A Top Day.

    In between cleaning, I decided to work on some of my vintage quilt blocks and make them into tops. I bought these 5 Dresden Plate blocks in Houston in 2014. They were from a quilt as I can see the stitching along the blocks but no quilting marks show so it might have been a tied quilt. It looks like it's from the 1930s or 40s and was most likely a gift for someone leaving the district. I plan to use the names to do some research and see if I can find any information.
   Rather than making a square quilt I thought I'd make a long piece which can be a wall hanging or a table runner. The fabric is lovely and soft and the stitched names are still in good condition. Wouldn't you love to know the story behind the quilt? As some of the names are unusual it should be possible to find them on Ancestry.

 If you remember the Sunbonnet Sue blocks I shared last week, I can show they are now finished. I decided not to replace the stained pieces and honour the history instead. These were appliqued onto feedsacks as you can see the stitching on the background. They were unwashed but some had been joined together. The machine stitching was poorly done and the edges would have frayed if left that way and washed so I moved some of the pieces so that the raw edges were covered. It was a fun little project and each block only took an evening to stitch and embroider. I had some vintage fabric from the 1940s so used that for sashing and it's now ready to be quilted.

 Sunbonnet Sue seems to be featuring here lately. This was the other quilt I rescued and I have decided to hand quilt both of them. I started free motion hand quilting a Baptist Fan design on another small piece last night and really enjoyed the process. As it's a piece from the 1860s it was best not to use a hope which would put strain on the fabric. I'll show that one tomorrow.

Time to get back to some stitching and perhaps there will be time to quilt another donation quilt tonight.
Hugs, Jan Mac