Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Orderly top, disorderly border

Here's a top I turned into a quilt. The top came from Sue Breeding's (mom's cousin) antique shop in Marysville, Kansas. Notice it is very orderly nine-patch blocks on point, machine pieced. Sue also had a pile of feedsacks for sale so I went home with those too (they became the quilt back). I decided to have the quilt quilted so I used strips of those feedsacks for the border, in a random fashion, of course.


If you do this, do not show it to a quilt historian. Her eyes will google around in her eye sockets and she will start murmuring "orderly center, improvised border, orderly center, disorderly border....." and you will have to confess that you caused that, not the long ago top maker.




This quilt measures 79" x 82". The little nine-patch squares are 1" square. Rosie Mayhew patiently did the machine quilting - I learned a lesson about attaching borders to a bias top with this. I had it quilted so I could use it, it is going on my bed now! Here's the back............






......and here's a detail shot of my favorite fabric on the back.

8 comments:

  1. Beautiful! I love the disorderly border! Ha!

    ReplyDelete
  2. If the original quilt was made from feedsacks the original maker might have done the same thing. As long as your label explains all that, I don't think a quilt historian would have too many problems. Better it be a finished quilt (no matter what the border) than just a top on the shelf! It looks great! Lois

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a beautiful quilt. I would love to have this on my bed! The colours are so happy. Even the back is wonderful.

    Another quilt historian a few generations from now is going to love this quilt:)

    PS. is the back feedsacks too?

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Incredible Nine-Patch, the pattern with no end of variations. Love it and the border too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow! My favorite part is the "disorderly" border. Good for you! And the feedsack back! Glad you had the courage to use these. I think if I got a hold of some of those, I'd put them in a drawer for "later." You know, the stuff that's "too special" to use. But what am I waiting for?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh, I love that! Thank you for both pictures, the little ninepatch is so sweet. I would LOVE to look at every ninepatch!

    Lucy

    ReplyDelete