I've been climbing near Lake Tahoe, CA, for the past few days. The trip was great! Even, better, it included some quilts!
My friend Jen and I left a bit earlier than we planned because of a thunder storm Sunday afternoon. As we drove through Placerville, she spotted a quilt shop (and she doesn't even quilt!) I pulled into their parking lot, but sadly they were closed. I did peek through the windows and I will go back there the next time I am in the area.
As we still had some time to kill (Jen's mom was expecting us to arrive at her house in Sacramento around 7 or 8 for dinner) we decided to poke around the historic downtown area. Lots of antique store. Most stores had a few quilts, but one store in particular had some very nice quilts. We spent a lot of time there.
The two quilts I like the best were turn on the century nine patches, one set with a small red checked fabric, and the other set with white fabric. This one chained because the five squares in the nine patch were dark fabric, and the four squares were white. They also had another quilt Jen liked a lot. It probably dated from 1880-1890. This quilt consisted of variable stars, in white and one other fabric, alternating with squares that had the position of the white and other fabric reversed, in addition to reversing the star points a quarter turn. ( I don't know the name of the block and will have to figure that out.) The stars were navy blue, brown, very somber colors, but the overall effect was crisp, because of the white.
At Jen's mom's, I got to see a very nice family quilt. Someone (Jen's mom was not sure who) had finished off a set of eight pointed stars. The stars themselves looked like turn of the century. They were all made of various shirtings, strips, checks, and solids. They were set with what was probably poly cotton (white, light blues, etc.) and sashed with a light, light pink. The binding was the same material as the sashing. The batting was poly, and the quilt was partially hand quilted
- around the stars - and partially tied - in the sashing. The binding was sewn down by machine.
I got home very late, about 12;30 and collapsed. I am going to quilt tonight, while I am feeling inspired. . .
lisae