I Never Met An Antique Quilt I Did Not Like

An antique quilt was recently gifted to me. After several long soaks in the bathtub with cool water and Biz, it finally was clean enough to handle. It is quite lovely in the simplicity of the blocks used. This quilt is totally hand pieced and hand quilted. Scattered here and there throughout the quilt are poverty blocks, those blocks where pieced fabric was used to finish out the block, similar to our modern day crumb block.

As you can see from the hour glass block, which are in the four corners, some of the fabrics are from the 1880s; those black and white mourning prints and that double blue give it away. OTOH, the backing does not fit in and looks more like it is from the 1930s feed sack era.






Before you see the whole quilt, you need to see how much it has deteriorated. You can click for a larger photo. See those little tufts of red? That is what is left of a certain red fabric. You can also see where someone has tried to stabilize the center portion of the block by stitching it down with black thread.





Here is the whole quilt. Isn't it a fun graphic quilt? Each block is approximately 4.5" and the setting is 14 blocks by 14 blocks. The over all quilt size is roughly 63" x 63". It is by no means a perfect quilt and has seen better days, but it is surprising how well it has held up for how old I believe this quilt to be. The quilting stitches are not very consistent but cover four blocks in an off-center log cabin design.





I am glad that I was able to "rescue" this quilt from possibly being a cutter quilt in the future. I have received permission from the GF who gave it to me, to pass it along to another GF. The second GF saves old quilts like this and just refolds them for display on an old trunk. This will be a welcome addition to her collection.

Wordless Wednesday - Pumpkins!

Brought to you by the number 6

It was brought to my attention that today is my sixth blogiversary. Wow, six years! When I first started posting, I was not sure why I was doing this. But now the blog has settled into a knitting and quilting blog and I like it that way. I have made many good friends along this journey. Even though we have not met face to face, I consider you my friends, Yay friends, you are what keeps this blog going.

Wordless Wednesday - 5 Inch Hexagons

I'm Seeing Red

Work on the Alabama quilt has progressed nicely. Oops! I guess I forgot to say anything about this one didn't I? It's another barter quilt. Yes, I know I said I was not going to do this again but really now, what better way to get a nice bronze sculpture than to barter? Anyway, if you stand on your head while looking at this photo you can see the nice cursive letter 'A' that is so familiar to the University of Alabama fans. This is the back side of the quilt. I am using red thread exclusively on the back and for the majority of the front. But this section on the front needed white thread and it is showing up on the backing as white dots. Once the quilting is finished, I will take a red pigma pen and touch each one of those white dots and POOF! they will disappear. 

Are you counting the barter quilt/sculptures? This one make #4.

Quilt Show 2011

Recently I attended the annual Quilt-a-Fair sponsored by Colorado Quilt Council. This is a combination quilt show and very large vendor mall. This year the quilts, which are hung very high, seemed to be ho-hum, kind of predictable. In fact, there was one quilt that was an exact replica of the quilt on the cover of the Yellow Brick Road pattern by Atkinson Designs. How sad is that?


But there were several of the quilts that caught my attention. First up is this quilt and I know it was the fabrics that caught my eye because it is a very straight forward log cabin type of block that is set on point. But don't you love the fussy cutting for the center?

"Cinnamon and Ginger" by Marti Oetzel

Or this one, which looks to be a self design. What I really like about this quilt is it's simplicity of design using only three fabrics. Because two of those fabrics are stripes, the design looks complicated. 

"Tightly Woven" by Lea McComas

This next quilt is also by Lea McComas. Unfortunately, the program had a typo and the name for the quilt is unknown. But look at the possibilities in this design of strings, glorious strings!

Unknown quilt by Lea McComas

How about triangles? Do you like them? This next quilt's title is so true.

"There Is No Such Thing As An Ugly Fabric" by Leslie Frisbee

I am such a sucker for a red, white and blue quilt and when it combines with a kaleidoscopic stack-'n-whack I'll get reeled in every time. Isn't this a fun quilt?

Unknown title by Delma Oberbeck

Cutting Fabric

Normally, I do not like to cut into fabric. Strange thing for a quilter to say, isn't it? It's always been this way. Way back when I used to do a lot of garment sewing, I would procrastinate on cutting out the pieces. Cutting out quilt pieces, I have found, is no different. So when I DO get into a mood to cut I cut out a lot of fabric.

So can you guess what I've been doing? Yes, cutting fabric. It started with a Mystery Quilt at the LQS. I finally decided on the fabrics and then cut the pieces according to the first clue. Now need to wait until the end of the month for the 'class'. But cutting those quilt pieces got me in the mood to cut more. So I did.

I now have all of this cut and waiting to sew:

• Quilt of Valor - Flag of Valor
• Quilt of Valor - American Glory
• Purple Safari
• Tulips at Midnight 
• Double 4 Patch
• Buckeye Beauty
• Mystery Quilt
• an apron
• a new bathrobe

That's enough to keep a girl out of trouble for a while. You'll know where to find me!