A quilt show of vintage treasures
 

When we stopped to see family on our way back to Michigan from Texas, a cousin handed me 3 boxes of quilt block pieces and 6 quilt tops her great grandmother made before her death in 1962. No one from that side of the family still quilted so they were put away and not found until the cousin was cleaning out her mom's house. She handed them to me as we were leaving and said, 'do whatever you think you should do with them'. Well, I know what to do. I will quilt the tops and label them for this cousin and her girls. They should be treasures for them and they are so happy to have discovered them. I am honored to be the one to finish them up.

The first top is some kind of stars but I don't know the name of the block. There are actually 2 of those tops plus one of the boxes is full of more stars, enough to do another top.

The second quilt is a double wedding ring.

I don't know the name of the third quilt block. Does anyone know what this one is?

The fourth top is a Grandmother's flower garden. The hexis are about 1 inch across and I'll have to finish up the flowers at the top and bottom.

I think the name of the last top is 'Around the World'.

I don't know the age of these tops. Some have feed sack fabric between the printed fabrics and I plan on using some white feed sack fabrics for backing on those to keep them true to their age. I will machine quilt them because I want to get them done in a shorter time for the cousin's family. Thanks for looking. If you can help me identify the age of the fabrics or the names of the blocks I don't know, I'd sure appreciate it. It's such a treasure to have found these.

What a treasure this family has been holding on to, saving for just the right person to finish them with the perfect thought and care. I have to say I'm always partial to Grandmother's Flower Garden, but what a blessing to have any one of these. I'm not that familiar with some of the quilt names, so can't help you out there. You are a dear to finish all these for your love ones.

They are beautiful!! They look like some my mother-in-law made in 50's and 60's..but I have some that were made in my youth..30's and 40's..I can not see them close up so it is hard to tell.

Wow, those are lovely! They are truly a treasure.

beautiful treasures!

How exciting! To have these treasures in your hands if even for a short time it is still so thrilling! I am so sure they will be much loved by these cousins when you get them back to the family. I know you are treasuring the moment.

Great looking quilt tops there and a gift to receive them. Such a nice thing to finish up after all this time, they deserve it.
Respect :thumbup:

great treasures. very wonderful of you to finish theses.
your first quilt is a kite quilt . have the pattern here some where.
on my bucket list.
your third have seen in a book , can't recall the name.

Wow, those are all so pretty. I think the last one is called "Boston Common". Trip around the world is a diamond pattern layout.
It is so nice of you to finish these for the family.

Beautiful work and lovely that you have these treasures to finish. I'm looking forward to seeing how you finish them. It's going to make everyone happy!

Found your third quilt. at least a variation of it.
Six - Pointed Star Variation,, in book called
Quilts. Quilts. and More Quilts ! by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes.
hope this helps.

Those quilts are fantastic! I would so love to help you if I lived closer. The first one has many names - I knew is as a Hummingbird quilt because there was a show by Georgia Bonesteel back in the 80's and she called it that. Well, I looked all over the place for it and no quilt shop had heard of a hummingbird quilt, so I finally wrote to her and ask asked. She not only responded, she sent me the pattern. She told me at the time how many names it has so you may get a lot of different names.
I did a GFG quilt with 2 inch hexis and that seemed to take forever. Looking at the one you have is incredible. So lovely!

They are beautiful tops. The first is called hummingbird by Darlene Zimmerman. I am sure it will have other names but this is a class I took giving it it’s name I don’t know the name of the 3rd but it is interesting

the third quilt center looks like the Colorado star block has solid hex.
made with equilateral triangles.
the sawtooth block is similar but has a pieces center hex.

I am in Awe. These are beautiful. Treasures for sure. Please show them when you are finished. Bless you for being able to complete these quilts. BrendaK

I can't help you with the names of the ones you are not familiar with but wanted to let you know how lucky you are to receive all of these. This is quite a treasure trove and it sounds like you will really enjoy finishing these wonderful vintage quilts.

Holy Moley ! So glad someone saw the value of them and turning them over to you !

The Hexagon Star quilt variation has another name but I'm not thinking of it right now... It's basically an extra outer row around that first star with an appliqued circle.

Wow what a find by your family. They are all so beautiful. I'm sure they will be treasured for many years by your family.

OMG those are beautiful

what a lovely treasure!

Great job. That inspires me to learn appliquae.

How awesome is that to have so many tops and blocks and pieces from 60+ years ago. I'm sure your cousins will treasure the finished quilts for generations to come. t

All are beautiful.

What a wonderful journey you will be on. They are all a great glimpse into the past. The last one is my favorite. You will be busy!

The third one looks to be "seven sisters".

Interesting that you want to follow through on using feed sack fabric for the one but you plan to machine quilt these beauties. If those were done before 1962, what's the rush to finish them now? How would the person who made them do the quilting? I totally enjoy hand quilting tops made by another person and seeing their handiwork as I go. The quilting doesn't need to be anything time consuming or detailed but featuring the piecing of the quilt with something really simple. I encourage you to hand quilt these--following through on the originals. Plus I hope that family will appreciate what you are doing for them. Otherwise, I'd keep them and enjoy them myself. After all, she did say to do as you please with them! (At least, she didn't pitch them and recognized that you would enjoy them.)You are investing yourself in these, no matter how you choose to do the quilting.

Great-Grandma must have been an awesome quilter! Have fun however you quilt them and please post pictures as they're completed.

Those are simply wonderful and so sweet and generous of you to quilt them for them. I would suggest they have them appraised.

Amazing! What a blessing these will be!

I agree with illinois about the hand quilting, in keeping with the time period. If it was important to keep the fabric in the same era, keep the quilting too. Do you know any hand quilters in your area? I 'd have a quilting party and invite them over. You'd be surprised how quickly one quilt could be done. I know nothing as fast as LA but you know what I mean. I had a party 2 years ago to quilt an anniversary quilt I made my husband. Enjoyed chatting while we worked.

wow, all of those quilts are beautiful and the make of them sure did a wonderful job, What a gift that will be for the cousin.

I'm going to go across the grain as I often do -- finished beats unfinished! Machine quilt them if you wish. Quilts have been machine quilted as soon as there were sewing machines, I've said it before because it's true -- you can have an authentic Civil War era quilt that is entirely machine sewn and quilted. Not so likely because most of those would have been simple use quilts that weren't stored and passed down from generation to generation but used hard and worn into shreds.

Same thing with the quilts of the 30s to today. Finishing was always a difficulty and I think machine quilting is better advice than telling you to "tie it with embroidery thread to fit the period" because that was what was done with use quilts.

You've already seen how long those treasures went unused and unrecognized by the family. What makes us think that the next generations will care?

edit/PS: A year or so ago at the thrift store I found a lovely all hand pieced Grandmother's Flower Garden very similar to yours for $6.99. I think my fabrics might be 10-20 years more recent. Anyway, it was a huge project basically king sized , I think that's one of the reasons my top was left unfinished. I took off some of the blocks to make it a large queen and plan to machine quilt it down. I see a lot of unfinished hex type quilts because the edges always presented a design dilemma.

Here's a secret to many of the unfinished tops I find -- they were unfinished (just like we do today) because of workmanship issues or other problems. Those simply look like lovely tops that didn't get quilted down in time before the quilter passed on.

Thank you all so much for your comments. I've made a note of the names of blocks that I didn't know and I really appreciate the comments about hand quilting vs machine quilting.

I agree, hand quilting would have been the method to finish these up but I am very slow at it and I want to get them finished for the family. I think I can do them justice on my LA without making them seem too over the top. At a quilt show I attended a couple of years ago, there was a display of vintage quilts given to some machine quilters. The same top was quilted by 2 or 3 different machine quilters and they were beautiful. So, these will be machine quilted by me on my LA to get them finished and back to the rightful owners. Like Iceblossom said, finished is better than unfinished.

I've been given batting to do these from a dear friend. She was donated several quilt batts to be used for a good cause. She decided I was the good cause. Thank you so much, Burns2U. I have feed sack material that I'll use for the backing for as many quilt tops as I can. I have a lot but maybe not enough for all the tops.

I've posted one last top that I didn't gather up when I got the stack that I posted here. It's a butterfly block quilt. Go check that one out, too. I have a total of 7 tops to do. I won't get them done fast. But, I'll post them as I get them done. I go north for the summer and my LA is down here at the winter house so I won't get many done this spring. I'll pick them up again in the fall when I return. But, I'll keep posting.

Thanks again, all. I truly value your opinions.

from Don-isewman
 

What a wonderful person and a finding she gave you. Your GFGarden is almost identical to my GFGarden that was given to me It has the green path like mine

They are all beautiful. What a treasure to keep. The colors and patterns remind me of quilts my grandmother used to make.

I hope you enjoy finishing these. They are beautiful. What a treasure!

Those are all beautiful quilts. I see no problem using a longarm to quilt them. I agree with Iceblossom, they have been machine quilting quilts for over a 100 yrs. If they weren't, usually it was because they couldn't afford one, or they preferred hand quilting. I found the name of the first quilt and the block used is the Periwinkle blk. I found the blk in a couple of my books, but the first book was from 1942 titled 1001 Patchwork Designs. I have actually made the same quilt, but haven't quilted it yet. LOL But it will be quilted with a machine, domestic. I can't do the hand stitching anymore. Good Luck and enjoy quilting them, and the family will love them.

My Aunt made a quilt like the first one in 1935 which I now have. At some point I saw it on a calendar and it was called hummingbird. If you squint, you can see the birds humming...
If you go to my posts (you can do that right?) you'll see I posted it very early after joining. It's all purples and white centers.
Linda MRB