Small Flower Garden Quilt

Every year from March through May the Gilbert Historical Museum (Gilbert, Arizona) hosts a quilt show.
The quilts range from Modern to Vintage, and it's always a treat to walk along the halls and peruse the selections.

I'm always drawn to the Vintage, like this Small Flower Garden quilt (1925-1930) shown by Evelyn Sparks.
Made for her by her maternal grandmother Josephine King.
I especially liked the choice of orange for the background.

The quilts at the show are carefully hung on these beautifully hand made displays allowing an close up view.

Another feature that I really enjoy about the show is the detailed histories that are displayed with each quilt.
Evelyn shared some interesting qualities about Small Flower Garden, which was not only hand pieced and hand quilted, but also contains batting that was hand carded by her grandmother.
It reminded me of how fortunate we are today to be able to run to the store for our batting.
Can you imagine how long it would take to create a quilt if we had to "make" our batting, too?

Evelyn shared "Carding is done by combing tufts of fiber, such as cotton or wool, using two flat hand held boards which have closely placed steel wire pins on one side.
The combing process cleans, stretches, and separates the fibers into a uniform batt."

This gives a new appreciation for how labor intensive it was to make quilts for prior generations.
No rotary cutters, or Olfa self healing mats to help in the construction process, either.

Often Grandmother Flower Garden quilts are quilted around the hexagons.
Evelyn chose to quilt straight through in diagonal lines with her cotton thread.

It was so relaxing to walk through the artfully displayed rooms of the Gilbert Museum, which originally housed the old Gilbert Elementary School built in 1913.
In upcoming posts I will share with you more of the quilts on display from this year's show.