It all started with this.....

It all started with an antique quilt given to me by my Uncle Cliff in 1985. It was made by my Great Grandmother using original fabrics spanning from the 1860's to the 1930's, in a string quilt pattern. All strings were hand pieced. All fabrics were loved. I can imagine Grandpa's shirts, or Grandma's housedress or apron. And now I'm the fortunate steward of this wonderful bit of family history........all made by hand.

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Quilters 911

Quilters 911....asking for your input.  But first you need the background, then the question.  You see, my mother gave me this quilt top.  She "thinks" my grandmother made it, but maybe it was my great-grandmother, and she's not sure which side of the family.  But it was someone I am related to.......she thinks. Keep in mind this was in the midst of clearing her home before she went into assisted living, she has dementia.


The top is hand pieced. Pretty cool, eh?  A quilting friend initially thought the pattern was DELECTABLE MOUNTAINS but then I learned it's THOUSAND PYRAMIDS.  I'm thinking I should make a quilt sandwich and hand quilt it, get the thing finished. What do you think??  So that's the first question.

Now take a good look at the top.  It resembles Tennessee or Arkansas, sort of, only upside down. Notice the right side follows the pyramid angle instead of being squared.  It's a little irregular on the left too, but not as bad. I think Grammy was.....well....sipping some hard stuff while she pieced.  Go Grammy!  None of this would be a problem except her borders follow the angle of the pyramids.

So the 911 is this......do I remove all her THREE HAND stitched borders, then square the entire top up, then replace the borders?  Or....do I leave it as is, finish with hand quilting and make a wonderful quilt label that explains all this, and about Grammy's suspected afternoon sipping?  I must admit I'm leaning like the border, to leave it as is. This will never make it to a museum, and the story will add some humor.   So what do you think??

4 comments:

  1. I would take off the three borders (hand stitching always comes out easier than machine stitching) and square up before machine stitching the border back so the quilt went from lovely to amazing but that's just me! ( i don't mean the lovely and amazing bit btw!!!)

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  2. Thanks for the feedback! Right now the response is 50/50.

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  3. I vote for leaving it. There are zillions of perfectly squared quilts around but very few with this unique asymmetry. Just found your blog--look forward to reading more!

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  4. I would love to say leave it, but the perfectionist in me won't let me. But, since it isn't my quilt......

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