Wednesday, October 11, 2006

During our travels in the States and especially when we were driving east by car we had hoped to see second hand/vintage quilts along the way.

This was not to be the case and it was not until we reached Maryland and a friend took us to an Antique Mall that we realised where they could be found.

We still did not find a quilt, traditional or crazy that made us feel that we had to take it home.

One antique store I visited in Maryland had a small selection of quilts and the owner was busy marking them down by us much as 50% to get me to buy at least one of them.

I spied the block in the image - 18" square and marked at US$18.00. I asked if he was willing to come down on price on this and he sold it to me for US$10.00.

This is typical of the few crazy quilts I saw, very basic and utilitarian. This one is backed with mattress ticking and the fabrics are either clothing or upholstery. Mostly cottons or wools with tartans and a piece of cotton velveteen.

There is only one stitch used to embellish the block, feather stitch. Other quilts that were similar only had herringbone stitch on them.

One crazy quilt I saw was made from mens ties but was very worn and sad looking and again had only basic stitching for embellishment, nothing else.

I was pleased to be able to bring this block home as an example of the work to days gone by.

3 comments:

loopystitch said...

Your's is a very interesting blog to browse through!
Rizwana

crazyquilter said...

Thank you for taking time to comment. The blog is so overdue for an update. So much has happened since my last entry, it is unbelievable.

StilinStudio said...

Next time you're up this way, perhaps you might want to look into the Lowell, Massachusetts Northeast Quilt Museum,
http://www.nequiltmuseum.org, &/or check out Amish quilt country in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (many websites).