I thought you might enjoy seeing a few more of my antique quilts. These lovely quilts were documented for the Cumberland County Documentation.
I love this two color basket quilt and it hung in my hallway entrance for many years. Inside each basket handle the quilter quilted different flowers. I always thought since she stuck with a basic two color quilt and repeated her basket pattern she thought she’d get a little creative in her quilting.
This Whig Rose pattern is one of my favorites. I like the simplicity of the layout using the same fabric as the background for the lattice or sashing strips.
I found this quilt at an antique shop around 20 years ago. What prompted me to purchase it? It is a signature quilt that came out of Reed Township, Dauphin Co. My family is from this area so I took it to my grandmother who knew almost every family represented in the quilt. On the back of the quilt someone had stitched a little sandwich bag holding a 3″ x 5″ card with some information on some of the people who signed the quilt. That made the quilt far more interesting to me. Normally when I find an antique quilt I do not have any information as to the makers, signers, etc.
This Log Cabin quilt was purchased over 30 year ago shortly after Joe and I were married. He was in school and we were on a very limited budget. We attended an estate sale in Duncanon, Pennsylvania. They had two of these quilts and it killed me that we only had enough $$ to purchase one of them. I think we paid $35.00 for it. It is made from lots and lots of scraps of old shirting fabrics. I am still impressed that the maker was able to get it relatively square considering she did not have a rotary cutter and all the wonder tools we have today.
My 1870 Feathered Star quilt is fabulous. It was given to me as a gift from my wonderful husband when my first book (From Basics to Binding, A Complete Guide to Making Quilts, AQS 1992) was published. We had seen the quilt in a local antique shop and I so admired it but could not find my way to pay the price. That didn’t stop Joe.
We were never able to find a name for this quilt design of another mid 19th century quilt. It was purchased from an antique dealer in Berks, Co., PA. It is unusual in that the center of the block has a pieced star and then is surrounded with these wonderful applique flowers. Since I like circles I loved that the maker added them to her star design. I wondered if she added the one in the center of the star because her 8 points did not meet. I like this quilt maker! Good idea.
This is the only baby quilt we own. Joe found this and brought it home for me when I was in the process of making an Ocean Waves quilts for our spare bed. My research tells me that a lot of baby quilts were so well used and loved that not many were passed on. I have also read that since there were many health issues that could not be treated back then many baby quilts were buried with the babies that died from these untreatable diseases.
I hope you enjoyed see a couple more of my antique quilts. I had not had some of them out in years so having the documentors come was really a good thing.
Until next week.