St. Xavier

An angel named Xavier at Google Blogspot has saved my sanity. Evidently I was locked out of posting photos because Internet Explorer and Firefox were fighting...or something along those lines. Now I think I know what to do and hopefully won't have the problem. Many thanks, Xavier! (I picture him with wings!)

Is there a never-ending supply of great old quilts? Sometimes I wonder. In these tight economic times, I'm seeing some super stuff on ebay and other online sites. As I examine these old quilts, I am always being educated. Here's an interesting detail shot that had lessons for me. It's the easiest feathered star ever. Even I could draft and sew this thing!

The quilting pattern is so typical of old Midwestern quilts and is called 'Hanging Diamond.' Marked first as a series of horizontal lines, the quilter came back and on a second pass, marked diagonal lines at a 45-degree angle across the horizontals.

The muddy brown-purple square at the star's center is a Perkins Purple, a mid-19th century shade that fades upon exposure to sunlight. Note: blog reader Dorothy Daybell has kindly sent me a link to more information about the Perkins Purple so go to http://www.colour-ed.org/activity/act_12/12_transc.htm if you love quilt trivia! Thank you Dorothy.

Lily-itis!

The North Carolina Lily has always been a favorite quilt pattern. In fact, it was the second block I ever made and braving the A word (applique) was worth it for the final effect.

I have a wonderful antique Lily quilt in my collection and it was saved from the decorator's scissors (being cut into pillows) none too soon. Although the huge quilt had holes in it and was not exactly clean, Janice Pope from Raleigh, NC (aka the quilt doctor) repaired and washed this c.1860 beauty and I am so proud to have it! She dealt with mouse holes, rotten earlier repairs, missing leaves and stems, lots of popped seams and did a super job. Note: the quilt is hanging from a pole at right but the photo has been revised to show the blocks in an upright position.

Mouse holes-ugh!

Inspired by the old Lily quilt, I wanted to make a wall hanging using its outrageous border. But one lone Lily block and that big border was too much, so rather than tone down the border pattern, I started to sketch over a lily block and came up with a much freer design. Meet Wild Lily, a wall hanging that I designed and pieced the background for but all the applique work was stitched by my friend Pinky (Dorothy) Porter from Morehead City, NC. Pinky's a better quilter than I'll ever be.

This is the quilt top of Wild Lily. It has since been finished but not photographed.

So while we may love antique quits, there's no reason to always make reproductions of them. I could never re-make that pre-Civil War quilt with grace but the wall hanging seems a fitting modern tribute.

A Favorite Golden Oldie

Ever since I bought an old quilt at a garage sale for $1, I have been hooked on antique quilts. Granted, I've never again found as wonderful a deal as that first time but it is the carrot on the end of the string that I follow. Of course cheap isn't everything, and when you see a description on ebay that reads "Old, old quilt..." you know you'll be viewing tatters. One of my favorite genres of antique quilts are those southern, usually scrappy, pieces that prominently feature a golden-yellow color. By the 1880s that bright color was available in store-bought dyes and any farm wife could transform her worn fabric to the gorgeous marigold shade. This Star of Bethlehem quilt from North Carolina is hand-dyed (the gold and the green) and supposedly a Lumbee Indian quilt.

Collectors of antique quilts have renamed the golden-yellow color 'cheddar,' as in the color of the cheese of the same name. When I was a kid I didn't know what cheddar was--I thought all golden-yellow cheese was 'rat cheese.' Never heard of rat cheese? It's simply that rather greasy but tasty cheese, encased in bright red wax, that is wonderful slabbed together with bologna or Vienna sausages on soda crackers. By the way, although it's spelled Vienna, the word is pronounced Vi-anny (long i and long a) or Vi-nah (long i), depending on whether you're in Kentucky or the Carolinas.