Lessons from an Old Diamond Star Quilt
To watch the video for this quilt, click on the image above or click HERE.
I just love this one, but it will break your heart. I can’t remember where I got this quilt. I think it was from an auction. Maybe it was a yard sale. Either way, not remembering tells me I didn’t pay much for it. That’s kind of how my mind works. In a way, I feel bad because this old beauty has been abused and forgetting about it, yet again, isn’t the way I like to treat quilts. So let’s give this old quilt some love, shall we?
Details About This Quilt
Size: 83” x 87”
Blocks Size: 14” Square
25 Blocks
Made Up of Diamonds:
Each Diamond is 2.25” (Measuring the Side)
24 Diamonds + Four Setting Pieces in Each Block
600 Diamonds in this Quilt (24 x 25 = 600)
Hand Pieced and Hand Quilted
Fabric: Blocks = 100% Cotton/Background = Mix of Beige Fabrics Including Feedsacks
Batting: Cotton or Wool
Binding: Added Separately; Maybe Added Later?; Maker Used Thick Orange Thread; Added by Machine.
Blocks:
These blocks are really amazing! Each of the 25 blocks is made up of (24) 2.25” diamonds and four setting units, meaning this quilt contains 600 diamonds, all hand-pieced using English Paper Piecing method (I believe). Whoa, that’s a lot of diamonds!
There are four different fabrics used for the diamonds. Here is the layout and breakdown of the star blocks:
Isn’t this cool! Talk about a controlled scrap quilt!
Sashing, Corner Stones, and Borders
Look at those beautiful blocks!
The corner stones are the same blue fabric. The sashing strips are a mix of beiges in different fabric weights. they are all 2” wide. The borders are interesting, too! I didn’t mention this one in the video, however! This is exclusive for the blog readers. ❤️ The top and bottom borders (what I believe are the top and bottom. It all depends on how you look at it.) are 6.5” wide while the side borders are only 3” wide. So interesting!
This is something we have noticed before in other old quilts (and new!). Custom borders like this are great for making a quilt fit on a specific size bed or to accommodate taller people or just because a specific size is needed.
Feedsacks:
There are feedsacks in this quilt! How do I know? JUST LOOK!
Do you see it? That is the word SALT backwards! The maker turned feedsacks over to use them! Wow, wow, wow! Soooooo cool!
There are many other examples of this in this quilt. Unfortunately, they do not photograph well, so you will just have to trust me on this one.
Quilting:
You can see that the quilting lines were marked in pencil, and if you look closely, you can see the lines are under the quilting. But look! The maker either made a mistake or decided not to quilt on some of the marked lines after all. Again, these unquilted lines are throughout this quilt.
The quilting is even, measuring six stitches per inch.
The blue lines that you can see is the backing showing through. This isn’t damage on the front. Close-ups are hard sometimes. :)
Batting:
This portion is temporarily hanging in front of a window. Don’t worry! I only had it up there to take the photo. As you can see, the cotton (I believe) batting is clumping. When it isn’t up to the light, you can feel this some, but not see it at all.
Heartbreaking Backing:
Ready for the back news? This beautiful quilt was used as a drop cloth and the entire back has what I think is spray paint on it. SPRAY PAINT! Who does this? This broke my heart when I saw it. Sigh. I guess the only upside is whomever spray painted it used the back, but still. Heartbreaking!
There are three separate pieces that make up the backing. They are all the same weight of fabric and appear/feel like the same yardage.
Binding:
Some clues (and my gut) tell me the binding was replaced at some point because it was added by machine with a thick orange thread and because the fabric used is a thicker weight. This isn’t consistent with the maker’s style, in my opinion. If you have followed me for a while, you know I love to speculate about these old beauties! It just seems weird, is all. That said, the binding held this quilt together well, even if it is a bit weird. :)
Lessons We Can Learn
Although there are many lessons we can learn as modern-day quilters from this quilt, here are a few I chose. Let me know if you can think of others.
Hiding Interesting Things: Sometimes we hide the things that are most interesting about a quilt. For example, this maker hid the feedsack fabrics by turning them upside down. Could something you hide make your quilts more interesting?
Effective Binding: The binding isn’t pretty. There, I said it. BUT the binding works! Sometimes we get hung up on being perfect. Maybe our skills aren’t quite where they need to be. Or maybe we are not brave enough to try hard things. Whatever the case may be, if it works and does the job, like this binding holding this quilt together, we should just go for it!
Quilts Don’t Belong In Garages: Let’s get quilts out of garages. Check your garage and ask your friends to check theirs. The back of the quilt is heartbreaking!
Border Sizes: All borders do not have to be uniform in width. Use different size borders to make a quilt fit your needs. It’s okay. In fact, it is more than okay—it is great!
Star Organization: What a wonderful way to use scraps in a controlled way! I love the layout of this quilt. I can just imagine the maker thinking, “How can I add consistency with these fabrics?” What a creative way to make a scrap quilt! Give it a try!
Thank you so much for reading about this beautiful old quilt.
Kris