QUILTS & FABRIC: PAST & PRESENT


Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Victoria's Crown

Victoria's Crown Sampler
Collection of Barbara Brackman & Terry Thompson
1840-1865

We are all missing Victoria in the U.S. this week so I thought I'd show this sampler quilt that Terry and I bought together years ago. It's been traded back and forth and now it's at my house where I need to take a better photo I see.



Terry made a pattern from it. We were at the time enthralled with another Queen Victoria fiction, the movie Mrs. Brown with Judi Dench, so she called it Mrs. Brown's Quilt



Kathy Suprenant used the pattern to make one with feather quilting in the border and a lovely
muted red and green color scheme.

Wanda Hizer of Marietta, Georgia, won a prize with her Sweet Georgia Brown.


Wanda's also has a feather in the border.


And I found Donna Johnson's version at the Quilt Index. She added
a dogtooth border around her feather quilting.

The pattern is unusual in that it features a variation of the design called Caesar's Crown or Victoria's Crown with a sampler of florals and fruit.


Ruth Finley defined the pattern in her 1929 book. We tend to call
any of the many variations Victoria's Crown or Caesar's Crown.


BlockBase shows related designs under the Wheels category
You could print out a pattern for any one of these any size with the program.

Quilt by Lucy Howland Bassett Thatcher. Collection of the D.A.R. Museum.
Family name: Full Blown Poppy, Early 19th century.

The pieced pattern is occasionally seen with applique.
Here are two examples with foliage but not the variety of foliage that our quilt has.

The pattern with greenery is  #31.25 or  31.26 in my Encyclopedia of Applique, Harrison Rose.
I'd call these two "31.26 variations."


Perhaps the first quilt columnist to call it Harrison Rose was Nancy Cabot in the Chicago Tribune in 1933.

Here's Carrie Hall's version done in the early 1930s from
collection of the Spencer Museum of  Art.
Search the collection for Harrison Rose

Dawn at the Collector with a Needle blog has sewn a reproduction
of one she owns.

EveryStitch Blog: Hand quilting a feather in the border of a Harrison Rose.

More on Victoria's Crown:

5 comments:

  1. We were just discussing this quilt Saturday. Thanks for the post.
    The border on my antique version has double hearts quilted around the detailed feather border.

    I am also looking for a copy of Terry's pattern.

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  2. I occasionally see Terry's pattern used on the internet. Post a picture someday of your Harrison Rose quilted and bound. It's a great repro.

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  3. What a gorgeous quilt you and Terry own! I was just going to ask if Terry's pattern is still available but I see your comment to Dawn.

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  4. So many beautiful quilts! Love the similarities and differences. The different quilting. It's all wonderful

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  5. Mine has a feather quilted border with hearts like the original. We digitize the original quilting and include it with the pattern. Makers can re-create the quilt, including the same quilting. Will post a photo.
    Thank you for including it in your post.

    ReplyDelete