Who? When? Why? Where?

Three things to be happy about:
(1) a clever plan
(2) the willingness to wait
(3) a sudden insight

I have two Jennifer Chiaverini books on my iPod that I've listened to more than once - The Winding Ways Quilt and The Lost Quilter. 

In The Winding Ways Quilt, a much younger Gwen tries to determine the creator of an old quilt found in a church basement. She never is 100% successful (I hope I didn't spoil it for anyone!), but her search takes her to libraries in different cities, town hall records, as well as the home where she suspects the quilt originated. 

I think it's one of Chiaverini's best novels (I like them all!), and it points out the need for identification on quilts.  Labels are popular, and I notice that some quilters are starting to put information directly onto the quilt itself.  It's interesting that I said "are starting to" because in times past, quiltmakers wrote their name, date and location directly onto the front of their quilt.  Forgive me if I scrambled that info up a bit, I'm no quilt historian!

I found this quilt on Antique Row in Kensington, Maryland.  The sales lady said it was made in 1929 but you can't prove it by me, it doesn't have a label. 

Doesn't matter though - I saw the quilt, liked it, the price was right... yadda yadda yadda I now own it!   It's hand-pieced and hand-quilted.  I don't recognize the pattern... anybody?

The quilter chose not to use batting. and it's in really great shape - the only damage I see is around the binding area.  It looks like she (he?) either whip-stitched a piece of almost-matching fabric onto the old piece, or this is how it was originally made and it's coming loose.

Here's a close-up of one of the center blocks and a corner block.  I tried to get a shot of the quilting but my camera wasn't cooperating, then the batteries quit.  It's so hard to get good help these days!

Anyway, this is just a reminder of  the importance of labeling your quilts.  Just think to yourself "It's not finished til the label's done!"  It can be plain or fancy, hand-written, computer-generated, or smack-dab on the quilt itself - as long as it's there.  Just saying...