Estate Sale Finds-Opinions please

[DuckLady]

I went to an estate sale last weekend and picked up three quilt tops for $125.

My question is...How would YOU quilt these? Stitch in the ditch? All over meander on the longarm? Simple tying with puffy batting?

A newer queen top with backing.
It is a sampler

An antique zig zag quilt about queen size, maybe bigger. It was made by the grandmother of the lady who died. And the lady was in her 60's when she passed away last november. It is hand stitched and the pieces are about 1 by 2 inches. Because it is on the bias, it has a stretchiness to it as you might tell by the look of the fabric.

you can see the fading of the fabric.

This one had a hand written tag that said "Made by great grandmother Amy"

 

[amyquilt]

Personally, I am a person that all about the top, not the quilting. I like the simplest quilting possible on a quilt, nothing elaborate at all. I used to hand quilt all my quilts in the ditch, or nearly in the ditch, I guess. Now, with disc problems in my neck, I'm having to have my quilts quilted on a longarm. I stick to the as basic stippling/meander as they can do.

BTW!!! GORGEOUS FINDS!

 

[tiki244]

I love that zigzag one

 

[Acre of Blessings]

Did they give you any idea as to how old they are, Terrie?

 

[DuckLady]

Well, the lady who died was in her 60's. Say there were 25 years in each generation. So if the lady was born about 1940, her mom would be born about 1915, her grandma about 1890 and so on.
And who has time to quilt when raising a family? So they might 100 years old. Or less. They had no real idea.

 

[newchickenfamily]

Wow! Nice find terrilacy! My favorite is the first one! I'm great at putting quilt tops together, but not the actual quilting part. I usually have someone do it for me. With the zig-zag one, it might be fun to just follow the zigs and zags? The sampler might need to have something fancier done? You could do an all over type on the last one?

 

[DuckLady]

The zigzag concerns me because of the bias nature of the fabric. I don't know if it would cause problems later. It has been washed. I can tell by the frayed seam edges. So it won't shrink. But that bias.....

I might baste the top one and ditch stitch it because I am not experienced in doing fancy stuff and don't want to use that as practice!

The last one maybe tied with big puffy batting.

I dunno.

 

[heyeddah]

Great colors
What are you planning to do with them?
I love estate sales

 

[pbjmaker]

I love the zig zag one! I know nada about quilting at this point - my grandma made "crazy" quilts and then just tied them down. So I can't help you with advice. Just wanted to compliment you one the find. As old as those quilts are - would the fabric disenigrate if you washed them? I have some old hand stiched quilt blocks that I was told not to ever make into a quilt for that reason. They still have the newspaper backing.

 

[banter]

The first is circa 30's. The second could be older judging by the
use of shirting, the third looks like 30's to 40's. It's hard to tell with quilts because people saved up fabrics sometimes for years before they pieced them. Sometimes you can tell by the thread. Older quilts often used cotton thread thicker than we are used to for everyday quilts. Special quilts often used silk thread, and later rayon thread. I just used some 40's fabric from my collection in a quilt. I also sometimes use old thread! I did restoration for a short time for a well known collector and got to see LOTS of historic quilts!
There are many appraisers out there you can contact.