Unusual Cheater Cloth

 

Over at the 6 Know-It-Alls Facebook group Ileana showed us these blocks that look to be about 1900.

An apple and an angel that look to be cut out of other blocks.

Poor angel's head has faded. The wing on the right is the fabric in question.

Ileana noted this scrap in the apple,

GA & KAN

States? & American flags in a cheater print.

The great thing about the group discussion there is how we figured some things out. Those of us from Kansas & Georgia recognized our state seals.

Barbara Jeffery Danzi quickly found a mysterious item at the National Gallery of Art---a paper rendition of the same thing from 1937. But we decided that was paper and the fabric did not look 1930s.

https://www.nga.gov/artworks/14872-textile-state-emblems

The image looked like a W.P.A. watercolor from the late 1930s.

I had a file of watercolor renditions of quilts from the collection of the National Gallery. This is similar in that it's an artist's accurate rendition of a piece of fabric rather than a "folk art." Angelo Bulone of Cleveland, Ohio was employed by the federal WPA to record America's material culture (colored film was unavailable in general at the time.) 

The faux patchwork or cheater cloth looks like 1880-1900. But Barbara Z found a seal for "Oklahoma which became a state in 1907 but I don't see New Mexico or Arizona which were admitted in 1912." Can we guess that the print was sold between 1907 and  1912?

The American Textile Reporter 1910

Cheater cloth seems like a recent term but see the clip above and the post below: https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2017/04/cheater-cloth-geometrical-chintz.html

Ask to join our Facebook group. We learn a lot from each other:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/6knowitalls

I am inspired to organize my cheater cloth picture files. Perhaps another post.