Friday, January 16, 2009

Sew Crafty Friday - Vintage Quilt Top

This is a quilt top made by my Grandmother many years ago. I have tried to figure out how old it is, but I can't be sure. My grandmother died almost 30 years ago and probably made this quilt top 30 or 40 years before she died, but I'm just not sure. I was wondering if anyone who has an eye for these things could give me any idea how old it might be by looking at the kind of fabrics used. The fabric may be feed sacks.

This is a picture of the whole quilt top on a bed.



These are close ups of some of the fabric. Can you see the little Chinese men?







I've decided to hand quilt this quilt top in my quilting frame. It will be an interesting shopping trip to find matching backing fabric, I'm sure! I am adding this project to my 2009 Sewing To Do List.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

My grandma used to do the same thing with the feed sacks. She also made cute tops for her granddaughters. I'm guessing it was done in the late 50's or early 60's.

Anonymous said...

I love that quilt!

I'm sure you feel lucky to be able to finish a quilt your grandmother started. I will be looking forward to seeing it all done!

Dianne said...

My grandmother use to use feed sacks to make different things with. I remember those feed sacks myself from when I was a girl. I am now 66 and was about 10 when I remember the feed companies using material for their feed bags. I would venture that your quilt could be approximately 55 to 60 years old. The one thing I don't know but I could ask my mom and that is how long the feed companies used printed material for their bags because it could have been longer than I stated.

If I find out, I'll let you know unless you find out from someone else who responds to this post.

Blessings,
Dianne

Little Penpen said...

What a treasure!!! I don't know how old the top would be, but it reminds me a lot of the fabric in a quilt my best friend used to have on her bed.

Susan said...

I have two vintage quilt tops made by my grandmother, so I know how you cherish yours! I took mine to a quilt shop here in town, and they told me they were fabrics from the 30's through the 50's - as they drooled over them! ;) Your fabrics look about the same type, and from my calculations your grandmother pieced hers about the same time mine did. You can see mine on my blog at http://bygrace3.blogspot.com/2006/03/bits-and-pieces.html The quilt shop I went to had vintage reproduction fabrics that would go with my fabrics, and at the time, some of them were on sale for very reasonable prices. So check with a quilt shop! Good luck!

PS - I am not a quilter (yet) so I just have my tops in my cedar chest. But ONE DAY . . . I'll get them out and finish them!

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