The Wiscasset Quilt
I was visiting with my long time friend Myrtle Bentley in Owatonna Minn in the early 1980’s and she had a book on quilts called Patchwork Quilts by the editors of Consumer Guide. I looked at the book and saw some quilts that I thought I would be interested in making.
There were two beautiful applique quilts that had been made in Wiscasset Maine in the early 1930’s and they were listed as being made by an expert and probably made by Marion Mckissick. They said it would almost be impossible to get the right color cottons to make the quilts but I decided that I was going to make one.
I like to do hand applique so the pattern was in the book and I searched among my stash of materials and found material that I thought would work. The center had a 8 pointed star that was appliquéd and I made a test block using that technique. I did not like that so I drafted an 8 pointed star and the pieces that went around it and that worked much better.
I started the quilt in 1985 and there were 12 big blocks and so I started to work on them. I took a couple to Peru when I went down there in the 80’s and then I worked on and off for 3 or 4 more years. It probably took me 40 hours to make one block. I finished the blocks sometime in the 90’s and just let them sit for a while.
Dale was ill and I took care of him and put my intricate stuff on hold. One day about 2002 I decided to put the quilt together and start hand quilting it. I quilted it in a hoop and it took me a couple of years of on and off quilting.
I took it to the county fair in Blackwell about 2007 and I won a blue ribbon on the quilt. It is now in my daughter’s possession and the quilt goes to my grand daughter Grace. It was a fun quilt to make but I do not think I will try another one that intricate.
The Dresden Plate Quilt
About a month and half ago I started looking through some of my old boxes that were filled with old quilt blocks. I came upon two sets of blocks that were made in the 1940’s and I had 13 blocks of one kind.
I decided to make a quilt out of these blocks as they were huge and I used an 18 inch piece of material for the blocks. I could not figure out why they had not been made into a quilt until I started checking closer.
Well the blocks would not lay flat and the seam allowances in the blocks were several different sizes. So here I go. I corrected the seam allowances and they I had to applique the blocks to the back ground. I decided to use a blue color for the center and that worked out fine.
I then tried several different machine stitches for the applique, so all the blocks are not appliqued with the same stitch. I went back to my old reliable blanket stitch and that turned out fine. My friend Jack had given me some blue print material and I used that along with a bright yellow to do the sashing. I had the 9 patch between the sashing pieces and that turned out all right.
I found when putting the sashing together that it is better to tie baste the joins and then they do not slip on you. I used the same process when putting the long pieces of sashing together along with pinning ever couple of inches. I had to do a little easing in a couple of places but that is better than not having things match. It took me the better part of a month to finish it and it is now at the quilt shop being machine quilted. Was fun to do and it is a bright and happy quilt and so glad to get to use the material from the depression era.
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