Why Emporia??? Like the other prints in this line
Emporia has a nice ring to the name. Emporia, Kansas,
was about ten years old during the Civil War,
founded by anti-slavery Northerners. We picked
towns North and South for Richmond Reds.
The document print for Emporia in my new
Richmond Reds reproduction collection of Moda
The original star print was a hexagon in a very worn-out
comforter that was quite scrappy. I bought the ragged quilt because
it had a hexagon of this Grant Campaign fabric
from 1870.
Although the Grant print was not nearly
in this good a shape.
The original tied comforter, which I took apart
for the fabrics, looked something like this.
I guessed most of the fabric was from about 1870 to 1890
when those scrappy charm quilts were very popular.
I added ten years either side to be safe on the date
so dated this print as 1860-1900.
The reproduction is available in three colorways
You can see we toned down the bright white
of the original at the top left above, so the new print wouldn't be quite so
spotty. We also added a little more space between
the stars so it would read more as texture or blender from
a distance.
Georgann Eglinski's been using the red colorway to make her
Austen Family Album blocks.
