The seller of this top thought it was made more recently than the other antique quilts at the estate sale she attended. The brightness of the double pink and poison green prints does make it look newer than quilts made with darker fabrics from this period. The top is 76″ x 80″, and is in excellent condition — clean and bright with no fading or damage.
The design of this bar quilt is just so wonderful. I love the fact that each of the 9-patch blocks is scrappy, but there is a plan to the scappiness. The quilter carefully placed colored triangles in each block (the four reds, the 4 darks, and the green/yellow center), and then she cleverly flipped every other block upside down. The assortment of shirtings in the blocks is amazing, and the blocks themselves look so pretty against the poison green.
Unfortunately, some parts of the top are poorly constructed. All of the double pink fabric is puckered, and the points on the 9-patch blocks are stitched into the seams. I will have to take the quilt apart to correct these issues, but I hope to be able to keep most of the 9-patch blocks intact. Block sizes can vary quite a bit on these old hand-pieced tops, and I won’t know for sure until I begin to take it apart. For those of you who are concerned, the only thing I plan to change on this quilt is to make the outside border the same width on all four sides.
I saved a little time today by using the seller’s listing photos.
