Vintage quilts can become a hobby bordering on obsession. This is especially true once you start your own family. You'll want to start documenting all the history, the values and the warm-heartedness depicted within the walls of your home; there is no better way to do this than with the antique fabrics of a cutter quilt. Thinking of the entire process of finding representative pieces of someone's life and putting them all together in an aesthetic manner so that memories can be enjoyed for several generations makes for a completely satisfying experience for most people who are sensitive to such things. This isn't simply teardrops of sentimentality but a strong bond connecting the past with the present and the future using old textiles and pieces of quilting in new and inventive ways.
While standard quilting process and styles are easy and plentiful to discover, cutter quilts hold with them that air of mystery that is not objective by its very nature. To crafters, a cutter quilt can mean one thing, while to artists and quilt collectors they can mean something altogether different.
To some people a real cutter is looked upon as a unique item filled with the vintage scraps of fabric of yesteryears. The best textiles are going to be old. Not just look old but actually be articles of clothing from years ago. Things like wedding dresses and suits, neckties and baptismal gowns, any cloth pieces that bring back memories of ancestors or family nostalgia. Another word for these cutter quilts are crazy quilts for their crazy, mixed-up piecing together of seemingly disconnected fabric pieces. Dealers who look at antique quilts for their memorable content rather than the condition of their fabric find value in the antiquity rather than at their preserved state.
There are other collectors of antique quilts who view these pieces as something damaged needed to be revived by cutting them up and making something new out of something old. While this sounds like a terrible thing to do, it is better to preserve a piece that is damaged beyond repair and save it by cutting it into other shapes that can be quilted together again, minus the damaged parts.
Cutter quilts are viewed by another group as an antique collectible that can be acquired for a great price, and once in their hands, they believe a little tender loving care will restore it to its original value. The reason for this is because certain dealers will view these flaws as price worthy - enough for collectors to see them as the best bargains around the industry.
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wow,never knew that either,very interesting, its kinda like recycling in its own unique way, and it does make sense "it is better to preserve a piece that is damaged beyond repair and save it by cutting it into other shapes that can be quilted together again", because once its lost it lost forever,i love it, thank you,:)
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