Antique Eye Candy
 

I'm back with a couple new pieces and a question. The four poster quilt sent in today was purchased at an estate sale in Bath ME. The binding is not in the best shape but part of it is green and part is red, as though the maker ran out of one color. I am not familiar with this pattern. If the curator comes in tomorrow I'll see if she can add any information. The other pictures are of an old hexie piece approximately 13 inches square and I have quite a stack of them. The basting and heavy paper pieces or light cardboard are still in place as is the basting which does not show on the front. Beautiful piecing.My question is why all the empty diamond spots between the hexies?

I wonder if the hexies was going to be stitched on to a piece of fabric? Or the diamonds are somewhere missing the hexies? I love love love love the first quilt and will take any and all information you can come up with for it.

very pretty, love the hexies

I'm wondering if the original quilter was going to treat the hexagon piece like you would a piece made from yo-yos and applique it onto a background fabric.

Love this first one and like the way the hexies look on the teal-ish background. Nice!

Maybe the hexies are just supposed to nestle into each other and not have any spaces between? Just shift over the row and see if they fit.....Love the old antique quilt and hope you are able to get more info on it.

very nice!!!!

Diamonds to be added between those hexies....either have been "lost" or not done yet......love that first one too! Where did you get these treasures? Are they yours or belong to a museum?

Might just be a contemporary quilt way before it's time. Love the Hex quilt too.

I think Paperprincess is right! That would be my guess as well.

my guess as well.

Is the first one hearts and gizzards?

I don't know this pattern or if this suggestion is right, but I had the Nebraska Quilt Museum help me identify the quilt pattern my grandmother used in 1935.
I found them online, sent them an email and got a response back pretty quickly.

Here's a screen shot of the google search.

The pattern of the first quilt is known as Star of the West or Star Cresent according to my book. Very pretty.

That first quilt is a variation of the Hearts and Gizzards pattern. The hexies are very interesting. I would agree with others who think it was meant to be appliqued to a background fabric. I guess that is one we will never know for sure!

With those hexies... I'd snip them apart at the points holding the rows together, then slide the alternate rows over so the top of the hexies fill in the diamond space above them, and sew them together that way. Then you'd have a solid top.

Very interesting pieces.

The diamond shapes are integral to the design, and used to be called the garden path between the hexie circles. You will have to cut some and stitch them in the empty spaces. Look at pictures of antique quilts for inspiration. By the way, the diamonds were green to represent a path.

That would be my thoughts too.

Love both quilts. As to the "empty" diamond spaces on the Hexie quilt, I think it may have been a design element that the quilter was making.

The hexie quilt would probably be used as a coverlet with another blanket or sheet showing through. I have seen a couple displayed this way in museums.

Not sure of answer for hexies BUT I must say I love the first one!

Nice eye candy. Love the colors.

The heart and gizzard quilt has a badly faded quarter where it must have been on a bed in full sun. The binding started ut as green and when it ran out she switched to red. The solid brown in the hexies (used as lining in those days) bleeds like crazy. Very interesting. Have a few more oldies to photograph next week.

lovely quilt

Those are real treasures...

The teal area, may be cut as a diamond?? measure from one point to the next(#1-#2) or like hands on a clock(12-3 3-8) Then compare to a diamond ruler. You could lay a diamond relure over a teal area. I don't know if is helpful or not. Tinker

Sorry! I should have hit the 6 not the 8 ( 12-3, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12.) They should measure the same . Oh! I do know how to spell ruler. My hand or my brain was playing tricks on me!!!! Tinker

Maybe it was meant to be like a yoyo cover=let that leaves the spaces on purpose.

I like to use more than one fabric for the binding. Just makes the quilt more interesting!

As for the hexies and the diamond shaped pieces-maybde an innovation before its times.