When we were growing up there were always two crib quilts in the house that, long after we left the crib, we would use to nap under or cuddle in when we stayed home sick from school - they were folded and stored under the cushions in the sofa, which I thought was ingenious. One was made of the softest pinks and blues - darling nursery fabrics - and I think that it may have been made from flannelette. I'm not sure where it is now, but I do have the second one. It's a great collection of appliquéd butterflies and is showing signs of its age.
Each butterfly is made in a different fabric so you could spend lots of time occupying yourself trying to find duplicates, but never did. Usually I could recognize some of mom's old summer dresses in other quilts that she made but I don't in this one. Missing wings reveal the less faded yellow that the blocks were embroidered on - they are so bleached out with age now that they are almost white.
A soft grey check sashing surrounds each block and I've always thought that it would have been nice to have it in a floral print because of the butterflies, but the butterflies were all done in very strong and graphic prints and the grey doesn't fight with them so mom must have known what she was about :).
It's about 50 years old and showing its age in a lot of places. This corner looks like it got caught on something somewhere.
Many of the butterflies are long gone but their embroidered skeletons remain and it's fun to try and imagine what they looked like.
The backing is a blue/grey flannel print that works well with the check and, believe it or not, it still feels like flannelette. It's wonderful having such a vivid childhood memory in our home...M
What a wonderful treasure!
ReplyDelete