Scarlet

Scarlet was a short-timer, a quilt top nabbed for a song, given a few quick repairs, and finished up. I make no secret that I keep an eye on the auctions for used quilt tops; mostly I look to see what’s out there, and very very rarely I’m moved to pick one up.

She — and this quilt top was a ‘she’ from the start — just delighted me from the start. It was lovely, imperfect, and utterly without pretense; it was a hand-sewn quilt top in the log cabin variation known as “straight furrows.”

The description:

Vintage Log Cabin Quilt Top. Not sure of age. From an Estate of lady who was over 100 yrs. old.

About 70-74” wide and 80-84” long. All hand pieced, slight musty odor from storage. A few minor stains, showed a couple in last two pictures. They are not very noticeable.

Great old colors, blues, browns, reds, peach, pink, black, gray and others.

Cost? $35 before shipping, $43 after. When I opened up the box, I was delighted by what I saw. The squares weren’t perfectly square, but the end result was pleasing and the overall appearance was spot-on. My reaction was that it was exactly what I hoped it would be: the kind of simple, clean, charming quilt that will wear well, serve as an instant faux heirloom, and see love and use.

I wrote the seller and confirmed a little more information; she bought the quilt top at an estate sale in Terre Haute, Illinois — very near Burlington, Iowa. 

Since several of the prints were 1930s-era, I picked up a 1930s repro fabric of little red dots on a white background, ran a simple quilting pattern of sketched flowers in lines following each of the furrows — white thread on the lighter sections and red on the darker sections — and sent Scarlet on her way.

I wish there was more to say, here, but the truth is that Tenzing barely even had time to sit on the quilt before it left the house.

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