War & Piecing 1812-2012

Hewson panel

from Andover Fabrics

You may not have realized this but 2012 is the 200th Anniversary of the War of 1812.

The British burned the Capitol Building

 I've been focusing on the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War in 2011, but next year brings a big anniversary of an earlier war when the British invaded the young republic.

There's already one quilt challenge for this anniversary.

The Great Lakes Seaway Trail of  NY and PA invite quilters to make authentic War of 1812-era reproduction-style quilts for the not-for-profit byway travel organization’s 2012 quilt show and competition. They ask for is "cot to coffin" size and they are encouraging  authentic reproduction quilts of fabrics, including cotton, linen, silk, wool and linsey-woolsey; colors made with dyes available in that era; and patterns true to the 1812 . 

Click here for more information:
http://www.seawaytrail.com/quilting.html
And follow the blog about the contest.
http://1812quiltchallenge.blogspot.com/ 
See Moda's page at their Giving Back web address and then click on Great Lakes Seaway over on the right.
http://www.unitednotions.com/un_main.nsf/giving-back!OpenPage

Lucky for fans of early quilts there are several reproduction lines in the works. Moda and I have a collection of chintzes and dress-scale prints called Lately Arrived from London that will be in quilt shops in September.

The Little Molly from Lately Arrived from London

The look is 1780-1820

Andover is working with the Winterthur Museum to print reproductions of the famous John Hewson panel that is featured in several quilts dating to the era. See the featured panel with the vase at the top.

Hewson stripe from Andover

View more examples of the prints in that line at the Busy Thimble blog

http://busythimble.blogspot.com/

Margo Krager has reproductions of several European panels that were popular with Americans in the early 19th century. Her Reproduction Fabrics webstore is laser-printing some of the classics like the Trophy of Arms below. 

See more by clicking here

http://www.reproductionfabrics.com/lines.php?subcat=1020

The American Quilt Study Group is printing two reproductions as a fundraiser, a stripe and a floral. These will be real collector's items.

Click here to find out how to order

http://americanquiltstudygroup.org/supportfabric.asp 

And Rose Studios has a panel in a line called Manchester Glory.

Panels are hard to find. Early 19th century prints of any kind are hard to find. Let's hope these reproductions all sell so well that we'll start a fad for plum-colored chintzes and panels of fruit.

The Wellington Victory panel

from a quilt belonging to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London

See quilts with panels by clicking on these links to museum collections:

Two from the Winterthur Museum

http://content.winterthur.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/quilts&CISOPTR=380&CISOBOX=1&REC=5

http://content.winterthur.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/quilts&CISOPTR=401&CISOBOX=1&REC=16

And one from the International Quilt Study Center and Museum

2008.040.0060

http://cdn.firespring.com/images/5a675131-f9f2-46a6-97ad-4ed24d910d17.jpg

And check this blog post at the Great Lakes Seaway blog to see more links and period quilts

http://1812quiltchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/05/links-to-museum-quilts-from-1812-era.html

IQSC Quilt of the Month

Original design, Medallion. Frances Hawkins. Made in United Kingdom, dated 1818. Mosaic patchwork technique and appliqué. 96” x 85”. Collection of the International Quilt Study Center and Museum #2006.035.0001. Purchase made possible through James Foundation Acquisition Fund.

If you subscribe to the Quilt of the Month email from the International Quilt Study Center and Museum you were treated to a view of this quilt for May. The unquilted mosaic medallion is one of the twenty template-pieced bedcovers that will be on display at the Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska from May 28, 2011 through January 11, 2012. Elegant Geometry: American and British Mosaic Patchwork is curated by Bridget Long. Click here to see more about the show:

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

I recently got to study this quilt closely. I am always thrilled to see an early quilt and especially one with a date inscribed so I can see what kind of fabrics were in use at that date. Frances Hawkins used some very bright yellows. The yellow-ground chintz was popular here in the teens too.

Some of the prints, like the red on blue spade design, look to be block printed. The figure is very crude. Others look like the latest in roller prints. The European mills were making great strides in detail and color combinations during the first twenty years of the 19th century and Frances seems to have had all the latest fabrics.

Here's a side view of the tree that comes out of the basket in the center. Notice in the rosette below the bird are two hexagons with precisely positioned stars. I thought I'd seen that print before....

I found something very similar in my picture files. This mosaic quilt was sold online several years ago and had the same kind of strange pinstripe with a crudely printed star. The two quiltmakers each fussy cut the star (to use a new term for an old idea.) The other quilt is dated 1825 and signed with the initials L.F.

The star prints aren't exactly the same but they both look like the stars are stamped, stencilled or free-hand painted onto a roller-printed pinstripe. The similarities raise many questions.

Overall view of L.F.'s quilt

L.F

1825

A..d 9 Y...S

(Aged 9 years)

Contrast these two British quilts (I am guessing L.F.'s quilt was made in Great Britain although it is now in America) with the American made quilts in the previous post: Quite a difference between our domestic prints and the European prints in the first few decades of the 19th century.

Plan to go to Lincoln to see the Elegant Geometry show at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum. You'll have a wonderful time looking at the quilts and the prints.

If you don't get the free Quilt of the Month email you should sign up here:
http://www.quiltstudy.org/collections/quilt_of_the_month/join.html

An Early Virginia Quilt

Rusty sent me photos of a quilt made by a long-ago family member. You may have seen this quilt displayed at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum a year or two ago.

 It is great to see photos with closeups, so thanks to him for sending and letting me post them.

Under the central vase is embroidered in counted cross-stitch:

“Sally Lee Camden her bed quilt”

Sally didn't put a date on it but we can guess it is a late-18th or early-19th century quilt. Genealogy work has discovered a Sally Lee Camden born in 1777 (or possibly 1785) in Amherst County, Virginia. Her parents were William and Sybell Dent Camden. She married Peter Dent in 1807 and changed her name to Sally Dent, so we can guess that the quilt was made before 1807. Sally died about 1850 in Bedford County, Virginia.

We have so few surviving quilts from 1800 that it is a wonderful piece of history despite it's worn condition. We can describe it as an embroidered and pieced medallion quilt, made from linen (behind the embroidery) and cotton prints. The prints look to be primarily blue and brown, probably printed with indigo and madder dyes.

Blue yarn embroidery on linen

The brown prints are quite worn. Many natural brown dyes were very hard on the yarn fibers and abrasion over the years deteriorates the fabric. These simple prints might be American prints rather than sophisticated European manufactured goods we'd see in chintz quilts being made at the same time.

The quilting is close lines with some cording

A similar appliqued linen quilt, also thought to be from Virginia.

This one, dated 1812, is from an online auction.

The close quilting, similar floral bouquet and vase and limited color schemes are typical of the few surviving quilts from the era.

Another medallion from an online auction

This one is dated 1804 and uses the same simple blue and brown cotton prints.

Rusty's quilt was found in an attic of an old log cabin, put there by someone who thought it was too worn to use anymore but too old to throw away. It's now over 200 years old, an early American survivor.