4/29/10

Vintage Thingies Thursday - a lovely old quilt

Good morning and welcome to VTT sponsored by my friend Suzanne at Coloradolady. Today Suzanne is featuring a couple of really great old plates, so go check those out, and you can link from there to a lot of other followers who have posted great items.

I'm featuring a great old quilt that we picked up at an antique store. Now, this is the first quilt I ever bought and it does seem like "carrying coals to Newcastle" to bring someone else's quilts to my house. But, I know that no one else will appreciate it more.

Just look at that old pattern. Every section of the curve was hand pieced and then the center was added and that was added to the concave section like a Drunkard's Path. The hand stitching is phenomenal. Then, it looks like the maker joined the sashing and cornerstones by machine and had the whole thing hand quilted in a very familiar, boxy style with a quarter of a square quilted near the corner that echoes outward toward the opposite corner.


She clearly bought the fabric for this quilt and it is not scraps. The back is white feedsack. Most of the blue is gone from the print, but I did find this one piece that still had some. Almost everywhere else, the blue background is gone, leaving just the orange flower buds.

There is only one small tear in the quilt and I plan to repair that and launder it to get any light staining out of it. I think it was quilted by more than one person as the size of the stitches and the straightness of the lines varies...a lot. But, the man at the store said the quilt was made by his mother and quilted on a frame at home. I wonder if the fabric in the quilt matched that bright, rosey border better when the quilt was new?


The batting is a heavy cotton, but it hasn't settled much. This is another great addition to my collection of vintage quilts.
Everyone take care and have a great Thursday. Check out Suzanne's blog and have a great day! Lane

11 comments:

Becky said...

That sure is beautiful! A lot of great stitching!

Shirley said...

Beautiful. That pattern looks like a windmill. Perhaps they were farmers. I love to day dream about old quilts.. about who might have made it and what their lives were like.

lw said...

The quilt is really beautiful. I love the faded colors, though it does make me wonder how the blue/orange and the roses went together when the quilt was new. I do have two things I'm curious about-- what size is it? and how is it bound?

Miri said...

Very interesting fan quilt...very unusual! Thanks for sharing!

Postcardy said...

Maybe his mother had some friends help her at home.

Coloradolady said...

I agree, this is a beautiful quilt, I love the colors and the border especially. Have a great VTT!

Deborah said...

Amazing. I think the faded color is kind of nice.Thanks for Sharing. Happy VTT!!

Elizabeth said...

I'll bet pictures just don't do this quilt justice. What a nice antique. Thanks for sharing!

CC said...

What a beautiful quilt...I love the pattern,but I don't think I've ever seen the pattern before.
Love the soft faded colors..you found a great quilt. Happy VTT..

Susan Freeman said...

That's a lovely vintage quilt!

Love,
Susan and Bentley
xxoo

viridian said...

You know I love old quilts. Thanks for sharing. Happy VTT.