Friday, August 13

Friday Farm Photos: Another Vintage Quilt

Cowboy Quilt 1
I couldn't resist.

More below. . .

Cowboy Quilt 2

Back in early June, I took part of an afternoon off and spent a couple of blissfully air-conditioned hours bopping around one of my favorite antique/junk malls, finding all sorts of useful little vintage treasures, most for only a few dollars. I'm a very careful shopper, and these days everything I bring home has to not only make me happy when I look at it, but must also be immediately functional.

I've recently put myself on a slow but steady massive campaign to declutter my entire life (40 books and counting, plus a dozen DVDS and oodles of magazines in the library donation pile—yay!), and that means being extra picky about what I bring home. Okay, I do make a few exceptions—the longtime collector in me just can't help it. But they're always inexpensive and wonderful exceptions.

Cowboy Quilt 3
I spied this quilt hanging in the little entryway of the store as soon as I walked in. It was the two pieces of classic cowboy fabric that caught my eye first. I love old western stuff.

Cowboy Quilt 4
And I love how this funky old, nothing fancy quilt is made from such a hodgepodge of fabrics, in all colors and thicknesses and textures, many of which only appear once. There's nothing matching—or really even planned—about any of it. And look at the bottom right corner—it's a piece of another old quilt! How wonderful is that?

I quickly decided that each piece of this quilt must represent a cherished memory—favorite curtains, a set of beloved bedsheets, a special dress, a longed for cowboy bedspread that appeared under the tree one Christmas morning—that were all saved and sewn together long ago into one big happy, useful smile.

Cowboy Quilt 5
I love it. And I plan to put it to very good use for many more years to come. At first I thought it would be a perfect picnic quilt, but we don't really go on picnics—at least not the kind where you actually lay out a quilt and have a fabulous chocolate cake, like some people do. (Does that look like an idyllic afternoon or what?)

Did I mention it was only fifteen bucks? I told you I couldn't resist.

Do you have a cherished treasure that has a good story—real or invented—behind it?

More vintage:
6/22/09: Vintage Laundry Line (more quilts)
2/18/10: A Nice Day (quilt photo)
5/24/10: Two More Vintage Quilts!

More laundry line:
1/2/06: Winter Color
5/6/09: The Lamb and the Laundry Line (a look back at Baby Cary)
2/18/10: A Nice Day

© FarmgirlFare.com, the sewn up in little squares foodie farm blog where I am so enamored with my vintage quilts that I refuse to stop sleeping with them, despite the fact that it's been averaging about 89 degrees at night in The Shack's one and only bedroom (which is actually the coolest room in the place). And one of these days I'll see if I can get around to sharing photos of my recent vintage finds of the non-quilt variety. Maybe I need to go hang them out on the laundry line in order to get some pictures!

8 comments:

  1. My violin. I bought it (rather my parents bought it for me) back in 1994 after being told it was an unsigned 'shop' or demo instrument from a late 19th century German-born American master in NYC. After some investigating and digging, about the only link to that story is that it was built somewhere in the US. It was probably somebody's teaching instrument, as one side of the carving is exquisitely balanced and executed, while the other is rough and has some flaws that have stood out over the past 15 years of examination during downtime in rehearsals. :) The wood is top quality, though, and through a few small changes over the years I now have an instrument better than I could have ever imagined when we first bought it.

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  2. What a great quilt! You're right, it has some kind of story to tell! I love that it has barkcloth and the old pieced quilt and plaid and such a mishmash of leftovers. It's loveable! (and what's not to love about that price?!)

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  3. Love the top quilt photo, hung out to dry. We have a quit on our bed that my wife made decades ago, before we even met. Sadly it has been patch, patch, patch as we try to keep it alive. The cotton is slowly giving way under real world use of children's feet and life in general over the years.

    Good luck on the decluttering! Moving into our tiny cottage forced it on us, to our delight.

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  4. That old pieced is loveable!
    It can be my great inspiration! :)

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  5. I have a shelf full that I have collected and only use the one that my husband's mom made for us.....

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  6. I LOVE that quilt! Now that is a quilt. I do love quilts in general but there is something so obscene and contrary to the true spirit of a quilt when one goes to the fabric store and buys brand new carefully color-coordinated fabrics and then cuts them apart to sew them back together. A real quilt, to me, is to create something warm and useful from scraps and bits and pieces of leftover fabric and wornout clothes and stuff.

    I love that quilt!

    Nancy

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  7. My late former mother-in-law was a great quilter and gave me many vintage and new examples of these craft works, some of which she had inherited from her mother. My younger daughter is now a collector; such a wonderful hobby!

    Lovely to see this one hanging on a cothes line. My homeowners association would probably attempt to get me thrown in jail if I tried! :-)

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  8. Hi! I love the quilt, your lovely blog and all your recipes...yum! xocc

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December 2015 update: Hi! For some reason I can't figure out, Blogger hasn't been letting me leave comments on my own blog (!) for the last several months, so I've been unable to respond to your comments and questions. My apologies for any inconvenience! You're always welcome to email me: farmgirlfare AT gmail DOT com.

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