Eastern Shore Quilt Study Group 

The Eastern Shore Quilt Study Group met yesterday at the library in St. Michaels, MD. I was so captivated by all the goodies I didn't take notes. You may be grateful for this because I will be less verbose than usual. 

The very last quilt we saw was my favorite. We agreed that the pattern was Many Trips Around the World in typical PA German colors (knock your socks off), 1-1/2" squares, no borders, the back large scale red paisley, absolutely pristine, still in the family, impeccable Schwenkfelder provenance, from Montgomery County, PA, circa 1890. In my book, they just don't come any better. 

Our topic for the day was Stars and we saw plenty. Two "look alike" Feathered Stars (unrelated, but nearly twins) in 1870s browns were upstaged by another in red, yellow and green. Four blocks from an 1820s Lemoyne Star had utterly beautiful fabrics and demanded as much attention as any of the intact quilts we saw. We had a good lesson in how quilts travel from a turn of the 20th century French Canadian quilt and a pretty early 30s Broken Star made in Alaska. 

The Eastern Shore was represented by a unique (at least none of the 30 people present had ever seen the pattern) large scale pieced star surrounding a circle of appliquéd tulips, a more conventional, but equally lovely, Star in a Garden Maze and a pretty pink Lemoyne Star in a green zigzag set. All three were 3rd quarter 19th century. 

We had a few "Stump the Chumps" challenges. The most unusual had red and green Sunflowers and Stars appliquéd to a top (not constructed in blocks) quilted with wreaths of feathers and hearts. It was not as it first appeared a mid-19th century quilt. The green was wrong and the quilting motifs too cutesy. We finally settled on 1950s. It was a fascinating puzzle. 

Nancy Hahn and Jean Fries brought some of their wonderful new quilts made with old fabric. Nancy's Bowmansville Star always makes me want to one of my own until I think about trying to keep all those little squares in order. It's on my list. 

Cinda exhausted on the Eastern Shore