Some WV to NC Antiquing Fun!

in a little corner of West Virginia, snuggled in between Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, lies the little sleepy town of Berkeley Springs.

As most places in New England and surrounding areas, its many claims to fame seem to echo those of others – “George Washington Slept Here!”

But this time, it’s true, documented, and celebrated!

A fountainhead of warm mineral waters frequented by Native Americans long before Europeans arrived in the New World, are at the heart of the mountain spa community of Berkeley Springs in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle.

First noted as Medicine Springs in 1747 on a map drawn by Thomas Jefferson’s father, the waters for many centuries have drawn visitors seeking health and relief from the stress of everyday life. 

George Washington first visited in 1748 and made the area his favorite getaway through the 1760s.  In 1776, Washington’s family and friends drew up a plat of 134 lots, named the streets, and incorporated The Town of Bath, invoking the muses of the renowned English spa. Yet the magic of the springs prevailed, and the town and surrounding area are known around the world by their name — Berkeley Springs. 

The waters flow at a constant 74°F from the base of Warm Springs Ridge. You may still drink freely and fill your jugs at the public tap guaranteed by the Virginia law establishing the town in 1776.  You can wade in the ancient stone pools in one of the country’s smallest state parks. The town has endured cycles of notoriety, fashion, war and modern progress, but remains today the Country’s First Spa, a noted art town and  friendly haven surrounded by West Virginia’s splendid outdoors. [source]

I was stopping in Berkeley Springs for a reason!

I had an invite to lunch and a visit with an author friend, Carol Dean Jones (Whom I hosted a give-away for here on the blog upon the release of a recent quilty novel)  and her friend Joyce! if you haven’t checked out Carol Dean Jones’ novels, do a search for her on Amazon.  They are available both in hard copy and digitally for your Kindle and they are fabulous.

At any rate, we enjoyed a lovely lunch in one of Berkeley Springs’ many eateries and after we separated with Carol heading in the opposite direction, Joyce and I headed into the antique mall around the corner to see what was up.

We were not disappointed!

I love red and white quilts…and red and white stars are even BETTER!

Check out the quilting!

And I wasn’t trying to focus in on the price tag, but rather the binding. I want you to look at the binding closely if you can.  Click the photo to view it bigger. This is an exquisitely hand quilted beauty. The narrow red binding was basted in place by hand.  Large stitches are still there.  White thread. 

Once the binding was basted in place, the maker used her treadle machine to machine stitch the binding to the quilt.  In this early era of sewing machines, if you had one, you flaunted it. Stitching showed on the binding of MANY antique quilts from the time that machines first came to be.

These little goodies are cabin-bound!

In the back of the van, wrapped in paper and in a box is the matching juice pitcher for this set.  I found the juice pitcher in Bedford ---and then I found the salt and pepper shakers in Berkeley Springs.  Does 3 matching pieces make it a collection??

The steam boat was also invented in Berkeley Springs, WV!

I must say though that the odd item for this visit was a bit disturbing so I’m not going to share the whole thing.  There was a booth with a lot.  And I mean  A LOT of taxidermy.  I suppose from the scientific aspect it is valuable and educational, but this made me sad:

Really??  What would you do with this?

It was huge.  We walked around this corner and there is this FEMUR.  I’ll stick to quilts, and vintage sewing machines, and fun glassware and stitcheries.

Further down the road in Virginia, I managed to spend some time finishing up the Factory Antique Mall there – remember I had only made it half way through on my way up to Mary’s?

Little old dolly quilt.

This was odd.  If you think rag quilts or quilt-as-you-go is a newer invention, take a look at the back side of this piece, made generations previously:

Quilt as you go? Rag quilt?

Late 1800s to Early 1900s!

There is nothing NEW under the sun.

I captured the rest of this trip in the slide show below, including close ups of quilts where warranted:

There were so many beautiful quilts, but it is the humble make-do ones that really touch my soul.

As for the weird thing here?

Two seater, anyone??  LOL!

Yesterday was a crazy day of catch up and keep running including an afternoon eye doc appointment.  Imagine my dismay when I was trying to leave and this happened:

Hail's Bells, Y'all! . . . . #storm #hail #mightystorm #Quiltville #bonniekhunter #quiltntravel

A post shared by Bonnie K Hunter (@Quiltville_bonnie) on Jul 18, 2017 at 1:59pm PDT

It was hairy getting home. The on ramp to the interstate was closed and all of the backroads were crammed and clogged as well.  OH MY WORD.

There’s also been some quilting going on here….

A post shared by Bonnie K Hunter (@Quiltville_bonnie) on Jul 19, 2017 at 5:26am PDT

And this explains why this morning's post is a bit late!  I’ll have more on this quilt to show you during tonight’s Quilt-Cam happening on Facebook Live at 8pm Eastern.

If you miss it, it will be embedded in tomorrow morning’s blog post and then archived under the Quilt-Cam tab at the top of the blog from there. 

Bring a project, it’s been a MONTH!!  I’ll see you there.

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

Vintage Pine Burr variation found in North Carolina.

Or in the infamous words of Marilyn Monroe - "Sometimes things fall apart so that better things can fall together."

Oh, and did you enter to win in yesterday's Quiltmaker Bundle Gift-Away??  My string pieced pumpkin quilt, Punkin' Patch is in this issue!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

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