Sallybear6

Amazing! What a blessing these will be!

toogie

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.

homecaregiver

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.

Iceblossom

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.

nanna-up-north

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.

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

Taughtby Grandma

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

MicheleC

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

Jerseyrayne

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.

LindaMRB

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