Antique Quilt Photo Shoot

I had the pleasure of finishing another antique family quilt top for Mr. Landis.

The colors were so lovely, and the quilt so nicely designed and constructed that it deserved a photo shoot.  (OK, I'll admit it - I believe that every quilt deserves its own photo shoot!)

According to Mr. Landis's careful historical records, the quilt was stitched sometime around 1880.  He's right on the money as far as I'm concerned; his family records match my conclusions after I compared the fabrics in the quilt with the photos in my Dating Fabrics book: 

I debated and debated about how I should finish the quilt.  Since it is a c. 1880 quilt and was pieced by hand, machine quilting was out of the question.  I really wanted to do it justice and had planned to hand quilt it with a large utility stitch, 

but at the last minute I saw this quilt at an antique fair and concluded that simply knotting it might be be acceptable after all.

I used Hobb's 100% wool batting and knotted it with perle cotton #5.

As always, it's oh so important to document these antique quilts for future generations.

I thought this quilt was absolutely beautiful, so some of these pictures are for my own enjoyment and remembering.

:)

(Thanks, Linda, for suggesting this lovely spot at the college for photographing my quilts, and for tipping me off as to the perfect time of day when the lighting is best!)