Antique Quilts

I wanted to share a few antique quilts I found. As I said in my previous post I had visited a vintage shop with a friend of mine in Chattanooga. I had to take photos of a few of the finds from the shop. I thought about adding this to my previous post but it was already a long post. So first is a beautiful collage quilt I found that is clearly not antique but probably only a few years old. It's still a fun quilt for a great price.

Next was a great scrap use idea. The pumpkin was either made of repurposed damaged quilts or made new and as aged several years now. While near this one I found some beautiful vintage cross stitch pieces and notions I didn't photograph.

The last one was a vintage quilt found in a different store. I almost bought this but didn't have it in my budget at the time. Its a fabulous star pattern with small yo-yo's at the edge. You can't see the yo-yo's in the photo but they used it to make scalloped edges.

It's not unusual to find hand made quilts in shops around here. They were usually handmade and passed to family members. If someone didn't have a family to give them to and no one wanted them after the artist passed then they end up in second-hand stores. If you find one under $100 it's a steal no matter how damaged it is.

My Great Grandmother's quilts

Since my recent trip to the Mountain Quiltfest, I got a chance to sit down and speak to my grandmother about some of our own antique quilts. My grandmother didn't start quilting until she was older and she didn't remember her mother quilting much but she did have some memories of it.

My grandmother was born in the early '40s in Sevierville, TN. The area is known as Little Greenbriar. in the '50s the land was purchased by the government and became what is now known as the Smokey Mountain National Park. The family eventually moved to South Clinton.

My grandmother growing up always remembers a quilt on the bed but only a few times seeing her mother quilting. Her own grandmother quilted some also. It was a necessity at the time to have blankets for the family. She did remember the family stretching a quilt to quilt on the back porch from the rafters.

When my great grandmother passed away, granny got two quilts from her items. One was on her bed as a child and the other granny believes came from her grandmother Mrs. Rayfield. One of the two quilts uses carded cotton and has spots where the batting has shifted. The other uses sackcloth fabric and other clothing scraps. Granny remembers her mother making them clothing out of sackcloths. Both have damage and wear and I hope to get a chance to have them appraised one day.

While I was looking up information about antique quilts I found a few links I wanted to share:

Preserving Antique Quilts
Caring for Antique Quilts
Feed Sack Quilt History
20th Century Antique Quilts

Today's tea is actually a Blood Orange iced tea from Harney & Sons. I got it actually last summer and it is a fruity summer tea. I only have a couple of bags left so I will have to repurchase some when summer rolls around. They suggest serving it with orange slices or apple slices. I sat there and brewed a pitcher up for the week while I sat and talked to granny about her quilts. It is always nice to sit and connect with the family about common interests. and to know that stories like these will not be lost. That's one of the reasons I enjoy tea so much.

Mountain Quiltfest Day 2 Antique Quilts

Friday was a good day for demos and visiting the bed turnings as they call them. They're about 30-minute shows where they go over several antique quilts. They give you the history that is known and who made the quilt. Of course, the sad part is lots of quilts are never labeled so we don't always know who made it.

They also have a display of crafts done at the time that use the same techniques and fabrics like a quilted vest and pillowcases made out of feed sackcloths. If you have antique quilts you can have them appraised at the show for a very reasonable rate.

The presentation was very informative and sparked a bit of interest in antique quilts. I have lots of the quilts shown in both presentations in my Mountain Quiltfest photo album.

Many of the quilts are made out of feed sackcloth and some are made out of scraps of different types of fabrics. The backs of some of the quilts are done from sackcloths.  The history of feed sackcloth in quilting is a very interesting and ingenious use of fabric that could have been thrown away at one time.