Sandy, one of our newcomers, who finally was able to play hookey from work to be with us showed us two spectacular quilts. The first was a sunflower quilt from the 1840's. There were 49 pieced blocks in only two fabric designs, but two colorways of each fabric. In addition it had a spectacular applique scalloped border in Turkey Red.

She also brought a circa 1830 chintz medallion quilt, bound with "Trenton" tape. This quilt was a brilliant as the day it was made, unwashed. It included a few squares from a Toile-type fabric, many of them including signs such as: "Drawing a sand cart," "Home Brewed Ale,"and "Hack on the Road." It would be interesting to know if anyone else has seen the full repeat for this toile, and if they know its name.

Our last presenter showed an early chintz star quilt, a T-quilt with a flounced border put on with a sort of ruching. Judy also showed a c. 1830 flying goose strippy quilt which used close to 80 different fabrics in the triangles, and had chevron quilting in ½" bands across the quilt. One of the fabrics was the same as one we saw in the very first quilt of the day, the Sunflower quilt. This was bound with a colored striped tape, perhaps "Trenton" Tape - who can tell?

Trudy, our one member with a long family history of quilts and a seemingly endless supply from the attic trunks showed us an early Prussian Blue and green "Path through the Woods" with a double sawtooth border. Most memorable was the purple stripe backing, as brilliant as the day it was printed, even though some of the tops blues had faded.

Mary Jo spread out a glorious dated 1939 friendship quilt with a mix of 42 pieced, appliqued, and embroidered blocks, absolutely the best of that era! It had 3 borders - pink, blue, and red.

We had only 3 Judys in attendance. One showed a Pa. German sampler quilt from the early fourth quarter of the 19th century, made in Lebanon Pa, with 72 blocks, and a double border, the outer one of a gorgeous paisley print. This quilt had no binding, but a "knife" edge with double rows of stitching. 

Nancy showed a quilt embroidered by her grandmother in gold pearl cotton and then sent out to be quilted, spectacularly, by two 80 year old sisters. Nancy received it in 1965 and grew up with it.

Judy # 4 (as she calls herself) showed a blue and white Irish chain with an appliqued saw-tooth border which was turned to the back for binding. She also showed us a glowing mostly gold silk crazy quilt top, with a matching pillow cover which had a blue crocheted edging. And she brought a small roll of real "Trenton Tape".

Judy # 2 showed a Bowmansville Star quilt, or as it was called by the family, a "Puzzle" quilt. IQSC has two in the on-line searchable database. This is a quilt made entirely of squares, laid out in a large 8-pointed star with a triangle border (of squares).

She also showed a Pa. German 4-block Geese variation quilt, in the usual colors - red, double blue, green, yellow and double pink. The sashing was flying geese in double blue and green with applique stars at the corners, then a sawtooth border of yellow and double pink. All this exuberance had to be contained with a plain red print border about 8 inches wide.

She also showed two pieced Pa. German pillow cases, one with a wonderful cheater cloth backing.

Barb showed us a poster underwritten in part by the US Forestry Service, which stated in bold lettering around 8 bright and beautiful 20th century blocks that these were the designs used to guide slaves through the Underground Railroad! Yes, our tax dollars at work! Some of our newer attendees had no idea what the fuss was about, so it was all explained yet again. Will it never end?

Barb showed us that she was ready to "go to housekeeping" as she had her quilt, a cross-stitch pillowcase, a show towel, a splasher, and an embroidered summer spread for a crib. She also showed a string-pieced on foundation fabrics quilt from the turn of the century, where the foundation fabrics were signed by the makers.

Joan, (Judy #4's long lost twin sister - in looks not name) showed a lovely pink and white 1930's star quilt with a sawtooth border. Her next quilt she called "Twisted Ribbons" from the Brackman book, but we've also heard it called Tear Drop or Hummingbird. Its border was effectively done by changing the color of the octagons in the outer two rows from the background color of white to a bright blue. We all thought that the quilting in the octagons was designed by tracing around a thread spool.

We saw a double wedding ring quilt with yellow shield shapes at the crossing points instead of the usually seen 4-patches. This was a charm quilt - all the prints in the wedges were different - and the scalloped edges were bound in yellow bias.

A Penna. Rail fence quilt in red, black and a discreet use of yellow (among other colors) had a a double border - a narrow one of yellow and a very wide one of double pink. The double pink binding was almost 1 inch wide.

Our day ended with a 5-color Pa. Dutch Log Cabin quilt (those colors again, but no blue in this one, cheddar instead) with a perfectly worked -out border of full and half log cabin blocks on point, with perfect miters at the corners.

Mary, a non-quilter and non-collector, joined us for the first time, also taking a personal day from her teaching job to be with us . I think we may have made a convert!

We did have a lunch break and thank Nancy #2 for the California salad she makes for us once a year. And what would a group lunch be like without chocolate, bountifully provided for us by Sandy, in the thickest, gooiest most chocolatey fudge cake ever.

Our next meeting will be July 20th. Put it on your calendar now!

Judy Ringo