Last week
I shared my newest, old project.
This is the two sided
antique quilt that was gifted to me.
Side One
Side Two
I suppose the quilter really looked at this quilt in
the reverse order from how I have,
with the crazy quilt as side one, the glamorous top,
and the pieced rectangles as the lowly backing, side two.
But it's side two that has
stood the test of time.
The fabrics from side two
are late 19th century prints
simply cut into 3 1/2 by 5 1/2 inch
rectangles and
sewn by hand into long strips and
then sewn together.
The crazy quilt has a date of 1893
embroidered on a brown velvet square.
I have no expertise in
vintage fabrics and many of the fabrics
that were in the top
were silks, linens, wools and it also seemed like other
types of fabric that I didn't know how to identify.
Like the brown fabric under the horseshoe embroidery
is all loopy with twisted threads.
That fabric just seemed weird.
So that made me wonder if the date was correct.
The batting was interesting too.
It was cotton, old and a bit musty.
And across the whole piece,
which was pretty much all intake,
were these large machine chained stitched,
stay stitching threads.
The rows were approximately 4 inches apart.
I didn't know if that was how batting generally was produced
at that time, or
was it someone's homemade batting?
Kind of weird.
But I did find one small
dating clue stitched in the crazy quilt side.
There was a small piece of ribbon partially stitched
into a couple of seams.
It says:
Fifth
Annual Picnic
of the
OS Ass'n
held at
?
August 20, 21 '90
I've stared at that diagonal line
of printing wishing it would
come into focus.
I wonder
what picnic this quiltmaker went to
123 years ago yesterday?
I'll probably never know.
***
So it makes me wonder
if in my next quilt,
should I add
a few interesting clues to the top
to make a quilter in the future
wonder who I was?
***
Also don't forget to comment
on my last post for my
anniversary giveaways.
Fascinating look into the interior workings of this quilt.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting about the batting. And yeah....I would totally add something in your next quilt.....it would be a fun tidbit for years from now! :o)
ReplyDeleteso interesting! I like both sides and they have such different personalities.
ReplyDeleteGreat quilt PI work!
A lovely mystery - that makes the quilt special doesn't it? It is amazing that each side has been patched so intensely - or were they just two coverlets that were put together at some point? Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteThe date fits perfectly to when crazy quilts were so popular! i'm curious too about the "where"!
ReplyDeleteOh, so that was what you found inside to confirm the date. You stated that a couple blogs ago but then didn't mention it again and I thought I missed something. Part of the mystery solved. Wouldn't you love to have all the other answers to everyone's questions about the quilt? Rinda
ReplyDelete