Today as I post this quilt top it’s December 16, and I thought this one was fitting for the holiday season given it’s color scheme?
This quilt top is a red and green Circle of Life. I would guess that it dates to 1860-1880? The blocks are made from four 9″ quarter circle fan blocks with machine pieced fans. The fans were then top stitched by machine onto a background of red.
You may think it’s odd to see a quilt of this age to be completely done by machine, but according to one of my reference books..Dating Fabrics: A Color Guide 1800-1960 by Eileen Jahnke Trestain, not only the blocks were machine sewn in that era, machine quilting began to appear in the 1860s and 1870s as well.
You can see that the fan shape has been sewn to the block with white thread, which was common. It is what was widely available.
The piecing isn’t precise. Maybe the maker of this quilt top was rushing to get her top done? Maybe it was meant to be pressed into service right away and speed was more important than accuracy? Maybe our quilter of yesteryear was a fun, relaxed gal that put her top together and said..”done is good!”
It’s a shame we’ll never know who made it and why it wasn’t finished. I think I’d like this quilter? She chose such a bold color scheme for her quilt! She just had to be fun? 
It appears that two different greens were used? It’s my opinion that at the time this top was made, those two greens were probably very close to the same color. Some greens faded out because the dyes used weren’t stable.
A red stripe fabric was used in some of the fans too. Stripes and plaids were fashionable at this time, especially after Queen Victoria had her portrait painted wearing her ancestral Scottish Tartan. Selective cutting of those patterns could enhance a lady’s tiny (heavily corseted) waist, and the cut of her gown.
The red is probably an aniline dye which had started to replace the madder that had been used prior to this time to achieve a nice red? It’s a nice crimson. I like that green print too!
You may have noticed..there’s a gaping hole in this top? I have removed a block that had damage. Maybe a mouse nibble?
This top also had a 4 1/2″ red border surrounding the blocks and then a 3″ green print border, followed by a 9″ red border. I have removed those as well. Some repair work needs to be done here. I can use the red and green border fabrics to replace the damaged block, but I’m not sure I want to do that? I could use the original red and green fabric that is still intact from that block and insert just a very small piece of reproduction green and match the red as close as possible with a modern fabric? Then I could use the original green border as intended along with the more narrow red border and the wide one?
I could use that wide red border to replace the damaged red in the block? To me, it seems a shame to use that wide red to replace the red in the block though, because it would leave me with a LOT of wasted original red..and a much smaller top? AND..while I’m at it..I’m tempted to tidy up the stitching of the blocks..and applique the fans down by hand?
So many decisions! I don’t really know what I want to do, so I’ll carefully fold the top up and place it back in the cupboard until I’m more sure of what to do.
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.
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. 
Today I’m pulling a quilt from the quilt top cupboard.
I date the quilt top to after the 1880’s, but it’s a scrappy style quilt and has fabrics that are a bit older.
The red fabric used to set the blocks together is a crimson red and has little black sprigs on it.
I’m including a lot of photos of the fabrics, because I know that’s what those of us that like the older quilts really want to see. The style of this quilt is very simple. It’s a diamond block sewn together as a nine patch. I couldn’t find a name for the blocks done that way in my reference books.
Maybe someone made a Lone Star quilt and had left over pieces? They wouldn’t have let them go to waste? OR..maybe the maker of this top wanted to do a variation of the usual nine patch made from squares? It’s evident that the maker had good sewing skills and maybe she wanted to show them off a bit?
There are homespuns, shirtings, stripes, and a few larger scale florals. There’s crimson reds, cadet blue, a bit of indigo, and lots of warm browns and dark tans. I like the brown and red combo and it was popular in quilts from this era.
I quilted this top using cotton batting. I stitched in the ditch on the diamond piecing and stitched long lines down the zig zag setting to emphasize it. In this era it was common to quilt a fan pattern across the whole top, quilting across seams as if they weren’t there. I kept my quilting simple because the red fabric is a bit fragile.
Here is a peek at the backing I used. It’s a homespun and is what might have been used if this top had been quilted when it was new. When dating a quilt, it is dated by the newest fabric in it. So..technically, this not an antique quilt. If it were for sale it would have to be advertised as an antique top finished at a later date.
These last pics are left over bits and pieces that I had to edit out because the red fabric is too damaged, or weak to have been used. I’ve kept all of the pieces though. Maybe in the future I could use them to repair another top? OR I could take the red away and make a second quilt using a different fabric?
Let’s look in the quilt cupboard again? Today I’ll show you the quilt top that’s draped over the door. It’s a Double Wedding Ring variation. When I first saw this quilt I had never seen anything like it. I was familiar with the standard Double Wedding Ring that we all know. This is quite different. The arc parts are pieced from bits that are longer and more narrow than the norm. I found the colors used quite different too! When I got this one the fabrics that make the 4-patch had some damage, so I replaced them with a solid black and a black and white print. You may wonder if it’s OK to change things on an antique top? Am I hurting the value? IMO..no. The quilt isn’t historically significant and it’s made by an unknown maker. With the damage it had it wasn’t quiltable or in good enough condition to display. Repairs/replacement in this case make the top usable.
The black fabric used in the piecing has old fashioned cameras..the kind that stood on a tripod..with a little birdie perched on top. ..and just like they used to say..when watching the birdie..smile! I smile every time I look at this quilt. The fabrics are in gorgeous non washed condition, the sewing tight and done by hand. I intend to quilt this one. 
This is not your Grandma’s kind of Double Wedding Ring!