Friday, December 14, 2007

Antique String Blocks & History



Above are 12 of the 22 plus antique string blocks I inherited from my FIL that were made by my DH's great aunt, Ruby. They are about 12" square. I want to make a quilt and hand quilt it with Baptist Fans or something that will preserve the historical time period in which they were made.

I am thinking of using a dark blue sashing with a chrome gold/yellow star where the blocks meet? What do you think?? I wanted to use a red (since the maker's name was Ruby), but there is not any red in the quilt blocks. These are just ugly enough to be pretty.




This is a small portion of the backs of one of the 9-patch string blocks. It has been interesting (to say the least) to read the backs of the blocks. Look at these prices!!

It seems like destroying history to take the paper off the backs of these blocks. I am going to scan and print some of the more interesting pieces to incorporate into the quilt back somehow (before I tear them off, naturally).

Any suggestions on setting them are welcome. I have many smaller blocks. It appears that these larger ones are 9 of the smaller. So if I have a large enough center with the 9-patches, I may use the smaller ones around the edge somehow.

Looking forward to your input.

~Joan

2 comments:

Idaho Quilter said...

What a wonderful gift & project. I think I would try differnt shades of blue for the sashing, then maybe cheddar for the cornerstones. What ever you decide will be lovely, I call these "Timespan Quilts" please keep posting progess.

MARCIE said...

Wonderful string blocks! I love that they are 9-patches! I think the newspaper back is wonderful also. Makes me think of framing one in a frame with no back!