I made my husband take me to an estate sale this morning because I saw some quilts in a few pictures of the estate items. This was the first time I've gone to anything like that so I was bummed to find a whole line of people waiting to get in before it even opened. I just knew they were all there for those quilts! :P When they opened the doors I filed in with the rest of the people and asked the man at the door where I could find the quilts. He pointed me towards the living room so I hurried in there. A woman was holding one and looking at it when I got in there so I stood aside hoping and praying she'd set it back down. She did so I grabbed up both really fast and ran to pay. :) They weren't a bargain but I liked both of them quite a bit.

I have no idea their history since it was a company running the estate sale. No label on either one. Does anyone have any idea how I might go about dating them? I've looked at Google a little trying to find a guide of some sort, but haven't had any luck.

Also am wondering about the worn edge on the blue one. Do I go about trying to repair it, or do I just let it be and display the quilt as is? It's binded by just folding the back over and that's torn away in the one area pictured below, and worn through in several other places around the edge. I would think if I was going to repair it I would just have to put a whole new binding on it. I don't know that I feel confident enough doing a repair on something special like this so I may just let it be for now.

I don't know but they are beautiful good hunting

soooo cool

Ask the estate company if they can have the owner get in touch with you...if not, then take the address to the county courthouse and get the tax records for it...that will at least tell you who owned them...

They're beautiful! :)

Oh what a great idea! I never thought about asking the company to have the owner contact me. I will look into that tonight!

What beautiful finds!!! You are so lucky :D:D:D

green with envy !! these are worth trying to figure out the pattern. hope I can print them off. love that bubble-gum pink ! Good shopping. our town is garage sale capitol of the world--a treadle this morning for--$400 ! ouch.

On the blue one, I would do a sort of loop tack about every 2 inches to keep the strip from pulling off any more. Use some thread just a little lighter than the blue and only take a couple of stitches. Otherwise, you might accidently snag the loose piece and do a lot more damage. They are both beautiful and you are one fortunate collector!

LOVE them, Rachel. Especially the pink one. Let me (us:)) know what you find out about them......and whether or not to fix the blue one.

If it were me, I'd cut off the inch or so of stained and ripped fabric and rebind it. There seems to be a large enough blue border that the stained and ripped part won't be missed. You can try to salvage the blue binding to restitch it, or find another fabric that closely matches.

If I might stick my 3 cents worth in here, please?
If you use "today's" fabric to repair them then they will be dated as of today. It makes no matter how old they are, the quilts are always dated with the last fabric used on them.

So, if the age of the quilts & fabric are important to you, then you
would need to find vintage fabric of the same age to repair them with. Other wise , they loose any antiquity they have. Just so you know!

They are indeed beauties!

Beautiful quilts!

Oh wow. Two great scrappy quilts. Good for you.

They are truly beautiful quilts.

I'm very glad that Riley added this bit of knowledge. I never knew that. See you learn something on this board every day.

Enjoy the quilts, it's like a mystery unfolding finding the history of them.

Hmmm...what are you going to do with them? I have three old quilts--they're on a spare bed under a bedspread so nothing happens to them. They're no fun there. So--where will you put them?

WOW!! What a find. The second one looks like it has flour sack fabric in it. A couple look like dresses I had as a baby in 1951.

love finding treasures..they both are sure pretty :-D

Love both of them! Great finds!

Thank you very much for putting in your 3 cents! How these quilts will be dated is somewhat important to me so I will stay away from using any current day fabrics in the repairs. That is the kind of info I love learning here! I like the idea of another poster to cut off some of the larger blue border area and salvage that fabric for new binding. I'm gonna sit on this for awhile though. I can't do any harm by waiting and thinking it out fully. :)

Well right now they're folded and laying over a quilt rack. I'm in the process of setting up a sewing room (yeah that's right, my OWN space :)) and will display them in a corner on the rack most likely. I know it's best to keep them out of direct light but if I put them away, what's the point in having them? I bought them to enjoy so that's what I'm gonna do. :)

They look like a great find. Quilts are dated by the fabric that is in them. They can be no older then the youngest fabric as was mentioned. What you do as far as repair probably depends on your goals. If you are keeping them as a collection you would want to speak with a knowlegable appraiser to determine if repairs would do to the value. If you want to use it, then I would do a new binding just put over the old. Make sure you document what you do and if you find any more information out about their origin.

Congratulations!

WOW! Beautiful older quilts! You did great by finding them. Congratulations. I agree with the others about restoring them with that time period fabric or speak with someone that does this professionally. Enjoy these beauties.

I see 30s fabric in the blue one - but it may have been made a little later and used fabric from several decades..

Rachel, I bought an old quilt at an auction a couple of years ago for $45.00. I took it with me when I went to a quilt show sponsored by our local quilting guild. I ended up finding a woman who appraised old quilts. She took pictures and measurements them sent me back a formal appraisal.Turned out my quilt was in great shape but the quilting wasn't the best. It was worth $600.00 and yours are much prettier than mine. Get in touch with your local quilting guild .I'm sure they'd love to help you.Linda

What a great find!!!Only in the lower 48 are the estate sales like that. :thumbup:

Gracious, now this is what I call work. Dedicated work, for sure, thanks for sharing.

Blessings, Ruth

Those are both beautiful. What wonderful finds. I would be afraid to try to repair the blue one too.

wow, beautiful quilts, glad you got them!

Very pretty and full of memories for someone, I imagine.

The first one reminds me of a spider web pattern.

Great finds!

Lovely quilts both of them! I was going to say Spiderweb on the second one too - I'm working on spider web right now!! I saw one Birmingham Art Gallery (or was it a museum?) in Alabama last year... That one was 1930's - but I think some of the fabrics in your one are '50's' - just have that look! BUT as we all know so well - could be much older fabrics in there too!!!!

Great find - I'm agreeing with enjoying them too!!

I REALLY have to start going to estate/garage sales. What a find - lucky you! Looks like someone did alot of work on both of them.

Congratulations!!!

Put them on top of the spread where you can see them and enjoy them. What good are they if you can't see them?

I can see why you got them. They are beautiful.

I have two very old orange and other scrapy colors in them for queen size beds that i use in our camper when we go camping. They are very warm when camping in the winter even though we have heat. We still like to use them.

I have two very old orange and other scrapy colors in them for queen size beds that i use in our camper when we go camping. They are very warm when camping in the winter even though we have heat. We still like to use them.

I have an old quilt that my husbands Great-Aunt made over 70 years ago. It's quite worn, and in that time when anyone made a quilt they really used it. It has some bad spots and the binding (also back to front binding) is a little ragged in spots. But because of the sentimental value, I would never try to fix or add fabric to it. Even if I could find vintage fabric...Not sure it would hold a new tug of thread anyway. I have it on display in a room away from the sun hanging on the wall. I just love it.
Enjoy your finds.

those are beautiful. thank you for sharing. God bless. Penny

that's what i was going to say. saw my grandma with that material on her aprons about then. and in l956 she was still using some of the material for new aprons.