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This quilt
came from Louise Harding's attic. Click
here to read more about Louise's family.
I'm writing this note as I look
out my window on a beautiful Fall morning. It is early November but
the weather has been warm and most of the leaves are still on the oaks and
some of the hickories. The woods are a colorful display of reds,
yellows, browns and a splash of evergreen. It feels like the
perfect time to write about a bright and beautiful maple leaf quilt.
The scrappy quilt is approximately 66"x64" and is made of
100,
5" maple leaf blocks set on point with a 2" outer border. The
leaf block fabrics are a wonderful variety of plaids and small prints, there are
cranberry reds, cadet blues, greens, pinks, black mourning prints, purples,
greens, browns and tans (may have been green or gold at one time). The leaf block backgrounds are a variety of
small light prints or plain muslin. The setting blocks and
border are made
of a very sweet small blue and yellow print.
 The fabrics used in the leaf blocks fit primarily in the 1880-1910 time frame; however, the pale blue setting block fabric fits more in the 1910-1935 era. I believe the newer fabric fits nicely in what Eileen Jahnke Trestain refers to as "Spots and rings and cutesy things 1910-1925" in her book Dating Fabrics: A Color Guide 1880-1960. I imagine the quilter bought new fabric for the setting blocks and pulled fabric from her colorful and deep scrap bag for the leaf blocks.
The piecing is precise with corners and points meeting perfectly. The
leaf stems are appliquéd. The
quilting stitches are even and tiny, about 8 to 10 stitches per inch.
Simple straight lines were used to quilt the border and leaf blocks. A
circle, created by joining four ellipses, was quilted into each setting
block. The plain muslin binding was turned from the back and blind
stitched to the front of the quilt.
A cheerful quilt for any season
 Click here to read more about the Harding family and other quilts from this collection. I hope you enjoyed the story. Please send comments to - charlena@doveinthewindow.com
*reference books: Eileen Jahnke Trestain, Dating Fabrics, a Color Guide 1800-1960 Ruby McKim, 101 Patchwork Patterns
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To view additional quilts or stories about the women who made them click on the links at the top of this page.