Yesturday I was going to go to my parent's home to do more tomatoes, but my mom called to cancel, as there were not enough ripe tomatoes. Instead I did some home renovations. My husband and I under cut the front entrance closet doors, installed the magnetic door stoppers and the door handles. We finished my closet doors and installed my husband's closet doors as well.
This took us to about 3:00 pm, when I received a visit from my cousin, her husband and my uncle. At my niece's wedding on the weekend, my cousin and I were talking and the topic came around to quilts. She had mentioned to me a while back about having some quilt pieces and parts that she was hoping that I could help her with. She was telling me they belonged to her husband's mother and his grandmother.
She called today to confirm I would be home. When she came, it was with two boxes and a couple of bags. The boxes stayed behind. I will share with you, all the goodies that were in the boxes in future posts. There are some quilt tops needing some quilting and some parts needing assembly. All that I was thinking at the time was wow! I am sure that at the time my mouth dropped. The stuff she was showing me was wow! It is difficult putting it into words. The fabrics were old. The workmanship was amazing and the patterns were traditional. I was just blown away by it all.
One of the bags had a completed quilt, in a fan design, that was old and worn. So worn that the fabrics were shredding. The quilt was beyond any help. I suggested that she find a small section on the quilt that she could fold it to display and use it solely for show. In the second bag, there were some other small embroidered blocks and bed sheets that may have been intended to be used for backing. She thought the embroidered blocks could be completed at another time, as she felt it more important to finish some of the other more advanced tops.
This was one of the projects from the boxes. These are in no particular order. This first one is a pleated log cabin block. These blocks were made by sewing the individual logs onto a piece of muslin. Many of the logs appear to have been torn instead of cut. The blocks measure approx. 8" square, give or take a 1/2", so should finish at about 7 3/4". There are 71 blocks in total. My cousin's husband chose a barn raising layout to set the blocks, starting with the light centre radiating outward. When completed with 64 blocks (8 x 8), the quilt centre will measure about 62" square. Add in some borders and the quilt will measure closer to 80" square.
All of theses blocks are scrappy for the dark side and on the light side one consistent white fabric with little Xs was used. They are gorgeous. The darks are not truly all darks, and some of them could actually pass as a light fabric. I can't wait to work with these blocks. I love looking at these old fabrics. They are so different than the fabrics available now a days. This quilt will have a completely different feel to it.
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