This little sweetie came from a garage sale near my office in La Crosse on Friday. The seller said it was made by her great great aunt and given to her by her great aunt (daughter of the maker), her Great Auntie Marlys or maybe Marlis (I did not get the spelling) of Hillsboro, Wisconsin, and that the family name Markee is involved somewhere, possibly the last name of the maker. She has my phone number to call me if anyone in the family remembers more.
It's a cute little Dresden Plate, machine pieced/appliqueed in individual squares which were then machine sewn together and then hand quilted. It was self bound and the binding is worn. The backing is a printed cotton. It was dirty when I bought it, and I thought it started as white and had darkened with age and use; however, when I removed the whisker guard, I found that it had originally been a nice yellow and had faded. The top of the quilt where the whisker guard was is at the bottom of my photo. See the difference?
I soaked it gently, rinsed it carefully and dried it on the freshly mown lawn (backing side up, I only flipped it to get this photo). The 1930s prints are still vibrant. Only one fabric deteriorated. I'm thinking of using the fabric from the whisker guard to rebind the quilt. Not certain about that.
4 comments:
This is beautiful! Makes me want to get out the 30's quilt I've got stashed in squares and finish it up. I bought 30's reprint fabric to frame each quilt square. If you lived closer, I'd 'let' you help me :)
This is the ultimate recycling. Buying a gift made by hand and love, giving it new life.
Why would they sell such a treasure????
Mother Owl, I don't really understand it either. The woman said she is an excellent quilter and does very complex art quilts and this was too simple for her to enjoy, yet she also said she wished it were a Sunbonnet Sue and if it were she would have kept it. There's a certain disconnect there in my mind.
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