Quilts by Aunt Betty

I've recently had a lovely woman visit me with her collection of family quilts.  These two were made by her Aunt Betty.  The owner says she only met Aunt Betty a couple of times, but remembers her as a very happy women.  We both think that Betty's quilts display her spirit quite clearly!

This one is a basic LeMoyne Star block.  What I love about it is the happy mix of colors, and the way Aunt Betty played with color placement and combinations in a most enjoyable way.

Potholder Quilt with Disney Friends

The owner's great-grandmother made this quilt in 1974 for his mother.  It was made from the fabrics of dresses from his mother's childhood.  The dresses were originally handmade by his grandmother and great-grandmother, and then repurposed for the quilt.  So it is indeed a special memory quilt!

Here is the dated label.

 

Dutchman's Puzzle - Puzzling Fabric Choices

 

The repair of this Dutchman's Puzzle quilt was especially meaningful to me.  The owner is a daughter-in-law of a woman I became friends with during my college days.  I wrote about her quilt collection in a previous post.

This is another quilt my friend found in Kampsville, IL, made in the 1960s or so.  She had gifted it to the current owner.

Teapots and Butterflies

I found two fun fabrics on a pieced squares scrap quilt.  This is another from the family collection that I have been repairing.   See - Whirling Hexagons and Log Cabin and Capital S.

Fabric number one - turquoise teapots.

Turtles!

A quickie little post to share just this one fabric.

I found it on a 1960s scrap quilt.  As I've written before, I'm not in love with the mid-century modern look in quilts, furniture, clothing, etc.  But now, I'm getting lots more quilts from the 1950s-70s showing up here for repair.  So I need to like them!  I discovered one aspect of the era that I totally enjoy - the wealth of conversation prints.  Like this one, they are so very clever.  If I saw this at a store, I'd buy some!

Another Perfect 1930s Double Wedding Ring

The Double Wedding Ring pattern was sure popular in the 1930s!  This spring, I've had two here for repairs in the same month.  When I blogged about the first one, I called it a perfect quilt - hence the name of this post.

Both have the same characteristics, including a huge variety of pastel print scraps and great needlework.  Here they are side-by-side, so you can see how they are alike and how they differ.  I always think it's great fun to compare and contrast the design choices that make each rendition of a pattern unique.

    

Two Conversation Prints

A fiber friend is going through the sad process of clearing out her ailing aunt's home.  The aunt was quite a crafter, and had amassed a huge collection of craft supplies over many decades.  My friend found it was way too much for her to take on, and offered us the chance to choose some goodies for ourselves.

I always take a moment at times like these and at estate sales to thank and honor the person who loved the same things I do, and who found such fun ways to express her personality!

Cozy 9-Patch

This lovely little 9-patch came for a few small repairs to the top and remedy for the very worn edges.  Originally, it had a knife-edge finish.  I added a binding as a way to cover all the wear along the edges most efficiently.

This quilt was made by Etta Metott Weaver, the current owner's great-grandmother, in the 1950s.  You can see another of her quilts in a post called A Complete Makeover.

Feedsack Fabric Bonanza

What a gift!

Not long ago I was the happy recipient of a cardboard box labeled "old fabric."  

The story:

Heirloom Quilt with Family Photos and Some Flashy Peacocks

One of my favorite parts of the quilt repair biz is when someone brings a family heirloom quilt and shares the story and occasionally even photos of the quiltmaker.  More often, people tell me sadly that none of their offspring care very much about "old things" or the family history.  But here's a quilt brought to me by a young woman who is very, very much in love with the family story.  Warms my heart!

Here is her story of the quilt and the quilter. 

Attached are photos of my Manx great-grandma. The first one is from just before she left the Isle of Man, she is in her early 20’s. The second photo was from the early 60’s.

     

Sleuthing Around a Quilt - Part 2 Fabrics

What a lively quilt this is!  A full description is in the previous post.  Here are some more photos of the fun fabrics in the quilt.

1940s, the decade I believe the quilt top was begun.

These stylized flowers in purple and blue seem very 1950s or 60s to me.

The fabric in the center of this block couldn't be more 1950s if it tried!  And I think the floral in the triangles dates to the 1950s, maybe 60s.  I'm pretty sure this whole little block was a patch.  The way the edges lie certainly helps me believe that.  Plus it's not quilted!

A Tale of Two Dresses

My buddy Julia over at Basya Berkman Vintage finds the best stuff!  In the last couple of weeks, she's given me two really delightful dresses to mend.  They are from different decades even though they are similar in style.  Both prints are great, and they are really what inspired me to share the dresses here.

The older one is rayon, probably 1940s.  I absolutely love the color combo in the print!  The dress has shoulder pads, self-covered buttons, and - my favorite detail - velvet covered piping at the collar and sleeves.

Sunbonnet Sue Spent Her Summer Vacation at My Quilt Care Spa

Hello, Sunbonnet Sue!  It was great to spend part of my August with this little girl, all decked out in her summer frocks and bonnets.

Most of her problems were with the embroidery thread giving out.  The fabrics by and large are hanging in there, although a few are starting to get weak.

Her spa treatment included restitching the loose appliqués, replacing a couple of missing sleeves, and re-embroidering the ribbon bows hanging down from her bonnet.  It's always fun to see a well-loved pattern like this with an extra little flair like those ribbon bows.

Vintage 1950s Fabrics

Every now and then, the most exciting thing about a quilt is on the back!  This collection of fabric prints and colors could be considered iconic of the era.

A 1950s string quilt came to me for repairs.  The back was also pieced, using rectangles of many sizes and shapes.  Some of the fabrics are totally iconic of the 1950s.

Here's the full shot of what I'm calling "The Liberace Print":

Two Quilts

I spent last week visiting the Seattle area.  What a lovely part of the world! 

To make the experience even more fun, there were two quilts with some great conversation prints at my friend's house.  Both are signed and dated.

This quilt is called "Gypsy Wife Bicycling" made by Durlyn Finnie of Seattle in 2015.  The combination of patchwork blocks and strips and bright colors make for quite a cheery quilt.  I got to sleep with this one!

Durlyn collected absolute gobs of fabrics with cyclists and bicycles of all sorts and colors.

Sailing Ships

I repaired a very, very worn basket quilt made in the 1880s or 90s.  It was so tattered that all I could do was put on a new back and stitch what was left to the new backing for support. 

The background and alternate blocks fabric was wonderful.  It's a conversation print with detailed masted sailing ships and anchors.  The designs are about 3/4" tall.  Here's one of the alternate blocks that was still intact.

Such a fun fabric!  I'm getting more and more into collecting conversation prints.

Mushrooms!

I found this delightful fabric on the back of a cotton crazy quilt.  The top was probably pieced in the 1950s, but I think this backing was applied a little later.  The color palette says 1970s to me.

It's really silly and happy, isn't it?

The cluster of mushrooms measures 1 1/2" tall.

The quilt was very, very damaged.  The backing and batting were mostly torn and gaping in many places, and lots of the top had barely a single piece of intact fabric.  I did manage to salvage and mend a few corner areas for keepsakes.   And I found enough fabric intact on the back to take a couple of photos for my (and I hope your) enjoyment!

A 9-Patch Quilt with Many Stories

Some quilts are repositories of stories, memories, and love.  This is one such quilt.  It was made c. 1950 by the owner's mother.  She can relate the stories of all the fabrics in it.

The quilt is still used by its owner and her husband as a lap quilt on the couch.  The original binding was tattered, there was a hole, and and some of the fabrics were starting to wear.  Her husband found my website, and sent the quilt to me for a fix-up.  A loving gift indeed!

More About Conversation Prints

The previous post is about a 1940s hexagon quilt that has opened my eyes to mid-century conversation prints.  Barbara Brackman in her book Clues in the Calico defines conversation (aka conversational) prints as prints with recognizable objects other than flowers.

There are conversation prints from the late 1800s onward.  Brackman distinguishes the 20th century prints as less detailed and having more colors than the 19th century prints.  I would add that they tend to be very whimsical.

While poking around for info on these fabrics, I discovered a book that I think is going on my wish list:  Conversational Prints: Decorative Fabrics of the 1950s by Joy Shih

Here's a look back at some other blog posts of quilts I've repaired that I now realize have some very fun conversation prints:

The Joy of Conversation Prints

I recently repaired a 1940s hexagon quilt.  It was made by the owner's mother when she was a teen.  It's a smallish quilt, quite likely made for a twin bed.  There are cottons, rayons, and also, I think, a couple of silks.  It's what is generally called a summer quilt because it has no batting.  It needed several hexagons patched and a whole new back.

To be honest, this mid-century period is just not my favorite design-wise.  This is true of the fabrics and colors in the quilts as well as furniture design, and so on.  In other words, when an estate sale is full of supposedly exciting mid-century items, I usually don't go.

But this quilt taught me that I actually do like some of the fabrics from this era!  This is a good thing, since quilts of this age are coming to me more and more often for repair.

I am in love with conversation prints!  The most succinct definition of conversation (aka conversational) prints I've found (Barbara Brackman's Clues in the Calico) is that they have renditions of recognizable objects other than flowers.