
The photo shows three document prints---the design sources---for fabric in my Moda collection Civil War Crossings. The document prints are on the outside of the logo for the fabric. All are what the dyers called "madder-style prints," dyed with madder root. Using different metal salts for mordants, dyers could obtain a number of different shades of brown and red from a blackish brown to a peachy pink. They only had to dip the fabric in a single dyebath to get all those colors, one reason that madder was so popular in the mid-nineteenth century, when these cottons were probably printed.
For the reproductions on the left we toned down the white---the brightest color in the prints. Mid-nineteenth-century fashion liked a spotty print, but too many white spots can be a little distracting in a quilt. We left the highest values in for the prints on the right. A bit of regular dramatic pattern is so-o-o Civil War.

Jerrye Van Leer's Broken Crockery mini-quilt features several prints from that 2008 collection.
I just recieved some of those fabrics in a CW swap! Thanks for the history....
ReplyDeleteI have just bought these for a Civil War BOM. They are wonderful. Thank you for your research and books.
ReplyDeleteA Fantastic range of modern and classic Crockery available at sensible prices to help create that perfect dining experience.
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