Old quilts....I love them. Even with the frayed edges, less than perfect stitches, mismatched fabric scraps, holes, non meeting corners...they are wonderful! If you look closely, you can see the love in each stitch. A loving grandmother, mom, sister, daughter or aunt made these necessary covers. They would keep the family nice and toasty during those nippy nights. Now days, we mainly make quilts for show. Our families are kept warm by furnaces, electric blankets (not sure if anyone uses those anymore), or covers made in China. Very few of us have hand me down Grandmother quilts. I am very fortunate enough to have one of my Grandmother's that my great Grandmother made. I remember using it as a child visiting my grandparents. They did not have a furnace for heat. Just a fireplace and a couple of room gas heaters. We kept warm at night by using many layers of quilts and blankets. Once you crawled into bed, you didn't move. For if you moved, the spot that you had been warming up suddenly disappeared, immediately replaced by icy coldness. Fun times and good memories!!
Above: This antique quilt is one that I purchased at an antique mall. I do have a few rules that I have to follow (because if I didn't, my house would be over run with quilts :).
Rules:
1. They can't be more that $25.
2. It has to be a complete quilt. I don't want pieces of quilts, although I have broken this rule and bought some pieces that were orphaned quilt squares and scraps. I just couldn't pass these up, because the materials used were feed sacks, the quilt square pattern was difficult, or I could see the time and workmanship put into the piece was exceptional.
3. Old traditional non-pretty farmer feed sacks were used to back the quilt. I find these charming.
4. The quilting was done in a Baptist Fan style--LOVE!!
4. The quilt just "spoke" to me.
Above: Just look at the scrappyness of this quilt. It has the Baptist Fan pattern hand quilted into it. The quilt block is complex. Look at the curves. This quilt was also hand pieced.
Above: Not sure what the name of this particular quilt pattern is. These fabrics look like they could have been scraps from clothing. The borders look like more of that farmer feed sack material. It is a loose weave.
Above: See the repairs on the left. I can see the shadow of the material underneath the patch. Not sure if I should take off the patch and repair it correctly or not. The patch was poorly sewn. This quilt must have been used alot. I wonder how they washed it.
Above: Look at the binding. The white and blue is a recent patch. The rest of the binding is actually the back pulled over the edge and hand stitched down.
Above: Here's a look at the back. This is the feed sack material that I call "Farmer's Feed sack", because it is very plain and loosely woven. I can make out "Jim Dandy", "Cow Feed", "Purity and Quality" and some other stuff that I can't quite make out. It is too faded.
Above: "100lbs"
That's all that I have for today. I hope that you have a wonderful and blessed weekend!
Holly
n)
