Sentimental Stitches

Clutch and I are back in Grand Rapids making an attempt to get everything back in place. I haven't had much time for stitching. There's always so much to do when we first arrive at the cottage getting ready for the summer and then coming back home in the fall we do it all again in reverse.

I wanted to be sure and have you see the close-up pictures from block 13 of our Beyond The Cherry Trees quilt. My intent was so be ready before the first of the month because I knew I'd be traveling but when I started drafting the block from the black and white photographs I use when drawing I couldn't see how subtle the color changes were in the layers of fabric on the flowers. I also didn't know who many hidden quilting stitches I would find.




There are two layers to this small flower. The top layer wasn't so hard to figure out because it matches other areas of the quilt we know are yellow. The bottom layer - not so easy. The fabric is still there but there's not a lick of color left in there that I can see.




This flower has three layers! You can see the top one is our yellow. The second one, which is just about gone except for those little brown fuzzies looks just like those worn away grapes in the center block (we haven't done that one yet) so it had to be the same purple fabric used for those grapes. What about that bottom layer?




The same 'no color' fabric was also used for these two small flowers. Arg, I can't tell you what color was used if I can't see it!
Because part of the green has faded to a pale blue and 'no color' in some places your first thought would be it was green fabric. That sounds fine for the first two flowers - bottom layer is the green leaves under the flower. Doesn't work for the small flowers. Any quilter making this awesome of a quilt wouldn't have green flowers with green calyxes so I decided the fabric wasn't green.






I unstitched and re-stitched around this bud where the 'no color' fabric was used and couldn't see a thing.




I unstitched and re-stitched around the small flowers and couldn't see a thing.




I took the whole quilt outside, spread it out flat on the deck and while Clutch stood guard I took a long, slow look over the whole thing.




I found just a hint of red on two flowers in another block we haven't worked on yet. Unfortunately, as you can see, it's a three layer flower and there really isn't any color in any of the fabrics. Was the red I see actually in the original fabric or did it chalk off from another red in the quilt while folded? I honest to goodness just don't know. Because the red is on the middle layer it's possible it was green on the bottom, red and then yellow on top. This might be a question for an expert like Barbara Brackman. If any of you have a suggestion I'm sure everyone would like it if you'd share your idea.




These are the hidden stitches on the right hand side of the block. In the original quilt the spray of flowers was set to the left of center on the block.






I opted to center the design within the square and position the quilting designs in as close to the same place as they were in the original block.




These are the hidden stitches on the left side of the block. This is another block where our quilter really had fun with the quilting.

So many unanswered questions but it sure is fun! These are some of my favorite books to use when trying to identify and date fabrics in antique quilts.