Monday, June 15, 2009

Quilt Show, Part 4

I saved the best one for last. This is hand pieced and hand quilted. Again, we're not sure who made it, but we are assuming it was my husband's grandmother, maybe in the twenties or the thirties.


If you click on the picture, up near the top to the left you can see a blue embroidered star. If you look closely at that part of the quilt, you can see the name Julia embroidered with quilting stitches. That was the name of my husband's great grandmother. After we saw that, we took a closer look at the other parts of the quilt.




It's hard to see in the picture below, but there are blue French knots going across the red hexes. Embroidered in these hexes, again with simple quilting stitches is my husband's great grandfather's name, Peter.

We kept looking and found their family name and 1879, the year they were married, embroidered into the top. Did she intend to add other family members? I guess we'll never know.


There were a few repairs made to the top. The one below is pretty unusual. Someone made a petal with the red and white material, then appliqued right onto the top.




There is another repair on one of the sides, but not so ingeniously done. Other than that, the quilt is in very good condition. No stains, no places showing wear. The red is very bright, so I am assume it wasn't washed very often.

I was out of town for most of last week, so I haven't done much sewing. I'm hoping to get back into the sewing room tomorrow and get started on the borders for the blue and white pinwheel quilt I "found" last week. I appreciate all the kind comments on that post. At the time it felt like a disaster, but now, looking at it, it doesn't seem quite as bad as I thought it was.

6 comments:

Ali Honey said...

Oh that's a beauty - very bright and vibrant. How wonderful finding the names and details.

antique quilter said...

beautiful quilt, I just love this one. what size is the hexagon/the quilt finished?
isn't it fun finding messages in antique quilts.
I have found dates and initials hand quilted in quilts.my friend has a quilt that has words quilted in the border and then inside the quilt different shapes and symbols
she must have been telling a story with her hand quilting
sure wish we knew what it was!

Nancy said...

The quilt is a treasure!

ranette said...

What a Blessing to have this quilt in your collection. So much love went into those stitches. It's just a beautiful quilt.

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

What a charming quilt - and such memories.

Sølvis blog said...

What a lovely thing to find. You have to keep this one - it's really a heirloom.