Quilts and Rugs

Kate McConnaughey

The grammatical errors in this passage are intentional.

The early colonial quilts and rugs as we see them in the museums and antique shops of today, originated in the hearts and minds of our ancestors as an answer to their love of beauty and its scarcity in the early pioneer homes.

The first rugs were made as a part of their need. (1) They were mostly the braided ones because they could be made from the best parts of worn out clothing, thus getting the final use of what would otherwise be a total loss.

Our great-grandmother couldn’t go to the shopping center and selected what she wanted as to rugs and carpets. (2)

The first wall-to-wall carpets were home-woven of the discarded aprons, dresses and other cotton things. (3)

Every home was a little factory. For the “rag” rugs and carpets each female member spent her “spare time” tearing and sewing rags and every girl planned to have several rugs in her “hope chest.” Her carpets were planned for, so not woven, until she knew the size of the room in her new home in which it was to be used. (4)

Sometimes the rugs were to be crocheted and this gave a variety of shapes.

“Hooked” rugs were a work of art as you see in some of the museums. Many of the colors in them were “home dyed” although commercial dyes were unknown. (5) The homemaker experimented with whichever she thought would make a lasting color.

“Patchwork” quilts were another answer to the colonial housewife’s urge. To beautify her home and also to use every scrap of material. (6)

Many of the designs that are so admired today are the result of competition – each woman trying to see if she couldn’t make a prettier quilt than her neighbor.

The “nine patch” was the simplest design and was usually the one given to the little girl for her first quilt when she first began to sew and generally it was for her doll or a cover for the baby’s cradle.

Every girl was taught to sew by the time she was six years old as there were no “sewing machines” or a place to buy “ready mades,” or in order to have new clothes she had to learn how to make them. (7)

Quilts were one of the first articles a girl made for her “hope chest” and each girl tried to have more than her friends and also prettier ones, so that there was rivalry between them. They also tried to see who could do the finest and prettiest quiltings. (8)

Quilting parties were one of the most popular evening events. Only the ones who were known to be experts with the needle were invited for an afternoon of quilting, yet all others came later for an evening of fun and dancing. (9)

Some of the heirloom quilts which still exist are marvels of design and stitching. (10)

One wonders how such work could be done with the poor lighting that most of the houses had at that time – no gas jets and electricity and very few windows in every room.

When we were quilting one of my quilts. A friend remarked on the straightness of one of the lines and another answered “No man will look at the quilting when he’s shivering to get under it.” (11)

Tacking or tying was used only on the less elaborate quilts or where the need for the quilt was urgent. (12)
Question
Read the passage. Look at the underlined section marked number 7. There may be a mistake in the way the sentence is written. If you find a mistake, choose the answer that corrects the mistake. If there is no mistake, choose ‘Correct as is.’
Responses
A Correct as is.Correct as is.
B Every girl learned to sew by the time she was six years old, so there were no "sewing machines" or places to buy "ready mades," girls had to order new clothes or learn how to make them.Every girl learned to sew by the time she was six years old, so there were no "sewing machines" or places to buy "ready mades," girls had to order new clothes or learn how to make them.
C Every girl was taught to sew by the time she was six years old as there were no "sewing machines"; or a place to buy "ready mades," in order to have new clothes she had to learn how to make them.Every girl was taught to sew by the time she was six years old as there were no "sewing machines"; or a place to buy "ready mades," in order to have new clothes she had to learn how to make them.
D Every girl was taught to sew by the time she was six years old as there were no "sewing machines" or places to buy "ready mades." If a girl wanted to have new clothes, she had to learn how to make them.

1 answer

The correct choice is:

D Every girl was taught to sew by the time she was six years old as there were no "sewing machines" or places to buy "ready mades." If a girl wanted to have new clothes, she had to learn how to make them.

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