For the past few years, I've had this beautiful silk and taffeta quilt on display in our bedroom. I never appreciated the workmanship until now since I started making English paper-pieced flowers for the Party in the Garden Quilt.
I don't know much about this quilt other than the fact that my mother had it stored for years in her hope chest. I'm a firm believer in displaying old quilts, using the good china, crystal and silver. I love to use and enjoy the items that have been handed down to me. Yes, a dish from my great-grandmother broke one Christmas.....but I don't think she would mind. I think she would have been delighted that the dishes were being used by family members she never had the chance to meet.
Now back to the quilt. It is unfinished and I will never finish it since the back of the quilt is so interesting.
I've been upstairs "reading" the back of the quilt for the last hour and finally found what I was looking for . A scrap of paper with the date of May 19, 1949, making this quilt almost 61 years old! (It's as old as my sister!.....I'm going to hear about this!)
Many different types of paper were used to make the hexagons. Envelopes, paper bags, advertisements, church bulletins.....nothing was wasted. Here is an envelope used from an electric bill from Paradise, California....my hometown. So, now I know approximately how old the quilt is and where is was made.....but I don't know who made it or how it ended up in my mother's hope chest.
Seed packets were cheap!
Silk Toilet Tissue? 
A postmark from Chicago.
Another envelope.
These stitches are so precise that I'll bet the person who made this may have diminished their eyesight and that's why it was never completed.
More church bulletins and pages from magazines were used.
Here are my blocks. They aren't nearly as interesting. I've used perfectly die-cut hexagons made out of heavy cardstock. I'm not going to show you the back, as the stitches don't even come close to the perfection of the old quilt.
Those of you that have used applique pins know how tiny these hexagons are. They are so sweet. 
I will keep making my blocks hoping to perfect my stitches. Someday, someone I've never met will take this quilt out of a hope chest and use it.....I hope!
Enjoy your day and use the good china for Sunday dinner tonight.
As always,
Lynn
Yes, you are going hear from your "older" sister. I have to set the record staight, though. That quilt is a good 5 months older than I am! All those years that the quilt was in Mom's house, yet I never thought to look at the back. How interesting and what a story it tells! And, yes, Lynn does use the good china and the good silver. Our great grandparents would really be pleased!
ReplyDeleteGail Onyett (Lynn's older sister)
What a treasure, so much fun to check out all these papers. I know I could spend hours going through old photos that were my mothers and families.
ReplyDeleteLove what I've been seeing on your new BOM too..