I am so excited with this find! The pattern is quite brittle and I thought about pressing it flat but it is falling apart. There are 73 finished butterfly blocks and enough pieces cut out but not put together for maybe another 30 blocks. There are also a few finished half blocks and 1 finished quarter block. This is a Laura Wheeler pattern probably one advertized in the newspaper or a magazine. The box they were found in is an origional Laura Wheeler box that looks like a large shoe box that has a lable printed onto the end of the box with "HOME MADE" on the ends. I do know where it came from and who put all these blocks together and about when. The lady who made them was my husband's grandmother and I believe she made these between 1949-1950 as I know she became ill towards the end of 1950 and died before she could set the blocks together. My father-in-law gave them to me. He almost tossed them thinking they were no good anymore.
The butterflies are made of feed sack material. Grandma would receive stacks of feed sacks from her sister who owned a Turkey Farm back then and she would save all the feed sacks and share them with her sisters.
I need to soak these blocks and freshen them up. Six have worn spots on the bottom edges of the blocks and I am trying to decide if I can use something to back them for strength. I think I would love to finish this quilt. I have only seen one other quilt this Grandma made, but am told that she made hundreds of quilts in her lifetime.
