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In the 1930's, many quilts were made using the small figured print fabrics that filled the shelves of the "dry goods" section of the grocery stores in small towns across the country. I remember my mother's dresses and aprons made from these prints in the 1930's. And I remember purchasing yardage of these same type prints in the 1940's to make my first maternity dress. You may have seen old Grandmother's Flower Garden, Grandmother's Fan, Dresden Plate, and Sunbonnet Sue quilts made in those old fabrics and longed to have one. Well, in recent years those prints have been reproduced in answer to the pleas of quilters and are now in quilt shops and on the Internet ready for you to make your own old fashioned quilt.
The quilt below has an undetermined date, but judging from the fabric and the buttonhole stitch applique, it was pieced around 1920 to 1940. The top came to me minus the tan setting triangles on the sides. I chose tan because my daughter-in-law has a Sunbonnet Sue set in tan, made by her grandmother in about 1950. I set in the triangles, quilted and bound the quilt. The owner sent me this photo of it hanging in the landing of her stairway.
Next is a Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Sam small quilt from the book "Sunbonnet Sue Visits Quilt in a Day" by Eleanor Burns, that I made last summer using "Granny's Apron" reproduction prints. Except for the black outlines of the buttonhole applique, the fabrics look much the same as the 1930's.
Another 1930's pieced top I quilted is this "Dresden Plate" whole cloth. The plates were appliqued by needle turn onto a heavy white cloth (no seams) and when quilted and bound, is now a lovely full size quilt. This 1930's quilter did exquisite work on this applique. The pieces in the border show up the 1930's prints quite well even with my amateur photography.
Next are 1930's reproduction prints made up in a child's quilt, "Paper Dolls" from the pattern book Quilts for Babies by Cheryl Fall. I used freezer paper applique to set the figures on white blocks. This was a nice take along project. I cut out the freezer paper forms, the dolls from the
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