Well, my boss is a collector of vintage quilt tops. But this past week she showed off her latest quilt acquisition one morning. Only it wasn't an unfinished top, it was a finished quilt. Full bed size. And it was a design I'd never seen before. (Or at least as far as I could remember.)
Here's the quilt:
Isn't it interesting? And so modern looking. Machine pieced, but hand quilted. It was acquired via an antique shop in the south, so probably made by a southern quilt maker. As we examined the fabrics, we determined that it was probably from the 20s. It has very thick batting -- probably cotton. We also surmised that the batting was probably locally sourced cotton and then pounded into the batting. The backing is flannel and was brought around the edge of the quilt to form the binding.
Clearly the maker of this quilt was very skilled. The arcs nicely matched between blocks. I made my mind up to try to draft the pattern in Electric Quilt and make it with today's fabrics. The blocks finish 12 inches and the center square was between four and four and a half inches (depending on the block I measured).
Flash forward until the end of the workday. A little background: I'm attending the Winter Quilt Fest quilt retreat in January up in Logan, Utah. I'm taking three classes, one of which will be taught by Jen Kingwell, Australian quilt designer and Moda fabric designer. Well, I decided to look up what the fabric requirements are for her class so I could start assembling my fabrics.
Well, imagine my surprise when I looked closely at the class I'm taking from Jen:
Look familiar? Yep, except that instead of a plain center square, Jen's quilt (named Halo) uses a square-in-a-square block. And it's a bit scrappier. I am totally stoked to take this class in about five weeks.
So, although I thought I'd never seen the quilt design before, turns out I have. And I don't need to go to the trouble to draft the block.
This is awesome! Can't wait to see your version!
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