SusieQT Collects: Quilts!

Hey all, what better way to warm up in this cool weather than snuggling up under a vintage handmade quilt! I am fortunate in that I have quite a few, all family heirlooms. I think most of these are 1890s-1930s. It seems my great grandmas were busy quilting bees, and since they lived in Michigan, I suppose they needed to make lots of them!

So a few weeks back, I took off my summertime chenille bedspreads and swapped them out with a few of these beauties:

This one is mostly embroidered; the green and purple sections are pieced.  I suppose this is technically a "coverlet" because there is no batting in between, although it is still quilted. It's in my daughter's room because of the purple. 

I apologize for the blurriness of this photo, but it gives a good shot of the pattern. I like the mostly green background and this is one of the larger quilts- fits over a full/queen bed. I believe this one is from the 1920s/30s.

I just love the handmade, rustic appeal of vintage quilts and I also really dig trying to guess the era of the fabric pieces. I think most of these are 1890s-1930s. This one is a nice close up of some Art Deco fabric. I believe the pieces are feedsack.

This one has a blue and brown theme- very masculine- but then again there is quite a bit of pink. But I think the pink might have been originally red.

I love the edging. This quilt (actually another coverlet) is pieced primarily of indigo calico, probably from about 1900.

I like the triangle pattern on this one, even though it's not in great shape anymore. I actually rescued this one from my mom- she had relegated it to outdoor duty. She has more of these than I do, even- all made by the same ancestors.

This is my favorite- a turkey red album quilt. The squares are all embroidered nature scenes or childhood scenes. It's a twin size quilt. I don't have any twin beds here, or I would use it. 

I need to figure out a better way to display them. I'm not big on hanging them on the wall- that's a little too country for me. Some of them are too small for laying across a bed, and with small kids they are too fragile to drape over a sofa. So for now, they're put away in a blanket chest.