I’ve written several times of Nina F. Hardy, the Wayne County cousin who came to Wilson around the same time as Jesse and Sarah Henderson Jacobs. In a way, she was returning home, as her grandmother Catherine Boseman Aldridge likely was born just below Elm City in what was then Edgecombe County.

Many years ago, I connected with J.M.B., the great-grandson of Jefferson Farrior, the man for whom Aunt Nina worked for decades as a cook and nursemaid. He shared dozens of photos of her at work at the Farriors’ enormous house on Woodard Circle. Last week, he sent another rare treasure — a crazy quilt Aunt Nina made shortly after his mother was born in 1945. Pieced from bright bits of synthetic fabric in florals and geometric patterns, it features intricate contrasting stitching in bold threads.

Any sewing or quilting or fabric experts out there? I am correct that these are synthetic fabrics? From the 1930s and ’40s? And the neat embroidery stitches were hand-sewn?

I appreciate J.M.B.’s return of Nina Hardy’s handiwork to her family. He has been a generous source of information about our beloved cousin.