Happy Birthday to Me!

There are good GOOD things about taking a partner-in-quilt-crime antiquing, and there are BAD things!

JUSTIFICATION TIMES TWO! ((Is this the GOOD thing or the BAD thing? You decide!))

As Lisa and I were laughing and talking and browsing, I turned a corner and spotted THIS along one wall. And my heart stopped….and dropped into my stomach.

Oh! Oh! Oh!

This is “MY” kind of quilt….scrappy stringy crumby with no rhyme or reason! And look…the sashings don’t go all the way around the outer blocks…see? We saw a large amount of this style just wandering around!

Can we get a closer look?

Oh wow…it has odd borders! Even better! See those pieced border stripes? and a PINK side border? I love quilts that have odd borders..I could hardly wait to get it out and unfold it!

There is a LISA behind the quilt! And!! The piece de résistance for me --- a row of HALF BLOCKS at the bottom!! BE. STILL. MY. HEART!

It didn’t take much for us putting our heads together and deciding that YES it was my birthday and YES this NEEDS to come home with me! Shopping by myself I may have waffled on my decision and decided to think about it more and maybe come home another day --- but with Lisa buoying me up, I bought the quilt!

I took this pic on my kitchen floor ----the light in the kitchen always yellows things --- but don’t you love the quilting on this? 3 close rows, and a wider space, 3 close rows and a wider space, 3 close rows and a wider space…..LOVE IT!!

The quilting knots are on TOP of the quilt --- love that too!

And even though it is fairly primitive ---- most of the points of the stars are sharp and intact.

I loved this very low contrast block! It looks more like a spiderweb than a star! We get so fussy fussy and try to distribute our colors evenly and have everything “matchy” but look at this!

Can you see the knots on top of the quilt in the right hand sashing?! And can you see that two of these star points could have been made from larger left-over 4 patches? I love that 3 of the star points are whole fabric, not pieced….what a wonderful scrappy mess!

The whole quilt, sashings and all is hand pieced. Who was this woman? She obviously had a sense of freedom with her piecing, but yet had enough skill that star points were not all chopped off and corners “mostly” matched. She’s my kind of piecer! She didn’t have to purposely push it all the way to the REALLY wonky side for someone to think she wasn’t just a bad sew-er!

I also love just a bit of carefree whimsy with my piecing….I don’t pin EVERY LITTLE SEAM, and if some end up a needle’s width off, I’m mostly okay with that..just let it be.

While perusing another booth, I glimpsed a familiar shape peeking out from amongst dishes and kitchenware --

Does this look familiar to any of you?

It’s a puzzle box….that holds vintage machine attachments! I have one of these…and decided right then and there that it needs a companion! This one has pieces that my other one was missing…

But what the HECK is this?

Wouldn’t it be great of ladies from that era could give us Youtube videos on what they did with all this stuff? LOL!

This is something we could use today…a quilting guide!

And THIS! My favorite seam guide! Always glad to have a spare of these to use on my featherweights or other vintage machines. I love these better than any foot with a guide attached ---

The date on this box? Patented February 19, 1889.

Tonight we are planning a family birthday dinner. My birthday is tomorrow, Jeff’s is the 25th ((Wednesday)) and I’m leaving for Florida in the wee small hours tomorrow morning ((How does a 5:25am flight sound to you?! ACKK!)) so we’ve got plans to celebrate tonight. Ever since Jeff was born 2 days after my 28th birthday we’ve been celebrating together and I cherish those days. Often it meant not having a cake on MY birthday, but sharing one on his ---who needs TWO cakes?

Wishing you a restful pieceful Sunday!