Just Look at What I Found Today!

Today I ran away for a day. I left a note and promised to be home by dinner time. I had lots of well loved company the last few weeks and all that goes with that, such as house cleaning, painting where necessary, meal and event planning. I should have been at home today washing the bed linens, towels and anything else I could find. However, I spent the morning walking two miles at the mall with Danny, returning a really cute blouse that was after all too young for me, and picking up books saved for me at the local library. Then I spent the rest of the day in some of my favorite antique stores. I bought two quilts today and am sharing my favorite with you now. I made a rather low bid and the owner split the difference with me so it was a win, win for both of us. For those who don't already know, I offer the name, New York Beauty for this quilt. I suspect that if you are here reading, you already know that.

Above you can see the right side and upper edge. So if you look at the right side of the picture you can see a chunk missing near the bottom edge of the corner block. Not unusual for a quilt this old.

This picture shows two patches of red apparently used to cover two holes. A quick examination of the fabric feels like there are two oval holes under the patches. There are identical ovals of white on the back. I can only guess that the holes were trimmed out to remove a stain? In any case I may try to find a better match of fabric and piece red and white together to better hide the repairs.


On the left edge of this photograph is what I believe to be the the bottom edge of the quilt. If you take a look at the first picture again you will see that there are two sides of the quilt with this border. Quilts from this time period were often used on beds that were place against the wall so no need for a four side border.

This view gives you a small sense of the quilting. I have to say that this is a really beautifully made quilt. The piecing is really crisp and the quilting dense and lovely. The edges are pretty worn, but over all the rest of the quilt is in good condition. There are some stains, but I am reluctant to try to wash them away. I suspect that I will hang it above the landing upstairs. If that works out, I will post a picture so you can once again see how beautiful it is. The following quilts with the exception of the last one are quilts in the International Quilt study Center's collection. I hope you enjoy them.

This would probably be my favorite. It employs stunning pieced sashing and my own favorite, applique.

I love the red, white and green color choices in this one. It is one of the few I have seen in this soft color palette.

This quilt is on the cover of the book "American Quilts in the Modern Age". This quilter had no problem with color.

This quilt is also red, white and green, however the artist also popped in some yellow and voila, this quilt sings!
I end, appropriately I think, with this wonderful red, white and blue version. When Americans are feeling patriotic, or nostalgic, it seems we come back to this.
I hope you don't have the need to run away. This was only my second time in forty-nine years so I am feeling okay with it. However, if you do, I hope it works for you as well as it worked for me today. Two quilts in one day. Zowie!!!