Beautiful, Old Quilts

We recently purchased another farm.  It's just down the road from ours.

It had been in our neighbour's family for generations and there was a massive amount of stuff that had collected over the years.  They had an auction sale in the spring....it was an all day sale...it was HUGE.  There was everything from household items to farming equipment to antiques.  For about 3 months before the sale, Terry and the boys had helped the family prepare.

The boys remember going through one particular barn with the family and seeing a wooden box.  It was nailed shut and it had been set aside.  There was just so much stuff that they never did get back to the wooden box.  It had been forgotten.  It wasn't included in the sale items.

Terry came across the wooden box a couple of weekends ago and he opened it.  The inside was lined in a heavy black paper....sort of like a tar paper.  It was full of quilts....beautiful quilts.  In between them were boughs of cedar....now dried and yellow.

One particular quilt was just spectacular.  The materials used looked like silks.  It was bright and beautiful.  The stitching had been done in a vibrant yellow.  The initials K.M.K. and the date Apr.24/23 was stitched on one of the swatches.  The back was a deep aqua blue colour and stitched with circles.

The other quilts were 'everyday quilts'.  Most of them were made of cottons...some of them were heavy....and one was made of wools.  There were a variety of patterns, a few with stars and some with squares.  One had a very unique pattern.....there were big colourful squiggles or S's on a black background.  Each of them was so intricately stitched...I can't imagine the hours of work that went into them.  I was just thrilled to be able to see and touch them.

I'm a little crazy when it comes to quilts.  I LOVE QUILTS.  But I knew that these had to be returned to the family that they belonged too.

It just so happened that the family would be back in the area this past week.  I couldn't wait to show them the quilts!

As we unfolded each quilt and spread it out on the clean floor there was just sheer delight in the woman's eyes.  I showed her the one with the initials first...and she was just amazed.  She told me that they were her Aunt's initials.  These were all of her Aunt's quilts and they had been packed away.  She didn't even know that they were there in the barn.  She said that they had probably been there since the 1950s or 60s.

She said that she would take the one with the initials and then she turned to my children and said that they should each pick one out for their beds.  I was in shock.  She didn't want the rest of the quilts.  We could have them.

She warned me that it may be impossible to get the musty smell out of them...and that it might cost a fortune to dry clean them!  She also noticed a couple of moth holes in a few of them.

I will wait until spring to figure out just how I will get those quilts cleaned.  I think I will be able to hand wash some of them and hang them on the line.

They are so very beautiful.

Brenda