in Spartanburg.

Using the quilts as a signpost to history, this talk goes beyond the song and the quilts to look at the threads of other family stories from the area, using an item or memory withn each family to help tell their story.

Includes a look at families including the McWilliams from Raloo, Craigs from Ballyboley, Brices from Ballycarry, and others.

These are stories of everyday life, emigration, family networks and legacy.

This is a free event, however places are limited and should be booked in advance by contacting Larne Museum & Arts Centre on T: 028 2826 2443 or E: marian.kelso@midandeastantrim.gov.uk.

Light refreshments provided.