And Then THIS Did Come Home!!

This wonderful old historic 1870s home houses the Nacoochee Village Antique Mall!

And I made it there BEFORE the 5pm closing time yesterday!

It’s right across the street from the Nora Mill & Granary, and there are several floors and loads of rooms to walk through just full of wonderful goodies.

When I got there, I found I only had 40 minutes to do what I could before closing time, so I put my wandering into hyper-drive and focused on anything sewing/quilting/fabric/linens/vintage machines related.

You know how it is when you have something in mind – you can’t find it!

There were NO vintage sewing machines whatsoever at the Nacoochee Village Antique Maill.  That doesn’t mean they have never had them, I was just told that when they get them, they don’t stick around long.  SO much for that elusive wonderful purchase I was hoping to find.

I did come across some wonderful old quilts:

 

A Great 1950s log cabin!

Odd widths of logs, and great prints and plaids!

And that electric plum backing!  GREAT!

I went up a couple of floors and around a few corners to find this one:

A machine appliqued dresden on a field of blue.

And this one:

A sun drenched photo of a yoyo from the 1930s --

I know there are some that love yoyos.  To me they are a bad waste of good fabric that would have been  better used in a real quilt!  ((ooh, how is that for an opinion! LOL!  Sorry if I offended any yoyo lovers out there!))  It takes a LOT of fabric to make one yoyo.  There is no batting or backing. They are definitely not “warm, cozy or comforting” to be under.  They are held together by whipstitches in a few significant places, and often times these threads break because the yoyo quilts get so heavy.  If the yoyos are small, you can’t even tell WHAT the print on the fabric is---

I’ve had half a mind a time or two to buy yoyo quilts to take them apart and use the fabric in something else, whether it was repairing a vintage quilt that needed vintage fabric to patch or mend it, or just making my OWN vintage scrap quilt by actually cutting the pieces into useable shapes and sewing them so you could enjoy the print on each fabric piece. 

No, this yoyo top, even though it had so much work in it, did not come home with me.

But this one I loved!

Blocks going every which direction!

Loads of ginghams and plaids!

This was another fun one too..just look at the scrap variety:

Hodge podge!

Is it columns? Is it rows? Is it blocks?

This was a whole scrap bag, a life of sewing left overs.  I think it is bright and vibrant and happy, and it makes me want to know MORE about the maker!

But then I turned around another corner and spied this!

In a room where everything was marked 20% off!

My heart skipped a beat, sped up and started to pound!

And it isn’t even SCRAPPY!!?

1880s Double Irish Chain!

Pencil marks are still very visible where the maker traced a circle for the tea cup quilting in the alternate blocks.

The altnernate blocks are solid squares, with 4 appliqued red squares, one in each corner, which, before rotary cutting techniques, was the traditional way of creating the chain effect.

The red border fabric is a different red than in the center of the quilt, but still a close cousin.

There is a bit of staining, mostly on the back of the quilt, but all fabrics are sturdy and there are no holes.  The binding is the top brought around to the back and machine stitched down by treadle-- A custom of the time for those who had the luxury of owning a treadle  machine.  ((Oh dear, what would they think of me having 6 functional treadle machines in cabinets in my house, and another 4 at the cabin?!))  Machine stitching the binding also made the edge of the quilt very sturdy.

The quilt looks like it was maybe washed only a couple of times if that – and yet the pencil marks remain, and the reds are crisp and bright!

The originial price?  $95.00.

With 20% off?  $76.00.

Yes, this is coming home with me!  I can see it hanging over the banister at the cabin, with other red and white or red and green quilts at Christmastime.

I caved.  And I’m glad!

Today’s workshop was fast paced, very busy, and a ton of fun.  Photos to follow tomorrow.  I didn’t even get a chance to write a lunch time galaxy-gram ---but you’ll get it all in the morning!

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