A Pair of Beauties

A few weeks ago, I was viewing pictures of an unusual red and white quilt on the Facebook page of Oklahoma quilt dealer Cindy Rennels. The picture was a mobile upload from a show display, and there was a pink and white New York Beauty in the lower left corner of the picture. Of course, I asked Cindy right away if the quilt was available, and it was. 

Shortly afterwards, Pepper Cory commented, saying she thought Cindy had a second quilt of this pattern that was available. Sure enough, she did. It was an earlier red, white, and green quilt with some cheddar orange. I bought both quilts.

The quilts arrived on my doorstep this past week, but it took me a couple days to post a blog about them because I was volunteering at the Northwest Quilters Show during the week, and was documenting quilts with the Oregon Quilt Project over the weekend at the show. 

The pink and white quilt is a 1930's New York Beauty from Austin, Texas. It has great symmetry, wonderful decorative quilting including feathered wreaths, and solid pink fabric flanked by a small-scale floral pink print used for all the spikes. The print fabric, in contrast with the bright solid, gives the spikes a softened appearance. Very appealing, even though I don't usually collect pink and white, and a certainly a big boost to the Depression Era quilts in my collection.

The second quilt appears to be from the 1870's and is from Ohio. It has solid red, over-dyed green print, and some cheddar orange in the cornerstones. The rectangular quilt has six full blocks and three half-blocks on one side, with border sashing on three sides. It is unusual for its inverted spikes tapering inwards, and quarter circles wedged in squares in the cornerstones, which aptly reflects the basic block design. Both quilts are wonderful - a pair of beauties - and I'm very pleased to add them to my collection!