Estate Sale Treasures

 One of my favorite things to do on a weekend is to poke through an estate sale, or two, or three.  2020 was a horrible year for them, what with the lockdown and all.  But I keep my eyes open and my ears to the ground, and every once in a while, one will come to my attention.  This happened last month...or was it the month before?  It's kind of blurring.  Anyway, one of our dear guild members passed away in the Fall, and her house was cleared out.  I heard about the sale, and off I went.

I was most interested in her quilts, primarily because I had quilted one of them several years back.  I put hours upon hours into it, and cringed when I gave her the bill.  But she LOVED it.  It was in the estate sale, for about 10% of what I charged her to quilt it.

Oh, look at that.  It HAS been years since I quilted that quilt!  This is an old picture, taken when I finished the quilting.  In the years since, I've peeled off that wallpaper, and painted the wall...purple!  I hadn't even thought about putting it on our bed yet.  I should try that and see how it looks.  wow!

Above is a close-up of the quilting.  It is an over-sized queen.  As I said, it took hours to quilt it.  I couldn't believe it was up for grabs at the estate sale.

Next is another quilt of Phyllis', that I bought at the sale.  This one is flannel, and oh, so cozy!  I had just washed it, dried it, and was letting it dry even more in this quick photo.  (A friend wondered if this was a quilt she had quilted for Phyllis.  It wasn't.)

On her bulletin board were her ribbons.  Beautiful memories!

And finally, the piece de resistance:  Her President's Quilt, from 1993.

Each year, our outgoing guild president is presented with a box full of blocks.  When Phyllis' year ended, I had been in charge of her quilt.  I had asked everyone to make their favorite 12" (finished) block, and to sign it on the outside, so that we would know whose block it was.  Then I set them together, in a way that would give us some space to quilt.

I love the variety, don't you?  The only problem with the plan, was that Phyllis did not do much hand quilting.  We began quilting it at one of the first Best of the Valley quilt shows, and I hadn't seen it since.  When I would ask her about it, she would shake her head and say she didn't know what happened to it.

Once I finish my "current" - and I use the phrase loosely - hand quilting project, this is what I want to tackle next.  It is actually close to half done.  Quilted in the 90's, it does not have the sort of elaborate quilting that you usually see nowadays.  It's more functional quilting, to hold the 3 layers together, with little more than stitch in the ditch.  I may finish it with that, and then decide if it needs a bit more.

So, that's what I've got for today.  Some older quilts, once again seeing the light of day.  There's nothing better than a quilt made with love, to wrap up in, on a cold winter's day.

Happy Quilting!