Snow Globe Quilts

I've been out in California for a week while it

continues to be winter in Kansas.

We've had a lot of snow these past two winters.

Hard on the shortlegged...

And the short tempered.

But if you have snow, make snow globes.

Here's a quilt by Marie Schmidt

using the snow globe pattern in my book

Sew Into Sports.

She found Christmas prints, winter scenes and other themes important in her family life.

The quilt was made for her grandson.

It's a good project to use with the Let it Snow

collection from Laundry Basket Quilts for Moda.

Beautiful batiks.

See some sports-themed snow globes at this post

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/09/time-to-start-thinking-about-snow.html

Reproduction Patterns

Sandy Klop, my fellow designer at Moda, designs patterns for reproductions using her fabric collections called American Jane.

Wagon Wheels

She uses her signature primary colors and

high-contrast range of prints to reproduce some classic antique quilts

Edy's Quilt: Galaxy of Stars

Oh My Stars!

Click here to see Sandy's American Jane webpage and order her patterns:

http://www.americanjane.com/patterns.php

And click here to see her latest Moda fabrics:

http://www.unitednotions.com/un_main.nsf/american-jane-fabrics!OpenPage

Indiana Rising Sun by Michelle Yeo

Australia's Michelle Yeo also makes impressive reproductions and patterns. Kansas City Star Books is now distributing her patterns in the U.S. Click here to see the Pickledish Store with three of her patterns:

https://www.pickledishstore.com/

See my earlier post on her reproduction patterns by clicking here:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/04/michelle-yeos-reproduction-quilts.html

King David's Crown by Michelle Yeo

Swatch Books at Moda

In the last post I wrote about my road trip

to Moda/United Notions headquarters in Dallas.

My major goal was to go through the antique swatch books

the design department has been collecting.

They've bought several books from various mills,

collections of samples printed, say in 1904.

Here's a book with swatches from the mid 1870s.

My French is rudimentary but I think the label says the book was bound in the textile city of Mulhouse in France.  

The books are full of numbered swatches, some related in color.

Others are related in print style.

Many would make excellent reproductions.

It's surprising to see these color combinations that don't fit into our idea of period fabric.

Some of the pages mix cotton prints with wool/silk combination prints in which you'd find brighter color.

This mid-century page looked like wool/cotton mixes (delaines)

I love the red stripe on green contrasted with the green stripe on red.

It's hard to believe these are mid-19th century colors.

Mint green and magenta.

Could that be in the infamous poison green?

Turkey red cottons with greens from overdyed blues and yellows.

Many of the pages contain sketches and paintings of the print rather than the prints themselves.

Can you see the very faint pencil lines covering the paper here? The artist has painted in a color idea for this print that looks like jewelry on top of seaweed.

This is an unfinished sketch for a paisley.

That's my pinky finger for scale.

These sketches are called croquis in French

(pronounced crow'-key)

The fashion industry has adopted that word for a painted design.

Here's a beauty--- a stripe with a daisy or marguerite--- from 1864

A foulard style floral from

April 1875

Wow!

I don't paint croquis for my fabrics.

I collect old swatches and scan them.

I find most of mine in quilt blocks and tops.

The swatch books are expensive. They can go for thousands at auctions.

You might ask your local art or history museum if they have any textile sample books.

Here's a page on German swatchbooks. Scroll down for pictures

http://www.heinrich-pestalozzi.de/de/dokumentation/einzelbeitraege/bruehlmeier_arthur/level3/war_pestalozzi_ein_ausbeuter/bilder/index.htm

We'll see what reproduction collections come out of my trip. From idea to print it usually takes over a year.

Civil War Reunion & Memorial Quilts

[I'd intended to post this information about reunion and memorial quilts today even before I'd read the statement about the missing eagle in a similar quilt discussed in my last post. The flag quilt in that January 22nd post might better be interpreted as one of these veteran's quilts rather than as a message about racial equality.]

One occasionally comes across an antique quilt with Civil War Reunion images.

They are often crazy quilts, popular in the 1880-1910 period when reunions of the Union Army and the Confederate Army were annual events.

Commemorative ribbons were passed out at the encampments. A crazy quilt is a good place to preserve the printed silk souvenir. 

Florida Reunion of Confederate Veterans

Quilts with veteran's group connections were made for other reasons too.

The San Jose Mueum of Quilts and Textiles

owns this wonderful 1892 example made by the

Ladies of the G.A.R. in San Jose, California.

The GAR was the name for the largest Union veterans' group---Grand Army of the Republic.

This one was made as a gift for Hattie Burgess Shattuck

 by the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic,

Anna Ella Carroll Circle No. 1, San Jose, California

See more about it by clicking here
http://www.cqmagonline.com/vol09iss2/articles/994/index.shtml

About 1910

Very often the Ladies Auxiliary was present at the events.

Notice everyone is wearing a ribbon with a medal, even the child on the right,

 although no one is wearing a uniform.

(Those old uniforms probably didn't fit at this point anyway.)

Mid 1890s

This block in a crazy quilt seems to recall an 1893

 Blue and Gray reunion with soldiers from both sides.

The embroidery says:

Reunion

Confederate

Survivors

Greenwood (?) S.C.

July 4th

1893.?

It  looks like someone embroidered over a printed silk ribbon, which eventually wore away.

Here's a detail of a wool embroidered comforter dated 1910 with the letters G.A.R. The photo is black and white. The piece seems to have uniform buttons stitched to it and it may be cut from scraps of an old Union uniform. (I'm always doubtful about supposed uniform scraps but this memorial quilt actually might have some.) This coverlet seems to have been a memorial to an individual veteran. 

See more about wool tied quilts from the early 20th century by clicking on this post:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2009/11/civil-war-uniforms-or-not.html

Here's a link to another crazy quilt with reunion ribbons:

http://www.henrycountyky.com/history/quiltdetails.htm

Here's a short glossary to initials:

GAR- Grand Army of the Republic (the largest Union veteran's group)

WRC- Women's arm of the G.A.R., the Women's Relief Corps

UDC - United Daughters of the Confederacy)

CSA - Confederate States of America

UCV - United Confederate Veterans

Collecting Civil War reunion ribbons is a nice textile focus.

They are usually silk and need some TLC to survive.



Interpreting Old Quilts

This patriotic quilt seems to be the hit of the Winter Antiques Show in New York this week. It's being shown by Stephen Score Antiques from Boston. Ken Johnson, reviewing the Show in Friday's New York Times had this to say:

"Some works have fascinating back stories. Research suggests that a quilt at Stephen Score, with a square, centered field of white stars on blue, surrounded by red and white stripes, with a border of abstracted yellow eagles---one of which is missing in the lower right corner---was created in 1880 as a past-abolitionist reminder that the project of achieving racial equality in America was not yet complete."

"A Smorgasbord of Fine Art, the Strange and the Old."
New York Times, January 21, 2011, C30

See the review by clicking here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/arts/design/21fairs.html?scp=1&sq=%22smorgasbord%20of%20fine%20art%22&st=cse

If it's in the New York Times---it must be true.
There does seem to be a missing eagle in the lower right corner. But we cannot presume to know why.

I haven't seen the quilt, but it looks like the eagle has been removed. From the photograph the quilt looks to be late-19th century and probably a Civil War memorial quilt, one of a good body of such quilts---more of these in my next post.

Here's a description of the quilt from the blog GoodbonesGreatpieces.

"exquisite Freedom Quilt, hand-pieced, appliqued and quilted. From about 1880. Hand embroidered in red below the blue field of stars: “Hope of our country” “The Star of Freedom: “M.W. L to C.M.L” These words are attributed to the American abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe. Made by a member of the Lewis Family of Boston, MA, and Saint Louis, MO. " 

See more at this post:
http://goodbonesgreatpieces.com/blog/?p=11678

This story seems to be a combination of two common myths in interpreting antique quilts. One is that the quilter set up a repeat and then deliberately broke the pattern as a sign that she did not assume perfection. 
The other myth is that quilts were used as codes or maps to freedom during the time of the Underground Railroad when abolitionists assisted escaped slaves.
 
Here we have a "deliberate mistake" as a "post-abolitionist code."
 
It's an opportunity to remind everyone that historians efforts to debunk these myths of interpretation can only go so far. Myths endure. Myths endure because they tell us about who we want to be. And now we have a new one.
 
It's in the New York Times.

And in an update 3 hours later: Today's New York Times blog post at the "Opinionator Blogs Disunion" has a very well written argument against the exact same kind of "Research suggests that...." in the above copy in the newspaper article. My writing teacher told me never to point out irony. So I won't. Read this:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/teaching-civil-war-history-2-0/
 
See an earlier post about the so-called "deliberate mistake" by clicking here.
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/08/hoo-doo-humility-and-deliberate.html

Read a paper I gave at the American Quilt Study Group several years ago about interpreting symbolism in antique quilts here:
http://faculty.culver.org/~foleyd/Teacher_files/craftingfreedom/rockyroad.pdf

Michele Hill's More William Morris Applique

Michele Hill's second book on William Morris applique is out!

Here's the cover quilt Morning Glory.

She certainly made good use of the reds in The Morris Workshop line.

The border, featured on the cover, uses the Iris print

by John Dearle from that 2010 Morris Workshop collection for Moda.

Read more about the print here at my blog post

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2009/09/morris-workshop-designers.html

Thanks, Michele.

The subtitle is

"Spectacular Quilts and Accesories for the Home"

Here's a specatacular quilt

Floral Fantasy.

Not in the usual Wm. Morris range

And some accessories Willie woulda loved

Journals

See Michele's blog

William Morris and Michele

http://williammorrisandmichele.blogspot.com/

She has information about her fabrics and publications.

The new book is Australian so it will be awhile before

 it's at your local quiltshop if you're in another hemisphere.

Keep checking

and ask your quilt shop owner to check with her usual distributors.

Here's Michele's first book.

My current William Morris reproduction collection in shops now is A Morris Tapestry.

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