Quilts 1812 Blog

Reproduction quilt, a collaboration between Barbara Brackman,

Terry Thompson and Lissa Alexander

2012 is the anniversary of the War of 1812---a good excuse to make a quilt.

I've been getting questions about what reproduction quilts from that era might look like, so I decided to start a separate blog. It won't be a block of the month (block samplers hadn't been invented yet in 1812.) But once a month I'll post pattern and technique information for an authentic design.

Mockup with Hewson reproduction panel

I've been reading about people who lived through that war.

Unknown fashionable woman about 1800

I'm having a good time trying to figure out war strategies and battles but mostly enjoying the scandals and gossip. Even after 200 years the gossip is still fun.

Rejected idea for U.S. Great Seal

The first chapter is up today. Look for a post on the first of the month through the end of 2012. And I'll occasionally post other pertinent style and fabric information.

Game Birds

Imported chintz, about 1815

Book mark this link.
http://quilt1812warandpiecing.blogspot.com/

Take a trip back to 1812.

I added Judy Severson's reproduction quilt

Seaflower to a vintage peace poster.

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And I'll put a box in the left hand column here so you can click on it periodically.
By the end of the 2012 you and I will know a lot more about the Battle of Bladensburg, Betsy Bonaparte and---way more important---early American quilts.

Betsy Bonaparte, a triple portrait by Gilbert Stuart, 1804.

Seaflower and Lately Arrived PreCuts

Seaflower Quilt Top by Judy Severson 2011

Judy Severson is a friend who loves the look of early quilts. When I got the first yardage from Lately Arrived From London, the Moda reproduction prints that echo the early 1800s, I gave her some of the fabric.

She immediately started thinking about what she could do.

Detail of the center medallion

Cut-out chintz and hexagons are often her first ideas.

And good ones too.

Some of the fabrics she used.

She added a blue toile and some blues, greens and reds that aren't in this line.

She loves to applique butterflies here and there.

Judy named it Seaflower after this print,

 the large chintz, which is named after a trading ship.

The strips and squares and precuts should be in the shops today.

Dogtooth Borders

Quilt by Anne Dagge, date-inscribed 1818

Collection of the Smithsonian Institution

I've been looking at a lot of quilts with the dates inscribed on them, working on my digital newsletter for 2011. One of the things that impresses me most is how popular the appliqued dogtooth border was before 1860, and particularly before 1830.

Dogtooth border on a tattered quilt from about 1850

When you see pictures of these triangular borders you might think they are pieced, but several years ago quiltmakers Elly Sienkiewicz and Judy Severson, researching quilts by reproducing antiques, realized borders of spiky triangles that look pieced in photographs were actually appliqued. Quilters probably slashed strips in regular fashion and turned the edges under to form triangles.

The source for the name Dogtooth seems obvious; canine teeth are sharp. The word is used to describe several pointed objects such as the Dogtooth Violet in botany and dogtooth spar in mineralogy. In her quilt research, Sandi Fox noted that dogtooth is also a name for an ornament in English gothic architecture, a type of quatrefoil detail found in medieval buildings.

1797

A Vandyke scallop or Portuguese hem on the right

Fox suggests the word Vandyke scallop might be a better name for the quilt technique. She found fashion illustrations in the 1790s featuring geometric borders such as a dress described as having a "chintz border in Vandyke scallops." A search of fashion illustrations from 1790-1820 will show many such clothing details.

Queen Henrietta Maria by Van Dyck,

 wearing a few scallops in the 17th century

Louis Harmuth's 1915 Dictionary of Textiles defines a "Van Dyke" as a "pointed scallop in laces and embroideries." The name comes from the paintings of Anthony Van Dyck, an artist born in Belgium in 1599. Van Dyck achieved fame as court painter to the English king when fashion dictated small pointed beards and elaborate clothing with v-shaped scallops on collars and cuffs. His name still describes a goatee beard, but the association with dress and embroidery has been forgotten.

Vandyke scallops in 1813

Fox also defined the edge as a Portuguese hem. A 1917 book Dressmaking: A Manual for Schools and Colleges described "Portuguese laid work" as a technique "chiefly used as a border decoration."

Cut-out chintz quilt with dogtooth border by Mrs. James Lusby,

 date inscribed 1837-1838

Collection of the Smithsonian Institution

A Star of Bethlehem with a dogtooth border, a photo sent by Jane Hall

One sometimes sees these double dogtooth borders in different colors

I tried to find a tutorial on the internet about how to stitch a dogtooth border (or a Vandyke scallop) but couldn't find any. Instructions are in two of my books and in Judy Severson's Flowers in Applique.

Below is a small illustration from my Quilts From the Civil War.

Begin with two strips of fabric, for example 

1 strip 4 x 20" inches of light

1 strip 2-1/2" a 20 inches of dark

Baste them together with a stay stitch on the bottom.

Mark every 2" on the top of the dark strip

Slash 1-1/2" down at those marks

Turn the edges under and applique them into a point. 

Erma's Wedding Quilt, by Judy Severson and friends

Judy does a very orderly dogtooth border

Nancy Hornback, Reunion Eagle

And so do Nancy and Karla

  

Liberty's Eagle by Karla Menaugh

Karla Menaugh, Sunflowers

Karla has included instructions for her plaid dogtooth border in my book Borderland in Butternut and Blue, available from Kansas City Star books. Click here to read more about the book:

https://www.pickledishstore.com/productDetail.php?PID=765 

 I love to find the dogtooth appliqued edge used in other ways

A quilt from about 1850 with a dogtooth top to the basket

And a dogtooth edge on a scallop from another mid-19th-century quilt

Here's a detail of a terrific album quilt

in the collection of the Winterthur Museum.

See more 19th-century quilts with dogtooth borders by clicking on the links:

Two from the International Quilt Study Center and Museum

Number 2008.040.0195

http://cdn.firespring.com/images/6/8/4/9/c/6d24ebd8-8a84-41a8-949b-c888b4561056.jpg

Number 1997.007.0688

http://cdn.firespring.com/images/a/2/4/a/6/a65515c7-2270-4a60-a8f1-6eb169f2d267.jpg

Another from the Winterthur

http://content.winterthur.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/quilts&CISOPTR=455&CISOBOX=1&REC=3

Chirp, Barbara Brackman, 2010

Inspired by Anne Dagge's 1818 quilt at the top I put a wacky dogtooth border on my little Broderie Perse quilt of paisley birds.

Hexagons and Susi's Reproduction

Reproduction by Susanne Richter-Antonijevic, 2010

Susi emails that she has finished the unquilted coverlet that reproduces a British medallion quilt from the mid-19th century. Great job and it only took her a few weeks.

Above Susi's reproduction; below the original.

Original British medallion, about 1830-1850

Above & below are the original, photographed a little overexposed when it was sold at Christie's in London

See Susi's blog here:
http://susisquilts.blogspot.com/

The use of those hexagon rosettes appliqued to the background is very British although we also see some examples in American quilts.

A few years ago some friends did a challenge that required them to make a reproduction medallion using hexagons somewhere. Here is Judy Severson's solution, a chain of rosettes in the border.

It looks like Cindy Vermillion Hamilton pieced her border but did some appliqued rosettes in the outer blocks for her entry.

I made some tiny hexagons out of my Hartfield collection of 1810 reproduction prints.

I like Cindy's idea of making florals with stems---which reminded me of a 19th-century block quilt my sister owns.

Judy Severson's Broderie Perse

Judy Severson, Blue Garland, 92" x 92"

Judy Severson, Blue Rose, hand stuffed by Judy, hand quilted by Toni Fisher, 78" x 78"

Judy Severson has revived the art of cut-out-chintz applique with her book Flowers in Applique and through her teaching. Chintz applique, also called Broderie Perse, was the earliest applique style. Quiltmakers snipped blossoms out of chintz-scale prints and arranged them on a new background.

I took these detail shots of a block-style chintz applique Judy displayed at last fall's American Quilt Study Group conference.

This detail shows you that Judy, like the early applique artists, doesn't cut around every detail. For this piece she had a wonderful combination---a chintz on a fancy figured background and the same fancy ground as separate yardage. She could cut rather loosely and make it all blend in.

Judy's teaching at The Elly Sienkiewicz Appliqué Academy from February 11 to the 14th. Click here to read more about her and the other teachers:

http://www.ellysienkiewicz.com/teachers.htm 

Judy is also well known for her embossed quilt cards See more about them by clicking here:
http://www.printstore.com/severson.html

Flowers A-Bloom, hand stuffed by Judy, hand quilted by Toni Fisher, 81" x 81"

To see some antique quilts using this technique go to the website of the International Quilt Study Center and Museum by clicking here:

http://www.quiltstudy.org/discover/search.html

On this search page scroll down to Advanced Search and find the menu item Style/Type. Pull down the menu bar there and click on Cut-out chintz(Broderie Perse). You'll find over 30 examples.