First Light Designs

That Fontella Bass song from 1965 keeps running through my head:  “Rescue me, oh, take me in your arms . . .”

That’s just what I did a few weeks ago, when I stopped by the home of a very nice woman who was selling quilts as part of a downsizing move. Many of the quilts had been made by her mother, grandmother or greatgrandmother, and all three women had also acquired quilts at garage sales and antique stores. She wasn’t sure who had made what but she had piles of quilts that she was willing to part with.

I bought a fruit basket quilt in near perfect condition, which I posted about here. I also bought two other quilts which were not in great condition but I just couldn’t leave without them.

The first is this Ocean Waves quilt, measuring 70″ x 82″:

It’s entirely hand pieced and hand quilted, except for the binding, which was sewn on by machine. The quiltmaker did a beautiful job with her stitching and quilting. Here’s a closer look:

There’s some slight variation in size but most of the squares measure 1⅝”. Can you imagine cutting those triangles out by hand?

I could spend hours looking at the individual fabrics and admiring the precise stitches. The quilt is predominantly blue, black, red, and white, but if you look closely you can see other colors in the mix — green, pink, tan, even orange and brown. See the shirting fabrics in the background triangles? This quiltmaker knew about “low volume” fabrics long before that term started popping up in the quilt world.

The quilt is quite frayed along the edges but otherwise is in pretty good shape. The same can’t be said for the second one, a Basket quilt, approximately 75″ square:

It’s also hand pieced and hand quilted but the quality of both is not nearly as high as in the Ocean Waves quilt. The Basket quilt was trimmed unevenly all the way around, with the points of some blocks lopped off and some basket blocks cut in half (sort of).

The fabric on the back was brought around to the front for binding . . .

. . . and you can see from the next photo that the folded edge of the binding was inexpertly sewn down on the right side:

And alas, at some point the bottom edge was chewed on by a critter of some kind.

Still, I find this quilt oddly appealing. The fabrics are really very interesting. Look at the ones in this block:

I am sentimentally attached to this quilt, even though I have had it for such a short time. Some might consider it a “cutter” quilt, ready to be tossed in the garbage after any useable parts are cut out for crafting projects. I don’t think I could bring myself to do that, although the idea of making something decorative or useful out of a badly damaged quilt does have merit.

But then I am reminded of something my friend Bill Volckening, who knows a thing or two about old quilts, told me: “A rescue quilt is like a cutter that someone loved enough to save.” I get that. Out of respect for the quiltmaker and love of the craft, this rescue quilt is a keeper.