The associate art director of the magazine, Vicki Hornsby, went to an auction at her cottage a while back and was the lucky winner of an assortment of quilts. Soon after, she moved, and then I got lucky when she kindly gave me one of the quilts in an effort to declutter during her move. Here it is, on one of the beds in our cottage cabin:
My cottage quilt
It’s not valuable, and probably not to everyone’s taste, but I love it. I can’t help wondering where all that fabric came from. Scraps from someone’s homemade prom dress perhaps? Or leftovers from a high-school home economics craft project? I’ll never know the real story, but to me there’s more magic in these cobbled-together pieces of cloth than there ever could be in a made-in-China throw off the shelves at Wal-Mart.
"Crazy" quilt made with silk and velvet, dated 1900
Judging by the material of my quilt, it’s from the 1970s (the polyester neon squares are a fairly strong hint), and the pattern is as simple as they come. So it’s likely not very valuable. Certainly no where near the value of the amazing quilts that I just saw at the Textile Museum of Canada. Their current exhibit, Kaleidoscope, showcases the antique quilt collection of Carole and Howard Tanenbaum. The exhibit includes more than 40 quilts, from as far back as the 1850s.
Appliquéd cotton quilt with Rose of Sharon pattern, 1852
The complicated patterns boast an astonishing degree of craftsmanship but are also windows onto Victorian life, some including popular children’s cartoons or protraits of famous singers. The fabrics used to make these quilts were most often leftovers from fashionable dresses and men’s suits. Although they come in all different patterns, each follow traditional quilting rules: They must lie flat with straight edges, the sewing must be precise and even, and the pattern must have a coherent symmetry.
The exhibit runs until March 21.
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Great piece (little pun there) Michelle…thank you…I did not know about the quilt exhibit. re. your quilt…it’s a beaut and I concur with your feelings of love and history and pure wonder at every little piece of fabric in the quilts I own. Those darned quilts at Walymart are so good sometimes…I mean viewed at a distance the colours, the feel is often just right…if you were going just for decorative, must have pale green colour ethic…I can see they work on that level….but no soul, no dreaming whose dress this was or whose nightgown provided this patch. The crazy quilt in your blog is stunning …talk about dreaming…hummmmmm
I too love quilts. I’ve got a few hand-me-downs but I also snags a few at yard sales — way back when people didn’t know their worth!
I love quilts! My mom has been quilting the last couple of years and so I thought I’d give it a try, which gave me an entirely new appreciation of the blood, sweat and tears that go into each one.
Visiting my Grandma one weekend, she showed me a quilt that her grandmother made. Each piece of fabric was a random shape, and had it’s own story. She is going to donate it to the Norfolk County museum so it can be displayed. Thanks for the tip on the exhibit, I’ll have to check it out.