Dust Off a Book

 

I have hundreds of quilting books. Many were purchased new, signed by the authors. Many were bought on discount during countless quilt shop hops over the years. Many were purchased impulsively on line. How did we ever shop before amazon? Many of them were purchased used from vendors at quilt shows and antique shops. I really need to keep away from those. Many were gifts. The oldest book I have is the very first one I bought back in 1974. It has been the inspiration for a lot of my quilting over the years. I wrote about it here. 

For this challenge I decided to go with the second oldest book I bought used on line a few years ago. It was published in 1958. My copy is from 1964. 

How delightful to find a picture of the Austin Coverlet in it.

Barbara Brackman did a BOM a few years ago about the life and culture of the Austin family in early 1800's.  You can read about it  here and here.  

This is the book that Esther Aliu used to recreate the epic Love Entwined: A marriage coverlet from 1790. 

I collected all the patterns when they were free back in 2013. This inspired me to start blogging that year. 

I could not decide what colour to make that center so never actually started it. 

Averil Colby published this quilting book in 1958.

I was trying to decide if I had enough time (whatever that is) to participate this year. 

As it turns out, I have a ufo based on the Austin Coverlet. It is called Shades of Pemberley. I figured I was in good company with this unfinished project since neither Jane nor her sister Cassandra nor their mother completed theirs 200 years ago. 

I started mine in 2007, a mere 16 years ago. It was a 3 week class at my local quilt shop. I decided to use black for the sashing just to be different. It does make the colours pop doesn't it. 

I had all the black sashing strips cut. I do not like sewing with black. I cannot see it to be accurate. I used gray thread. 

And I had the instructions. It has serious flaws. Like how they said to cut the fabrics on the straight of grain. yes, between the outermost diamond points not along the edge. 

First I laid out all the rows of diamonds. 

They were in order on the fuzzy back of a purple table cloth. My Sweetie wants me to make the border that colour. I was thinking about the puke green on a cream ground from this Austin Collection from Makower in UK. It is called Darcy. Great choice thinks I for a pattern called Shades of Pemberley. 

Jane and Cassandra did not have access to Wonder Clips 200 years ago, or they might have completed theirs. Well, I did not complete mine either. Not that I have not had enough time. But, I had set aside the last 3 days to work on it.

 It was a snow day with little girls here. And lots of snow. The power went out for 15 hours. Turns out a tree branch had fallen on the power lines next door, but they were not home to discover that. So, I spent time in the hot tub since that was the warmest place on the farm. That is me in there somewhere. And I did walk barefoot out there. 

There is a new movie out on netflix based on Jane's book Persuasion. I love it. It is funny and informative. The heroine, Anne Elliot, narrates the story and identifies who all the characters are for those who have not read the book a thousand times trying to figure out who Mrs. Clay is and her significance to the story. 

This is as far as I got. That center does not line up with the rest of the diamonds and sashing and I need to think about how to fix it to make it fit. I could take another 16 years to do that. I have a plane to catch next week. The first of 10 over the next few weeks. Better publish this so I can visit all the other bloggers and see what they have been reading. 

Blessings, Chris

You can visit all the other Dust Off a Book bloggers here: 

March 6th

Quilting at the Farm (that's me)

Lemon Tree Snippets

Creatin in the sticks

Natalie (on Beaquilter)

March 7th

Quilting Gail

Thrift Shop Commando

High Road Quilter

Moosestashquilting

The Morning Latte

March 8th

Kathleen McMusing

Words & Stitches

 Isabella's Whimsy

DesertSky Quilting

 

March 9th

LC's Cottage

Cynthia's Ark

Ms P Designs USA

Just Let Me Quilt

 

March 10th

Beaquilter

Karrin's Crazy World

Quilting Patchwork Applique