On the Cutting Table Today...

Vintage Quilt Tops

Oh I do Love a good Quilt.

Last year, One of my Quilting projects was to complete this quilt top for one of my lovely clients.

Full story on that quilt here.

My client, Mrs. Ann, shared some of the history of these quilt tops with me.  The quilt above, and the one that I'm working on now, were some of the last quilt tops that her mother made.  She passed away in her 90's.  When she was younger, she made incredible quilts like this one...

Incredible precision... and all done by hand.  Every stitch.  No sewing machines.  The points in these quilt blocks are absolutely perfect.  Not to mention the actual quilting.  Just beautiful.

When Mrs. Ann's mother could no longer finish the quilts, she still made quilt tops, which were handed down to her daughter.   These quilts hold so many precious memories... they are treasures... and I am honored to finish these quilts, so they can be handed down to grand-children, to be treasured for years to come.

So... this is the latest quilt top for Mrs. Ann.

The individual blocks are called "tree of life" blocks.  All are set on a diagonal with brown sashing in between the blocks. 

The thing about quilt tops...

they must be flat.  The blocks must be square.  Or else it is a nightmare to try to quilt. 

The lady that hand quilted the top was almost blind when she made this quilt top, so there are a few problems.    First... there are large wrinkles or bubbles in the top.

Like this...



Second...

that is about as far from "square" as you can get.

As much as I hated to do this...

the entire quilt top had to be taken apart.

There was just no other way.  I felt a little bit.. as though.. I was disrupting the integrity of the quilt.  After all every stitch was done by hand, in her last days.  And that in itself is so very special. 

But take it apart... I must. 

In her day, a quilter would use many scraps of fabric, of all different sizes to finsh the block, and then trim away the edges to make the block "square".



At her age, and losing her sight, she forgot, or just couldn't see to square the blocks up.  So I'll just do that for her. 

The blocks on the left have been squared,

the blocks on the right have not. 

So now, as soon as I get the top pieced back together, I can get to the process of the actual quilting.

So many of us have quilt tops like this that have been handed down.  And I love to finish them, I love the stories behind them, I love the history of each and every one.  If you have a quilt top that you would like for me to finish, I would be happy to do that for you... just drop me a line.

Finished quilt photos coming soon!