Outstanding Tumbler Blocks One Patch antique quilt. Add this one to a collection and also such an exquisite one to study.
This is such a great earlier one with so many fabrics.
Now that I am thinking ,, I didn't check to see if it’s a ‘Charm” quilt. That is where there are no repeat fabrics in the quilt, so each block is a completely different fabric.
A circa 1870’s quilt that is in overall excellent condition. There was a rubbed area on the backside and it will have a neat little repair of time period fabric. No wear on the front.
Note that with this quilt it has early wool batting or also called wadding and you can see in the images some has bled through, but that is a characteristic of some of the early quilts that the quilt maker used wool batting for warmth or thats what they had. Wool was easy to quilt through and lightweight.
Wool may have been superior to cotton batting for warmth. This could have been a hand spun wool filling or carded sheep’s wool. So since this came from the north it makes sense that if wool was available to use as batting that was the choice. Early quilts like this with wool batting were often prized for their warmth as the wool was lightweight and breathable.
The quilt appears really not to have been used and is unwashed.
When I first saw the quilt in person, I thought oh my theres some wear in some blocks, and upon close looking saw it was only the wool filling that seeped through, so it was easy to pull off if desired.
This Tumbler is such a fabric catalog so besides display or using it, designer and fabric companies love seeing these fabrics for inspiration and more. Plus quilt makers love this as such a sampling of fabrics.
It is all hand quilted and love some of the tumbler blocks have been pieced together with more than the one fabric, sometimes just a tiny piece. This is a great example of waste not!!!!!
The dimensions are 74x87 inches.
