Strike-Offs and AQSG Donation

Some of the strike-offs from Lately Arrived From London

Strike-offs are like proofs. Once the printers have cut the screen they try different combinations of the colors selected for the collection. The designers then choose the ones they think work best. Some work well and some don't.

Some like this blue chintz work GREAT, but they don't really go with anything else in the line.

Editing these out is like editing one's prose. Ouch! That was a great print---but the only blue-and-white-toile looking piece in there. We'll do something similar again some time.

When we are doing a reproduction line we also have to edit for accuracy. That pink pillar print at top left above is interesting, but it just doesn't look like the kind of pinks you'd have in 1810---so it gets the heave-ho.

And the olive greens on the left. The greens work fine as an accent color but not as a background. Just not done in 1810. Goodbye, greens.

We started with about 70 variations on 8 prints and by process of elimination we wound up with 28 skus (a sku is jargon for a colorway of a print).

Only 28!---well I forgot to mention that economics is also a motivation. We'd decided this would be a small line. Some of my repro lines go up to 42 skus. Why small? Early 19th-century reproduction prints are a niche market. You readers are probably part of that niche---it's a sophisticated niche.

Another reason: If we'd do 50 skus shop owners would say they couldn't afford to buy the whole line. And they'd be right.

So that's the explanation as to why there are no blues, pinks or olive greens in the Lately Arrived from London collection. Design, accuracy and economics.

But what about all those small pieces that were eliminated? Unused strike-offs usually go into the recycle bin but I weasled these out of the boss. For a good cause.

I asked my friends to make 16 patches and asked Bobbi Finley to set them with the larger chintz scale strikeoffs for a quilt top pieced of fabric that was only printed once. We filled in with yardage that was printed---and some from other sources.

So here is a top made of fabric that nobody else in the whole world has.

We added a border of the pillar print from the yardage.

And we are donating the top and a bag of scraps left from the strike-offs to the American Quilt Study Group's Auction that will be held at their annual seminar September 21-26 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. AQSG benefits and you can go home with a top made of truly one of a kind prints or a small stash to make your own.

See more information about the American Quilt Study Group seminar here:

http://www.americanquiltstudygroup.org/seminar.asp 

The benefit auctions, silent and otherwise, are always terrific.

A Civil War Survivor

Detail of a signature quilt dated 1862

Quilts reliably attributed to the years 1861-1865 are in short supply. Fabric shortages during the Civil War, the use of quilts by soldiers in camp and hospitals, and confiscation by foraging soldiers reduced the numbers made and those that survived.

Earlier this year Regina wrote with questions about a signature quilt dated 1862, found in a Cape Cod attic and donated to a thrift shop. Someone there recognized its historical value as it was signed by women with old Dutch names familiar to local historians in New York and New Jersey. One block had the town name Nyack, New York, which is north of Yonkers on the west side of the Hudson.

#3760

Regina had a question about the unusual pattern. I did find a version in my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns,  BlockBase #3760, published about 1910 by Massachusetts pattern merchant Clara Stone under the name Sailor's Joy.

 But Clara Stone's version design is pieced and the Nyack quilt is appliqued in the center.

Regina did some more research on the design and found that quilt historian Susan Price Miller was also interested in the pattern.

Susan Price Miller, detail

Star Signature Quilt

2010

For the American Quilt Study Group's 2010 Study of Star Quilts, Susan reproduced a quilt from her collection dated 1877. At the AQSG web site picturing her quilt she writes:

" The thirty-six 10-inch blocks probably came from northern New Jersey, the home of most of the signers, and were joined with wide sashing a generation later. The center points of the stars are cut away in convex curves, providing space for signatures. I discovered a small group of published examples of similar eight and six pointed stars. All have narrow sashing and borders and were made in the New York/New Jersey area before the Civil War."

See the whole reproduction here. http://www.americanquiltstudygroup.org/qs_star_study39.asp

Susan's quilt is patterned in the book Stars: A Study of 19th Century Star Quilts, so if you are looking for a Civil War reproduction design consider the star made of teardrop shapes, which can be appliqued or pieced. Click here to find out more about the book.
https://www.pickledishstore.com/productDetail.php?PID=1248

Regina has published her research on the Nyack quilt at her web site:
http://www.dutchdoorgenealogy.com/quilts-rockland-county-bergen-county.html

The quilt is now in the collection of the Historical Society of the Nyacks and on display. Click here for more information about their new museum. http://nyackhistory.org/welcome.html

My favorite book this month is a history of the colony of Nieuw Amsterdam which explains how all those Dutch names came to New York and New Jersey.
See more about Russel Shorto's The Island at the Center of the World by clicking here:
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/island/american.html

The contrast between the Dutch culture and the English culture that tried to replace it and erase it is fascinating. Another book about Nieuw Amesterdam is Jean Zimmerman's The Women of the House, which focuses on one family and women's lives and rights under Dutch law.

AQSG Star Study

Eight-Pointed Star-Borden Family Quilt by Florence McConnell

41-1/2 x 37 -1/4"

See Florence's inspiration quilt by clicking here and scrolling down

http://www.nequiltmuseum.org/museum/collection-gallery.html

Every other year the American Quilt Study Group invites members to study an antique quilt by reproducing it on a smaller scale. This year the theme was star quilts and members made 39 quilts, which you can see on the AQSG website. Click here: http://www.americanquiltstudygroup.org/qs_star_study01.asp

Nancy L. Losee, Star of Bethlehem

36" x 36"

Inspired by a quilt in the collection of Colonial Williamsburg

Acc. No. 2000.609.1

To see the original click on the EMuseum page for Colonial Williamsburg.

http://emuseum.history.org/code/emuseum.asp

Do a quick search for the word Bethlehem. The inspiration quilt will come up as the second item.

Some studied quilts in museum collections, some were inspired by quilts in private collections and some by quilts they owned themselves.  

Cindy Vermillion Hamilton

Star of England

40" x 42"

Inspired by a quilt in her own collection

Most of the Star Study quilts were exhibited at the Houston Quilt Festival in a show that will travel around for the next two years. Kansas City Star Books is planning a book about them for the spring.

Bobbi Finley, Mennonite Lone Star

49-1/2" x 49-1/2"

Inspired by a quilt in a private collection

The schedule for the traveling exhibit:

January 3, 2011 - February 6, 2011:
Latimer Quilt and Textile Center, Tillamook, OR

February 25, 2011 - June 5, 2011:
Monroe County History Center, Bloomington, IN

July – August 2011:
New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, MA

September 17-18, 2011:
Faithful Circle Quilters Show, Woodridge, IL

November 2011 – January 2012:
Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, Golden, CO

March 2012:
Dallas Quilt Convention, Dallas, TX

April – August 2012:
International Quilt Study Center & Museum, Lincoln, NE

The Quilt Study is only one of the many good reasons to join the American Quilt Study Group.
Join by clicking here:
http://www.americanquiltstudygroup.org/membership.asp