Vintage Drunkard's Path

Vintage Indigo Drunkard's Path

It's kind of funny. I often get requests for business cards, but stall to print any as I ruminate over what to put on them. Julie Stocker: Quilt Hunter, Quilt Detective, Quilt Rescue Society, etc. (And seriously I know I need to break down, and just get something printed, but I'm obsessive about this kind of thing.) For those of you who know me only as a quilter, I also love to discover old quilts and the stories behind them.

1940's Vintage Log Cabin Quilting Finish

1940's Scrappy Wonderful!

Some of you have watched the slow progression of my hand quilting project over the last year. Some months felt like a ship without wind. It went nowhere. I would like to believe it had something to do with my method of quilting.

Since the 1990's, I have always used a square or rectangular PVC type quilting frame with the snap on grips for hand quilting. My hand quilting projects have mainly been throw size or smaller, and it never occurred to me a twin size would be any different. I was wrong. I was wrestling a monster each time I had to move the frame. I was rolling and pinning huge sections to keep it manageable, and even then it was hard to keep the backing taut within the frame.

Washing a Vintage Quilt Part II

How I wish there was Smell-o-vision.
You would say, "Oh, yeah!"

It's washed and dried. Let's look at what washing did both good and bad, and then how it was done.

FYI: I snapped these photos under a shady tree today. It's so bright and sunny that it washed out the colors taken in full sun. 

Pros 

• I can put my face up to this quilt, and it smells like fabric not dirt. 
• I've reduced the chance of introducing insects and spiders to my home.
• I'm free to add it to my collection shelving without fear of transferring a mildewy or a dirty odor. 
• It won't trigger an asthma attack. I have a problem with dust mites.
• It's far more pleasant to share at an event.

Note: There was no dye transfer visible anywhere.

Washing a Vintage Quilt Part I

Vintage Tumbling Blocks
About 74" x 90"

When I first set eyes on this beautiful quilt, I longed to take it home with me despite the condition. Today 60 degree pieces cut with an acrylic ruler and rotary cutter require attention to cut exactly.  The pieces in this quilt would have been cut with scissors and paper template. A one patch pattern, Tumbling Blocks is sewn with Y seams. It takes a good eye and practice to match Y seams. I know because I've sweated through it. From what I can see, the majority of this project was done without a sewing machine, but with hand piecing. It was a tremendous investment of time and energy for the maker.

Vintage Lone Star Baby Quilt

Vintage Lone Star Baby Quilt

A local friend who deals in antiques calls me when she has quilts. I'm so grateful! This time I went through the pile of quilts and tops in her shop, and asked what else was she hiding. "Uh, just this little one," she said. It was a 35" baby quilt in a Lone Star pattern, worn, soft, and sweet as could be. Oh, it was going home with me!

I asked as many questions as I could about where this quilt was from, who she got it from, etc. Dating and placing a quilt where it was made or used are one of the most interesting parts of quilt hunting for me. I always gather as much information as I can before I leave the buyer, and write it down. I only knew it was sourced locally, likely in Coshocton county, Ohio.

Back at home, I went over the quilt in good light to find out what I could about the fabrics, construction, and any other little secrets it had to tell. Everyone wants to know, "How old is this quilt?" These clues can tell us a lot.

Whirligig Half Hexie Quilt

Half Hexie Whirligig

In the last post, Stolen Moments for Stitch & Play, I was playing with my scraps. Play is good. I traded the scraps for more moderate fabrics, and in a short afternoon put together the lower half of this sweet quilt. It's slightly under 45" from edge to edge here, and with a border/background will flesh out to a nice baby or toddler quilt a little larger.

Kaleidoscope: Quilts at the Kentucky Museum

The Kentucky Sun Quilt

My husband and I made a whirlwind trip to the Kentucky Museum last weekend on the Western Kentucky University campus in Bowling Green, KY.  The Kaleidoscope exhibition opened earlier this year featuring 30 Kentucky quilts, and the first public viewing of the spectacular Kentucky Sun quilt. I had seen pictures of it before, but nothing could take the place of standing there in front of it. I was overwhelmed. This quilt was made nearly 140 years ago, and it was old yet so amazingly modern, and I couldn't stop staring. To put in in a chronological perspective, it was made 15 years after the Civil War ended in the time of Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, and the O.K. Corral. It's funny how it puts me in the mind of the western frontier, and I wonder if that had any influence.

The Kentucky Sun Quilt has a fascinating story behind it, and was on the cover of the Kentucky Quilt Project's publication. Read more about it through the link. The Kentucky Quilt Project was the first of all the quilt documentation projects in the U.S., and organized in 1981. 

Quilting the Vintage Log Cabin

Hand Quilting a Vintage Log Cabin Quilt

It's December, and everywhere I go I hear coughing. Deep, gripping coughing. There's a rotten cold going around our area, and I'm two and a half weeks into it. I did my duty of self-care, and canceled the monthly sewing group. I rested, t.v. binged, and quilted. Still, a dry cough just hangs on. This one is a doozy.

Goodies of Quilting & Purging

Lone Star Beauty

One of many red quilts currently on display at the 
Southeast Ohio History Center in Athens, Ohio

Tell Me About Your Quilt: Jemima Mast Miller

Pin Wheel, 81" x 86"
Belonged to Jemima (Mast) Miller,
My Great Grandmother
Born 1876, Holmes Co., Ohio

Over the past several months, I have been researching the history of quilting in Ohio. More specifically, my focus has been the Tuscarawas, Holmes, Wayne and the Coshocton County areas where I have lived my life, and where my father's family settled more than 6 generations ago. Now home to the largest Amish community in the world, it's difficult to map one's genealogical history with so many crossing branches. 

Washing a Vintage Quilt Top & Hurricane Irma

Washed, Dried & Pressed

Isn't She a Red & White Beauty!

Hurricane Update: Like this vintage quilt top, we have been spared by Hurricane Irma. A neighbor's tree fell in our yard, and we lost palm fronds. Power came on last night, and the house is drying out from general humidity. That is nothing in comparison to the devastation south and north of us. I am so grateful to those of you who kept us in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you.

My heart truly aches for those who are trying to make sense of what has happened, and pick up the pieces. The need is so great between Harvey and Irma, but understanding the process of clean up and rebuilding is very important when you think of how you can help. This short CBS story will open your eyes to how relief efforts can actually slow the process. Thanks to my niece for sharing it with me.

Finding Your Sweet Spot in Quilting Pt. II

Late1930's-1950's Postage Stamp Style
Pieced Bed Cover with Prairie Points

This is an 88" x 90" pieced bed cover, which might be mistaken for an unquilted quilt top. But the finished edge of alternating cheddar and white prairie points says it was complete. A spread like this was probably used to cover bed linens that might not have been as pretty. In days when laundry was time intensive, and done without automatic washers and dryers, this was a good option to keep the bed looking fresh and clean for visitors stopping by.

Finding Your Sweet Spot In Quilting Pt. I

1930's & 40's Large Vintage 
Log Cabin Top--Hand Pieced

August 4, 2017 quietly marked Pink Doxies' 3 year blogiversary. I spent the day volunteering at the Ohio Mennonite Relief Sale in the Quilter's Corner. (Did you know this is an annual even happening the same weekend every year?)

Vintage Inspired Nine Patch Charity Quilt

Vintage Inspired Nine Patch

Laying out a one patch design such as this with 5" squares is greatly aided by knowing where the middle of the wall is, and working outward. (I will learn!) Instead, I tend to start with the left side working across through the middle. Don't laugh, but stooping down a lot is hard as we enter middle age, but so is climbing up and down the ladder this required. By the end, it filled the whole wall, and the top row had to lop over to stay put. I was up and down dozens of times before it was done.

This is a copy of a quilt I wrote about in "More One Patch Designs for Charity Quilts." I laid it out for a MCC comforter to be sewn by the many volunteers that work at the Connections Thrift Shop.

How to Quilt a Vintage Log Cabin

How do I quilt a vintage log cabin pattern while 
staying true to the era?

How do I give the borders each a unique pattern from the central part of the the quilt, but still be able to quilt them as I work?

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Vintage Stash: What's It Worth to You?

Vintage 1930's Depression Era Fabric Baby Quilt

A friend of mine--the same one in the wooden quilt post-- was offered 5 boxes of fabric for sale, and had no way of digging through it before she decided. By only looking at the fabric on the top, she called me to say it was 'old', and looked like 'stuff I would like'. She lives hours away, so I took a chance and said, "Buy it." 

Vintage Quilt Photobomb and a Turkey

All the quilts shown here belong to my husband's family. They were on loan awaiting a cloudy day to photograph. It gave me time to get to know them, and fall in love with this one most of all. I love every inch of this quilt! It has a lurid history that we are too proper to get in to here, but let it suffice to say, I think it's to die for. It's the ultimate Eye Candy. There's no firm date, but the family history puts it around the 1930's, and it appears to be made without a batting layer.