preserving the past.

A new friend of mine, asked if I would please hand quilt a family heirloom of hers.  Oh I could hardly wait for it to arrive in the mail!

She believes it is a quilt created by possibly her great grandmother. 

Once I was able to hold it in my hands and look at the different fabrics, it began speaking 30's to me.  There are such sweet little prints and the prettiest of colors, and there are also some geometric patterns, so some of the fabrics could go back even a bit further.  The white feels and looks like a bleached muslin.

This picture just doesn't do it justice.  The seams are lined so carefully.  The pattern is absolutely exquisite.

Just look at those tiny stitches!  The entire quilt is pieced this way, by hand.  What time and care it must have taken this dear lady, to create something so beautiful. 

I never want to loose sight of that.  I took it out of the box and handled it as you would a new baby.  And as I add my own stitches to hers, I will imagine what she may have been creating this quilt for.  Was it a gift for a new bride?  Possibly a new quilt for her bed?  Regardless, it will be hand quilted and returned to a family who will treasure it for many more years to come.

I thought I might mention here, that the hand quilting will be done with a tiny needle.  See the image below.  I will be wearing glasses for this one!

In preserving the integrity of this era of quilt making, I will not use perle 8 thread and my stitches will be tiny.  Also, I will not draw on the quilt top, but rather "stitch in the ditch".  The edges are scalloped so it will require a bias binding and in this case, I will sew it on by machine, but finish it off by hand (on the backside).  You won't see my stitches.

Thank you for dropping by 

my blog today.  

I hope you have a wonderful week.

xo