Two Beloved Antique Quilts

The quilts handed down through the generations of my family, ones I remember playing under while they were being sewn, have disappeared and cannot be replaced, but there are other quilts that I acquired later for my son (and grandchildren) to play under while I sewed. This is the story of two of those amazing treasures that I adopted and restored.

I had been hand quilting since I was a young girl, thanks to "Aunt Fran" but my interest more or less peaked when I became a librarian. I read many books on quilting and sewing during that time; lugging them home at night and dreaming of having the time to sew. (It was quite a few years after that, though, when I bought a sewing machine and learned how to machine quilt... thank you modern technology!) I still enjoy quilting, although I'm not able to spend as much time doing it as I'd like. Lately, those old familiar urges to pick up the puzzle pieces of fabric to create a beautiful picture have begun to emerge, but until I can return to that hobby with the passion it deserves, at least I can write about it!

The story of my two beloved quilts began with a vacation to Missouri several years ago. My interests in history and genealogy led me there after finding proof of the legend that a widow had set out alone in a wagon with four children headed through Oklahoma and Missouri bound for the opening of the "Cherokee Strip." This was back in 1889 or thereabouts, so you can imagine the difficulty of such a trek. The woman's husband had died of "consumption," a vague term given to several unknown ailments of the day. He had been raised in Tipton, Missouri.

I felt somehow connected to these people in Missouri, then, toward the end of the trip, I discovered why I felt such a weird bond... I learned that my great-grandparents spent their honeymoon night in a hotel in Tipton. I also found out that the hotel and been turned into an antique shop; it was time to go shopping!

Spotting the tattered quilt in the shop was easy... it had deep, rich "Turkey" red and vibrant "Cheddar" orange colors that jumped out at me. Bargaining with the woman running the shop wasn't so easy. The whole trip had been a thrifty one for me, saving every spare penny for "something special." Well, this vintage quilt was special, and after some intense negotiations, we reached a very fair price and I had purchased my first antique quilt! The "Butterfly Quilt" ... my second treasure, was found at a small yard sale in Versailles, Missouri. The butterflies were ripped around the edges; their torsos hung on by only a few thin threads. There was also a golf ball size hole in the quilt, but that didn't matter to me either... I just had to have that quilt!

When I got my treasures home, I spread them on the fireplace hearth and looked at them for days to figure out my approach. I finally decided to repair the red and cheddar one first, since it seemed like the lesser of the two awesome tasks ahead. The entire left seam and part of the bottom had been torn loose... minor details compared to what lay ahead with the Butterfly Quilt. As I hand stitched over the holes that had been stitched 100 years or so ago, I wondered... What were the chances that this quilt belonged to my great-grandmother? Could this have been on her honeymoon bed in that hotel? What would the chances of that be? Very slim, I reckoned at the time... even slimmer that she had made it herself. The dates were about right, though, but unfortunately there's no source to refer to when locating a quilt-maker.

There are things I can tell about the maker... it's much like reading handwriting. I could tell that the maker of the cheddar and red quilt was a patient woman. Where some "stitchers" do well to get 8 stitches per inch, she got 10 stitches in; sometimes 11 and 12. She wanted this quilt to hold up to the test of time. Likewise, it was obvious this quilt hadn't been used much at all, which tells me it was probably a special gift, perhaps a wedding gift, as were may quilts back then. She left tiny droplets of blood on one hem; it must have been a strain to sew those hems at the time as thick as they were. It was a pleasure to match the woman's stitches, and repair her lost heirloom; whoever she was, her quilt is loved again.

The Butterfly Quilt was a much larger challenge. My first task was to buy matching vintage fabric to patch the holes. Thanks to online auctions, I was able to purchase the perfect peach solid, and a huge lot of assorted feed sack fabrics from the early 1900's. Patching the hole was a snap. With batting to match the other thickness, I patched it carefully to match the stitching that was already there. Soon came the part I looked forward to the most, the butterflies. One by one, I removed each one carefully, over 30 in all. I cleaned the area they had been attached to, then with a steady hand, I sewed them back in place, one small piece at a time... the torsos first, then each wing. The next step was to embroider the outside edges of each butterfly to match the previous stitching as close as possible. Not all of the original butterflies survived, though. Some were just missing when I bought the quilt, and others were simply too badly torn to repair. I made a template from one of the existing butterflies to use, and one by one, the swarm of butterflies came back to life. It took months of joyful stitching to restore this quilt.

So, what about this quilt's history? It came from Versailles, Missouri; no maker's name or date. I guess it will keep its secrets like the other one. When my grandchildren see these antique quilts, I tell them they are 100 years old, and will belong to them someday. They saw me sewing on them, and will hold that memory much like I hold my memories of my great granny sewing, and wherever her quilts are, I hope someone loves them as much as I love my "new" old quilts.

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