Online Quilt Festival!!!

This is so exciting! There is an "Online Quilt Festival" going on! The festival is being held at http://www.parkcitygirl.blogspot.com/ Anyone can enter a favorite quilt of there choice! So I have decieded to join in the fun. (Let's just hope I can figure out the linking to blogs thingy without the help of my computer wize daughters! Wish me luck!)

This is my all time favorite quilt!! I can not take the credit for this one though. My Great Great Grandmother made this quilt. It is from the Civil War Era near as I can figure with dating it. Perhaps sometime around the 1860's. It measures approximately 82"x 100"! It is a large quilt and all done by hand!

This is a view of one of the side blocks, which go all the way around the quilt. They look like they were full blocks cut in half. As you can see by the half block, she used whatever fabric scraps she had left to finish the side blocks. "Waste not Want not".

Can you imagine how frustrated she was when she got to this part of the border!!! If you look closely she had to add a piece of mismatched fabric to this last corner. The rest of the border is all the same fabric. But she did well! I did not notice this until after my 3rd close examination of the quilt! Every time I look at it, I find something new about it that I did not see before. It tells me another piece of it's story each time I view it. I truly love this quilt. It is a peek into my family and adds to the stories my Grandfather used to tell me of the struggles they faced so long ago. My Grandmother lived in a log cabin.

The four corner blocks are done in blue. This is the only blue in the whole quilt. My Grandmother used her color choices well. I greatly admire her artistry, using what little she had.

Here is a close-up of one of the blocks. As you can see she used different fabrics in this one block. The blocks vary in size slightly. Some are 11"x 11", 10 1/2" x 11" and even 11" x 11 1/2".

Here is a closer view of 4 blocks and how they are layed out. This quilt was obviously not a utility quilt. My guess would be that it only came out of a chest or cupboard for very special guests! It does have some brown age spots throughout, but over all is in excellent condition.

This is the back of the quilt, which is all hand quilted.

My Great Great Grandmother Libby! This is the lady we are giving credit to for creating this masterpiece.

I have her wedding portrait sitting on the fireplace mantel. Look at the detail of the frame alone. I feel very honored to have aquired this as well as the quilt. A wonderful piece of history to be shared by all.