Thursday, January 12, 2017

The quilt



As I mentioned in an earlier post, an acquaintance gave me a bunch of old blankets and comforters to be used for the feral cats' traps and transport carriers.

When I got around to sorting through them, I noticed that one of the comforters was a hand-stitched quilt.  A BIG hand-stitched quilt; it more than covered my full-size bed when I spread it out.



And each of the squares was different.


Once I realized what I had, I knew there was no way I could cut it up and let feral cats poop all over it.  I contacted the woman who had donated the bedding.  I thought maybe she had grabbed it while cleaning out an older relative's house (I have reached That Age:  The age when cleaning out relatives' houses after they die is a Thing One Does) and would like it back.  And in the meantime, I took a good long look at it.

Lots of the panels had monograms, making me wonder if it was a family project, or perhaps a joint effort of a quilting club:





1925. The year the quilt was made?  The year someone quilting it was born?  The year a relative died?  I DON'T KNOW:


Ethel (? - it kind of looks like "Eathel) is a name you don't see much anymore:


A lot of the panels were quilted so that no matter which way you looked at it, one of the images would be upside down or askew.  Maybe so you would have something to look at no matter which side you were facing the quilt from?



In the quilt block below, I can't tell if that's supposed to be a dog, or a bear wearing a collar.  The same dog/bear is pictures in a different block with a dog angrily barking at it, so I'm not sure what it is ...





Birds, cats, dogs, books, teapots, pipes - all recurring themes.




In God We Trust:




I wasn't sure which way was supposed to be "up" on this panel - It's either a W.O.W. monogram, or it could be "MOM" if you turn it around:


As fascinating as these panels are, there are a bunch more, AND there are some that I can't decipher; I'll do those other posts. 


9 comments:

~~Silk said...

Might this have been a memory quilt? "Here's a white square. Embroider on it something that reminds you of Pop, and Sue and I will put it all together." That might account for the repeated pipes.

Could "W.O.W." (note the periods) be maybe "World of Warcraft" (the game)?

Random Felines said...

wow - that is interesting....and a lot of work done by someone

rockygrace said...

~~Silk, I am fairly certain that this quilt precedes World of Warcraft by several decades. :) If it was an acronym instead of a monogram, I'd be more inclined to think it stood for something like Words of Wisdom.

and Random, just think ... once all the quilt squares were done, they all had to be pieced together with the red parts and backed and quilted through.

James P. said...

I think it may have been a project for little girls learning to quilt......maybe a scout troop or the like. It just doesn't look like adult handiwork.

Did the quilt donor want it back?

Domestic Kate said...

I think the universe must send unique items your way, like some law of quirky attraction :) What a wonderful quilt.

rockygrace said...

James P., when I contacted the quilt donor, she said she had picked it up at an estate sale years ago and then stuck it in a closet, and she figured that if she still hadn't figured out a use for it after all these years, she might as well donate it for the ferals. After I said I didn't want to use it for trapping because it was so unique, she SAID she'd take it back, but she hasn't made any move to come get it and I'm not pushing the issue. :)
I'd kind of like to fix it up and keep it.

and Kate, yep, this stuff finds ME. Hahaha. I must give out some kind of weird energy.

Connie - Tails from the Foster Kittens said...

oooh, hearing the full story (of the estate sale) makes this even more fun. I totally hope you keep it and love it..

James P. said...

Hmm. Now I think it was the work of one little girl....and maybe the adult who was teaching her to embroider had traced some of the images.

rockygrace said...

I'm gonna *try* to keep it, Tails!

And James P., that's an interesting idea. There's a TON of panels, though ... I feel sorry for that poor kid. :)