Cathy C. came up to visit this week, so Diane and I took her to Bolt and Collage yesterday. And afterwards, Cathy took me and Pearl out to Screen Door for dinner… so nice.

Then, this morning, we met up with Cathy P. for breakfast and a trip to Knittn Kitten and beyond. I found some really good bias tape, a few vintage craft books, some blue corduroy and this absolute treasure of a log cabin quilt top!

Ethel and I guessed it was late 1920s or 1930s — I love the fabrics. The colors and shading of the positive/negative cross pattern are just luminous together.

It was once a finished quilt, but someone took it apart… you can see the tie marks as a set of small holes in each center square, and in some of the strips. But the rest of it is in great shape. I’m excited to bring it back to life! I’ve already started thinking about repairing the center bits (maybe hand-sewing some new fabric to bolster it? or adding some buttons over the damaged spots?) and what to back it with and all those tantalizing quilt things.

We finished off the crafty tour with a stop at Cool Cottons and Vintage Pink. Such a pleasant 24 hours!

update, a little more detail if anyone’s interested… it looks most like a Courthouse Steps variation of intersecting large crosses in the two light and dark color families, and the pattern is arranged with seven squares across and six squares down for a slightly rectangular shape. The fabrics are in good shape (yay!), except for those tie-holes in the center squares (just a few of them are torn more than that, but not wrecked) and the same patterns and colors repeat within the center squares and log strips — but with some curveballs of different ones here and there, which make it so interesting. Some of the prints look like feedsack and some are bigger patterns. Knittn Kitten has some other lovely quilt tops for sale right now, including a beautiful Dresden Plate, so definitely get over there soon if you can.