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Friday, January 27, 2012

Depression Era Quilt Top?


My husband's sweet cousins (thank you, DD and Linda!) found this pretty quilt top at an estate sale and put it aside for me. It has the characteristic "bubble gum" pink of the Depression era and many of the fabrics in the Dresden plate design appear to be from flour or feed sacks. 
 Although the sashing is machine sewn, the Dresden plate design is sewn with hand stitching. 
I am going to set this aside for a little while and really think about how it should be quilted. I wish there had been a little tag along with it telling who made it. I imagine the hours and hours put into it. I tend to make up my own back story if I haven't been given one, so I imagine some little Texas grandmother sewing these blocks while sitting on the porch in a rocking chair. (She had to get out of the stifling hot house on those summer days, so she sat in the shade with a breeze on her face.) As she pulled out each little carefully cut shape, she thought about where she got the fabric. It might have started out as a flour sack or a sack of chicken feed. It probably was made into a little child's romper before being put aside to be cut up for quilt fabric. The same hands that sewed these designs so carefully, also shelled peas and shucked corn. She kneaded bread at least once a week and often thrilled the "men folk" with her pies. She always wore an apron and spent many hours hanging the laundry on a line outside the kitchen door.  Her babies were born at home and a few of them died there. When her sons marched off to war, she waited weeks and sometimes months to hear from them, each day with a prayer for their safe return. She was "soft as a kitten" and "tough as nails". How sad that her family didn't think of all this when they decided this top was not something they wanted to keep. 
This makes me want to finish all my UFO's and get labels on them!  I think I may put a note on each one of them, telling a little about why I started it and maybe even why I didn't finish! 
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10 comments:

  1. Great backstory you came up with for this quilt-probably truer than we'll ever know.

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  2. It sounds like it is in good hands now.. so that's wonderful. Nice story to go with it too. Thanks for sharing! :)

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  3. I am so happy you have this beautiful quilt, I love the fabrics. Hand sewing isn't that easy I am trying it myself. It is very relaxing.

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  4. These are the quilts I love!! I am a 30's gal! (even though I am not a pastel gal) What a great find!

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  5. I'm glad this quilt has found a home with someone who can give it the love it deserves. It's sad to think that the woman's family did not want to keep it.

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  6. Now I know I must place a label on my daughter's graduation quilt before presenting it to her...what a great find from the estate sale!

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  7. Oh this is beautiful! You are lucky to have found it!
    Thank you for your well wishes..they worked! xoxo

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  8. That is really gorgeous - I think she would be well pleased that you got it!

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  9. How special to have been gifted such a treasure. I agree, we must finish our projects and get those labels on. I can't wait to see what you do with this.

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  10. Linda, I printed and shared the post with our friend and she is going to look at the blog and see if she can tell you a little more about the person that made the quilt.

    Katie Q, the quilt top is actually one of many and the granddaughter is keeping a number of finished quilts. She is thrilled that has gone to someone who cares about quilts. :)

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