Category Archives: Vintage

Visiting Judy in Arabia

In 2018 Jeffrey Gutcheon’s quilt “Judy in Arabia” was exhibited at the New England Quilt Museum. His quilt caught my eye because of the use of color, from light in the center to dark at the edges and, also, the movement of the overall design. I discovered that Jeff had done all the drawings in his wife Beth’s book “The Perfect Patchwork Primer”. Jeff and Beth went on to write a second book together, “The Quilt Design Workbook”. This quilt and the block “Judy in Arabia” are included in that book. These are vintage 1970’s books and Jeff’s quilt was made in the midn1970’s.

I chose to study Jeff’s quilt when I was given an opportunity to participate in the American Quilt Study Group 2025 Quilt Study. My quilt was exhibited at their Study Seminar in Portland, Maine, and although it was not chosen for their touring exhibit, it is included in the book documenting the study. My quilt is 42” x 42”. Jeff’s quilt is 72” x 84”.

Visiting Judy in Arabia by Patrice Denault

I took advantage of Electric Quilt to design my quilt. The block Judy in Arabia is in Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, and I have that add on, BlockBase+, in my EQ8 software.

My process involved studying Jeff’s quilt and then finding fabrics to get the right values from light to dark with an overall vibrant look. I ended up redoing the center of the quilt, because I did not think the green fabric was dramatic enough

To finish my quilt I decided to use a style of quilting typically seen in quilts made in the 1970s. Quilting was much less dense and often done on a domestic sewing machine, if not by hand. I decided to use my BERNINA 740 with the circular sewing attachment. Once I made my first circle with the attachment I then traced that to fill the block. I also decided to use a quilt as you go, or potholder, quilting technique. This made it much easier to manage the quilting on my domestic machine and I was able to achieve perfect circles.

You can read more about Quilt as You Go techniques and the history of this type of quilting in Pam Week’s book Portable Patchwork.

This is a Reproduction Quilt

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 little information in the eBay listing regarding the provenance of this quilt, but the quilt has the following written on the back: “Miss Eliza Duttons Quilt” and the quilt was shipped from New Hampshire. After doing some research I discovered that a young woman named Eliza Dutton, who was born in 1850 and lived in Milford, New Hampshire, wrote a diary. She describes making a quilt with her mother. While this is just a top, could it have belonged to the same Eliza Dutton? Perhaps it is one that was made by Eliza or given to her by her mother. I can’t know for certain, but it is a quite possible!

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:

Aunt Virginia’s Plan

This is a follow up to the blog posts about the Butterfly Treasure Quilt.

As I mentioned in my Butterfly Applique Post I gave the Finished Bow Tie Quilt to Pat. If you recall, from the Quilting Treasures Post, she gave me that quilt top and the Butterfly Blocks ,which she found when she was cleaning out her mother’s house because her mother had moved to an Assisted Living apartment.

Pat had said she would give the finished quilt to her mother, Lydia, for Christmas and when she did her mother remembered the quilt top and told her the story behind it. When Lydia was 13 years old in 1930 her Aunt Virgina gave her the quilt top and butterfly blocks with the thought that Lydia could improve her sewing skills to impress a young man that Aunt Virginia had in mind for Lydia to marry eventually.

I guess Lydia was not very interested in the young man because she never did finish the quilts! So Aunt Virginia’s scheme did not go as planned. But Lydia did keep those quilting treasures all these years for Pat to find and give to me.

I am glad that Lydia had the opportunity to share this bit of quilt history with her daughter Pat, because the day after Christmas Lydia fell and broke her hip. The fall was because her heart was so weak, and she passed away on January 4th. Lydia was 97 years old.

My heart goes out to Pat during her time of grief and I will always remember Lydia and her Aunt Virginia’s plan when I snuggle under my Butterfly Treasure quilt.

Aunt Lucy is Quilted

Just an update regarding my Aunt Lucy Quilt. I have finished quilting and binding her. The fun thing about this quilt is that it has a wonderful collection of Reproduction Fabrics. This was possible because I participated in a block of the month program at Quilter’s Common in Wakefield, MA. Thus I did not have to purchase one bit of fabric more than required and still got this wonderful scrappy quilt.

The quilting was a bit of an adventure for me. I printed patterns that I sized to fit the blocks and borders and used the laser light on my longarm machine to trace them. This is the second time I have turned a quilt to do the borders. I did a test run with a little panel quilt (that still needs a binding). I am happy with the results.

I found the patterns I used in this quilt in May Covy’s Follow the Line’s Quilting Designs, Volume 5, Authentic Civil War Designs and More

Seven Celestial Sisters

This is the second Tumbling Block, Hexi-Star quilt that I put together with Fabric Foundation. When I made the first one I was thinking I could piece one to emphasize seven of the stars for a Seven Sisters Quilt. I have a secret desire to make a traditional seven sisters quilt, but it will probably be awhile before I take that on. For now I have this little quilt. It is about 39″ x 35″ and the fabric gives this a genuine celestial look just like the Pleiades Constellation that the pattern is named for.

I do have a seven sisters quilt top that I quilted. The top is a vintage top purchased on eBay so I don’t have any idea who made it and where it was made, but the fabrics look like 1940s to me.

Hmmmm, looks like I need to find time to put a binding on that quilt!