Journal Notes

This antique quilt has a hazy history. It was made in my maternal family and passed down as a pieced top without having been completed. My mother thinks it was pieced by my great grandmother Catherine Elizabeth Kenney Woolsey (born December 16, 1853 and died November 7, 1936). Catherine had three daughters and three sons: Edith (born 1880), Charles (born 1884), Mary Louis (born 1885), Florence May (born 1887), John (born 1890), and Albert Raymond (born 1896). It is possible that Edith, Mary or Florence pieced this quilt. The fabrics date from the late 1890s and we guess it was made in the early 1900s. The top was passed through John Woolsey (my grandfather) to my grandmother, Dorothy Perpente Woolsey, and then to their only child (my mother), Carol Joyce Woolsey Guerringue. After a century of storage and passing down, it came to me, Diane Carol Guerringue Killmon, in 2005. In 2007, I squared the top as best I could (the pieces being all hand cut and hand stitched; far from precise), added cotton batting, muslin backing, and an 1890s reproduction print binding. The edges of each 9-patch were tie quilted, with a hand quilted heart in each center square. The quilt was completed in Nokesville, Virginia in March 2008–a true timespan quilt. I decided it would be a quilt to be used, rather than a museum piece. It already had a long history hidden away. That decision has had consequences. Over the next 16 years, it has needed shredded original squares replaced with reproduction prints and squares mended. I hope to save as much of the original as possible but to still use and enjoy it. Since 2018, I have been mending various tears or places where the dyes used have eaten away holes. Some square patches have had reproduction prints appliquéd on top, the balance are being visibly mended with thread and hand stitches to preserve the original fabrics rather than cover them up.