Antique Quilts - Monthlong Celebration of Antique Red and Green Quilts from the Starley Collection

 Another different Red and Green antique quilt from my collection- enjoy! This is one of a small group of Tumbling Block Stars featuring solid fabric center stars made in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in the 1880s. My friend Greta and I have found about 15 and fellow collector Pat Nickols found quite a few too. So I think that at least 30 of them were made at that time and place. 

Here's one of mine with the distinctive center star (above) made of only solid fabrics and generally the only solid fabrics used in the quilt. And look at the stars around the central stars - note how carefully she matched the three sets of fabrics used in each star. Look at the lower right star and notice how nicely the two pinks match each other, as well as the two browns and the two purples. \Click on the photo to enlarge - there are 6 different prints in each star.

This is the only one I've seen so far with a diamond braid border which is a great finish! This maker was very careful with her color placement to create the twinkly Tumbling Block Stars. Again, note how carefully she was to match the three sets of fabrics used in each star.  So many different fabrics. I think several different ladies made the quilts based on workmanship and fabric coordination (some didn't pay attention to color placement and lost some stars). I think they traded fabrics to get such close matches. Great variety of prints - look at the two Madder orange paisley prints in the star below. 

Also wonderful novelty prints like this circus dog jumping through a hoop - one of the all-time best novelty prints!