Barbara Brackman's MATERIAL CULTURE

Document Print & Reproduction

2012-01-30T06:00:00.048-06:00

The 10" Layer Cakes

The featured print in the 1862 Battle Hymn repro collection is a large paisley that forms a serpentine stripe.

I called it Yorktown after an 1862 battle site. It comes in 5 colorways.

Battle of Yorktown from Harper's Weekly

The document print (the source) was in a swatchbook.

We had just enough to figure out the repeat and it works in a really graceful fashion.

The document print was shades of a steel blue with accents of a true black and a pinkish tan, color combinations you wouldn't really see during the Civil War. I thought the swatchbook was about 1880. You can see in the swatch book above the paisley a very bright floral done in the new dyes developing about 1880---NOT Civil War.

The print itself seemed quite appropriate for a Civil War memorial if it was recolored in shades more like natural dyes. In the reproduction collection we did several in madder-style reds and browns, and one subdued navy blue. It's dated on the reproduction selvage as 1870-1890.

It's going to make some terrific borders.

Bettina Havig sent me a snapshot of her first border in her Hewson medallion. She cut a single stripe out and appliqued it. I told her she's a genius.

More Things That Can Go Wrong

2012-01-27T06:00:00.001-06:00

A snapshot brings up some intriguing questions:

Is it a rug? Is it just one of those things with shall we say, unresolved edge issues.

A top from about 1900. More questions. Border or ruffle?

Will it quilt out?

Was polyester double knit ever a good idea?

150 Years Ago in the Civil War

2012-01-24T06:00:00.003-06:00

Julia Ward Howe published the

Battle Hymn of the Republic in 1862

2012 is the 150th anniversary of the second year of the Civil War, the second of five years. This year's reproduction print collection 1862 Battle Hymn, commemorates events of that year when Americans realized that the Confederates were not to be intimidated or easily subdued, that Union armies needed training and leadership and that Civil War meant battles in the front yard.

A family stunned by the nearby Battle of Cedar Mountain, 1862

Detail of a photo from the Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cwp.4a39506/

Julia Ward Howe wrote new words to the song that Union soldiers sang as they marched. Her Battle Hymn of the Republic was published in the February, 1862 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, to become an American classic.

Read more about Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn in this post on my 2011 Civil War blog

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2011/12/50-grapes-of-wrath.html

Timothy H. O'Sullivan photographed the Virginia family outside their house where a Confederate General died. They happened to be in the way when the battle broke out.

Behind them broken furniture, trees and fences.

Hampton Roads

Each of the 8 prints in the reproduction collection is named for a battle from that year.

Shiloh

Corinth

Chantilly

Cedar Mountain

Yorktown

Memphis

Valverde

See a gallery of pictures from 1862 in the Library of Congress by clicking here:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/picamer/paCw1862.html

And keep up with the New York Times's Disunion blog that records the year 1862 in short essays:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/disunion/

World War I Quilts

2012-01-21T06:00:00.002-06:00

Quilt recording soliders who served, made in Harveyville, Kansas

Collection of the World War I Museum, Kansas City

Since we are all living through World War I in Downton Abbey here are a few of the many quilts associated with that particular war.

Another from Kansas City's World War I Museum

See more about the museum here:

http://www.theworldwar.org/s/110/new/index_community.aspx

It''s similar to one made from uniforms and service flags by Herbert James Smith

in the collection of the Henry Ford Museum

http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/quiltinggenius/quilts/2001_70_1.asp

Elizabeth Marthaler Stauf, Marysville, Kansas. Collection of the Kansas Museum of History

http://www.kshs.org/p/cool-things-patriotic-eagles-quilt/15950

Fundraiser thought to have been made in 1915 to commemoriate Spanish American War. From WillyWonky's blog. See more here:

http://willywonkyquilts.blogspot.com/2011/11/fundraising-quilts.html

A very faded Red Cross quilt

The most common are signed fundraisers for the Red Cross

You can find these in local history museums all over the world

From Timaru, New Zealand

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nzlscant/quilt.htm

To Odebolt, Iowa

http://www.odebolt.net/november_2006_news.html

The photos of people are from the Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/

Want to see more? Just do a search for images World War I Quilt or World War 1 Quilt or WW1, etc.

Checkered Past: Free Pattern

2012-01-18T06:00:00.004-06:00

From the new 1862: Battle Hymn collection.

The Battle of Hampton Roads in 1862 involved ironclad ships.

The print is called Hampton Roads, the colorway Merrimack Blue.

The Merrimack was an ironclad ship.

Here's an EQ mockup of Checkered Past

Click on the PDF for a free pattern for this quilt for my Civil War reproduction collection 1862 Battle Hymn.

https://acrobat.com/app.html#d=5zuBtmwF6YnnxsgFNaNaZQ

It makes use of 2 alternating blocks

The checkerboards are pieced of 2-1/2" squares, so it's suitable for a Jellyrolls of strips.

The star points require bigger pieces but I bet you have some scraps around.

The medium-sized print Hampton Roads would make a good border.

This print reminded me of the rivers along the Virginia coast.

Hancy Reynolds

The PDF pattern is free---not copyright so you can print it or link to the PDF to share it on your own blogs, in guilds. I encourage shopowners to give it to customers.

Hancy Pitcairn Reynolds is the face of this reproduction collection. She was born in Massachusetts and lived in Illinois and Iowa. The war touched her as it did every American, . Her daughter's husband was a Union soldier who survived. Her granddaughter married a man whose father died as a prisoner in South Carolina. She's my friend Bobbi Finley's many-times greatgrandmother. We love the name Hancy and think her portrait captures the spirit of women who lived through the war.

Penguin Threads

2012-01-15T06:00:00.002-06:00

Penguin Books has re-published some classic novels with cover illustrations in stitchery under the imprint Penguin Threads.

Artist Jillian Tamaki embroidered the illustrations.
http://jilliantamaki.com/embroidery/penguin-threads/

A nice gift for a girl ready to read the classics---or anyone who likes the book.

And see Tomaki's big embroidery project, her Monster Quilt.
Here's what she says:

I’ve taken up embroidery in a very enthusiastic yet clumsy way. It was pleasant to work in an unfamiliar medium with some real inherent limitations. And, oddly enough, it was kind of nice to produce something that must be seen in person to be fully appreciated

http://jilliantamaki.com/monster-quilt

Every Civil War Reproduction Line Needs a Neat Stripe

2012-01-12T06:00:00.009-06:00

Narrow stripes, known as neats in the fabric industry,

were a fashion necessity after 1860 or so.

Like this madder-style stripe in my newest Civil War reproduction collection for Moda.

1862 Battle Hymn is in shops in the precuts including Fat Quarter Packs.

This particular stripe comes in five colorways

I named the prints after Civil War battles from 150 years ago.

The neat stripe is called Cedar Mountain.

This colorway with it's madder reds and dulled oranges is named Culpepper Peach.

The navy blue at left is Farragut Blue and the lighter, steel blue Merrimack Blue.

There are two neutral (what we might called taupe) colorways---on the left Stonewall Gray and in front Sharpsburg Tan.

The blues and the neutrals are rather subdued, evocative of the national mood in 1862 when everyone began to realize that the War would be a long and horrible conflict.

Roseanne Smith has some 2-1/2" Jellyroll strips and some 10" Layer Cakes. She's been busy with the neat stripe in the peach colorway.

She loves to miter

I could see a whole quilt out of scrappy nine-patches with mitered frames.

I'll post more about the prints, colors and themes in 1862 Battle Hymn. The yardage should be out any day.

Read more about stripes in the mid-19th-century at this post of mine a few years ago:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/01/stripes-in-civil-war-homefront.html

Princess or Prince's Feathers, Whatever

2012-01-09T06:00:00.003-06:00

These bold blocks are always intriguing.

There are so many variations.

It's wonderful to see so much individuality within a set of visual rules.

The rules are pretty simple: The arms have to rotate around a center.

There's a lot of variation possible in the center

Each of the arms goes the same way, no flipping the pattern over.

In the example above the arms in the corners flip.

See why you can't flip the arms in a quilt from the McCord Museum by clicking here:

http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/M971.110

There can be eight arms rotating.

(See more about this quilt and the pattern at Karen Alexander's post

http://karenquilt.blogspot.com/2010/12/red-and-green-part-1.html )

Minor rules: Serated edges on the arms or not

Six arms rotating.

Another rule: You can add stuff to the arms.

Flowers

Four arms with a star hanging off.

But one arm is too few.

Do you get the feeling someone inherited some pieces here without a clear view of the overall blueprint for the project?

See one on the Quilt Index that illustrates why the basic rule is rotate---no flipping.

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4A-7F-98D

Warp Prints-Real & Fake

2012-01-06T06:00:00.001-06:00

The print I called "The Schooner Minerva" in my Lately Arrived from London reproduction collection can be classified as an imitation warp-printed print. If this terminology is a mystery to you read on...

We have to start with the basics.

Fabric woven on a loom has a warp and a weft. The warp yarns are the long yarns that attach to the loom. Above: the vertical warp yarns are dark, the horizontal weft yarns are light.

With that dark and light yarn setup the pattern would be similar to the above, something we might call a chambray.

Weavers obtain pattern by varying the colors in warp and weft, giving us woven stripes and plaids.

A warp-dyed pattern is obtained by using a variegated warp yarn. Above the warp yarns blend from dark to light. Many cultures maintain a tradition of warp-dyed pattern. We use the word ikat (ee'-kaht) to describe this style, a Malaysian word. Another, kasuri in Japanese (kuh-sur'-ee).

Here's a blog post from a weaver on the topic
http://einesaite.blogspot.com/2011/11/beginning-ikat.html

If the weaver uses variegated yarns in both warp and weft the pattern possibilities increase. This warp and weft dyed pattern can be called a double ikat. Knowing how the warp and weft yarns should be colored is a real skill.

Yarn-dyed weaving patterns have a characteristic fuzzy edge. Above a geometric with the typical indefinite outline.

An Asian robe

The pattern possibilities vary with the collaborative skills of the weaver and the yarn dyer.

French weavers developed different looks

with expensive silks for luxury goods.

Here an antique overall floral, apparently warp dyed.

Florence Pettit in her 1970 book America's Printed and Painted Fabrics used the French word chiné (sheen-ay???) or flammé (flahm-ay) for these French silks with woven pattern.

Late-18th-century Europeans inventing technology appreciated the traditional look but not the traditional skill so found faster, cheaper ways to get the effect

by printing imitations with blocks and rollers.

Above a late-19th century floral.

These European fabrics have the characteristic diffused edges which makes them look out-of-focus from a distance. Many of these complex prints are both warp-dyed and weft-dyed. Sometimes the imitations are so good one has to flip the fabric over to see if it is printed or woven. If it's woven it will have the pattern on the reverse.

But if it's printed, like this reproduction, the back shows no evidence of variegated yarns. This could be called a warp-printed fabric, or an imitation ikat, I guess.

The document print from the early 19th century for this reproduction also has a fancy machine ground (sort of fingerprint whorls) a look not obtainable with weaving. Like many early roller prints, it's a layered extravaganza of new technology.

The fact that the style is imitation ikat or imitation warp dyed pattern really doesn't offer any clue to date. It's just interesting to think about the complexities of pattern on cloth.

Alexander Calder

2012-01-03T06:00:00.001-06:00

Alexander Calder (1898-1976) is remembered today for his sculpture but he did a lot of textiles.

Many of these are jute or hemp.

Others seem to be woven.

Many of them are dated in the 1970s---right before he died.

And some of this flatwork may be paintings or prints.

Seeing this one on the wall in the December House Beautiful made me go back and look at the Calder textiles. You get an idea of the scale here too. They are the essence of modernism----basic shapes, primary colors.

Complex fabric --Simple patchwork

2011-12-30T06:00:00.007-06:00

Birds in a Cherry Tree by Bobbi Finley,

A tile quilt appliqued from some complex Morris reproductions

http://bobbifinleytilequilts.blogspot.com/2011/03/latest-quilt.html

Quilters have to think about

Pattern in the Fabric versus Pattern in the Patchwork

We have at least four options.

1) Complex fabric---complex patchwork, as in Bobbi's block above

Mid 20th-century bowtie top

2) Simple fabric---simple patchwork. A very modern look.

Nineteenth-century pieced star

3) Simple fabric-- Complex patchwork. One reason 19th century quilters loved those little calico prints

Octagons from Ann Marie at AMSewing

4) Complex fabric --simple patchwork

The William Morris reproductions are complex prints. Here are some simple designs that balance that complexity.

http://amsewing.blogspot.com/2011/04/forgotten-finishes.html

And how she pieced it:

http://amsewing.blogspot.com/2010/01/theres-more-than-one-way-to-piece-block.html

See another of her posts using William Morris reproductions:
http://amsewing.blogspot.com/2009/12/todays-weather-2f-feels-like-18f.html

From Jane Monk's Purrfectly Quilted blog, using the last collection The Morris Workshop

http://purrfectlyquilted.blogspot.com/2011/02/sneak-peek.html

Here's a square in a square made with the same collection by Jen from Sweden. I found it at the Cutting Table Blog

http://blog.missouriquiltco.com/special-order-from-sweden/

From another Jen - 2 charm packs from Moda
http://jenacknitwear.typepad.com/blog/2011/07/fo-quilt-for-the-newly-weds.html

This one using a Charm Pack from my last Morris collection The Morris Workshop is from the Pieced Goods blog.

http://piecedgoods.wordpress.com/2011/05/01/square-quilt/

In the last two examples I guess we have to say they combined complex and simple fabric with simple patchwork--option number 5, I guess.

Successful quilt designs strike a good balance between complexity in the fabric and complexity of the patchwork. Beyond that it's a matter of taste. Is it simple or stark? Complex or too busy?

Does Anyone Look Good From This Angle?

2011-12-27T06:00:00.002-06:00

Poor Overall Guy: It's just not a good angle.

Maybe he shouldn't tuck his shirt in.

And not put so much stuff in his pockets.

But then again we don't want to see him from the front....

Pink & Rose for Morris & Company

2011-12-24T06:00:00.032-06:00

Pink and Rose was an 1891 wallpaper pattern designed by William Morris himself in his later years.

For the print in Morris & Company we did it as a monochrome print, a good foil for the multicolored, more dramatic prints like Wandle or Anemone. (But none of it is pink or rose-colored.)

Anemone..........Honeysuckle........Pink & Rose...Anemone

The pink---a carnation

Pink is an old-fashioned name for carnation (Dianthus), a flower with pinked edges. Over the generations the word came to mean the pale red color of a popular carnation, so now we have pink pinks.

Pink carnation with pinked petals

Pinking shears

The rose in the print---a wild rose

See a piece of the original Pink & Rose wallpaper in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art by clicking here:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/23.163.4a

The print would make a good background for applique in the Morris style, adding another layer of pattern,as in this mockup I made of the intricate center block Michele Hill designed for her Friends quilt.

Or this motif from the My Renaissance sampler. Her two books William Morris in Applique and More William Morris in Applique offer much inspration.

See more about Michele's designs at an earlier post.
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2011/01/michele-hills-more-william-morris.html

Festival of Trees

2011-12-21T06:04:00.005-06:00

Every year my friend Georgann and I decorate a tree for a charity tree auction. Our theme this year was Chinese. We bought lots of red and gold items in Chinatown all year.

There were pink and red paper parasols and Georgann strung old mah-jongg tiles on red ribbons.

We always like to see what other volunteers have done (collecting ideas for our sketchbook, so to speak.) We saw a lot of feathers in trees this year. This red feather boa diffuses the light in strange ways.

We liked this idea of ribbons threaded with beads---anything to do with fabric.

I also go look at the big time---San Francisco in December.

Macy's on Union Square has some wonderful trees.

Upside down.

A snowy tree covered with creatures that live in cold climates

The store windows are always festive.

Sephora did a lot of curled paper

A star of blue jeans from The Gap

And metallic ribbon threaded through string at Anthropologie.

Charm Pack Tree

2011-12-18T09:59:00.002-06:00

I had a Charm pack of Morris & Company squares and a styrofoam cone so I decided to add a little William Morris to the otherwise tacky decoration scheme I am so fond of. I don't think Morris & Company decorated with polka-dot brandy snifters full of mini-disco balls, but the combination is pretty good.

The Charm Pack has 42 squares cut to 5". I sorted them into lightish and darkish (the pack actually comes pre-sorted in a way.) I folded each into a triangle and then again into a triangle so there is one raw edge. I pinned each to the cone with two pins. I started at the bottom and let them overlap the bottom of the cone so it wouldn't show.

I alternated rows of lights and darks and didn't do much in the way of math. Just layered. I wish now I'd had a cone with a pointy top.

Dot did not think much of the whole idea. She might be channeling for William Morris. I think that's exactly how he'd look at it.

When I got to the top I folded one square into a strip and pinned it around the top. I had a glittery pick (left over from a bouquet of pure tackiness) so I cut some wires there and stuck them in the top in frivolous fashion. I propped it up on a small antique saucer turned over and secured it with a little tacky stuff (the other kind of tacky.) But you could also burrow out a little hole in the base of the cone and stick a spool in there as a base too.

It's a gift idea for a quilter as she can unpin the pins and use the Charm squares and the pins.

You need

A Charm pack (42 squares 5" x 5") I had a few left over.

84 pins (2 for each square)

1 styrofoam cone about 13" tall

Some glitter for the top and a wire cutter

A base of a spool of thread (could be part of the gift) and some kind of removeable adhesive

GIVEAWAY

I have an extra charm pack and I will send it to someone who comments in the next 24 hours.

THE GIVEAWAY IS OVER.

TERR WON.

I DECIDED I WOULD USE A NUMBER FROM THE NEWSPAPER FOR MY RANDOM NUMBER---(I KNOW IT'S NOT REALLY RANDOM)

On the sports page the combined score in the Kansas City Chiefs upset of the Green Bay Packers yesterday was 33.

Congratulations to her and thanks for the comments. Dot loves to be called cute.

More Out-of-Control Quilts

2011-12-18T06:00:00.003-06:00

I went through my collection of photos from online quilt auctions and found some sad situations.

Mostly planning problems

Although some quilt wrecks look like things were better a few decades ago before the fabric faded.

Here we have a planning problem. It's probably better to chop those hexagons into a rectangle rather than to try to follow them out to the edge.

To be fair here: I think some of the design problem is a blue fading completely to white.

And this old quilt was never meant to be shown on a line. It probably looked fine on a bed, when there weren't a lot of ducks in a row to contrast it to.

Sometimes you don't see the problem till you step back.

And in other situations it's hard to analyze just where things started to go wrong.

Happy Birthday Jane

2011-12-16T05:09:00.008-06:00

Jane Austen was born 236 years ago on December 16th. This year is the 200th anniversary of the publication of Sense & Sensibility.

Bettina Havig spent the year getting ready for the party.

She printed the portrait of Jane onto cotton

and hand stitched an interpretation of the Austen family quilt.

She chose those lovely pastels that are so English in sensibility.

See the original Austen quilt by clicking here:

http://www.jasa.net.au/quilt.htm

Road to Pemberley

by Neil Chisholm

Here's another patchwork celebration:

Neil sent a picture of his quilt inspired by the Austen family's.

He writes:

"When I saw the images of Lately Arrived From London I knew I had to use the collection. For some time I had been thinking of making the Jane Austin quilt and hoped to complete it in the anniversary year but I wanted to make it with fabric of the period so your collection was perfect for it.

I decided that it would be easier to use the precut charm squares than cut diamonds particularly as I prefer to applique than piece (this is a rare pieced quilt for me).

The 5" charm squares sashed make a great patchwork field.

"It grew very quickly and the central medallion is actually reverse applique using a fancy satin stitch on my sewing machine - it worked really well. The quilting is all my own work on my domestic machine and I have to say I am very happy with it.

"This quilt was made as a 40th birthday present for my partner who is a huge Jane Austen fan - it is going to be a much loved quilt and has pride of place already on the back of a sofa in the lounge."

Here's a snapshot of Bettina and Jane partying like its 1811. Is Jane sitting on the Prince Regent's knee? Bettina says she never liked him. And I think she's right. Jane doesn't seem to be enjoying herself all that much. So today: a toast to Jane and her novel and her quilt.

P.S. Mary Jenkins in the comments pointed out this link to information about a newly discovered possible portrait of Jane. The British press is all agog while the American press has ignored this enormous story.... Click here for the Austen Only blog.

http://austenonly.com/2011/12/05/a-new-jane-austen-portrait/

and see other posts

http://austenonly.com/2011/12/05/a-new-jane-austen-portrait/

Northern Lily Southern Rose Quilting Pattern

2011-12-14T06:00:00.004-06:00

The quilting design for the Northern Lily/Southern Rose applique sampler is drawn from the symbol of the Grand Army of the Republic.

It's a five-pointed star with trefoils on the tips. Click on this picture and it should be large enough to print and use for a quilting design. (You have to stick that extra point on as I couldn't fit it on a sheet of rectangular paper.)

This GAR star was proudly worn by members of the Union veterans' organization known as the Grand Army of the Republic.

It's often found in Civil War Reunion and Veterans' imagery.

The GAR star fits in the alternate plain blocks in the sampler quilt and would make a good quilting design for any Civil War memorial quilt.

Free Patterns From Moda

2011-12-12T06:00:00.002-06:00

Evening Mist by Sentimental Studios

Do you ever go to the free pattern page at Moda?
http://www.unitednotions.com/un_main.nsf/fp_quilting

You should bookmark the page and come back because we are always addding patterns.

Blush by Basic Gray

Here is how you find it:
Go to Moda's home page: http://www.unitednotions.com/un_main.nsf/main?openpage
You don't have to log in or register.

30s Playtime by Chloe's Closet

I'm picking out the more traditional ideas here but there's a lot of variety.

At the top menu line it says Fun Stuff. Click on it.
Among the menu items it says
Free Patterns---it's yellow here

Click on it

Click on Quilting Patterns and you will find many free patchwork patterns. It will say:

Simply click on an image below for more information about the pattern.

Click on the quilt and the picture appears at the top of the page. Click on this button near the large picture.

A PDF will open up in a separate window with all the information you need. Save the PDF to a folder you create labeled Free Moda Patterns.

Dominique II

You can follow many other trails here and wind up with lots of ideas.

Like the Verna Bag from Kate Spain. It's under Sewing Patterns.

Park Avenue from Three Sisters

Pashimina by Sentimental Studios

Morris & Company Anemone

2011-12-09T06:00:00.002-06:00

"Anemone" is the largest print in my new Morris & Company collection.

It comes in six colorways in this line.

It represents a new direction for the firm of Morris & Company as designer John Henry Dearle took over the artistic management in the late 1890s. The Arts & Crafts aesthetic developed by William Morris had evolved into Art Nouveau with sinuous lines, stylized florals and a flatter look.

Dearle was born in 1860, the year before William Morris designed his first textile. As the younger generation, he adapted the end-of-the-century style to Morris design. This particular print was drawn for wall paper and seems to be the perfect wall-covering for the Edwardian home.

It makes a great fabric too.

I notice that I have put a date of 1876 on the selvage edge of this print.

It can't be! Dearle was 16 and Art Nouveau was still in the future in 1876.

I can't actually find a specific date for this design in my notes but I am thinking I meant 1896, the year Dearle took over as Director of the firm.

So let's say late 1890s.

Take a marker and change that 7 in the selvage to a 9 when you get your fabric.

It makes a great border as in this project from Moda

And this one from Planted Seed.

See these designs in the PDF you can download at Moda

http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_morris_and_company.pdf

5 Yards in a Stickley Morris chair

Dutch Quilts

2011-12-06T06:00:00.002-06:00

Reproduction quilt by Petra Prins

from an antique quilt found in

An Noonan's A History of Dutch Quilts.

Somehow Americans have lost most memories of our Dutch heritage. Nineteenth-century writers focused on England when they wrote about the sources for American culture from holidays and foodways to needlework and quilts. It's time to explore the Dutch history of quilts and Petra Prins has a new book to guide us.

Treasures from Holland has patterns for a dozen reproduction quilts based on Dutch antiques..

The publisher is the French QuiltMania and the instructions are in Dutch, French and English.

See more Quiltmania books here.

http://www.quiltmania.com/livreVirtuel/index.php?livre=treasuresfromholland

The cover quilt by Petra

She owns a quilt shop in Amsterdam called Den Haan & Wagenmakers, which sells wonderful reproduction fabrics.
http://denhaanenwagenmakers.blogspot.com/

Petra recently showed her quilts at an exhibition in Alsace. I found a post with pictures here at Journey of a Quilt Lover's blog:

http://journeyofaquiltlover.blogspot.com/2011/10/some-of-dutch-quilts.html

I first read about her quilts on Moda's Cutting Table blog. http://modafabrics.blogspot.com/2011/09/wonderful.html
Petra's source for inspiration is An Moonen's book fromVan Gruting, Westervoort 2010.

Which is also in English as A History of Dutch Quilts

An's book is harder to find in the U.S. You might have to go to Amsterdam.
See a gallery of antique Dutch quilts at An's site
http://www.antiquetextile.info/dutchquilts.htm

And if you think the Dutch influence on American culture is minor consider this man Sinter Klaas.
Happy St. Nicholas Day to everyone.

Tree of Life Reproduction

2011-12-03T05:20:00.003-06:00

Tree of Life

By Roseanne Smith

Roseanne Smith has been working on her appliqued center in the tree-of-life design for a new medallion. She's using my Lately Arrived From London reproductions from Moda. Here's how she did this. It's cut-out chintz or Broderie Perse.

I exaggerated the contrast here so you could see that she has appliqued the Seaflower print to a very similar plain-colored background.

The reverse

But she did not cut out every flower and leaf in the traditional fashion. You can see on the back here that she appliqued a large chunk of chintz to the plain colored background. She's cut out the backing so she doesn't have to applique through so many layers.

She cut a shape out of the plum-colored Seaflower print...

My mock-up gives you a rough idea.

...And appliqued that to the background. Then she added other flowers and leaves for more complicated foliage, making the tree more detailed. She added the traditional hillock (a range of small hills).

Brilliant I say!

Roseanne found a very close solid color on the shelf at her quilt shop. One source for solids is Moda's Basic line of Bella Solids

Click here to see the selection:

http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_bella-solids.pdf

They are all numbered 9900. Shades 9900.18 or 9900.45 (over on the left on the color card here) look like they are close in color. Ask your shop owner if she has this color card any time you are looking for a match.

For more on Broderie Perse see December's War of 1812 posts, where it will be the featured technique for the month.

http://quilt1812warandpiecing.blogspot.com/

Pinweel Passion

2011-11-30T06:00:00.003-06:00

Cheater cloth pinwheel quilt from about 1960-1980

I'm spending my time thinking about quilt pattern in two periods---1812 and 1970.

One would guess that these eras have little in common but they are remarkably alike in the popularity of the Pinwheel/ Broken Dishes design.

Penn's Treaty Quilt in the collection of the

Mount Vernon Ladies' Association

For her late 18th-century medallion The Penn's Treaty Quilt Martha Washington pieced some giant pinwheels in the final border.

Quilt dated 1965

AQSG Medallion by Georgann Eglinski,

Bobbi Finley, Carol Jones and Judy Severson, 2009.

A collaborative early-19th century reproduction to benefit the

American Quilt Study Group

Pinwheels are a good choice for a reproduction whether it's early-19th century you are looking to recall or the early 1970s

The pinwheel was so popular in the 1960s-70s that it was a standard cheater cloth print.

Made into clothing

And quilts!

When I taught quilting in the 1970s students eager to learn the basics of patchwork would often bring a piece of this print to the first class, hoping to cut it up and piece a block.

See some more pinwheel quilts from the mid-20th century at these links.

Willy Wonky's been buying antiques from the era.

http://willywonkyquilts.blogspot.com/2011/10/two-70s-pinwheel-quilts.html

This one's for sale on Etsy from Cranes Quilts

http://www.etsy.com/listing/40330016/scrappy-pinwheels-quilt?ref=sr_gallery_25&ga_includes%5B0%5D=tags&ga_search_query=pinwheel+patchwork&ga_search_type=all&ga_facet=

And see some reproductions here:

http://pursuitofquilts.blogspot.com/2011/10/concord-cranston-and-peter-pan.html

A Happy 70s Baby Quilt made from the Sand Pebbles pattern
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bellgirl/galleries/72157625249934888

The Sand Pebbles from Cherry House Quilts would look great in my Old Fashioned Calicoes fabrics.

http://lizzyhouse.typepad.com/cherry_house_quilts/2010/07/sand-pebbles-quilt-pattern-now-available.html

And read more about Martha Washington's quilt at this post
http://quilt1812warandpiecing.blogspot.com/2011/10/martha-washingtons-penns-treaty-quilt.html

Here's a rayon pinwheel comforter

with a cheater cloth backing.

Morris & Company Brother Rabbit

2011-11-27T06:00:00.025-06:00

Brother Rabbit from my Moda collection

Morris & Company

"Brother Rabbit" was designed by William Morris in 1882. It's a monochrome print, quite small in scale (especially for a Morris print) but also finely detailed. This is one Morris pattern that was actually designed to be a cotton print.

Here's a magnified shot so you can see the detail although it's fuzzier in the photo than it is in the fabric.

Like many of Morris's designs, it's based on his observations in his garden. Birds and rabbits hide in the vegetation.

For Morris & Company we colored it five ways. It reads as a neutral and will provide some light contrast to the darker, larger-scale prints.

Like many of Morris's designs the inspiration is the intricacy of medieval tapestry.

Rabbits are often seen hiding in the garden as in this detail from one of the Unicorn tapestries.

Br'er Rabbit from Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus stories

There are references to this print as "Br'er Rabbit" and the idea that William Morris was inspired by the Uncle Remus stories in American folklore, yet a talking rabbit seems the antithesis of what he was trying to do with his emphasis on European medieval design.

So I am sticking with the name Brother Rabbit, it's patent registration name in 1882. I think it reflects the same kind of empathy for the garden's residents that inspired the "Strawberry Thief."

Plant enough in the garden so the birds and animals can share.

Seth Thomas Rose Quilt in Oregon

2011-11-25T06:00:00.000-06:00

I was looking at WillyWonky's blog the other day and came across this picture---which immediately caught my eye as I myself had just blogged about the pattern. The quilt is in a show in Salem, Oregon.
See my post here:
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2011/10/northern-lilysouthern-rose-block-8.html

The Oregon quilt is very close to the newspaper pattern published by Ruby McKim in 1929, showing a quilt made in the 1860s by Araminta Daniel Kreeger (1830-1875) who lived near Independence, Missouri in the middle of the 19th century.

The major difference is in the lower florals coming out of the vase.

The Oregon quilt is attributed to Adeline Brown Crawford (1821-1879) who traveled in one of the earliest Oregon-bound parties in 1842. She was one of six daughters of Gabriel and Elizabeth Robinson Brown, described in this post by Jim Tompkins:

"Five of them of marriageable age when [they left] Arkansas. Known as the “Belles of Oregon” not for their beauty, but for their availability, three of them were the first emigrants to marry in Oregon (Adeline age 23, Polly age 16, and Cynthia age 14, each married men who were in the same emigration party as the Browns). They were said to be fair haired if not endowed with titian tresses. Is it any wonder that they were passionately courted, in an almost Eveless Eden."

Adeline may have brought the quilt with her from Arkansas but the style indicates it was probably made after 1842 and thus is an Oregon quilt. So it's unlikely to be the actual quilt that inspired Ruby McKim's "Seth Thomas Rose" in Independence, Missouri. However, interesting details emerge in Adeline's story. The Brown family joined that 1842 overland party near Independence in Jackson County, where 13-year-old Araminta Daniel Kreeger lived.

Adeline's quilt does cast doubt upon Ruby McKim's story that Araminta drew her pattern from a picture on a Seth Thomas clock. Could it be that she and Adeline Brown Crawford shared a pattern for a quilt with circles edging a central flower? Or is this pattern more common than I thought.

My version of the Seth Thomas Rose sewn by Susan Stiff

Treasures from the Trunk: Quilts and Their Makers After the Oregon Trail Journey, curated by Mary Bywater Cross is up until December 24, 2011 at the Wilamette Heritage Center in Salem, Oregon.

Click here to read more: http://www.willametteheritage.org/events_and_programs.html

An important Oregon quilt on exhibit there is Elizabeth Ann Clark Kelly's ribbon quilt made from souvenir ribbons gathered at reunions of the pioneers who traveled to Oregon on the overland trails. It's on loan from the American Folk Art Museum.

See the WillyWonky blog post here with more pictures of the show:

http://willywonkyquilts.blogspot.com/2011/09/treasures-in-trunk-exhibit.html

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/OREGON-TRAIL/2000-08/0967214820

Adeline met her husband Medorem Crawford on that 1842 trip. Read his journal of the trip here at Google Books:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Cw0wAAAAYAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s

And Jim Tomkins' web page here:
http://www.oregonpioneers.com/MotivationQuotes.htm

Raffle Quilts

2011-11-23T06:00:00.000-06:00

Country School Quilters's raffle quilt to

benefit the Virginia Quilt Museum.

See next year's here

http://www.vaquiltmuseum.org/raffle.html

Here's a work-avoidance scheme. Do a web search for images by typing in these three words: Raffle Quilt 2011
I found quite a few. Here are some based on antique quilts.

Boise Basin's quilt is autographed by many famous quiltmakers. Click here to read more:

http://cottonclubquilt.blogspot.com/2011/05/boise-basin-quilters-2011-raffle-quilt.html

The Charlottesville Area guild's quilt titled Trailing Vines was designed by Martha Calderwood and Ann Robertson, adapted from a quilt by Susan McCord.

http://quilts.avenue.org/rafquilt.html

Maple Grove guild's quilt is called Land of 10,000 Fabrics

http://maplegrovequilters.org/

The Newtown Quilters guild's quilt is another classic star.

http://newtownquiltersguild.org/Raffle%20Quilt.html

Northwest Quilters Summer Garden was designed by June Bradley and Carol Schaefer, inspired by Rose Kretsinger's Paradise Garden.

http://www.northwestquilters.org/shows/2011/2011.php

Quilters Guild of Plano's Tequila Sunrise with a Gaggle was inspired by Judy Neimeyer's Glacier Pines pattern.

http://www.quiltersguildofplano.org/quiltplano/quiltplano.shtml

The Tri-cities guild's is based on Sue Garman's pattern Stars for a New Day.

http://www.tcquilters.com/ShowRaffle.html

You could try the words Opportunity Quilt too. And then there's 2012. It could keep you entertained for quite a while.

Brownstone Quilters' Friendship Garden was inspired by Florence Peto's Calico Garden.

http://www.brownstonequilters.com/Quilt_show.html

Morris & Company Fabric is IN

2011-11-20T06:00:00.002-06:00

The newest collection of William Morris reproduction prints from Moda is in a few shops already.

Click here on Moda's home page and see this lovely introduction slide.

http://www.unitednotions.com/un_main.nsf/main?openpage

This line uses shades echoing the natural dyes that were so important to William Morris's vision.

Blues from indigo

Burnt oranges from madder

And we also have some updated color schemes,

gray green with gray, shades of taupe for today's taste.

And a true black

Some shops already have the yardage.

Berrima Patchwork was the first to blog about it.

http://berrimapatchwork.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-fabric-in-store-morris-company.html

Click here to see the whole range at Moda:

http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_morris_and_company.pdf

Morris and Company

And click here to get the free project designed by Susan Stiff, a period fan block in an arts and crafts frame. http://www.unitednotions.com/fp_morris-and-company.pdf

Fancy Machine Grounds

2011-11-18T05:02:00.089-06:00

Every early 19th-century reproduction line needs a print with a fancy machine ground.

For my Lately Arrived From London collection for Moda I had a rather large piece of fabric with a floral trail figure atop a detailed "fancy machine ground." The document print above is the larger piece, the reproduction is the smaller square. It may date to about 1820-1840.

In the englargement you can see the finely detailed dots behind the florals. They not only add a background, they form part of the floral figures. These backgrounds were not engraved on the roller by hand; they were applied in a machining process.

Above: the tan reproduction in the top left and the larger brown document print for the Meryfield print from my Hartfield collection, an early-19th-century line I did a few years ago. The green leaves in the original were probably done with a wood block, the brown ground printed with a roller. Notice the streak in the fancy machine ground, indicating it crimped in the roller.

Once printers figured out how to apply detailed machining to copper rollers the designers came up with many outrageous combinations as in the print from an old quilt above. The insect-like figure and the striped machined ground have very little in common. And then there are those green sticks.... People loved the variety and the layers of detail.

Designers and customers welcomed the new look about 1810 because older wood-block printing limited the types of backgrounds. One typical wood block ground was a solid color hand applied around the figures with a wood block, as in the chintz above. The technology wasn't perfect and printers often left haloes of white between the figure and ground---the registration was off.

For more detail the block printer could add a patterned ground behind the figure, in this case a regularly spaced dot, probably applied with a wood block fitted with pins in a regular pattern. In England these dotted grounds were called Stormont grounds, in France picotage.

But the fancy machine grounds were ---well much fancier---than the old Stormont grounds. Once the roller printed grounds were possible the designers and the printers showed their skills in many combinations of figure and ground. The detail is impressive, the registration is perfect---the only flaw (if one were being picky) is that the design combinations were sometimes strange.

So if you are looking for an authentic 1810-1840 look buy prints with detailed grounds---fancy machine grounds. You wouldn't see them any earlier than 1800 because the technology wasn't there yet. And they fell out of favor about 1840 as new styles developed.

Above is the Little Molly print in the muslin colorway that shows the fancy machine ground off the best.

In the tea colorway the shading dominates the florals, creating a rainbow look.

In the plum colorway the ground is more subtle and the figure stands out.

Northern Lily/Southern Rose Block 9

2011-11-15T06:00:00.004-06:00

The last applique block for the Northern Lily/Southern Rose sampler is the Indiana Bouquet (neither a lily or a rose.) I adapted the design from some Indiana quilts of the mid-19th-century. I was looking for regional designs and thought of the quilts of Susan McCord.

Northern Lily/Southern Rose

by Jerri McReynolds

Indiana Bouquet

by debi schrader

The block was inspired by Susan McCord's quilts but mainly by Mary Jane Kirkpatrick's quilt, which was pictured in the Quilts of Indiana book in 1991. The women lived in adjacent Indiana counties and their fanciful bowls of fruit and flowers have something in common but we don't know if they knew each other or saw each other's quilts.

Indiana Bouquet

by Ilyse Moore

I simplified the Indiana Bouquet from a design I drew for the Sunflower Pattern Co-operative book Susan McCord: The Unforgettable Artistry of an Indian Quilter

Shade Garden Sampler by Shauna Christensen

from our Susan McCord book.

Mary Jane's Compote is the block at top right.

Indiana Bouquet

by Barbara Brackman

I used Mary Jane's general shapes but I added Susan McCord's penchant for dots.

Harrison Rose Urn by Susan McCord

McCordsville

by Barbara Brackman

I love those dots

See more of Susan McCord's quilts by clicking on these links

Update at Noon central time on November 15th

I fixed the links....

http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/quiltinggenius/quilts/72_140_2.asp
http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/quiltinggenius/quilts/73_120_1.asp
http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/quiltinggenius/quilts/92_176_1.asp
and here is the link to the Quilting Genius exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum
http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/quiltinggenius/gallery.asp

Click on this link to see more about the book Susan McCord: The Unforgettable Artistry of an Indian Quilter by Barbara Brackman, Shauna Christensen and Deb Rowden.https://www.pickledishstore.com/productDetail.php?PID=1040

Mary Jane Takes Up Juggling

by Barbara Brackman

Our quilt guild had a challenge sponsored by Sarah's Fabrics in which we took a quarter yard of Bee's Knees print and made a mini quilt.

I saw broken china and thought of the Indiana Bouquet block. I moved the dots off the vase and into the air.

Ask your quilt shop for the Moda pattern for Northern Lily/Southern Rose. Next month I'll show the quilting pattern.

More Photos From the 1970s

2011-11-12T06:00:00.005-06:00

Deb on left.

The Old Fashioned Calicoes concept goes beyond patchwork skirts in the 1970s.

People have fond memories of calico clothing---when a lot of 79 cent yardage and a little cotton lace made the perfect bride's maid gown. Above the reproduction.

Samantha, who writes:

"This isn't patchwork, but it does show me and my big dolly in calico in 1975!! My grandmother made her for me. The dress she wears is probably mine- or one we could "share!"

I think I had the same dress as the doll.

Leila (top left) sent several photos including this one in 1985 when...

"we all entered a very awkward phase. Scary. My dress is hard to see as I am in the back, but it was a red "striped" calico. I still have the dress. My oldest daughter thinks it is beautiful and has worn it to church many times. Seriously, she loves it and was sad when I told her it was getting to small to wear any more."

The dress today, outgrown by a second generation

No stripes in the repro line.

Kim sent a photo of her family when she was ten in 1971...

"exactly 40 yrs ago (as I'm 50 now) I'm the girl in the longer ponytails-my younger sis is in the glasses. We were sporting our Mother daughter peasant skirts made from the calico fabs we picked out!!!!!! Hope you enjoy them!!! Have a 'peasant' Monday!!!"

Those reds were hot in the 1970s

Sara

"This is not patchwork, but it is a photo of me in a dress I made out of fabric with little rabbits all over it. 1974! I think you call this fabric hopsacking; anyway it's heavier than a calico cotton. The dress had an empire waist and probably a ruffle at the bottom, and little puff sleeves. Yum!"

No bunnies, but lotsa blue repros.

Lyn sent this photo of a retro find at a London antique mall last year. She thinks it's mid 1980s. I don't know if it counts....it's sort of more tasteful than what we have been talking about.

Chair by Becky

1968

"I've always been a fool for sewing just about anything. In this case, upholstery samples to cover a red leather chair than had been spray painted white. Lots of planning went into sewing these together on my Singer 301A (same machine I still use). Once I had sewn together large sections, my sweet father-in-law (at the time) did a wonderful job of covering the chair. I was sorta his assistant. This picture was taken Christmas 1968. I was so proud of it at the time, and I can't remember what happened to it. . ."

The contest is over and these are the also rans. But the topic has not yet been exhausted.

The Layer Cakes and Jelly Rolls are in the shops.

National Corduroy Day

2011-11-11T06:00:00.004-06:00

11/11/11

It's National Corduroy Appreciation Day

Washington City 1808

"We mean to exhibit ourselves here on New Year’s day in [domestically manufactured cloth]...I must get you to examine the manufactures of Philadelphia and send me something. I think it probable they make there some of those thick, ribbed, or corded cottons which are now so much used for pantaloons &c...”

President Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson in corduroy pants! No photos survive. But here are some corduroy quilts from online auctions and sales.

This corduroy and velvet four-patch was sold at Cowan's Auctions

With a coordinating pillow

Check out some other blogs appreciating corduroy today in the list at Nifty Quilts

http://niftyquilts.blogspot.com/

Most people won't attempt this design in a crisp percale,

much less napped fabrics.

Knots and ties always add a nice texture.

This one's for sale at Slotin Folk Art.

And this one at Laura Fisher's

http://www.laurafisherquilts.com/shop/Quilts/SPECIALTY-QUILTS/Silk-Velvet-Quilts.htm

If only Betsey Johnson had been dressing Thomas Jefferson. Check out this link.

http://blog.fidmmuseum.org/museum/ready-to-wear/page/2/

And more corduroy quilts

http://www.flickr.com/photos/burcham/3176350056/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/peppermintpinwheels/4438700917/in/gallery-bellgirl-72157623895879497/

http://bobbeshapironolan.weebly.com/1/post/2011/09/updating-back-in-texas.html

And go to the Quilt Index site:

http://www.quiltindex.org/index.php

In the top right hand corner type in the quick search box corduroy

Here are some good ones that came up

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1B-3A-37E

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1E-3D-74C

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=51-8C-93F

Edge Treatment

2011-11-09T06:00:00.006-06:00

I made another visit to the International Quilt Study Center

and Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska the other day.

There are two shows up right now.

Elegant Geometry: American and British Mosaic Patchwork,

curated by Bridget Long is up until January 8, 2012.

Lovers with a Broken Heart by Yvonne Wells

Yvonne Wells: Quilted Messages

is on exhibit until February 26, 2012

I've seen photos of Yvonne Well's quilts but it was great to see them

on the wall to see the scale and the detail.

In one gallery we thought about thinking big.

In the other we thought about thinking small.

But one thing the galleries had in common was fascinating edge treatments.

Here's an early 19th century fringe.

And an early example of an edge turned in---what we would call a knife edge.

A woven, colored twill tape from the 19th century.

(For a while we were calling this Trenton tape

but it was used in many places outside of New Jersey)

And then I noticed the edges on Yvonne Well's quilts.

What is that little bug along the binding?

A tiny triangle along the edge in another

---is Prairie Point the right word?

They just pop up.

Another 19th-century edge-no binding, no border.

This 19th century quilt is on a slant board,

possibly because the edge is so out of whack.

The quilt gets narrower with every descending row.

The right edge of the photo is square, the quilt is not.

Next Saturday at IQSC: Storytelling in the gallery with artist Yvonne Wells.
Saturday, November 12, 2011, 11:00 AM and 1:00 PMhttp://www.quiltstudy.org/exhibitions/online_exhibitions/yvonne_wells/wells.html

See photos of the Yvonne Wells exhibit here:
http://www.quiltstudy.org/exhibitions/online_exhibitions/yvonne_wells/wells1.html

Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns Out of Print

2011-11-06T05:46:00.001-06:00

I had some unsettling news.

My Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns is out of print.

I know, I know the book is dead

An old-fashioned format for information....

But how are you going to figure out the name of an old quilt pattern?

#1493 Square and Compass

About 1890

Lost Ship by Barbara Brackman

#1362

Where are you going to get ideas for new ones?

I still have a copy. (Not in the best of shape as I use it nearly every day.)

If you don't have a copy you'd better get you one now.

The new books are twice the price they were a few months ago.

The used books are still reasonable.

It's been in print since 1979 in some form or another but people are still discovering it.

Click here to read Faith's post about it.

http://www.freshlemonsquilts.com/?p=1030

and LuluBloom's

http://lulubloom.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/project-golden-

It's pretty low-tech. I typed it on an IBM electric typewriter (with variable spacing)

and drew the pictures on gridded paper.

I photocopied copies for ten years and then AQS published it in hard back about 20 years ago.

I drew each one of those little blocks an inch square and tried to draw a tiny fabric pattern that the photocopy machine wouldn't blur or splotch.

I am sure that there will be some kind of higher tech version of this book in the future (and of the digital program BlockBase---also out of print.) But until then....

It's back to the used bookstore.

Fashion Winners

2011-11-04T06:00:00.001-05:00

Cynthia, Texas, 1973

You may recall that I asked for photos of people wearing patchwork clothing. See post:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2011/10/old-fashioned-calicoes.html

The rules:

E-mail me or send a link to a digital photo of yourself in your patchwork outfit of thirty or forty years ago that we could post here and I'll pick a winner or two and send you a box of stuff. Deadline November 1st.

Cynthia wins! Here's what she wrote:

"I remember that picture of Jenny Beyer! I think it may have inspired me to make the skirt in the attached photo. It was taken in 1973, I was 26 years old. Do you like my mom's big hair? In Houston we used to call that Dallas hair! Sorry about the quality...best I could do. I hope I win!"

I did not specifically rule out cheater cloth so Leila is a winner too.

Here's what she said:

"You must be having so much fun looking at all these old pictures! The earliest picture I have of me in calico is when I was 2 (1977). I was wearing a cheater calico print in my Christmas picture."

As is Maureen who did a post with this photo and sent a note.

"I just posted about a cheater cloth top I made and patched jeans of the 70's. You can find it at http://pursuitofquilts.blogspot.com/2011/10/back-in-70s.html I know it isn't exactly what you want. I had fun putting it together and I know my mom will get a kick out of reading it."

So I have three winners who can look forward to some Old Fashioned Calicoes in the old-fashioned mail.

The rules did say you were supposed to be wearing the patchwork.

So Carol didn't win although she had a great post about this skirt.

http://funoldhag-carol.blogspot.com/2008/08/antique-skirt.html

Lisa has kept this skirt too.

"...What I could wear in the 1970's , I cannot wear in this century but this skirt meant alot to me so I have saved it for many years. I don't even think my college daughters could fit in this skirt. I spent a lot of time wearing the jeans, embroidering the jeans, teaching my friends how to do stitchery and finally transforming the jeans into a skirt with this black calico. My teacher really did call my mom and ask whether she knew what I wore to school that day. In the South, I was still suppose to dress quite nice for school... "

And if Becky had a picture of her friend wearing these pants

she'd surely have won.

"Can you believe I have a pair of thin cotton bell bottoms

from more than 40 years ago on the shelf in my sewing room closet?

Here they are in all their hippy glory! Aren't the patches wonderful?? Can you believe I still have a chunk of the red fabric! The selvage says "Crantex Fabrics" - guess that was a division of Cranston. NOTHING says 1960 likes that yellow fabric!! They were not mine - they belonged to a friend who died too young."

I thought since I bribed others into sending foolish photos I should post some of my own.

I found several photos of me in patchwork---this a purchased skirt suitable for a dinner date in 1977.

I made the patchwork for this dress and asked Pat Drewry to sew the dress. There was a large band of patchwork at the hem around my ankles. The prints all look appropriate for 1812 and not 1975. I must have been reading too many books.

The will be more on this topic.....

Morris And Company Anniversary Stamps

2011-11-02T06:00:00.001-05:00

2011 is the 150th Anniversary of the founding of William Morris's firm and the United Kingdom's Royal Mail is celebrating with an issue of six stamps. The firm is described as " one of the most influential enterprises in the history of British design and manufacturing”.

The individual stamps feature designs from artists/partners who worked in the Morris & Company workshops. Each stamp has the date of the design featured on that stamp.

The print chosen for the stamp honoring Morris is Cray 1884, which is similar to the print Wandle in my new collection Morris and Company for Moda.

Wandle Reproduction

The diagonals represent the rivers and streams in Morris's landscape.

Dearle's stamp is his Seaweed print from 1901

Kate Faulkner 1877

Morris & De Morgan 1876

Edward Burne-Jones c.1864

The First Day Cover

The stamps were issued in May

William Morris fans might want to own a set.

Philip Webb 1867

New DAR Quilt Catalog

2011-10-30T05:55:00.003-05:00

The Museum of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Washington D.C. has published a catalog of their substantial quilt collection.

Curator Alden O'Brien and needlework teacher Martha Pullen have partnered on a book and cd combination featuring a catalog of the quilts at the DAR Museum with machine embroidery disks inspired by the designs.

You can buy the catalog alone. See a preview of Historic Quilts of the DAR Museum here:

http://store.marthapullen.com/descriptions/productspecs/7916.htm

Or buy the disks with the images too.

(45 multi-format designs in a mixture of 5x7 and 4x4 sizes per disk; Design availability is design-format & hoop size dependent.)

Biblical Images Quilt

[Garden of Eden ]1874

Collection of the DAR Museum

From the Quilt Index digital collection

The DAR collection of American quilts is one of the world's best. Up to now the only way to see it has been in the Quilt Index---not a bad way to see the quilts, but there is little information on the history of the quilt there. Alden O'Brien's curatorial expertise will add a great deal of knowledge to our history of American quilts.

To view the collection at the Quilt Index click here for the search page:

http://www.quiltindex.org/search.php

Scroll down to the box that says Contributor/Institution and pull down the menu for DAR Museum. Click search and enjoy while you wait for your catalog to arrive.

Princess Feather

Collection of the DAR Museum

From the Quilt Index digital collection

A page from the book.

Here's a link to the DAR Museum's on line shop:

http://www.dar.org/omni/store/MuseumShop.cfm

Quilt Market This Week

2011-10-27T06:00:00.003-05:00

Oh, I'd like to go to Houston, but I am not introducing any new books or reproduction fabric lines at Quilt Market, and it's so nice here in late October ....

that I think I will just stay home and Photoshop a virtual booth.

If Karla, Deb and I were going to have a booth we'd be doing the over-the-top Civil War anniversary theme in a Gone With the Wind booth to promote the 1862: Battle Hymn line. We'd be bound to win the Best Booth competition.

Now you might be saying:

"Fiddle dee dee. War, war, war. This war talk is spoiling the fun at every party.... I get so bored I could scream!"

So we could tell you about my other Moda fabric collections coming into your quilt shops this fall. Here's the schedule:

In shops in late October: Old Fashioned Calicoes
http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_old_fashioned_calicoes.pdf

In shops in November: Morris and Company
http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_morris_and_company.pdf

In shops in January: 1862 Battle Hymn
http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_1862_battle_hymn.pdf

Scarlet O'Hara doll by Madame Alexander

Karla, Deb and I have a lot of virtual sewing to do on those Scarlett O'Hara dresses before Friday. I think we are going to have to have some ribs removed too.

See some people who are getting ready for market in reality:

http://minickandsimpson.blogspot.com/2011/10/this-time-of-year.html

http://minickandsimpson.blogspot.com/2011/10/packing-for-market.html

http://blackbird-designs.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html

http://comfortstitching.typepad.co.uk/comfortstitching/2011/10/take-it-away.html

Old Fashioned Calicoes

2011-10-24T06:00:00.005-05:00

My friend Cookie with her fabulous cheekbones in 1974

A print from Old-Fashioned Calicoes

How old-fashioned you ask?
How about 40 years or so? That's old to some people. Yesterday to others.

Me in floral print pants about 1969.

The pants sort of looked like this. Ditsies.

Cookie and the quilt

She was pictured in the 1974 book

Native Funk and Flash

The photo book by Alexandra Jacopetti and Jerry Wainwright was subtitled An Emerging Folk Art.

It documented the patchwork revival of the 1960s and 1970s. Many people believe the reinvention of quilmaking was a 1976 Bicentennial-inspired fashion but lots of us were making quilts and patchwork clothing ten years earlier.

The book's focus was creative textiles in the Bay Area.

(I don't know who this is but I bet she had a lot of blue calicoes.)

Sort of like this.

Quilters Newsletter

Patchwork was happening all over the U.S. and probably all over the the world.

I have some Old Fashioned Calicoes fabric from Moda. E-mail me or send a link to a digital photo of yourself in your patchwork outfit of thirty or forty years ago that we could post here and I'll pick a winner or two and send you a box of stuff.

The deadline is November 1, 2011. Click here for my email.

bbrackman@sunflower.com

Or post the link in the comments box.

And thanks to Cookie who loaned me the photographs. She still looks that good. I don't know about the quilt behind her.

1862 Battle Hymn

2011-10-21T06:00:00.004-05:00

The November/December issue of McCall's Quilting has three ads for Civil War reproduction prints!

I think mine is the best.

Click here to see more about this Christmas issue:

http://www.mccallsquilting.com/mccallsquilting/issues/index.html?current_issue

My fabric will be shipped to quilt shops in January, but the precuts should be out during the holiday season.

The ad has a sneak preview of the project pattern that shops can offer with the fabric.

1862 Battle Hymn

by Barbara Brackman and Susan Stiff

The pattern is a variation on a design known as Jacob's Ladder that was also called Underground Railroad by Ruth Finley in her 1929 book. We added three Bella Solids to the project in red, ivory and brown for some kick.

The block's a simple nine-patch that can be shaded and set in many ways...

Antique Quilt from about 1900

...resulting in many effects. It was most popular in the 1890-1920 years

Another antique in two colors

Here is one from Laura Fisher's online antique quilt shop.

There are always variations for sale in online auctions.

Read more about the 1862 Battle Hymn fabric here:

http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_1862_battle_hymn.pdf

Chrome Yellow

2011-10-18T05:53:00.001-05:00

Quilt in a regional design from Tennessee and Texas

Most of the yellows we see in 19th-century quilts were dyed with chrome.

Sampler block, 1840-1860

Chrome yellow and chrome orange

Chrome yellow is closely related in chemistry to chrome orange (what we call cheddar today). It's a true yellow that the dyers called canary yellow.

Pennsylvania quilt 1880-1910

Swatch glued in a 19th-century dye book

showing chrome or canary yellow.

The color changes when it comes in

contact with certain chemicals---

like the acids in an old book's pages.

Observation indicates that the chrome orange shade was more popular for backgrounds and accents, but many quilters made good use of the bright, clear canary yellow.

Chrome yellow could be bought as a solid or a print.

Pennsylvania, end of the 19th century.

The color was important in Pennsylvania German design, which emphasized bright next to bright.

So we see many Pennsylvania quilts using the color.

Block about 1840-60

Quilters all over the country used it, however.

The chrome yellow process was developed early in the 19th century, but we really don't start seeing a lot of it until the 1840s when it became important for applique and piecing.

It's difficult to determine whether a print is 1860 or 1890.

The common combinations were red and black (dark brown) figures on yellow grounds.

The major difference between mid-century prints and those from the end of the 19th-century is that the later prints became more standardized. There just wasn't a lot of variety. Mills printed the same design in the same color for decades, marketing them as old-fashioned calicoes.

Top from the 1940s?

Apron from the 1960s or 1970s.

The yellow prints were almost the same for a hundred years.

But then... they stopped printing them about 1980.

Until now!

Reproduction of a classic yellow print 1860-1980

Here's a reproduction of a 1960s interpretation of the old prints---

a repro of a repro that Moda and I are doing in a collection of

Old Fashioned Calicoes.

Start thinking canary and click here.

http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_old_fashioned_calicoes.pdf

Northern Lily/Southern Rose Block 8

2011-10-15T06:00:00.008-05:00

Seth Thomas Rose from the kit illustration.

Block number 8 in this sampler of regional applique is a Southern rose.

Seth Thomas Rose by

Barbara Brackman

Seth Thomas clock

In 1929 Ruby McKim featured the Seth Thomas Rose design in the Kansas City Star saying that Araminta Daniel Kreeger drew the pattern for the original quilt in 1862. Daughter Fannie told McKim that Araminta copied the design from the face of a Seth Thomas clock brought to Missouri from North Carolina. Shelf clocks often were decorated with hand-painted scenes and florals.

Seth Thomas Rose by Ilyse Moore

The clocks were made in New England but Araminta and Fannie Kreeger were Southerners---Missouri Confederates. Another of Araminta's quilts was stolen from the bed by Jayhawking Yankees during the Civil War. (See a post about that quilt here: http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2011/10/40-order-number-eleven.html

Seth Thomas Rose by

debi schrader

It's an unusual pattern with the circles dotting the central flower.

For my book

Borderland in Butternut and Blue.

I made one like McKim's pattern, which had a vase.

Araminta's quilt has disappeared. Any quilts in the design seem to have been made in the 1930s after the pattern appeared in the newspaper. The one above is much like the newspaper pattern.

Here's one among a set of blocks for sale.

But I am always hoping to find Araminta's original.

Maybe this is it.

A big central rose, a footed urn, mid-19th-century---

recorded in the Iowa Quilt Project, purchased by a collector,

so no information about the maker.

See the whole quilt here at the Quilt Index

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=18-36-167

debi's

Back to the Northern Lily/Southern Rose Sampler.

Everyone is getting their blocks together. Ilyse used a triple strip border.

Jerri McReynolds used a green calico, a single strip.

debi set hers with alternating log cabin blocks. She started with a package of Layer Cakes from Civil War Reunion and added a few yards of a tan solid. She kept pulling leftovers out of her scrapbag, enough for a pieced striped border.

Susan Stiff used a print stripe for her inner border.

Next month the last applique block.

Excentrics in Nebraska

2011-10-12T06:00:00.005-05:00

Elegant Geometry Curated by Bridget Long

You absolutely must see the exhibit at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska---if you like old fabric. I'm lucky enough that I can drive there in four hours so I plan to go back before it comes down in early January.

Hexagon mosaic, maker unknown

Probably made in United Kingdom, 1810-1830

108" x 106" IQSC 2006.056.0002

Gift of Clyde E. and Joan B. Shorey

On this trip my favorite thing was the quilt above. You can enjoy it at a distance as an interesting composition.

But it's the closeup view that makes it's spectacular. The maker sorted her fabrics carefully, creating areas of dark prints framing areas of light. She had an exceptionally diverse scrapbag, but diverse in a narrow category of prints---monochrome prints in blue, pink and brown.

These finely detailed florals and geometrics

are calicoes printed with the latest roller printing technology---

up to date in 1820.

The top was full of excentric prints.

A proud printer testifying to the British Parliament in 1840 described these prints as "a particular style of design known by the name of 'excentrics,' in the production of which England surpasses every other nation in the world." Excentric prints (eccentric in American spelling) are fine geometric figures with jagged or wavy distortions.

Detail of the classic eccentric Lane's Net

from an American quilt about 1870

Lane's Net is a specific eccentric print style with many variations.

This top has more variations of Lane's Net than any I've seen.

The calico printer in 1840 described the invention of excentrics as an accident that occurred when a parallel stripe creased in the roller, "producing a new and unexpected effect. " Rather than discarding the misprint, he said, the enterprising mill owner (Mr. Lane?) was inspired to create a new fad for jagged stripes.

(Click on this photo and it will enlarge)

This version of accidental invention tends to be the origin story today (I've published it in my books). But the more I learn the more I doubt the tale. Eccentric prints were probably based less on accident and more on technological advances in lathes and other metal tools.

Drawing using excentric line

The word excentric means odd or erratic (off-center) but it also refers to geometric ellipses and circles with centers at different points (as opposed to concentric circles.)

Bank note engraving making use of excentric curved lines

Toolmakers developed metal lathes with so-called excentric chucks that could create mechanical drawings of endless intricate line pattern, first used to engrave unforgeable bank note backgrounds. The English calico printers co-opted the technology as well as the name "excentric."

Three eccentric prints making use of curves and straight lines

The name eccentric came to mean any geometric print with intricate line pattern.

Late-19th-century scraps of Lane's Net, named for the mill owner

Look for variations on Lane's Net throughout the 19th century. It makes a great print collection focus. As far as the earliest date: The calico printer said in 1840 that the design originated 30 years ago, so 1810 is a good starting point. I've seen Lane's Net into the 20th century and variations have been reproduced in the last 20 years.

Here's another excuse to visit Lincoln. There will be a lecture at IQSC on Tuesday October 25 at noon.

“The Art and Science of Patchwork Tessellations”,
Dr. Barbara Caron, IQSCM Assistant Director.

See more about the exhibit here:

http://www.quiltstudy.org/exhibitions/online_exhibitions/mosaic/mosaic1.html

And buy the catalog online here (It's sold only through the museum.)

http://webstore.quiltropolis.net/stores_app/Browse_Item_Details.asp?Shopper_id=52401031123565240&Store_id=766&page_id=23&Item_ID=1229

The catalog is great, full of wonderful details, but if you want to see all the closeups you have to see the show. Photography without flash is permitted.

Read an 1841 essay on copyright in design that mentions Lane's Net by clicking here

http://books.google.com/books?id=w2VRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=%22lane's+net%22+calico&source=bl&ots=V4shSvXdXT&sig=4b8aqPmCMIJSKiht3OJHdLnuMjE&hl=en&ei=kMyJTrSQJsHGgAey-fX5Cg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22lane's%20net%22%20calico&f=false

Ilyse & Freda Won and I Helped

2011-10-09T06:00:00.009-05:00

Paradise in Kansas

Ilyse Moore and Freda Smith

Ilyse Moore and Freda Smith from Overland Park, Kansas won an award at the Des Moines American Quilters Society Show and Contest at the beginning of October.

Ilyse and the finished top

Paradise in Kansas, co-designed by Rose Kretsinger, Ilyse and me and machine quilted by Freda, won third prize in the Bed Quilts: Machine Quilted category.

The medallion was inspired by two Rose Kretsinger quilts designed in the 1930s. The center and inner border are based on the Paradise Garden, Rose's 1945 quilt that is now in the collection of the Spencer Museum of Art. Click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

http://luna.ku.edu:8180/luna/servlet/view/all/who/Kretsinger,+Rose+Frances+Good

The outer border is based on a less famous quilt, one that Rose undoubtedly designed, but didn't make. Her friend Charlotte Whitehill made a version that's in the Denver Art Museum. Charlotte's is called a Kansas Pattern although it has parrots that are definitely not natives. I drafted patterns based on photos of Rose's quilts and Ilyse modified them.

We are planning a book with the pattern for this quilt for Kansas City Star books next year.

I modified the color on the AQS photo at the top which is way too red and a bit harsh on their website. Here's a picture of it I took at our guild show a few months ago---it's a little bit green. Aaron at the Star will make Ilyse's color perfect for the book.

See the winners here:

http://www.americanquilter.com/shows_contests/desmoines/2011/quilt_contest/quilt_winners.php

A Passion for Quilts

2011-10-06T06:03:00.003-05:00

One of the best things at the American Quilt Study Group seminar is the book sale where you can find out-of-print books from the authors' warehouses [garages] and some brand new books that you might not hear about elsewhere. I was pleased to pick up A Passion for Quilts: The Story of Florence Peto.

Co-authors Barbara Schaffer, Natalie Hart, Rita Erickson, & Rachel Cochran have been working on this sequel to the New Jersey Quilts book for years. Rachel on her blog Notes From the Basement describes Florence Peto and the book.

Where Liberty Dwells

by Florence Peto

She used antique fabrics to make small

medallion quilts in the 1950s and '60s

"Florence Peto (1881-1970) was a quilt collector, quilt historian, and quiltmaker. The quilts she collected and those she made were of such high quality that they became significant parts of museum collections. Florence's enthusiasm for life, thirst for knowledge, and love of quilts led her on a path she might not have expected as a young woman at the end of the nineteenth century. Through books, magazines, lectures, and exhibits, she shared the stories she found in quilts and created a legacy that endures from the twentieth century into the twenty-first century.

The book is 174 pages with more than 150 illustrations, including family photos and previously unpublished quilts. In addition, we are very lucky to have a foreword by Virginia Avery and contributions by Cuesta Benberry, Bets Ramsey, and Merikay Waldvogel.

If you'd like to order a copy, send a check payable to The Heritage Quilt Project of New Jersey in the amount of $32.95 plus $5.00 for shipping and handling to: The Heritage Quilt Project of New Jersey, P.O. Box 341, Livingston, NJ 07039. Or you can go to the website http://www.newjerseyquilts.org/."

See Rachel's blog here:
http://rachelcochran.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html

Where Liberty Dwells by Barbara D. Schaffer

Barbara's just finished this top,
a copy of Florence's quilt above.

And Barbara's here:

http://barbaradschaffer.blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html

These are two blogs to keep an eye on--- if you like antique quilts.

See some posts I've done about Florence Peto
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/06/persian-pears-florence-peto.html
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/05/lafayette-or-jackson.html

Old Toile and Chintz by Florence Peto

1950-51

44 x 48"

The cover quilt.