While browsing in an antique shop a while ago, a set of simple Square in Square quilt blocks caught my eye. The fabrics used in them are those that I love, from the late 1800's and early 1900's, so I had to bring them home.
Upon closer inspection, the blocks had been carefully hand-pieced. And the maker was a true "scrap" quilter! Several of the blocks contain lots of fabrics pieced together to create the needed size and shapes for the block. :)
A few of the blocks contain small stains but I ignored those as I was working with these blocks. I will freshen up the entire piece once it is quilted.
The blocks were squared up to 7", a size that worked for all but one of the blocks. I then had 16 blocks with which to work--they could be set 4 blocks x 4 blocks.
I wanted a color "softer" than solid black for the sashing and border strips. Although it is not a reproduction fabric, a brown/black print from my stash was just what I was looking for. The sashing strips were cut 2" wide.
Among my collection of vintage fabrics was a bag of shirting squares--same era, so perfect for my cornerstones! Because many of these squares are age-spotted, it took some sorting to find nine squares that were free of spots/stains. Those were trimmed to 2" square.
While thinking about the border for this small quilt, I had the idea to make Square in Square blocks from the shirting squares for the border corners. I found four more "clean" squares, trimmed them to 2 1/4" and made the four corner blocks. The size of those blocks then determined the width of the border for the quilt--3" raw. The finished small quilt top measures ~35" square.
These vintage blocks are now preserved in a way that I will enjoy looking at them. The next decision--How should it be quilted?
