A few years ago I kept seeing this bright orange and red quilt top on eBay.  I am always drawn to orange quilts!  Finally I took a closer look at it.  It looked like it might be a turn of the century quilt top, but the description just said it was an old quilt top.  The starting bid was low so I went for it and won the auction.

I was pleasantly surprised when I received the top.  It’s in great shape, and some of the fabrics look more like mid 19th century, civil war, or even earlier, to me.  I love the fact that it looks contemporary or possibly even a bit modern.  But, if you are familair with antique quilts you know that the cheddars, reds, and greens were very popular with the Mennonites of Pennsylvania and Ohio in the late 19th century, so it is not surprising to see these colors together in an antique quilt.  The block is a traditional block called Chimney Sweep and each is about 13″ square. There was no information in the eBay listing regarding the provenance of this quilt.

I was originally going to quilt and use the top, but I want to preserve it in its antique state, so I decided to make a reproduction of it.  I collected some 1/4 yards of red reproduction fabrics and found a nice cheddar and cream solid fabrics.  Now I have a version of this quilt that will hold up better to day to day use!

They do look very similar.  Here is the original quilt top:

And my reproduction quilt: