Day 17 - A Monthlong Celebration of Antique Quilts - Starley Quilt Collection

 More 9 Patch Fun! Another Uneven Nine Patch from my collection. This one is quite early and has some fabulous fabrics. And something very special ...

Amazingly, it is signed and dated 1836 in teeny crossstitch! It is so awesome to have a name and date on a patchwork quilt like this. Such a great resource for dating the fabrics.

Setting the 9 Patches on point makes strong graphic lines, especially with all the red fabrics.

Day 16 - A Month of Antique Quilts - Starley Quilt Collection - More 9 Patch Fun

The 9 Patch is a very versatile block and one of the earliest patchwork blocks. Not a surprise that simple patchwork like 9 Patch, and 4 Patchwork, and single repeated blocks like hexagons were the first pieced blocks. It is common to see it set like this antique in pairs of nine 9 patches, aka Double 9 Patch blocks. These are little blocks.

Here's more from the early 9 Patch quilt. Look at the yummy green ivy sashing. The quilt dates to circa 1840. Starley Quilt Collection.

And the backing fabric is AMAZING! This beautiful floral pillar print in a China Blue/white colorway.

This column or pillar print was very popular in the 1820s. It was printed in about 20 different colorways or color combinations like this blue/white, red/white, tan (drab), a polychrome (multi-color), and much more.

 

December Quilting Blog-athon Time - Red and Green Antique Quilts

Cheryl (aka Muppin) Sleboda's Annual December 31 Days of Blogging Monthlong Blog-athon prompts me once again to post. Thanks Cheryl for the motivation. This is my 6th year joining in and blogging every day! 

Let's try for a month of Red and Green Antique Quilts.

Here's a charmer, a circa 1850 signature quilt likely from the Philadephia, Pennsylvania area which was the hotbed for signature quilts.

Intricate Oakleaf pattern with a delightful swag and bow border.

Many of the reds have damage due to the dyeing process -probably a metal that was used to create a black stripe on this print. 

Antique Hand Quilting Blogathon Day 12 Peony Quilt

Today's antique quilt from the Starley Collection is a Peony or Lily block with a sampler of hand quilted motifs in the alternating blocks.

This block sports a quilted maple leaf.

The flowers are all quite formal but the stems and leaves are wonderfully wonky.

Here's the full quilt.

Hand Quilting Blogathon Day 5 Birds and Blooms Antique Quilts

Today's quilt from the Starley Quilt Collection is a great basket quilt that is elevated with a stellar border featuring birds, flowers, and heart appliques!! And a delightful, delicate piped binding. Circa 1855 from New York State. Hand quilting in straight lines.  *Don't forget to click on photos to enlarge, see details.
Don't you just love that folky bird - kind of odd- standing on a branch or does he have giant feet?

And I'm still not sure if that orange applique is a flower, bud, or maybe a peach?

The full and glorious quilt. You can never go wrong with a basket quilt especially with birds and hearts <3 and="" birds="" blooms="" is="" my="" nbsp="" of="" p="" quilt="" show.="" star="" the="" this="" trunk="">

Day 2 - 31 Days of Hand Quilting

Day 2 of a glorious month of hand quilted quilts from the Starley Quilt Collection features a wonderful crib quilt that actually survived the Civil War in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. It predates the war and managed to make it through the conflict. Clearly it was made for a very loved child as shown by all the blocks full of hearts and flowers!

Here's one of the delightful heart blocks (see my version of this block in yesterday's post).

And lots of appliqued flowers.and great double-rodded (2 close rows) hand quilting. Enjoy. Remember click on the photos to enlarge and see details.

December Blog-a-thon Begins - A Month of Hand Quilting

I'm joining the December 31 Days of blogging challenge hosted by Cheryl Sleboda once again. I will be sharing hand quilting both old and new all month. Each day will feature a different hand quilted quilt.  

Click on link to Cheryl's blog above to join in the fun or to follow along with other bloggers.

Here's the after and before shots of my Virginia is For Lovers Quilt. Look at what a difference the quilting makes!

The full quilt - only 16" x 16"! Yes, the flowers above are teeny. A recreation/reproduction of an antique crib quilt in the Starley Quilt Collection. I'll share the antique tomorrow.

Virginia Is For Lovers 16" x 16"
Original Pattern - Sandra Starley
Based on antique quilt in Starley Collection

Tumbling Block Stars

For several years, I've been collecting an unusual group of tumbling block star block quilts that feature a solid fabric center star. See the center star of this one below

The quilts were made in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and about 20-25 examples have surfaced so far. Most are from the 1880s and 90s. This one has a novelty calendar print dated 1881. Some have very careful fabric selection and color placement as seen on the 2 blocks below with the fabrics in opposite points being very close matches. However, most of the other blocks are more random.

 Lots of wonderful novelty prints including birds and a wonderful cheater print with cats and dogs. See the dog above and he's in from this novelty fabric.

Patterns Through Time - Antique Quilt Trunk Show

In March I was so happy to share my antique quilts at the Sew On and Sew Forth Quilt Retreat run by Amy McClellan of Under The Garden Moon. I presented my Patterns Through Time trunk show where I share at least a dozen different quilt patterns with 2 different examples of each pattern. For example. a 1890s Rocky Road to Kansas and a 1930s version. I discuss the pattern and its history and explain the differences and similarities between the two examples.  I also cover general information on quilt history and quilt dating. 

1890s Rocky Road to Kansas from Penn. (left) and 1930s version from Utah (right)

  1830s Mosaic (early Grandmothers Flower Garden) and a 1890s Diamond Field (another GFG variation).

3 examples of Caesers Crown from the 1800s - middle and right ones are signature quilts.

Patterns range from common 9 patch blocks to the very uncommon French Stars shown above. Top quilt is from 1870s, made in Pennsylvania. Lower quilt is from the Ruby McKim pattern and is from the 1940s/50s.

Hope you enjoyed this sample of my Patterns Through Time trunk show. I'd love to come share these treasures with you! Have Quilts, Will Travel. See pages under the banner photo for more information on my trunk shows and classes.

Whig Rose -Day 6 of Month Long Red & Green Antique Quilt Fest

Detail of Antique 9 block Whig Rose Quilt from Ohio. Starley Collection.
 Look at the folky basket border! It has a wide binding to match the inner framing border.

And the triple rod (3 line) hand quilting that goes straight across the appliques. And of course, the cheddar orange.

The full quilt- there is no negative space so it is a bit hard to see that it is composed of 9 blocks.

1876 Centennial FAbrics -Antique Quilt

Details from my 1880s Hexagon Medallion quilt that includes to 1876 US Centennial fabrics. 1st  is the 13 colony stripe dated 1776-1876 with Liberty Bell. If it looks familiar - you probably have seen the reproduction from a few years ago.

The other Centennial print is this flag pattern. It was also reproduced.

1908 Sampler - Quilt Along???

I shared this sampler earlier this year and posed the possibility of doing a quilt along. I've never done one before but I'm considering it again.
I'm also thinking about doing it in a smaller, perhaps 1/2 size. What do you all think?

There are 36 blocks so would need to do multiples each month (cause I don't think anyone wants to take 3 years). 2 a month would be 18 months and 3 a month would be a year.

Hmmm, maybe we could start on January 13, 2019 (111 years later).

4 Patch Fun- Antique Quilt

A simple 4 Patch is a perfect place to showcase great fabrics like in this early example in my collection. Got to love the red pillar print and the zigzag.

And that lapis serpentine stripe~

And this print is very cool too

More Fun with Nine Patches - 1836 Antique Quilt

I love to find dated quilts and this one is also signed in teeny cross-stitch. Sarah P. Southerland, 1836. I haven't been able to track her down yet.  Part of the Nine Patch section of my Patterns Through Time trunk show.

Here's the back so you can see the quilting. Generally quilting from this time period is very simple geometric lines (like seen here).

Cheddar Whigs Defeat - Antique Quilt

More cheddary goodness. Enjoy