St. Marie-aux-Mines: Labors of Love (2)

In the 'Ancienne Sogenal' (Old Society General) you could find a beautiful collection of antique quilts collected by Jane Lury and her husband (sorrry I forgot his name).

Weddingring quilt 1930s, my wedding quilt is from 1954
 so a little bit younger. But similar fabrics.

I can tell you I spend some time there on thursday and saturday talking about our common love for old quilts. One of the most difficult things is dating quilts. If you don't know who made it's hard.

No way you can date them exactly but looking at other antique quilts, compare them to my own quilts and blocks can give you some clues. But only like late 1800s, around 1900, 1930s - 1940s. It's wonderful to touch the old quilttops and asking yourself 'why didn't she finished this quilt'. Did she lost interest, did she die, became sick, to busy with taking care of the family, or didn't she like the fabrics anymore so many reasons.

1930s Grandmothers flower.
Marne brought me just one like this from her church,only much more faded.
 So interesting to see that it has the same small green strips.
 I will show you some pictures when I'm back home.

Irish chain around 1890. I love the combinasion of muslin and
 the dark brown fabrics and men shirts. They're so typically late 1800s.

 

Lovely old quilttop arond 1870, way over my budget ; ).

Still there are lots and lots of orphan blocks to buy.
 I found two interesting Sun Bonnet Sue. There are lots of things
you can do with these old orphan blocks. 

 Admiring quilts like this gives me the inspiration to go with my orphan block projects and restoring old quilttops and turning them into quilts.Lucky we don't have a quiltpolice, because conservators think that you should leave the tops and blocks the way they are. I'm not doing that I love to turn them into quilts, and finish them as they were meant to by the original maker.