Quilts on a Fence

When a nearly-local quilt shop has a sale every fall the employees line the fence along their shady driveway with sample quilts in all sizes, some finished, some flimsies, and some in progress between the two.

You can look at the photos more closely by clicking on them.  They'll open in this screen and give you the opportunity to click again to enlarge.  When you're finished looking, click the back arrow at the top of your browser to return to this screen.  (Or you can right click on any photo and open in a new window where, again, you can click to enlarge.)

I didn't measure any of the quilts but you might be able to guess size by the width of the fence boards behind the quilts though I didn't measure those boards, either.  I suppose they were about 8" wide.

So many quilts!

--Nancy.
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Wool Star Quilt

A year or two ago I found this quilt at a thrift store and something about it "spoke" to me.  It was hard to lay it out and examine it closely but the price was right and so, with little more than a quick once over, I brought it home. 

Every block has a red center.  And every block is blanket stitched with a contrasting color of perle cotton.  There are some fun color combinations.  Some stitching is evenly precise while other stars have slightly irregular stitching.  It makes me wonder if several people made the quilt. 

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The seams in each block have the same number of precisely made French knots between the star sections and the center hexagons, but not every star is the same.  Some of these stars look crooked or cock-eyed but it is because I photographed while the quilt was hanging on the clothesline.  In real life the stars are symmetrical.

All the fabric is wool.  Some backgrounds use loosely-woven fabric and some stars are twill.  This blue background, below, is not as durable as the other background fabrics used.

The quilt is tied, not quilted, but the ties don't seem to show on front, only on the back.  Without quilting it seems less durable, more fragile.

The backing is a wool paisley. Unusual colors, don't you think?

There are two unfortunate things about this quilt.  First is that someone spilled something on it.  It's yellowish and hard, almost liked dried varnish.  There are two small spots on the block below but there are several larger sections on the quilt.

The other unfortunate thing about this quilt is that it smells.  It's an old smell.  Not musty or mildewy but just old and sour.

I don't know what to do for this quilt to preserve it.  I wish I could get the spots out, and the odor, too.  It's crossed my mind to cut it apart but I haven't been able to make myself do it, especially not without a plan for it.

I'm such a sucker for an old quilt!  Are you?  Do you rescue old quilts?  Are you very careful about which ones you bring home?  Have you ever cut a quilt apart?

--Nancy.
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Quilts from a Sale at the Fairgrounds

The sale was one of those affairs where lots of dealers set up for a day or two to sell their wares.   

I love the vintage prints in this Double Wedding Ring but I'm not keen on the green and orange corner blocks.

The quilting in the "eyes" looks very Mary Engelbriet-y to me.

The colors of these wool hexagons delighted me.  This was not a quilt but several blocks.  They were not in very good condition.

These double nine-patches were blocks but not a quilt.

This huge tulip caught my eye, not just because of its size and color but also because of the handwork.  I think it was at least 12 inches long.  See a close-up of the handwork below.

This was a whole quilt but I could only get a photo of a part of it.  I just now realized that it's quilted with Baptist Fans.  (It's hard to spend too much time when others aren't interested in quilts, so I miss a lot of details until I see them in photos.)

I don't know the name of this block....

I've noticed that one needs to be very aware of the odor of old quilts.  Sometimes the smell won't come out.  Still, I love to look at and photograph them.

--Nancy.
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