On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of antique quilt hunting at the Famous Brimfield Antiques Market with my friend, Diana Annis! With Diana by my side, we had a fabulous day poking through bags, boxes, bins, and baskets looking for buried treasure. Diana is an expert in quilt appraisal, dating fabric, and identifying the dyes and colors used. I got such an education!
Well… we did find some great inspiration pieces and a few quilts with a STORY! Diana and I just love a quilt with a good story! We had quite a time imagining the story behind a few interesting quilts and unfinished blocks!
I can’t wait to show you the quilts I came home with and even a few that I didn’t. A photo is worth a thousand words, so even though I couldn’t justify buying all the quilts I saw (and wanted!) at least I have the interesting ones documented in photos.
One of the “Cool Ones” has a funny story! About 3 years ago,
I designed a block that I am calling “It’s in the Cards” based on a Card Trick Block. I have always loved the card trick block but it can be tricky (pardon the pun) to make accurately with pieced seams. Making the card trick with round cards seemed like a fun idea. So I recently researched to see if there 
were ever any round playing cards made, and indeed there were!
I couldn’t find any round cards at Brimfield, so I came home and bought a set on Ebay. Well here is where it gets interesting! While at Brimfield this week, I came across the very same pattern that I thought I had made up, a round card trick block!!
It just goes to show you, nothing is new! Yet we can certainly be inspired by antique quilts and make them our own, especially when new methods make the quilt faster, easier, more accurate, or prettier!
I think my version is going to be much prettier than the one that I found in 
Brimfied. In fact, the quilt was poorly made, and so not pretty, that I decided not to purchase it. Instead, I documented the quilt with a photo.
Would you like to see how I made the card trick blocks the Rotary Cut Applique Way? This is one of the quilts that I’ll be designing for “Ahead of the Curve” membership. It’s a great way to use the Hearts and More templates to rotary cut any size circle and make this block in a dozen different sizes. Can you imagine it with 7″ or 9″ circles made with the Rings and Things tools? Let’s set the date for Sept 21, where I can show you how I made my version of “It’s in the Cards!”
Everyone is invited to hang out with me on Facebook on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays and AOC members get to come EVERY Tuesday at 11am EST. This is where I dive into figuring out how to make new designs with the Rotary Cut Applique Method. You get to see the inspiration (hopefully an antique quilt!) and the design process. Over the next few months I will be designing a bunch of new quilts and patterns to share with “Ahead of the Curve” members.
Members will get detailed instructions and video workshops demonstrating how you can turn common applique shapes into blocks, table runners, pillows, and quilts! You will also get design classes so you can feel confident and courageous in designing your own quilts based on antique quilts or your own sketches and drawings!
At Brimfield, I was attracted to applique quilts, mostly from the 1920s and 30s. Diana also picked up a few treasures and I will share all the quilts with Rotary Cut Applique potential in my newsletters over the next couple of weeks. I’ll be giving my antique quilts some extra loving care this weekend and washing them in RetroClean! If you are curious about how you can wash an antique quilt without stressing the fabrics, read all about it in the blog post HERE.
If you don’t want to miss another article about quilts, quilting and especially Rotary Cut Applique, click here to subscribe to my newsletter and get a free pattern that introduces you to the fast and fabulous world of Rotary Cut Applique!
When you are ready for your own Applique Adventure, Join “Ahead of the Curve!” members and come have fun with us!
Happy Applique!
Leave a Reply