A friend of my DH gave me these tops made by his mother years ago....probably in the '70s or '80s...who could afford only scraps for her quilts. Many of the fabrics are polyester blends or 100% poly but there are plenty of cottons in some of the tops....and some seersuckers too. The strippy ones were paper-pieced.

What's cool about the tops is the huge variety of fabrics...sort of like a retrospective of clothing fabrics from those decades. And I remember those decades really well!

The strippy with the blue border I will quilt first and give back to Johnny. No one else in his family wants them...which is a shame.

The brown Dresden Plate is blocks of cheater fabric which I might use as a backing...it feels like cotton.

So....what ideas do you have for how to quilt these???

Very nice, love the first one
Oops, forgot there are more coming!!!

Nice... I really like the first quilt with the hexagons and the bright green fabric.

Wow these are lovely!

they are wonderful! I can't understand how anyone in her family can not see the love and beauty of them, and then treasure them for ever.

My favorite is the tumbling blocks.

They are very nice and glad you have them.
Really like the tumbling blocks...80X100! Wow!

How wonderful. It would mean a lot to her to have someone finish her quilts.

These are all nice tops. Love the hexagon one. If you look at the green triangles...they make stars. Thanks for sharing.

Most of the tops are so large! Some have very narrow poorly-pieced borders that probably should be replaced. I definitely have lots of quilting practice ahead of me! Some have blocks that do not lie flat so those I might hand tie or machine tack with puffy poly batting.

Thanks for looking! Give me ideas!

I love them all! The baby blocks are my favorite

oh wow!! what an awesome gift - they are gorgeous!

wow! Very nice....... Glad you got them, and will finish them for her.

I can really see those quilted. YES!

I also think the tumbling blocks are fantastic

:thumbup: AMAZING Tumbling blocks, what a fun pattern!!!

Awesome what a gift enjoy them

Very nice. Just the kind I like.

Those are great quilts......

Wow they are all beautiful

she made such beautiful, beautiful quilts considering the 'scraps' she had to work with. thanks for sharing these.

WOW....you are so lucky...they each have their own special beauty...congrats to you...Naomi

WOW! You must have felt like a kid on Christmas morning as you were unpacking all the quilt tops given to you!!! I am sure Johnny will be thrilled to receive the strippy quilt back all assembled and quilted!

nice collection

OMG what treasures, so sad someone in her family didn't have the appreciation for them, but lucky you!!!! I think my favorites have to be the Hexs, Tumbling blocks and the strippy.

Very nice!!!

Tumbling blocks made me gasp. That one is my fav

First off the 70's and 80's weren't that long ago. I think I had clothes made out of half of that material. :-)Never thought of myself as retro or being decades since I graduated high school. LOL. I love the Tumbling Blocks 80 x 100 and the Stripy with blue border 76 x 92. Most of these quilts were made and probably going to be tired and not quilted. Please leave some of the imperfections in them, it's part of who the maker was. I didn't see a pic of the Brown dresden plate quilt. The only suggestions I can give you is to finish them and Love them till they fall apart. I think any way you finish them they will be beautiful and great examples of how cool we were in the 70's and how much ingenuity a sewer can have to make old into new. Great gift. your very very lucky. So glad he found you to give them the praise they deserve.

Oh, so nice. All of them were made with love, I can tell.
Alma

ARe they hand pieced or machine pieced? Either way, that is a lot of work.

All beautiful!

These are great! Thanks for sharing! (no ideas for quilting!)

You sure did hit the "Jackpot" !!

No idea how you'll be able to find older fabric to match for your boarders,good luck w/your search.

I would love to see how you end up quilting the crumb quilt. I'm making one right now and I'm not sure how I will do the quilting on it.

Those are so nice. I love the crumb one.

I think it is interesting how classic still classic. We are still doing these patterns--fabrics change, but patterns don't. :)

Very nice tops

Such pretty tops. It's hard to understand that no one in the family wanted them.

Wow, those quilt tops are great. Nice collection.

they are all lovely I would take either one lol

Beautiful. What a shame family doesnt want them.
You must have had the best time looking at all the different fabrics. A walk down memory lane.