$949.00
Measures 116″ x 116″ long.
This Mariner’s Postage Stamp displays a stunning Mariner’s Compass in the center of the Postage Stamp pattern. The lovely purple and green fabrics compose an artful bed quilt. The quilt is generous enough in length so that one can use a simple pillow tuck rather than pillow shams. The generous width gives a drop measurement of 19 inches per side. The quilt is hand-quilted, initialed, and dated!
Homemade quilts combine the warmth of a bed cover with a unique story told by the quilters from Lancaster County, PA. Every homemade quilt is as unique as the family, busy mother or Amish ladies group who uses a needle and thimble to thread stitch on the quilt. Some quilts involve hundreds of hours and thousands of stitches to create a unique patchwork quilt that will last for generations.
When you peruse our HOMEMADE QUILTS you are shopping for an item that tells a story and adds meaning to your bedroom! Discover more about our unique patchwork quilts and the stories behind them…
We have a lot of quilts! Want to see a gallery of the major patterns? Checkout our Common Amish Quilt Patterns.
The Mariner’s Compass quilt pattern has been known and loved among dedicated quilters, only the best of whom could manage the intricacies of stitching the precise points of the compass or star, as it was variously known. While most early quilts were simple, the Mariner’s Compass quilt was complex, and often was reserved for special occasions.
While other patterns may suggest a star pattern, the Mariner’s Compass name specifically refers to quilts in which the star radiates from a circular center. The roots of this pattern are hard to trace. Barbara Brackman writes of the many names used for this pattern, including The Explosion, the Merry Go Round, the Rolling Pinwheel, the Slashed Star–even Chips and Whetstones. Each name suggests what quilters saw as they stitched their quilt tops!
Quilt pattern books began to use the Mariner’s Compass name, widely accepted today, around the 1960s; its first published use was in 1929. Various historians, knowing the pattern’s popularity in the American northeast, have suggested that seafaring folk saw the compass rose on nautical maps and reproduced it on their blankets. The Pennsylvania Germans picked it up, adding brighter colors and patterns.
Called a “charm” quilt in the late 19th century, young women collected hundreds of different fabrics from their family and friends. Perhaps if they collected 999 different squares, their true love would bring them the thousandth–and their happily-ever-after dream, too. One quilting blogger speculates that collecting these fabrics may have given girls opportunities to ask their love interest for a contribution!
The scrap quilt has also been called a “beggar” quilt, referring to quilters asking each other for contributions to their projects. Trying to put together a bedspread without repeating every fabric, they also called the quilts “odd feller” quilts–every piece was an odd feller. Some families recall their mother repeating one square, however, so that a child sick in bed might be entertained looking for the matching patches.
Still another name scrap quilts went by is the “postage stamp” quilt, so called because quilters would use their tiniest scraps, sometimes no bigger than a postage stamp. Perhaps the original motivation was not wasting the smallest piece (historians recall the scarcity of the Great Depression in this), but it also became a challenge at some point. Quilters would collect thousands of pieces to compete with each other in making stitched masterpieces.
Each step of the quilt-making process calls for a particular lady's proficiency. Every one of our women concentrates on either piecing or quilting. At least 2 ladies are involved in making each quilt. The women that sew the tops together concentrate on assembling certain quilt patterns. Because each quilter's stitches vary, just one lady does the quilting per quilt. This system enables each woman to come to be a specialist in her work.