Saturday, May 19, 2018

Vintage Flower Garden Quilt

While clearing out the house QS and I rediscovered family quilts. Several of them were made by us - including the quilt that makes the background of my banner and one QS made from Hawaiian fabric she purchased on the Big Island. How timely considering Kilauea is currently erupting.

There was also this Flower Garden quilt,

Flower Garden quilt by Sirena Jenny Salyers, 1935

a classic Depression era scrap quilt made by a master quilter

Detail of Flower Garden quilt
by Sirena Jenny Salyers, 1935

One of the unusual aspects of this quilt is the path of tiny connecting diamonds and triangles in very pale blue. Were they always this light or has the color faded over time?

A pale blue diamond path surrounds
each flower in the Flower Garden quilt.

What a lovely, though time-consuming, addition to this masterpiece.

Best of all, our great grandaunt signed and dated the quilt!

Flower Garden quilt signed and
dated by Sirena Salyers, 1935

This one must have been at our Grandmother's house. I'd never seen in growing up. Most of our other family quilts were used to death over the years. What a better fate than rotting forgotten in a box. So this one will continue to be enjoyed, encouraging future generations to appreciate and love quilts.

Enjoy the day, Ann