Can you imagine…
Can you imagine if you were one of the circle of quilters that sat down to the frame to help…let’s call her Eliza…Eliza to quilt her quilt and she said this is what she was planning? Basically, our girl Eliza told the rest of the group they were going to cover the entire top with their stitches. Or, do you think Eliza sat alone stitching obsessively away? Whichever way it happened, I sure am glad to get to appreciate her/their work today. I’ve seen better “Prince’s Feathers” and I’ve seen fancier quilting designs, but for shear number of stitches, this is a good one.
I also really like the flowers scattered across the top. They remind me vividly of the way people toss flowers onto an ice rink after a skater finishes her performance. Why, the swirling Prince’s Feathers could even be that skater twirling away. Hope she doesn’t trip on the flowers laying all over the ice.
Our imaginary quilt buddies should have had a bit of a clue about dear Eliza’s obsessive nature when they saw the 38 little green circles around this one stem.
Eliza is merely a figment of my imagination and any similarity to real quilters today is purely coincidental. Seriously, does anyone quilt like this today?
Does make you wonder when there is soooooo much quilting, if there was a competition among friends or someone obsessing.
Absolutely stunning! The woman (or women) was obsessive but the results are incredible! I think we probably all have it in us to make one of these quilts in our life given the right circumstances and motivation.:)
Gorgeous Old Beauty!!
I just learned at Gerald Roy's lecture that it is Prince's Feather and not Princess Feather like we always see!
I only hope she had help, but from the looks of her workmanship, she probably preferred to do it all herself! It's an amazing and lovely quilt!
What a great quilt. I've seen some pretty phenomenal quilt tops, but to top them off with that kind of hand quilting is over the top and only seen in those wonderful old quilts. WOW!
Don't think a lot of people still quilt this way, if any, but it is sooo beautiful!
That is such amazing quilting!
The quilting on this blows me away! If my Mom had made us quilt on her quilts this densely as I was growing up, I'm sure I would have rebelled or been a raving lunatic after one quilt! WOW!!!
Got a chuckle from your analogy about the ice skating. : )
I can't imagine quilting that much on a hand quilted quilt.
Thank you for sharing this with us – wow! Wouldn't you just love to talk with "Eliza" ! There are so very gifted modern day quilters out there – many right here in the US. And some of the young quilters from Japan have brought out the finest hand quilting ever – I think maybe the Best of Show at Paducah was from there? Wherever it was made though, the attention to detail is mind boggling. But IMHO there is something so preciously beautiful when you see an antique quilt with tiny stitches and want to know the maker.
BEAUTIFUL!! I want to quilt like that! However, I also want to make more than one quilt a decade. I love the tossed flowers on this one. Such a gorgeous quilt!
What amazing quilting. I can't imagine how much time it must have taken to complete. Did people have more time back then? They say that time is moving faster. . .