This has been an interesting month. For several years my husband and I have taken part in the Route 127 yard sale across America or the Lincoln BuyWay sale. Both of these sales run through Ohio at some point. Some years they are the same weekend, some years they are not. This is our forth year going. We happened across the Lincoln BuyWay sale by accident when we lived in Ohio and from that we found out about the route 127 sale. In any event that is the kind of people we are, we would rather take vacation and hit the open road in an effort to shop in other peoples garages than go to some resort. Let me be clear that we in no way need anything. We have too much....way way too much. If anything we should take a car load to sell or just randomly leave at yard sales....like a junk fairy....maybe an idea for next year.
Anyway back to my point. For the last 4 years we have gone and yard saled our hearts out but never made it out of the state of Ohio. We always have big plans of going the whole length of the sale but since my husband is unable to pass up a yard sale we usually go at a rate of 30 miles a day. This year we were determined to make it out of Ohio. We started out of Columbus where I worked all summer and headed south making it into Kentucky before the sale started, Victory! Surprizingly there were alot of vinatge quilts that I came across during the sale this year. Traditionally the vintage quilts are not my thing. I am scared to hurt them and they are usually very fragile, often damaged, and are someones family heirloom. As a result the ones in good condition are crazy expensive and I don't blame them. If my great great grammy made a quilt and it held up all these years I would want alot of money too. This year we ran across alot of quilts. Some were only tops, some were completed quilts, most were in rough shape, some better than others, but as a general rule more than I was willing to spend. I'm out here buying dollar jeans I'm not a Rockefeller!
Somewhere late in the first day in God knows where Kentucky I came across this beauty. It's only a top that was never finished. I have no idea what the pattern is, some hybrid of a nine patch and a cathedral window (Nine cathedral windows?) The woman wasn't sure what year it was made, only that her grandmother had made it and she died in the 70's. I would guess from the fabric that it was the 20's or 30's. Other than needing a cleaning it is in amazing condition. I'm not sure what it is about it that I love, the pattern, the story, the fabrics. Not sure but I would never think of putting the colors or fabrics together if I was making a quilt. But I happily paid the 40 dollars for the quilt top and think it was a steal. And its crazy big (82"x92") and all hand pieced.
I guess what I love about it most is that it illustrated what quilting used to be about. Making something out of nothing. Piecing together old bits of dresses and shirts and making it into something useable and beautiful. I'd like to make an effort to embrace that mentality and do more with what I have. Maybe that's what I should call this quilt....My old Kentucky inspiration. So that was a very long winded way to get to this quilt I have been working on with the idea of making more out of less.
Love making these stars and love the scrappiness of it. Linking it up to WIP Wednesday at
Freshly Pieced
Don't forget about the give away
here until 8/25!
