I’m not much of an old quilt collector and I know very little about them but Nicole’s mom had three old quilt tops that she’s had for quite some time.  They weren’t made by members of her family and I’m not quite sure how she ended up with them but she doesn’t know anything about their history. Nicole brought them to me and I think, for now anyway, I’m going to keep them just as they are.  They’re not in good shape.  Obviously, they were made from scraps of used (some of it very used) clothing, with a very thin muslin.  The background pieces in many of the blocks is shirting . . from old shirts!  Some have the seams still in them.  It’s very interesting and I so wish I could know more about these tops and the makers of them, and those who wore the clothes.

Nicole said “This one reminds of a . . a bow tie!”   Yep . . a bow tie quilt.  Some of the ties are made from what was probably old ties.  Some are made from corduroy, some are made from velveteen, and there might have been a prom dress or bride’s maid dress in there.  The left block on the fourth row from the bottom is falling apart.  Otherwise, this one isn’t in terrible condition.

This one is very oddly shaped — quite long and very narrow.  I’m not sure if that was how it was planned or if only so many rows were put together.  You can see that there are a bunch of odd sized blocks, maybe left over from other projects. Maybe she was planning to put all her leftover blocks into this top and just never got it all done or maybe there are some rows that got lost before she was finished.  We all know how that can happen!  There’s a block hanging over the longarm that cannot be seen in the photo and I think she “framed” it with someone’s black nylon slip.  The fabric has pretty much shredded but I’m thinking she was determined to use a black fabric and that might have been all she could find or, maybe it was just there and she wanted to put it to good use.

I know . . having a dog on an antique quilt is just plain disrespectful but he was determined.  At the top of what you see here, the block on the left, some of the fabric has just shredded.  Otherwise, this one is in good shape too (except now there’s a bit of dog hair on it!).

The maker or makers did good work.  The stitches are nice and even . . I just wish the fabrics had held up better.

This should be a good example for all of us to (1) finish those projects and not leave them unfinished because family members would probably have grabbed these and kept them forever if they had been finished and (2) label your work!  It’s so sad that no one will ever know who did the work on these tops and the story behind them.