I have had so many requests for sharing the original quilt that inspired me to make Butterfly Kisses.
I have been meaning to get down to taking these photos all week - and here we are at Saturday.
Better late than never as they say!
The things I love about this vintage quilt - and it really doesn't look like Butterfly Kisses at all in this form - are the fabrics in it.
There are sweet checks, plaids and ginghams, some solids, some indigos, and there are a few places where 1930s prints make their presence known so there is no doubting the era in which it was made.
The whole quilt is a bit shabby chic, but I just love it. The background is a very faded pink print.
The quilt is basically a twin size, so I imagine someone's precious daughter sweetly dreaming through her growing up years under this quilt.
I love those ginghams so much!
The navy sailboat print? 1930s
That was the one deciding factor and guessing the age for this one as solids and plaids go through every era. But with the boats? Yep! 1930s!
And I do know that is only a guestimate still, because the maker could have had that scrap in her scrap bag for a long long time before sewing it into this quilt.
Here I am 40 years later still sewing 1980s fabrics into my own quilts - I hope it sends someone on a mystery tour at some point. LOL!
Other things about this quilt that you might not notice right off the bat:
Can you see that this quilt was likely placed in a standard 4 board frame with C clamps and quilted from both long sides in toward the center? The fans meet in the "middle" with the right hand side of the quilt having 4 repeats while the left side has only 3?
From this I also guess that the quilter was right handed or the fans would go in the opposite direction.
And those echo lines - such great texture (and so much more work!)
I love looking at things like this and trying to parse out how tings came together.
With a board frame there is no need to baste first, and fans are quilted from the outside of the quilt toward the center as boards roll and advance to the next area to be quilted.
My fans on the Amishy Baskets quilt are being quilted in a hoop - but as fans are quilted from the outside in, this requires extensive basting to make sure that shifting doesn't happen.
I've reached the next corner - and once again, the quilting goes right to the edge of the quilt and stops wherever the edge of the quilt is before turning.
Starting on the 3rd side now!
I started with the small quarter circle right up against where the last fan ended, and just go from there.
I love sharing this passion with quilters from the past.
And hand quilting is such a great wind-down at the end of a busy day.
Yesterday morning's sunrise.
There isn't a sunrise this morning - it's super cloudy and cold with rain in the forecast.
Sounds like a quilting day to me!
Back to the Butterfly Kisses comparison:
Same block, only with different combos of solids!
I chose to set my blocks straight instead of on-point as in the inspiration quilt. I also set them block to block instead of using plain alternate blocks giving Butterfly Kisses a completely different look.
The Woven Wind quilting almost looks like fans!
No matter how you make yours, this block is a winner when it comes to scraps!
It's the last weekend to enter - drawing happens MONDAY!
Did you enter the Gift-Away? Drawing happens this coming Monday 2/27/23!
I'll be drawing for two lucky winners to each receive a Butterfly Kisses PDF pattern AND a gorgeous True Colors fabric roll from Cotton to Quilts!
This solids color roll is just the ticket to pump up your solids collection and add some pizazz!
To kick all of this scrappy fun off big time, I've placed Butterfly Kisses at 25% off in both the the Quiltville Store and the Quiltville Etsy Pattern Shop through 2/28/23.
And of course Chilhowie is also 25% off through 2/28/23 in both the Quiltville Store and the Quiltville Etsy Pattern Shop.
Yesterday the Lincolnton gals took a little road trip for some quilt shop wandering (And loads of buying or so I'm told!) and I understand they had a great time!
More quilty fun will continue through today and I'm looking forward to seeing what they've accomplished now that they are back from their jaunt about and back at their machines.
I'm deep into the reds for my current project - I'll be sharing some of that after the weekend.
Quiltville Quote of the Day -
8 comments:
Did that quilt come from a second hand store? It pains me that someone gave it away.😪
i hope i haven't missed a post... we are still waiting for the paper pieced new orange & red number right??? If i missed directions, please tell me -- i am intriged and haven't tackled paper piecing in a while... thanks from cold, rainy, blustery Carlsbad CA
Thanks for the story of the older quilt! It is inspiring. Its a beautiful day and I think a walk is going to happen. Just finished one quilt and now I need to load a quilt for quilting, but first the backing needs to be done. My least favorite of the quilting process is putting the backing together. Gotta get it done!
I love seeing the inspiration Quilt. I have the boards, stands and clamps in mygarage. We used them to hand quilt and to tie Quilts. Gotta have a big living room! I like my Quilting machine, gotta get it going later today. It's Chilly 8° in the Se Corner of Washington.
thank you so much for explaining the things you saw in the butterfly inspiration quilt. i caught the frame quilting quickly. never thought about direction and right handedness. i'm always interested in how someone else's mind works. we are all so very different. thanks again for all you share with us. i've been following you since the machine quilting forum online and have learned so much. patti in florida
Love to hand quilt! Used to not always remember where I left off and where my needle was, started putting a colored plastic clothespin at the spot, so much easier. Thanks for sharing the beautiful vintage quilt!
Our daughter used to give her Dad butterfly kisses all the time and when we found the song called Butterfly Kisses it became one of our family favourites as I'm sure your quilt will be
Your vintage butterfly quilt is lovely. I like the plain blocks in between the pieced blocks and the quilting is beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
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