AQSG Paper: Patchwork Prints in America 1878-1900

Deborah E. Kraak gave a paper on fabric that pretends to be patchwork.

We tend to call it cheater cloth or faux [fake] patchwork, both 20th century terms. Here's a wonderful piece with printed embroidery around printed patchwork, probably dating to the end of the 19th-century, the era she focused upon.

Deborah holding a piece from the Centennial in 1876

She said, "Given the trend in quilt scholarship to adopt period teminology when referring to quilting techniques or styles 'patchwork print' might replace [cheater cloth and faux patchwork] in our lexicon."

She found many references to the print style in the sales records of the last quarter of the 19th-century. Orders referred to "patchwork prints" and "Comforters-Printed Patch-covered."

She had many samples to show, which were hard to photograph---but you get the idea.

Here's a recent Schumacher print for upholstery.

You don't often get to see yardage of patchwork prints from that era.

See a photograph she found of a Native American man wearing a patchwork print shirt (I have to practice using that term)  from George Eastman House by clicking here and scrolling down.
http://www.geh.org/taschen/htmlsrc15/m197500870009_ful.html

If you missed Deborah's paper you will want to buy the hard copy of the presentations. AQSG's annual Uncoverings: Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group is available on line
http://www.americanquiltstudygroup.org/uncoveringsList.asp
They haven't added the just published issue #32 for 2011 to the order form yet, but you can email them.