A Red and White Quilt for Valentine's Day

Hello dear friends! Happy Valentine's Day! I thought today I'd share one of my favorite red and white quilts for a little Valentine treat.

I was gifted with this gorgeous book for Christmas. I have it on my dining table and I am slowly poring over every page.

It inspired me get out my red and white quilts for an afternoon's enjoyment [air and refold too]. I think red and white quilts are the largest segment of my collection---the combination never fails to attract my eye and please my collector's spirit.

This is a beautiful redwork quilt I've had for many many years. c 1911. It is much whiter than my photos show.

I'm pretty sure, all these years later, that I bought it for the zebra.

How cute is he! I fell in love with the zebra. He is so animated and charming.

But it has many wonderful special blocks, including a date---

And this I never noticed, or forgot: it has initials. Isn't that a lovely find?

It also has Sunbonnet babies

Nursery rhymes

a whole menagerie of animals.

Including a polka dot fish...

Kitties:

Dogs:

Bunnies and squirrels...

you'll note here that it has been poorly rebound at some point.
 I need to remember to redo this
in vintage turkey red cotton.

Hens, chickies, birds [2 turkeys, a swan, an owl, geese, and more.]

"who'll get the worm!?"

Botanicals:

including  flowers:

...fruits, vegetables, acorns, lily pads with a frog!

It is thin, like a summer quilt. Nice but not fabulous quilting in an unusual circles pattern. 

.After all that embroidery the quilter's fingers maybe gave out. Or her attention. [Most redwork quilts are  only lightly quilted, I've noticed.] 

Some areas seem to have been quilted with red thread, but I think maybe instead the red embroidery thread dye migrated and was captured in the folds of the quilting. 

If I counted correctly there are 81 embroidered blocks in this quilt. 81 different imaginative designs! I picture this on a child's bed, an early 2oth century I SPY quilt. What a joy this  must have been.

This quilt is over 100 years old. Its maker and recipient are lost in time. Don't we wish we knew? Who made this? Why?

For now all I can say is it was made with love and care. Happy Valentine's Day!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.....