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Saturday, February 6, 2021

Granny's Favorite Quilt?

  As part of all that sorting I did last year, I managed to get one more quilt where it belongs. This is another one made by my grandmother, Emily Rowe. Have I mentioned how many quilts she made? I actually don't know the number. I still have six. She liked to make sampler blocks of the patterns. For a number of years, she stiched them together into a large curtain and used that as a room divider in one of the apartments she had.

They were so well done, and so varied, that Cornell University took them as a donation for their collections.

However, the quilt she had on her bed the longest (while I knew her) was this one. I actually don't know the name of this pattern. I'm sure one thing she loved about it was the red. circle of roses quilt

I tried to take sort of a sideways picture to show you the technique. This design is appliqued, and the design is padded. The leaves are padded slightly, and the circle stem, roses and buds are padded heavily so they really puff out. The center of each rose is embroidered. circle of roses quilt

I've been using it for a lap robe for a little over a month. (It's really too heavy for that, but I decided to do it anyway, for fun.) Today I got my act together and washed it (gently). Then it will be put away with the others. It's both nice and sad that the quilt is pretty badly stained, and the fabric of a couple of the roses has started to split. As much as she loved this quilt, she liked to use it. It wasn't just for display. Of course, the sad part is that it's showing the use.

In other news: I gave myself a talking-to last night after I went to bed. The list of things I need to get done is beyond impressive, and I'm not making very much progress on it. So, this morning, I got busy on a writing project that needed to happen, not related to the Dead Mule Swamp book. Well, I reached my goal, but it took all stinkin' day. I rewarded myself at various stages with a few pieces in my current jigsaw puzzle, which is sufficiently hard to keep me happy. Yes, it's hard!

We stayed in all day again today. It's nice to not have to have any real need to go out. I'll run the snowblower when the snow and wind stop.

See Lone Star Quilt

4 comments:

The Oceanside Animals said...

Lulu: "Our Dada says that quilt reminds him of quilts his Nana used to make, and he seems to be very impressed about Cornell taking your grandmother's work as a donation. Apparently Cornell is a place he has heard of!"

Lin said...

I was lucky to be able to adopt two antique quilts from my MIL when she passed last year. One is a queen-size postage-stamp quilt--one inch squares that are all hand-stitched inside. It is AMAZING! It was her mother's work.

My niece found another quilt in tatters--a Dresden plate. She looked at me with sorrowful eyes and begged me to repair it. It was quite the project. I hand-appliqued over all of the disintegrating fabrics and created a new border as the scalloped one (original) was not repairable. The 1930's fabric to repair the quilt was donated to me by a blog friend who read about my challenge. If you have access to my blog, you may want to check it out. It turned out LOVELY. I am so proud of the work.

I enjoyed seeing your quilt today. It is so pretty!

Ann said...

What a wonderful quilt. That's one thing I've never done.

Sharkbytes said...

Lulu- Dada knows!

Lin- Wow- that would be a huge project. I have a Dresden plate top made by my other grandmother that has never been finished.

Ann- I don't mind the piecing, but I don't have patience for the quilting.