Aren't these blocks just wonderful? This is one of the commissions I have. I am thrilled to work on this project for these folks. Blocks and quilt tops that were made by the husband's great grandmother and everything is hand stitched to perfection. Going thru these items we dated fabrics from 1890's to 1930's. There were some old newspaper clippings in the boxes which had some dates, so that helped as well. Patterns clipped from newspapers, old templates in their dated box, and a few notes. Just a fabulous tribute to this woman's passion over many years.
As with the time and simple templates mixed with non-marked seam lines, each block is a tad different size. BUT her points were so perfect! I offered to try cleaning the blocks and quilt tops, but the owners opted to leave them as is - keeping great grand in their hearts. I am sashing each block and then trimming to a set size - the best way to work these. Since this will all be in muslin (tea dyed aged muslin for this one), those seams will disappear with a lattice quilting over them - the baskets will float and not show those size differences.
I taped off my square ruler to help with the sizing cutting. I have 3/4's of this one assembled and will finish up today. The couple chose to have muslin for the backs of all of these and my favorite Pellon extra select light for batting - it best replicates the thin flannel like batting used at the time period (I have quilter's flannel, but they didn't like it). Probably great grandmother would hand quilt or tie these, but I shared my files on period quilts with quilting suggestions and they chose something for each which I will do on my home machine to ease the stress on these lovelies.
I can't wait to share the others - each is a treasure and I actually cried when the last one was pulled from the box - it will knock your socks off.
I'm hoping our winds are gone as three days and the loss of part of one roof - enough! Father Winter had guite the temper tantrum and I hope Mother Nature puts him in time out with some nicer weather for us.
Sewingly Yours,
Sharon
8 comments:
They are beautiful blocks, you are doing a wonderful thing for those people.
This will be a wonderful tribute to a lady who quilted so perfectly all those years ago.Love your way to add borders to square them up. Waiting to see more.
And I heard that the crappy winter weather for the country was because Mother Nature's hormones are out of whack. :-)
Love these blocks and the way you are finishing them. Cant wait to see more
Fabulous blocks and your solutions is perfect for finishing them off. I so enjoy seeing what others bring you.
Magnificent blocks! I can’t wait to see the rest! Love what you’re doing with them.
Once our wind storm passed we had a great sunny day and even moderate temperatures. Hope you’re as lucky.
What a treasure!
Wow! What a beautiful keepsake.
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