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| Lydia's Ladder |
Today's quilt is my
smaller version of one of Granny Rose's old quilts. It features 12" Jacob's Ladder blocks in a square 42" finished size. I used Accuquilt dies
to cut the pastel prints, which went together quickly.
This time I
chose the backing/binding fabric first, then picked coordinating
fabrics from my collection for the front blocks. I thought a lot
about her while working, so I named this one Lydia's Ladder.
I copied her quilting as well, using the Baptist Fan pattern. I did
not hand stitch, but adapted the design for machine quilting on my
Janome.
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| Baptist Fan machine quilting |
Granny's original
handmade bed quilt was being used as a furniture pad to wrap around
things that needed protection. I rescued it from the basement of her
daughter's house, even though it was stained, tattered and torn,
probably past restoration. The fabric looks like feed or flour sack prints along with shirting and dress prints. I may use a few of the intact sections
to frame or make pillow covers, so it will live on as another Useful
Remnant.
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| Original Jacob's Ladder by Lydia Rose |
Antique quilts have
such a soft, worn quality to them from being well used. They were
lovingly sewn by hand or on a treadle machine, washed hundreds of
times, dried on a line in the sun, then folded into cedar chests to
be passed on to relatives. They hold stories that we can only wonder
about. For instance, I think this was one she made, but I can only
guess. Her church quilting bee group shared fabric and made quilts
together, so everyone may have stitched on it. Or it could have
belonged to her mother since it was so worn. A labor of love anyway, passed down to my mother-in-law, then to me.
Will today's
quilts will even last that long? I hope they do, and that people continue to love them.
“Quilts reward study. They can look great from 20 feet across the room, and then you get closer and there are little dramas. It doesn’t have to be intricate. It can be simple. It just has to be authentic.”
Ken Burns, film maker and quilt collector
