The Mystery Pattern

This is the second quilt top I bought during my wild day at the quilt store. I have never, ever seen this pattern before. If anyone knows its name, please let me know.

This top is very nicely put together. The blocks were sewn together by machine, but the raw edges of the green bits were appliqued down with a blanket stitch using embroidery floss. (I wonder how that would have held up to washing if the quilt had been completed. ) The background is the color of unbleached muslin, but possibly a bit coarser in texture. I'm thinking of perhaps trying to quilt and bind this top, but I should probably get some advice about that. I'm not sure what kind of quilting design would be appropriate.

This top is so nicely preserved; I wonder how it ended up at the thrift store. There were such a lot of quilts and tops at the store that day that I wonder if some elderly quilter, recently dead, didn't have her collection donated by her ignorant and uncaring offspring. Ah, well! Their loss is my gain.

It's funny how some of the material things we treasure are simply junk to others. When my husband and I were helping my elderly mother-in-law clean out her house, she tried to give me her huge collection of polyester double-knit because she knew that I liked to sew. I've always hated that kind of fabric; it makes my skin crawl, But she thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. She'd amassed a huge collection of the stuff even though she was no longer sewing much at the time those knits were popular. (She was a bit of a hoarder who could never pass up a bargain.)

Anyway, I declined her offer as diplomatically as I could, and asked, since I was primarily a quilter, if she had any cotton fabric in her stash. Since she'd married in 1930, I was hoping she might have some vintage fabric squirreled away in one of her closets. In fact, I'd discovered an old quilt protector among her things. It was made of unbleached muslin and trimmed with a lavender print from the '30s. I showed that print to her when I asked if she had any cottons. She replied that she used to, but that she'd gotten rid of that junk back when the knits came in. Ah, well. None of my children are quilters, so I intend to use as much of my stash as I can before I die.