My Carolina Lily Quilt

Today's quilt is one of those quilts that has a pattern that has been documented clear back to 1840. Now whether this quilt actually dates as early as that I can not say for certain?! It is most commonly called the Carolina Lily, sometimes North Carolina Lily pattern, tho most of the ones I found online of the early period, were from Pennsylvania or Ohio, not North Carolina. Quilts like this one have also been found among those that came over the Oregon Trail to Oregon in the mid 1800's, and it, with some variations, is still a popular pattern today. Quilts are truly the tie that binds us to the past. The women through time that made these quilts, traveling from place to place, bringing their quilt making skills and traditions with them, truly were the purveyors of comfort, and the memories of folks back home.

The woman who made this quilt had top skills as a seamstress. Not only is it quilted 10 and 11 stitches to the inch, but the appliqued flowers are stitched with so many tiny whip stitches I couldn't get a solid count. The first thing that struck me about this quilt was the layout. I have seen quilts like this online, but the flowers ran with the length of the quilt, not as pictured above. There are 12 flowered 13" x 13 1/2 " squares, and 6 quilted white squares, all set on point. 4 quilted white triangles are set sideways at the four corners of the quilt, with two large quilted white triangles on each end, and three on each side. The quilt top is bordered on three sides with 6 5/8 " banding. This band is made up of  5 pieced together strips, because she ran short on the bottom and had to make the bottom strip of two pieces. The band has this fun criss-cross design of 1/4" stripping on three sides. I just love the design of this quilt.

The red in the quilt is Turkey Red, a dye that was a very color fast long lasting red that did not fade easily. Unfortunately it was also harsh on fiber and over time was given to failure. Thus its wear is showing the white quilt beneath. This did not discourage me in the least from buying it, as its overall condition was still very good, and it spoke to the possible age of the quilt.

Here is a closeup of one of the flowers. One of the reasons I believe this to be possibly an 1840's - 60's quilt, is the method that is being used here. More modern versions of this pattern, have the flower segmented into several red petals, which are stitched together, and then appliqued or even sewn together as a block. These flowers are one single piece of turkey red appliqued by hand onto the quilt. The quilting does not echo the flower, but is stitched in very close rows right through it.

I'm not sure what this pattern of criss-crossing ribbon is called, or if it even has a name?! I noticed on this part of the ribbon, she put the red to the green and the green to the red strip by accident, breaking up the continuity of the criss-crossing lines. Now there are a lot of romanticized idea's about quilters deliberately making mistakes so their quilts aren't perfect, because only God is perfect, but as a seamstress myself, I am here to tell you that, that is simply not true. Early in my career as a designer, I once designed and made a wedding dress for a lady. The fabric of her dress was a rich white on white patterned brocade. It was nearly impossible to tell the front from the back, the fabric was so fine. I somehow managed to sew the one inside cuff of her long sleeve with the wrong side of the fabric showing. I did not notice it until she came for her last fitting and was trying it on. The wedding was too soon and there was no time to change it. I left it and she never knew. Maybe someday someone will notice the mistake and make up a silly story about why, when in fact it was just a mistake on my part. I have no doubt that is exactly what happened here with this quilt. It's called seamstresses fatigue.

Here I was trying to get some shots of the medallions on the plain white squares. White on white is very hard to get a decent shot of, but I did the best I could. You can also see how the turkey red fabric is failing. The sad fact is this quilt does not look like it was ever used very much. Just the rubbing of another quilt laid on top of this quilt, or while it was being stored over the years, could have done this.

Here is a picture where I am trying to show the feather stitching on the side triangles. I love that every inch of this quilt is stitched. I can imagine the hours this must have taken and I am in awe of this woman's skills. There are many variants of this quilt pattern, but I love how she chose the simple flower and stem, with no pot, or basket, or anything else to detract from its simplicity. The two color theme of this quilt of just green and red on white, also speaks to the earliest period of these quilts.

The quilt is 82 3/4" x 68 3/4" with a lovely 3/8" red edge binding. The binding is not cut on the bias, neither were any of the other fine strips used in this quilt. They were all gathered and eased around the curves. It takes a lot of time and effort to get non-bias stripping to lay nice and flat. This lady did it repeatedly. This was surely a show quilt or for someone special.

The pictures of the back just cannot show clearly enough the amount of delicate quilting on this quilt. I was truly amazed by this woman's patience and skill. There was one small hole and a couple of small, what appear to be blood stains on the back. (The latter which can be seen in the last photo above.) This also did not diminish this quilt in my eyes. The small hole allowed me to clearly see the thin all cotton batting that makes up the inside sandwich of this quilt.

I was astounded to be able to get this quilt for just $45 dollars and felt that it and the other quilt were well worth it. When I see quilts like these, languishing with indifference in a shop, I feel drawn to rescue them so that they can be properly appreciated and cared for. Quilts are a direct connection to our past, a past full of strong talented women, who made this great country possible. I am so happy to be able to add these two quilts to my collection. They were a part of making this birthday one of my best birthdays ever.