Welcome to another Family Quilts installment! We have finished looking at the three quilts my father made before putting away the quilting frame, and we have returned to my Great Grandmother Roloff. This quilt was hand pieced and hand quilted, but it differs from the other quilts in several ways. This one has a sort of stars-within-stars sort of pattern to it. (Other than the wedding rings, I don’t think we’ve seen a pattern twice.) The colors of this one have a very 1980′s vibe in my opinion, with the burgundy, but it can’t possibly have been from the 80′s. So this seems to be an unusual color choice, particularly when compared to the other quilts we’ve seen from my Great Grandmother.
Here’s a detail of one of the circles of stars within a larger star. I had not really noticed all the dots on the burgundy fabric until I was looking at the pictures. Those have to be part of the fabric design, even though they almost look like ties or french knots or something.
Another novelty for this quilt is that it is quilted in an all-over fans pattern. This is the first quilt that has been quilted this way. And while most of the quilts have had self-bound edges, this one clearly has a little plaid used as the binding. Cute!
The backing for this quilt is made up of a bunch of pieces of fabric with text printed on them. This is the best one (many of the others are really faded). This is another reason that I feel this quilt is fairly old. I tried some quick internet research to see if I could figure out what this fabric may be but didn’t have any luck.
Stay tuned, as there are several more gems from my Great Grandmother still to come!
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Wow, the star pattern looks so elaborate, as does that fan quilting. Cool backing fabric!
I love the fan pattern on the quilting. Maybe she was making a Christmas quilt? My grandma loves this color scheme and she’s been on this kick ever since I can remember.
This quilt is so intricate and the star in a star pattern is so unique!
This star pattern is called Seven Sisters. I’ve read that it was named for a constellation of the same name. I have the pattern on my list of quilts to make. The color choices really make the center star stand out and the setting creates yet another star. Beautiful.
Always fun to catch-up on your family quilts! This one is great. LOVE that back!
Seven Sisters is one of my many unfinished quilt projects — I love this pattern and yours is so beautiful. I really like it that she used a different star for the middle. You are so lucky to have all these wonderful family quilts. I hope my children feel the same about my quilts some day.
This is a beautiful quilt. I have a Seven Sisters quilt that my great grandmother made during the Civil War. The colors used are quite similar to your quilt. I value this quilt very much, especially since I never knew my great grandmother. You are lucky to have your quilt as well.