One Two Buckle my Shoe

      I recently attended a week long Writer's Conference in Green Lake, Wisconsin. I was tired as I set out for the six hour drive home, alone. My book on tape was putting me to sleep.  I had to stop often to stay awake. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I pulled over to stretch my legs near any antique shop or book store.
     Some time ago I decided not to add any more vintage quilts to my collection. Avoiding antique stores makes that easier but you guessed it. I found a quilt I had to buy. My 'rule' has a few exceptions - one being finding something I like that is so inexpensive that I can't pass it up.
       A dusty, cluttered little shop inhabited by an elderly lady reading a book in the middle of the floor, her little dog beside her, didn't look too promising. I scanned the room and wondered if I could politely make a quick exit. But then I thought, "As long as I'm here... you never know"....
       Up a rickety flight of stairs, the ceiling so low I had to crouch, I found a little crib quilt, not too clean, binding gone on one side and the rest faded and frayed. A tiny blank piece of paper about 1" x 1/2" was attached to the bottom of one corner with a straight pin.

 I couldn't read the price; she couldn't either. I waited.

"How about four dollars?" she said looking up at me.

I brought it home, worked on a couple of spots, and pushed it into the washing machine. Much better!

Binding Removed 

I took off the binding and found a good blue in my stash of solids. I trimmed the rough edges a bit and applied the new binding.










     My sister noticed that the animals were outlined in cross-stitch and thought that was unusual. That detail had escaped me and when I checked my other embroidered crib quilts I found she was right. None are outlined with cross-stitch. (I'll talk more about that and show my other examples in my next post)

The embroidery is done on a pre-quilted white cotton background as were many kits. Some work at hiding the threads in the batting layer.
This maker just left the ends of the threads showing on the back.







Here it is, rebound and refreshed ....

33" X 44"

Very sweet, don't you think?

ETC.

Here's a pair of pillowcases I also was unable to pass up on a different road trip. I do have a lot - I swore I would buy no more - but kitties? I didn't have kitties!

Rules are made to be broken.

Agreed?