Visiting Quilt

Sitting here visiting and there is a knock on the door. One of the neighbors had heard my friend say that I was a quilter, and she wanted to show me a quilt her mother had sent her. “It’s not in good shape” she claimed as I opened it up. No it wasn’t in great shape, there are a lot of seams coming apart, but it was a work of art and history at the same time. At first I thought it was an Amish quilt, the colors were similar to that, but no, there were changes in the colors here and there. Then it hit me… it was all feed sacks. Not the colorful ones I love so much, but plain colors, no prints at all, just solids. And it was exquisite. It was a variation of an Irish Chain and quite a beauty in my eyes.
The makers, I’m pretty sure it was a group effort, had all coordinated their fabrics, and made the blocks alike. There was a non feed sack for the focus fabric, and that same fabric was used again in the border. The squares were equal in size, some being perfect, others just a tad off, not noticeable to anyone but a quilter. The inner border was the least perfect part of it, with some uneven fabric which through the years has caused it to lay differently than the rest of the quilt. But the outer edge just erased any imperfections at all, perfectly made prairie points, not one was different in size and they went from corner to corner with perfect spacing.

The quilting was far from perfect, some short stitches and some longer ones, but the quilting design was consistent and beautiful. The inexperienced hand quilter I am thinks it was quilted by more than one person…. I imagine a quilting bee sitting around it having a chat while quilting.

I learned a valuable lesson from that quilt and I must share it. Of course it makes a lot of work for me, but all of a sudden I see the importance of labels, even on quilts which are made to be used and abused as I so often say. There was nothing on the back of the quilt saying who had made it, or when, or why. Perhaps it was made for a member of the bee, just to keep her warm, but I sure would love to know who made it, where it was made, and most importantly, when it was made… my so called expert knowledge (NOT) which makes me think it was feed sacks very well could be wrong, and if I knew when it was made I would have a better idea…

The owner said she had often admired quilts in the shops, and wanted one badly. She said when her mother’s package arrived with that lovely quilt she thought it was an old rag, tattered and torn, but she threw it on her bed regardless, since the colors were so lively. She took it home with a new admiration of it, and couldn’t wait to tell her husband what I thought of it.

I photographed it, and will share the photos when I get home. And I am going to pull the majority of my quilts, one at a time, from wherever they are stored, and put some history on them, that I made them, the name of the quilt, when I made it, and where I made it. Lesson learned, I will for now on label my quilts.

Thanks Joyce for showing me your lovely quilt, and for the valuable lesson I learned from it!

Photos added March 3rd