1912: The Old Quilt #1

 

"Sunbonnet Lassies" by Marie Webster

Ladies' Home Journal, August, 1912

English writer Virginia Woolf remembered: 

"On or around December 1910, human character changed." 

She was talking about modernism in general, but modernism in quilts may have occurred about a year later with Webster's series of "New Quilt" designs beginning at the end of 1911. Webster's ideas of new compositions and pastel colors were innovative at the time.

What was going on in 1912 before readers were inspired by her new ideas?

A look at some of the "Old Quilts."

Quiltmakers relied on traditional style,

here pieced blocks set on point.

Quilts shown are date-inscribed 1912.

1912 album nine-patch from Iowa.

But more often blocks were set on the square.

Fabrics tended towards the minimal: plains and woven stripes and plaids. 

Is this modern minimalism or just a reflection of the difficulties

printers had with the new, rather unreliable synthetic dyes for cotton?

Dyeing the yarns and weaving the pattern was easier.

Marie Webster in a striped dress in the teens.

And everybody was wearing woven stripes and plaids.

Postcard portrait dated 1912

From the West Virginia project

1912, Jessie Cleveland, Michigan Project

Some of Jessie's stars have faded completely, a frequent problem

at the time.

Certainly people were using the fashionable blue, red, gray and black

palette of the era for their pieced quilts (with accents of double-pink prints.)

And the new shade of claret, wine red.

I'm showing mostly pieced quilts because applique was relatively rare.

Very few dated 1912.

Amelia Felderman, Bellevue, Iowa

from the Iowa project

But quilters knew if you wanted a reliable red that would remain

fast after washing and light exposure (and even bleach) you had

to spend more and buy genuine Turkey red.

Turkey red prints with black figures were popular.

Quilt with inked names by members of a church

in Fort Plain, New York.

Solid Turkey red and plain white had been a popular

choice for name quilts/fundraisers since about 1880.

1912, New York

Did the quilters at the Zion Missionary Baptist Church

use a red that faded to brown? Or did someone still like

an old-fashioned color scheme.

Read Deborah Devine's Marie Webster and Her Quilts: Their Story

Paste this into your browser:

https://www.in.gov/history/files/Deborah-Divine.pdf 

Tomorrow: More "Old Quilts" with Regional Style in 1912.