My Great-Grandmother’s Vintage Quilt

My mom recently gave me this quilt. She said it was made by her baaban and mom (my GG and grandma), but that didn’t sound right because my GG was born in Shikoku, Japan and immigrated to Hawaii after she was married. It seemed unlikely that an adult Japanese immigrant, in Hawaii, would choose such a classic American design.

But the stitching is exquisite and this is my grandma’s style, tiny stitches were her specialty. So I thought maybe my mom was mistaken that Baaban had anything to do with it. It looks like my grandma’s handwork.

A friend of mine, who knows a lot about vintage quilts, placed it in the 1860’s to 1890’s, which aligns with my GG’s generation. Two of the ladies at the quilt shop confirmed the age, late 1800’s.

Then I asked my aunt (mom’s sister), who let me know she actually gave my mom the quilt (and 1 or 2 others). They were in her possession a few decades ago and she thought my mom would appreciate them since it was getting pretty tattered and she didn’t use it.

Turns out my mom was right about her grandmother, but it was the other one, the white grandma who lived in the San Francisco Bay area. So that makes much more sense. But it’s really cool because I didn’t realize that she quilted and was so good at it!

There are 19 x 21 rows of star blocks, which is 399! And 360 solid blocks! For a total of 759 blocks!! Each block is about 2.75″. This is some tiny work! Even though it’s in bad shape, I feel compelled to spend the time to repair it.