I've been meaning to post some pictures that I took when we visited my grandmother last weekend. A friend of hers shared some old quilt blocks and newspaper patterns with her, and my grandmother shared them with me. I was particularly fascinated by the patterns which are all from newspapers dated between 1931 and 1933. I'm so completely wedded to my rotary cutter that the thought of cutting templates out of the newspaper and using them to create all my blocks gives me the shivers. I don't think I'm quite that brave...
There are some beautiful blocks represented here. A few that stood out to me were Old Missouri...
...the Broken Stone...
...and Amethyst. Can you imagine these blocks done in modern fabrics? Gorgeous.
The instructions at the bottom of this block made me smile: "Many a simple pattern has been shown for the quiltmaker who is not an expert. This is for the woman who can make the most difficult pattern. Allow for seams, be careful when cutting the patterns. Patience and skill are required, otherwise leave this quilt to those who have both." They didn't mince words back then, did they?
Here was one of the actual blocks that were included in the bundle. I love the blue and pink flowered prints that make up the opposite edges.
In our little corner of the world there were two big news stories today. After much anticipation and only a few tears, Bunny lost her first tooth. I whipped up a quick tooth pillow in the half hour before bedtime, and she's thrilled to pieces that I'll be sneaking in there tonight to exchange her tooth for a quarter. Mostly I was just excited that she was expecting no more than a quarter...
And at last -- at long last -- I finished my Heather Ross quilt top. There were some dicey moments with this little top (I'll go into it more when I do the post on the finished product), but I'm so happy with the way it finally turned out. I believe that I'll be hand quilting this one, which will take me some time, and I just couldn't wait to share the finished top with all of you. That's my wonderful dad holding up the quilt for me -- it's been raining here all day, and I couldn't find anywhere to hang or drape this top that wouldn't get it soaking wet. He was sweet enough to help me out before all the light was gone this evening.
This is my favorite part of the quilt. Like I said, the light wasn't fantastic, so I'm afraid the picture is a little more blurry than I'd like, but trust me, you'll be seeing this block again...
Drop by here again on Monday for a special announcement and a giveaway. I can't wait to share more!
Loving the old newspaper patterns - especially the Amethyst one. What a stunner! I don't know that I'd manage templates either though!
ReplyDeleteWell done on the big quilt top finish! Looking great!
Fun old patterns - I have a few from my grandma too. And I love your quilt top, especially your fav block - I made that as a bee block recently, and it's really striking, isn't it?!
ReplyDeleteFabulous Heather Ross quilt! I'm envious ;-)
ReplyDeleteLove the new quilt top, you have been brave with your HR prints! :o). You are so right about the old quilt blocks, you can almost hear the haughtiness in the persons voice that says if you're not a skilled quilter, don't try these blocks!! :o)
ReplyDeletewow that is a beautiful quilt!! i adore old patterns & fabric!! I have never come across your favorite block and now I am on the search for it...love it!
ReplyDeleteOooh, fun stuff shared with you! I like the unexpected choice of bright blue and large flowers fro the center of the actual block you have. And the descriptions, priceless! I´m glad I don´t have that "aspect" in my kitchen cooking with me! (Maybe it was a way to encourage and challenge back then?)
ReplyDeleteThe Heather Ross top is marvelous! Can't wait to hear more about it :D Really like the layout you came up with, your favorite block and the little row of perfect hexies!
Oh my goodness. What a part of history you now own. Is it illegal to share those patterns? Wow oh wow would I love to have a copy of them. Looks simpler than anything I have seen to date. And goodnress knows I need simplicity at its best. Wonder if thier is some source that kept them all on file somewhere so that we new younger generations can access them.
ReplyDeleteyour quilt top is amazing! You did a wonderful job highlighting her fabrics. I so love Heather Ross and have such a hard time cutting into my stash of her fabrics but after I see your quilt I might be able to cut into a few pieces now. Those old patterns makes me think of my grandmother who was a quilter but passed in the 50's before I was born. I bet she used patterns like those.
ReplyDeleteI love the amethyst pattern! How cool to find old treasures like that!
ReplyDeleteThose are the coolest quilt patterns! You should try to make them with modern fabrics and share them with us! I laughed at the writing on the bottom :) They just didn't care! Looking forward to seeing more of your HR quilt :)
ReplyDeleteCool templates! The HR quilt is fabulous. Did you plan it or improv it?
ReplyDeleteHeidi, that's a lot of eye candy in one post, love all those old pattern and the words of warning made me laugh, maybe it would serve people well if we still could describe things without being politically correct all the time. Oh, and your HR quilt is gorgeous. I love how improv and unexpected it is, beautiful work.
ReplyDeleteI love my rotary cutters, but those old newspaper patterns make me want to break out the cardboard cereal boxes and a pair of halfway decent scissors! :-)
ReplyDeleteThose old quilting patterns are amazing. I love pieces of history!
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine doing everything with templates? Your quilt is lovely. I like the text prints
ReplyDeleteSo much awesomeness in this post! I'll just say I LOVE LOVE LOVE your Heather Ross quilt top and I'll leave it at that.
ReplyDeleteWow - those old templates are amazing! We are so spoilt with rotary cutters and rulers!
ReplyDeletethose vintage newspaper block templates are so cool! thanks for sharing photos of them.
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