Serendipity
When I go to antique shows, I am likely to go on the first day, browse a little bit, make my purchase, and leave within an hour or two. I have never gone back on another day, but this last weekend I did, to pick up the coverlet I had purchased on Saturday.
We got to the show a few hours before closing, and it was not heavily attended, so we thought we’d take one last look around, and see if there were more bargains to be had. I went to a booth where I had seen linen towels (because you can never have enough linen towels!), and while I was digging through the stacks on the shelf, I saw a quilt top I had not noticed the day before.
The lady in the booth came over and said, “It’s damaged, but it isn’t expensive.” I asked her how much, calculating how high I was willing to go, and she said, “Two dollars.” So I contained my excitement and said I would take it.
She asked me, “Are you going to fix it?”
I said, “I don’t know if I will get to it, but I will try. I may never quilt it but I will document it, and fix it as a top.”
She must have liked my answer, because she started going through boxes of stuff she had not unpacked that day, and picking out things she thought I might like, and in some cases just giving them to me! I ended up with a giant bag of things for a grand total of $10, and she told me she would hold them there while I looked around at the rest of the show.
And that led to another purchase which will be the subject of my next post. But for now, let’s look at that top!
Purple quilt top.
Kaffe Fassett has a similar design called Pink Flags in his Passionate Patchwork book, but that is the only place I can find something similar in the books I have.
Purple Pennants. So festive!
The purple fabric is not helping me date this quilt. Barbara Brackman says both that there were purple fabrics in quilts before 1850, and that purple was not popular until the 1920s. Browns, on the other hand, lost popularity about 1900. It is all hand-pieced.
Beautiful prints.
Regardless of its age, I know I would never cut and piece diamond shapes so well, so I would treasure it for its craftsmanship alone.
What’s the closest airport to you? I so want to go shopping with you. Yes, those diamonds are the devil to cut out, and to think they were all done by hand! Lucky you.
That would be so much fun, but you know exactly what would happen — I would drive you around to all the places I have found bargains, but there wouldn’t be anything! Some of the businesses would be closed down, others would have converted to those little hair ribbons and potpourri shops, the ones that were still open would have nothing but cheap reproductions….and you would be looking at me all snarky-eyed and thinking I was hiding my actual sources from you! 🙂
I’m coming with Snarky Quilter! You are killing me with these amazing finds!
Congrats on the finds. I was honestly taken aback by how beautiful that quilt is. I was thinking it would be a ratty thing. So part of your calling in life is to be a steward of such art. Nice! John
“Being a steward” is exactly how I think of it too!
When I took those career aptitude tests back in high school, mine always came back that I should be a librarian. I was highly insulted because I thought it meant I just would never be “cool.” Now if they had told me I could be a librarian for art, I might have thought differently! 🙂
What another amazing find!
Had to SWOON when I saw that! WOW is all I can say……$2…..OMG surprised you didn’t FAINT! 🙂 Yes a librarian/steward of art.
I should try that fainting thing! They will want to get me out of their booth and they will send me out of there with more treasures! 🙂
Gosh, you are one lucky person at finding these great old quilt/tops…We sure need to meat up at Canton or somewhere similar!! Anxious to see everything else you found! Lucky you….
My sister just told me that someone told her, that the weekend before First Monday in Canton, they have a linen and textile show in a big building there. We will have to look into that!
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I think it’s about 1870. See this post:
http://encyclopediaquiltpatterns.blogspot.com/2016/08/blocks-that-are-not-square-triangular.html
Oh, thank you so much! I am always wary of attributing an older date, just because I know I don’t really know! 🙂
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