Posted 5 years ago
Chaley
(3 items)
I inherited this quilt from my mother-in-law. Looks like it is made from cotton and is hand stitched but every individual square is stuffed with an actual cotton ball like it’s been picked from a bush. It looks very worn but no holes. Wondering if this was a common thing as I’ve never seen or heard of this before and wondering what the age might be.
Are we seeing both sides of the quilt?
Does the stuffing look/feel like cotton or polyester?
Does it look “pieced” (many small pieces sewn together), or does it look like yards-long pieces of cloth used for each side?
Machine sewn or hand sewn?
Interesting....but can’t make out much from the pictures. I have some ideas about it but could use more info. :-)
The quilt is full size and one piece of cotton fabric on each side. The stuffing is the actual individual boll which is hand stitched into place or actually a square is stitched around each boll. The entire piece is hand stitched. Each square you see above is a boll encased in the square.
That’s so cool...the actual cotton bolls were/are not available to everyone so it makes me think the maker lived on or near a farm where cotton was raised (somewhere in the South?) or maybe near a gin where cotton was processed. She could have even cleaned the seeds and husks out by hand by “carding” it.
I’ve never made a quilt like yours but it would be a fairly quick one to make, especially if you didn’t have the luxury of a sewing machine.
It was probably quite warm when it was new and the cotton had more volume to it.
All the little squares probably looked like tiny “pillows”, puffed up with the cotton.
Over time, and with washing, the cotton probably settled/flattened causing the “pillows “ to collapse and the fabric to wrinkle.
Check for a quilting club in your area. Someone would probably look it over for you and be able to give you more info.
Do you know if your mother-in-law made it herself, or did she acquire it from someone else? Someone examining the cloth in person could probably give an opinion on type of cloth, thus narrowing down a timeframe of the cloth manufacturing, at least.
It could even be a home woven cloth...I hope when you find out more, you will let us know.
I’m sure she purchased it from an auction somewhere. I wasn’t even aware she had it until after she passed. Thanks for the info.