Wash Day

This was the scene at my house a week ago. I just love the homey look of freshly washed quilts on the line. I made this quilt years ago from a ragged top I found in a collectible shop. I loved the colors and prints. The fabrics range from the 1920's to the 1960's.

The owner was asking 15.00. (!) I snatched it up. He said, "I had another one just like it in the van that I was using to wrap the furniture... I don't know what happened to that one." Yikes!

I took it apart piece by piece, the stitching was *awful*, large stitches using thread that was coarse and heavy. I didn't feel like I was destroying history.

Then I made 3" ninepatches out of the nicer prints and set them into a Double Nine Patch layout.

Here's a close-up of some of the prints. The one above has little clown heads in the top block. The top block in the lower picture has cat footprints. Too cute! Click to enlarge.

And a hand printed label that reads:

This quilt was made from fabrics that were recycle from a scrap quilt that was found in a collectibles store. The fabrics range in date from 1920 to 1960. Only the muslin, border fabric and backing are new. It is quilted in the Bishops fan pattern. Machine pieced by Leslie Roberts and hand quilted by Lil Barton, both of Santa Rosa, California. Begun April 1990, completed November 1992.

Pieces from the past.