Hi all! This is a quick post to share a vintage1950’s era quilt I brought home from my parents’ house. The pattern has several names. The two I am most familiar with are Lone Star and Star of Bethlehem. My mom said it had been made as a raffle quilt and sold, then somehow it made its way back to her. I can’t remember exactly how, because as she told me I was already looking at the quilt and marveling at it! I also wish I’d asked her if she knew how much it went for in the raffle. So, Mom, if you are reading this, do you remember??
It has obviously been loved, used, and washed many times. The binding is pretty much shot.
It is all beautifully hand quilted, with tiny stitches very evenly placed; and,believe it or not, very few of the stitches have popped.
In the above photo, you can see a couple of spots right at the bottom where the stitching is broken.
I think my mother said it was made from scraps from her dresses, and I am amazed at how bright the fabric still is.
The back is all green, with a bit of the purple on the edges. The binding was the same purple fabric.
It was straight edge, double fold binding, and those threads at the top have just disintegrated. This makes the case for bias-cut binding strips! There are no holes anywhere on the quilt except for the binding. Perhaps bias binding would have lasted longer.
However, since the binding is gone, I can peek inside the quilt and see that cotton batting was used and has not clumped anywhere in the quilt.
I actually brought it home to fix and replace that binding. Now I’m wondering if I should. The rest of the quilt is in pretty good shape, so I don’t think it would be considered a “cutter” quilt, but I also don’t know that I would really use the quilt anymore. What do you all think?
I would repair the quilt. It has many happy years left in it even if not used, and sealing the edges will help maintain its integrity. Also, have you considered documenting the history (including the repair if you choose to do it) in a label on the quilt. In another 50 years, your descendants may want to know these details.
I think I will repair it, Barb. Putting a label on it is definitely something I need to do. I need to get all the details from my mother so that I get the dates right! I know when she showed it to me she told me the exact year it was made, and I thought I would remember it, but by the time I got home, the info had already dumped out of my head!
Doing this blog post has made me want to pull out a couple of other old quilts I have, photograph them, and write about them!