I found this in some of my Aunts quilts and it is a small piece that I think maybe she made for a placemat.

I know very little about quilting but I really like this pattern on the back she used for the handquilting.

Are there stencils for this?? I hope you can tell about the pictures because they are stained. I'll have to soak it in Oxyclean for about a week to get the stain out but I wanted to ask about the pattern. It looks like a Christmas Ornament outline to me..Any information will be appreciated. Thank you.

What nice neat stitches.

Thanks,she and my grandmother made beautiful stitches and were sooo patient...Of course they had a lot of practice, Grandma lived to be 92 and my Aunt lived to be 96 having just recently passed away. I'm hoping with practice I'll get the skill down don't know about the patience though?

It reminds me of an old timey Christmas ornament.

Me too, I thought I might be able to do this!

I mean no disrespect, but to me it looks like the quilting on a section of mattress pad! Are you *sure* it's a hand quilted piece? Or maybe she just copied the quilting on one.

Jan in VA

I thought the same thing. It looks like they backed this with a mattress pad. Don't forget how creative these gals were.

It's thin muslin I'm pretty sure of that, but do you mean it's the pattern found on a mattress pad? It could be and she just copied it?? Like I said I know nothing about hand quilting. So how can I copy it? Trace it on paper then transfer it to a small piece to practice??

You won't offend me I was not sure how to even ask about it.

It's the thickness of a pot holder. She never threw anything away either so nothing would surprise me. She really enjoyed trying new things regarding sewing.

Thank you for your comments. Anything to help me learn more about quilting and how to copy a hand quilting pattern.

There is a lady in Great Britain who uses polythene to copy quilting patterns. You can have a look here:

http://welshquilts.blogspot.com/sear...&max-results=7

Scroll down to the last post on that side.
I think it is absolutely possible that the pattern you showed us here is drawn with help of a christmas ornament or copied of a mattress. Quilters of former times were very, very visionary on what they used for patterns! And the household is full of ornaments.

I don't recognize it from any of my vintage quilting pattern books. I agree with Jan that it looks like mattress pad quilting. It is very even and would take a very akilled quilter to achieve the consistency of shapes. I assume from the looks that it is an overall design or background design. It can be recreated easily. Just fold paper like snowflakes so both side will be the same. You can even make a plastic stencil from it.