Today I’m pulling a quilt from the cupboard. Or should I say a “ghost of a quilt”? The pattern is called a Double X, or is also known as Goose and Goslings, Crosses and Losses, or Fox and Geese. It’s an old pattern dating back into the 1800’s.
The blocks are just over 5″ square. They are set on point with alternating plain white blocks.
The date of this quilt is a puzzle due to it’s poor condition. It’s hard to see what the fabrics were. What fabric remains has been bleached to shades of lavender.
The fabrics may have been brown at one time..or a darker purple? This quilt has been bleached by chemicals, or sun…or both?
In some places the fabric is intact, but just bleached out. In other places it has disintegrated. What I find odd though, is that the white fabric is in wonderful condition with no signs of damage.
The quilting on this quilt is quite heavy, done in diagonal lines across the quilt and across the blocks with no regard to the piecing. It’s rows of stitching are spaced at just over a 1/4″ apart. It appears the quilter did her stitching with no marking, because the lines are not exact. It looks like it was done “by eye”.
I found this quilt at a garage sale and happily paid the $1 they were asking. I know it’s “shot” and not really good for anything…but I know how long it must have taken to do all of that tight quilting and I couldn’t just let it sit there…alone…and unloved. I hugged it to my chest as I carried it back to my car. I carefully placed it on the passenger seat and couldn’t help running my hand over the stitching as I drove home. 