Courthouse Steps

Lately, I have been reaping the benefit of getting to the age of downsizing.  And the benefit has been adopting quilts from many directions.

Not that I really have room or reason to have them myself either, except for being able to write about them here and share them when I teach.  That's good enough, I figure.  But really, the main reason I say yes and bring them in is that I love them and want to give them a home.

I am reminded of my brother- and sister-in-law who kept the garage door open a crack and a bowl of cat food inside until they had a population of 3 dogs and 9 cats.  The 9th cat in the series was named E. Nuff Already.  Yup.

Anyway, a friend offered me this lovely silk Courthouse Steps.  She'd had it hanging on her wall for many years, and now the silks are doing that late 19th century silk "thing" of shattering and crumbling.  So before I show you the detail photos, take a moment to appreciate it from a distance, in all its glory.......

Brilliant Stars

Wow.  This quilt is just wow.  It's one of the wow-iest quilts I've worked on.  I love it.

Here's how the owner came to acquire it:

I don’t collect quilts or even know how to use a sewing machine. I just really liked the quilt colors and patterns.....when I saw it in an antique mall in Columbia, MO (I honestly love Orange as a color). So much so, that after leaving without it I regretted it. The following Monday I was back at work and just called them on a whim and made them an offer and they agreed to ship it to me. 

Well, what a fun story!  I love that the quilt kept calling to him from half way across the country and waited for him to call the dealer!

Sweet Butterscotch Quilt

This quilt belongs to a friend of mine.  It's a late 19th century quilt.  I found the block in Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.  It's called New Album, published by Ladies Art Co., pattern #36 (LAC started publishing in the 1890s, and 36 is a fairly low number).

(Note: There is info on finding the book on Brackman's blog.  It's now available as an eBook.  It's an invaluable resource!  It's also available on paper via my favorite used book resource, AbeBooks.  I have no connection to AbeBooks.  So far, I have found their condition notes to be accurate.)

The quilt is a great collection of mid- to late 19th century prints and colors, including a great butterscotch yellow print in the alternate squares. 

Eye-Popping Pickle Dish Quilt

A customer sent me photos of this lovely, lovely Pickle Dish quilt, curious about how to deal with the differential fading of the navy fabric.

Tapestry Repair

There's a wonderful post over at Treasures From A French Attic.

It's about a tapestry fragment - just the top border - which was repaired in 1902 and still bears the lovely cross-stitch label documenting that work!

This is a perfect moment for me to step up on my soapbox and proclaim that we should all be documenting and labeling our work, both newly created and newly repaired.  You could be the person who creates such joy for a collector and historian 100+ years from now!

So head right on over and read the whole post, which includes more photos and a discussion of the repair work and changes in dyes between when the tapestry was woven and when it was repaired.  Really, really interesting!

Visit Ellen Anne Eddy

My quilting friend Ellen Anne Eddy has graciously posted a most lovely review of my book.

While you are at her website, be sure to take a walk through her colorful world.  Ellen calls what she does "thread magic" and that is such a perfect name!  You will find animals and plants executed in densely stitched, sparkling threads.

This quilt is called "Dancing in the Light."  It is 55" x 69".

Dye Migration

This ocean waves quilt is in my own collection.  It's one of the first quilts I purchased when I was starting to learn about antique quilts, in the early 1980s.  I bought it because I like the soft color combination, and especially liked that the quilt-maker had built on the reds in some of the prints, and accented those soft colors with a cheerful red binding.

A short while ago, I took it out of storage to bring it to a show-and-tell lecture I was about to present.  All my quilts are kept in acid-free storage boxes, and padded with acid-free tissue paper.  Lo and behold, I discovered that the tissue lining the box was covered with pale red triangles.

That Old Italian Block

Although it sounds more like someone searching their memory for the right words, that truly is the name of this quilt pattern, "Old Italian Block".

The owner of this quilt had been told that the name is Corn and Beans, but it's really not like any of the blocks by that name in Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.  In the Encyclopedia, Brackman documents the Old Italian Block as a Nancy Cabot pattern.  It sometimes was used for signature quilts, with the name signed on the center square.  Why "Italian"?  I don't know.  Maybe it was inspired by a tiled floor that a quilter saw on her trip to Italy...