antique quilt from my (other) grandma

At the first Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild meeting I went to back in August, Ginia gave a great presentation about the history of quilt dyes and patterns. She also does quilt apprasials, so I had her take a look at this quilt. It was a lot of fun to talk to her about it and I thought I'd share it here to remember the details!



This quilt is a bit of a mystery to my family. My parents found it in my grandparents' house after my father's mother pasted away. It was kept in the back of a closet without a note or label and my dad had never seen it before. You can still see markings from the original construction, so it probably has never been washed.

Ginia estimated the date of the quilt at circa 1940, which was an interesting time in my grandma's life. My grandparents were raised on farms in western Wisconsin and went to school to become teachers so they could live in town. In 1940, my grandpa was teaching at a school in Minnesota and my grandma was still in Wisconsin teaching one-room school. In 1941, they were married and my grandma moved to Minnesota as well. This quilt could have been something she did to pass the time before they got married; it could have been a going-away gift from a parent; she could have bought it; or any number of other things.

The craftsmanship on this quilt is pretty remarkable. Each Sunbonnet Sue is hand appliqued (perfectly) and embellished with embroidery. Each Sue has a solid bonnet with a cute matching print dress. The colors match beautifully and are wonderfully arranged. The hand quilted stitches are amazing. Ginia also noted that the binding is "jack-knife" binding which I've never seen before, but also adds to this particular quilt's value, as it's a more difficult and less common technique.

I can't help but think about the woman who made it and wonder who she was and why she made this quilt. There are two mystery marks in the border on the back of the quilt, one looks like a S and the other looks like a G or C next to a faint E marking. They look intentional, but it's not clear to me what they mean. I guess we'll never really know...

Since I'm the one in the family who's most interested in quilting, my parents gave it to me a few years ago. I think the sunbonnet Sue's are kind of cute and the colors are great. It's also a twin size so if I ever wanted to put it on a bed or hang it on the wall, it's a good size.

I need to be more careful about refolding it in more ways so that the fold lines aren't so prominent, but overall, I'm pretty happy that the quilt didn't get more damaged while my family's had it since none of us knew what we were doing with it.