Update – Honey Bee Variation Quilt – 1948

Honey Bee Variation Quilt

Honey Bee Variation Detail

Honey Bee Variation Border Corner Detail

 

You might remember this quilt, that I posted in 2014. It was made in 1948 by my great grandmother, Rose Brown Tague. The traditional honey bee block, in pink and purple, alternates with snowball blocks with green corners. The original post can be accessed under “Family Antiques” in the right-hand column.

I recently found an old photo, taken of my grandmother, Mary Josephine Hamrick Tague, holding nine-day-old me, her first grandchild. Covering her chair is this new quilt, positively dating it to 1948. That’s my father’s writing; he probably took the photo.

It would be great if there were photos floating around showing some of the family’s other quilts. Wishful thinking. . . .

 

Diamond Star Quilt ca.1900?

Diamond Star Quilt Remnants

My mother gave me these blocks she salvaged from a quilt found under my grandmother’s mattress. Here’s what I know and surmise:
In the 1980s, my grandparents – Emmett and Mary Hamrick Tague – sold their house and moved in with my uncle, due to their failing health. When Mom dismantled Grandma’s full-sized bed, she found a shredded quilt apparently used to protect the mattress from the open springs. Mom cut out the “good parts” and passed them on to me, saying maybe I could frame one.
So 30 years later, I decided to see what kind of quilt could have been made of 25 blocks with pieces of binding on some of the corners. The most reasonable layout is on point.

Diamond Star Fabric Detail

Whoever made the quilt used a single blue fabric with a fancy-woven stripe. The binding remnants are of a 1930s solid medium blue so was apparently a replacement. It was machine-pieced and hand-quilted, and there was a narrow white sashing and setting triangles.

As for who made it, the quilt is probably too old to have been made by Grandma Tague. Also, I have no quilts by her that weren’t made from scraps or have this complex a block, so this isn’t her style. If her mother,  Mary Levina Dunkle Hamrick, made it, this is the only one of her quilts still existing. Or it might have been made by Grandpa Tague’s mother, Rose Brown Tague. Her other quilts were also made with solid fabrics purchased specifically for the project.  Either way, it was like Grandma to use something vintage as pragmatically as for a mattress pad.

Honey Bee Variation Quilt – 1948

This double-sized quilt was made in 1948 by my great-grandmother Rose Brown Tague, using solid cottons.

Honey Bee Variation Quilt

There are two alternating blocks: the pink and purple block with solid pieced center and appliqued bee wings and bodies; and the pieced snowball block with green corners. Daisy-like flowers are quilted in the snowballs.

 

Honey Bee Variation Detail

Grandma Rose added a serpentine border, turning the bee shapes into leaves.

Honey Bee Variation Border Corner Detail

Now owned by B J Bower.