Antique find…

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This is a quilt I found this spring at a yard sale, one of my favorite things to do on a Saturday morning!  You just never know what goodies are out there. Me and my sister are on the lookout for quilt yard sales and have found some awesome stashes so far. I’m talking Amy Butler and Kaffe Fassett for $1/yd people! And always on a quilt rescue mission…saving the world and all. This antique quilt is one of my favorite quilt finds yet. Here it is up close:

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It is an unfinished quilt that has been sandwiched and quilted, but not bound. My original plan was to research and find some original fabric and finish it, but I think it is older than originally thought, so I would like to preserve it as a past quilter’s WIP. One side is straight and the other is zig-zag. They were really scrimping on materials because it is to the wire on these edges. You can see they were a tear-er too. My grandma did that to keep things straight on the grain(pre-rotary cutter technique).

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I am pretty sure this is made with feed sacks, not 100% sure though. Here you can see a number printed on the fabric, wonder what that is???

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There are also a few areas with these quirky patches. It wasn’t even finished so they are not repairs, maybe just making do…

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Oh, and here is the back…lovely hand quilting.

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I don’t know about you, but I could stare at this for quite some time daydreaming about these fabrics and what stopped this project from getting done. Did they have a huge pile waiting to be bound like we often do or did life or illness cut them short on time? Were times so hard they couldn’t afford the material, Oh the pain and sorrow of a quilt undone….Haha, I think I have read one to many novels!

Do you want to know what I paid?????

$25.00

Whatever the story, if the quilter who made this is anything like me or you, they are glad it is still in quilty hands:)

Keep it Sassy

Links:

Stitch by Stitch  plum and june  Better Off Thread  Fresh Poppy Design

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Comments

  1. Melissa Greenfield says:

    Oh love it. I think I’d like to re-create this one. Nice find!!

  2. Terrific find. I love yard sales, too.

  3. Very cool! My grandmother used to work in the Fruit of the Loom Cotton Mill and my granddaddy worked at Hanes. My grandaddy’s mill just spun cotton, but in the FotL mill they wove it too. FotL would often sell piles of scraps, overruns, and failed dye lots. I’m pretty sure more than one quilt was made from those types of factory floor scraps. Maybe the numbered piece came from something like that?

    Either way – super cool find. Totally awesome of you to save it from what must have been certain death. :)

  4. what an awesome find. I love looking at antiques (not just quilts) and just wondering about their stories from their “past life.” Thanks for sharing, Paula!

    :) Kelly

  5. Those colors are still nice and vibrant. What a find. Hm…those patches are mystifying. If only old quilts could talk.

  6. What an awesome find! You should totally finish it off… even with a creamy binding or something that will go with it. It’s so great! No one in my family ever quilted so seeing old stuff like this really makes me smile.

  7. Ooh, don’t you just wish you knew the details on this one?!? Those fabrics look 30’s and 40’s, not that I’m any kind of expert. I’m glad you rescued it!

  8. What a great find and so intriguing. I love treasures like that it’s lovely to wonder about their history and stories.

  9. Love thinking about the stories around old quilts! And what a great find :)

  10. I love antique quilts with history! I have bought a couple of books by Eileen Trestain called Dating Fabric, A Color Guide. She has one for fabrics from 1800-1960 & another one from 1950-2000 (see http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0891458840). It was very helpful in identifying particular fabrics from certain eras in a couple of my own quilts. I’m sure that quiltmaker is very happy indeed to know it’s still in quilty hands. :-)

  11. Jennifer says:

    Great Find! I will never understand how people can part with old quilts like that…but for your sake I’m glad they did : )

  12. I think this is a great find, I can just imagine the ‘story’ behind it, this quilt sure has a great story to tell…
    Thanks for linking up to ‘Anything Goes’

  13. That’s a really interesting quilt…thanks for pointing out all the cool features!

  14. Wow Paula, what a find! How lucky were you!!! Anything like that would cost a bomb here. It’s such a strong design too, I love that :) Will you have it on show?

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