circa 1900-1920 quilts

[FowlManorQuilting]

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/558477677NDHpgR

My albums are under gdtpits and the quilts can be found in two of the albums listed.

Ladies, many of you have commented on how quilts were done at the turn of the century and before. I have just finished an insurance inventory and took pictures of the quilts that were hand sewn by my husbands family and my own. These originate from the West Virginia area of Huntington and also the Cadillac area of Michigan during 1900 thru 1920's. I am so blessed that our families were so productive in this art and enjoy them tremedously. I hope they inspire your work when duplicating these wonderful patterns in piecing and quilting. I have allot to live up to now that I'm trying to learn this artform. Enjoy?

[Jhend]

Wow, you are very fortunate to have these. I just love the aged look of a quilt and always wonder about it's roots. Thanks for sharing.

[Mary Beth]

You must be the luckies person alive. I would love to have beautiful quilts from that era made by my family. They are beautiful...thank you for sharing.

[FowlManorQuilting]

These pictures were taken with a small digital camera with a flash. Some I tried to cover the flash as it seemed much to bright to see the quilting patterns. I am amazed at the stitching these ladies took the time to put into these beauties, some are 16 per inch. Many have age related problems and I would never try to wash or handle them much as they will fall to pieces right in my hand so they are kept lovingly in (i know you will hate to hear this) the cedar chests they have been in for over 50 years with my husbands mother and my mother. I have the chests too so it just seems natural to keep them there. I have at least folded them in acid free paper before returning them to the chests. I looked into purchasing acid free boxes but I don't have the room to store them then. Only two per box and that won't work so they are staying in place.

When I was married I recieved 6 quilts from my husband mother and have all of them still in good shape. His brother also recieved 6 but unfortunately they did not survive their two boys so what is left is all there is from the Saunders family collection and a couple from the Drake collection which is now the Theen collection. It has been said that the Saunders quilts were done by the elders of Birdie Saunders who is my husbands great grandmother Several she did when a child while working with her elders on Saturdays and Sundays. She quilted all her life and her daughter Lucille can remember watching her quilt when she was young too. She died when Lucille was just a child and has kept these quilts close at hand.

Any other suggestions for preservation would be gladly accepted. I've sent two of the quilts not pictured to my daughter in Vienna Austria as she is expecting our first grandchild and one of the quilts is a sunbonnet sue and the other is an embroidered one like the blue one in my collection on the website. She was thrilled but says the kid won't touch them until they are old enough not to do any kind of damage. Ha! She sounds just like my mom! Still I wanted her to have something from home to keep her close and not have to wait until death puts it in her hands.

I'm thrilled to have these quilts and hope they allow those of you who want to see the patterns used back then to perhaps inspire use on yours.

[SonjaHammond]

Thank you for sharing these wonderful quilts. I just received 3 Sun Bonnet Sue quilts to quilt. These were made by my husbands grandmother for her daughter and granddaughters. (Grandma is now 102) I have been searching posts for quilting designs used in the early 40's.

The baptist fan and grid work look great on your quilts.