Blue and White Antique Quilt

Blue and white antique quilts are the most popular color combination in America. There are blue-white antique quilts in every size from crib to queen, and colours from the indigo shade of the 1800's to the cheerful blues of the 20th century.

I never dreamt of finding another antique quilttop. This year I was for the first time at the QA Quiltshow in Monroe (close to Seattle). QA stands for Quilters Anonymous. And there I found two quilttops from around 1860-1880. Oke, there condition isn't great, they're smelly, they got some spots, they need to be repaired and they don't have a back and a batting. But I really really love them. Think about the fact that 130 years ago, there was a woman who worked on this quilt and thought about wich pattern and fabrics she would use. I think it's worthwhile repairing them. Although they're different opinions about repairing antique quilts. Some people think you should let the quilt as it is, because repairing would devalue them. But I like to make a "new" quilt. Those quilttops deserves a second-chance, to honour the women who made them. So their work isn't lost.

Facts and figures:

Size: 76 inch x 72 inch

22 different blue fabrics

white muslin

Size of the squares: 2 1/4 inch

Rows: 34 x 35

Bought in: Monroe, Washington (North-East of Seattle), 19 march 2010 (62 dollars)

Pieces: handsewing

Quiltingpattern: tied, square knot, through the muslin, each time at two corners, see the picture.

Background

I don't know anything about this quilt. I don't know who the woman is who made this quilt. I only know she must have been very careful about her fabrics, because some of the blue and white squares are made from several pieces. They told me it's dated about 1860-1880, and if I compare the fabrics on the internet with other white-blue quilts from that period, I think that's correct.

What did I do?

I washed it very carefully, and ironed it. Unfortunelately I had to remove a two rows at the top, one at the bottom and one at the left side. They were partly cut half through, or in a very very poor condition. I will use those scraps to repair other parts of the quilt. Next week I will start basting the quilt. I will take muslin for the back.

111 PHOTOS

We made a lot of pictures, here is a selection of 111 pictures of our 12 days Seattle.

Back home

It's good to be back home, after having such a lovely time at Marne and Elaine. I know the road to friends id never too long, but I wished they lived a little bit closer to The Hague then Seattle.

Seattle, Quiltmuseum

La Conner Quiltmuseum, something you don't want to miss. Downstairs there are old antique quilts and furniture. I especially liked the " improved nine" patch. Maker unknown, c. 1930, 66 inches x 76 inches. Ninepatch blocks are machine pieced, while the melon is set-in by hand. Block design is an elongated nine-patch with 5 print patches and 4 muslin patches in each block. Straight edge binding finishes the edges sewn on by machine. Backing is muslin. Hand quilting: an X-design thourgh the five center patches, outline stitches in four outer corner patches and melons, plus melons, melons have double diamons and circle designs. It's part of the permanent collection - the Jane Jackson Collection. Well I know how to quilt my 30's quilt Ronda gave me. No doubts, because this is also an improved nine-patch from the 30's.

Seattle day 9, Lots of things are going on .....

Each day is filled with excitement. Even when you think: today it's only " Martingale", there is so much to see and to do. We started with pick-up Alayne, she lives in Freemont (Seattle), we did a quick show-and-tell, and then on our way to Martingale. Martingale is the publisher of the books: " That patchworkplace", you start with a tour through their office, where all the quilts are hanging that will be in there new books, that they publish in springtime. So no pictures allowed. In the cellar we did a very good bargain on books, they sell the books that are older then 6 months for a couple of dollars. I'm very happy with my book: Remembering Adelia. Lots and lots to read in the airplane. In the evening we all split up: Willemijn and Elaine went to basketball, Marne and I went to dutch class, and Dieuwke guarded the house. Marne and I had a lovely apple-pie had dutch class. Jacqueline took a recipe from " Allerhande", dutch food magazine.

A historical moment in the American History

This evening (Seattle time about 20.30h p.m.) was the vote about the Health Care Plan of Obama. There was a lot of discussion going about it, so the voting was very exicted. The democrats needed 216 votes. And they got: 219 YES against 212 NO, a close finish you could say. Marne and Elaine were very happy about it, it gives 32 million Americans a chance to get an insurance, for other people it means that they can't be refused anymore because they're already ill. You could say it's the biggest change in 45 years of social security system, and here we are in Seattle watching it. If there ever will be a "quiz-question" about it, we will know the right answer.

Here some quotes from the Newspapers:

- Huis stemt in met zorgplan Obama

- Landmark health care reform head's to Obama's desk

- McCain: burgers boos om zorgplan

- Obama: "it was the right vote"

- Health bill: a milestone or a mistake

- Obama slaat waar anderen faalden

- House sends health bill to Obama

Day 8, Seattle

Just some short notes, what did we do today: visiting our friend at Troll-avenue, breakfast at Chinook (good to be back again), meeting Sally (Marne's and Elaine's new RV-home), walk at the Salmon Locks (one of my favorite places in Seattle, unfortunelately no fish to see), quick visit at Jo-Ann (to use our coupons) and "stamppot Andijvie" for dinner.

Marne's Mysterie Quilt

One of the suprises Marne prepared for us was: THE MYSTERIE QUILT. So we all had to shop for some fabrics to start this project:

- 9 - 12 inch WOF, depending how big you want to make it, we used 9 inch.

- 24-27 inches WOF, we used 27 inches

- 1 strip 2 inches WOF

This is really fun to do with your friends on a rainy afternoon, it will only take you about an hour (if you have prepared cutting and ironing the fabrics), and your sewing machine is ready.

Instructions:

1. Wash the fabric, iron it.

2. Put the cuff with the right side facing up.

3. You take the 2 inch-strip, fold it and iron in half with wrong side together.

4. Raw edges even on the top edge of the cuff-pieces

5. Lay on edge of your main fabric, raw edges even, right side down. Pin it on the raw side up.

6. Make an accordeon-fold of the main fabric.

7. Pull up the bottom of the cuff, and fold over the accordeon and pin to the top raw edge.

8. Now you stitch the raw side.

Here comes the bathroom part, especially fun when you want it to keep it a suprise to your other friends. Go to the bathroom and follow instruction 9.

9. Pull the main body out from the end. (Keep it away from your friends, so it will be secret for them as well).

10. Fold it in half and aline the edges with wrong side together. Stitch within a 1/4 inch seam.

11. Turn it inside out , with right sides together stitch it together again. It's called a french seam.

12. Turn it again, and it's finished.

SUPRISE, SUPRISE, it's a pillow-case. Oh, I can assure you. We had a good, to make it more interesting Marne gave us some wrong directions, so pulling out on of the seam was also part of the fun : ). You can also make small one, like Idid, the one with the houses is for Paco.

Seattle day 7, NCEAA

It's saturday, and we still got 4 days to go. Every day is a suprise, with new adventures. And every day is busy day, we try to enjoy every moment of it. After the walk, and the afternoon and Ronda we went for the evening-programm: BASKETBALL. Elaine knows a lot about sport, and one of the things she and Marne do is "supporting" the Basketballwomenteam of the University of Washington. So they watch all their games. This weekend the first round of the NCEAA-tournament started (NCCEA stands for National College Athletic Association). It's a big deal here, especially the man's tournament is very popular (read about my experience this morning). They call it the march-madness, everybody who loves basketball is watching the games in real or on television. It's like the World Championship Soccer for the dutch.

We went to women-tournament, and I must say it was a very exciting game. There is so much happening during the game, you don't get time to get bored. The teams take their own band and cheerleaders with them, there are walking a lot of referees around, to do all kind of things, and the game itself goes very " fast" , the players have only 30 seconds to make an attack, if you don't try to make a goal or make a goal, the ball goes to the other team, so it goes from the left to right, and back again. Although prefers to do some knitting during the basketballgame.

Seattle day 7, lunch at Ronda

Well I would like to show you here a lot of pictures of a lovely lunch and afternoon we had with Ronda (one of Marne's best friends), and a show-and-tell about her quilts. But I did something wrong with my camera, and I erased all the pictures. I had a back-up for the other pictures on Marne's computer, but not from this afternoon. And unfortunelately I was the only one that took some pictures. So I cheated on this pictures, they're from 2008, but it gives anyway a kind of impression of our afternoon.

We had a wonderful time at Ronda. First we made a mexican lunch together "Tamales", the outside is cornhusk, and you can fill it inside with different ingredients, like sweet potatoes, cheese, onions etc. After you fill them, you steam them for an hour. During that hour we quickly went to the quiltshop just around the corner " the quiltersloft". This is Willemijns favorite, it has lots of patterns for aprons, Amy Butler fabrics and all other stuff she especially likes. I bought myself a pattern of a pyamas, hopefully there will some time to make them.

Then we went back home for Ronda's lunch, and it tasted so good.!! For dessert we had lemon lemon bars (citroencake) with tea. She has lovely house, and upstairs she keeps several new and old antique quilts. For example the one with 'Dresden plates" was made by her grandmother.

And she gave me a lovely birthday-gift, can you imagine a quilt from the thirties. It's just the top, I must admit I like that, it gives the chance to handquilt it again, Ronda be sure it will take good care of it, and treasure it, every quilt deserves to be loved by somebody.

It's in pretty good condition, (it's originally from Texas, her sister bought it there and it's about 1930-1940's, the size is 51 x 65 inch (1m30 x 1m65), there will be a lot handquilting the next couple of years. I'm such a lucky girl!!!!!

Seattle Day 7, GO DAWG !!!!!

GO DAWG!!! (is the cheer of sportteams of the University of Washington, their Mascotte is a Huskie-dog, that's DOG, DAWG means DOG, it's just to make it special for the University).

Well I was walking all alone through Marne's neighbourhood on my way to " THIRD BOOK PLACE" (you can buy secondhand books there), and I went of course through the bookquiltshelves (found another book for my suitcase), after half an hour, I went home, walking in the sunshine, enjoying the gardens, having fun.

Then there was a man in a garden and he was shouting at me very loud: GO DOWN or something like that, and then he repeated it again VERY VERY LOUD. So I thought by myself, what does this man want from me, maybe he's a little bit crazy, and I thought " oke I just walk away quiet, don't say anything. And then he was calling again and said something like " wait", and about the " Huskies University Washington". He probably saw that he scared me a little bit, or that I didn't understand him. So we had a very friendly conversation and he explained to me that there was a very important game in the afternoon: University of Washington, Huskies Basketball team. So he was just calling a "cheer" to me, because he thought I was fan of the Huskies. So we really had a good laugh, because I don't know anything about basketball.

Well life can be interesting wearing a sweatshirt of the " Huskies" .