Another Great Lakes Beauty!

Going through these photos ---wow, what a great experience it was to see these quilts in person!

I’ve said it before, but the thing that hits hard at home for me is that these gorgeous works of art are simply made of “every day ordinary scraps” from the household scrap bag ----

There was “nothing special” about these fabrics in their day.  These are the left over bits saved from all of the other household sewing.  Not a single one of these quilts was made with “Quilt Shop Quality” fabric – there was no such thing!  They have stood the test of time.

I love my fabric wherever it comes from ---be it donated scraps or things I’ve bought in shops on my travels –or be it recycled fabric from thrifted clothing, or old 1980s calicoes that have lingered in the stash since my early days of quilting.  I love it all.  And future generations, should my quilts survive and last that long --- are not going to say “oh too bad – she should have bought Quilt Shop Quality fabric.”    For me, it’s whatever gets the job done.  That doesn’t mean I want something that is horribly made or doesn’t feel good as I work with it.

Today’s lovely is the last quilt I saw at the Great Lakes Quilt Collection ---I so love this one!  A variation of "Many Trips Around the world":

Wowzers!

There is so much movement in this quilt, and of course my eyes go right to the cheddar solid in the center.  There is no cheddar in the border, and that makes the border recede, doesn’t it?  The center looks darker, the border less so --- and that inner border is also pieced from the same size of square to separate the inner from the outer – it does a great job!

Watch the stripe!  They all go the same way!

Look at the corner “square”….see how the stripe in the inner border completes the round of striped squares in that border corner?  This took some planning!  This quilter made sure that all of her stripes were oriented the same way within the whole quilt.  And once I realized that, I sought out every stripe just to be sure!  Yes – she did!

Glorious fabrics!

Can you imagine doing this WITHOUT strip piecing? Just one square at a time?  We speculated on whether this gal had bought yardage for her quilt to make sure that there was enough for each round to be completed….I started looking for  anywhere where one fabric was substituted for another because she “ran out”.  And then I found it along one border:

Those browns on the right may have been purple at one time….but she’s used a few different solids to complete the pattern here.  And I love this ---it shows the ingenuity of the piecer!

This quilt had a “knife edge” finish instead of a binding.  The backing was turned in, and the top was turned in, and they were blind stitched closed.  I love this method of finishing a quilt.  This is what I plan to do to the hexagon quilt after quilting…no binding required!

This quilt was also from the collection of Kitty Clark Cole.  Maker unknown.  Likely Pennsylvania, possibly Mennonite, dating to about 1880.  It was JUST STUNNING! All from one simple square.

Today I have the privilege of seeing a local lady’s antique quilt collection!  My flight doesn’t leave Lansing until mid-afternoon, so there is more quilty goodness in store!  I’m not being picked up until 9:45am so I’ve got a couple hours of piecing time on Aunt Elsie, the borrowed featherweight before checking out of the hotel this morning.

After quilt viewing and lunch – this girl is on her way home! YEAH!!  The next 5 weeks are MINE!  First on the list?  Carpet the studio side of the basement!  It’s about to get really ugly down there, but the results will be WORTH IT!

Catch you on the home front, everyone!