Transposed Quilts

 

A Transposed Quilt???

The fair board in Buffalo, New York mid-19th century seem to have been rather innovative in their  categories for textiles. In 1857 and 1858 they included a category for a "transposed quilt."

Buffalo, New York

Two years later the New York state fair showed four "transposed quilts" worthy of prizes.

The popular Godey's mentioned a transposed quilt in 1861--- with no explanation of the term for its widespread readers---including me.

The "transposed quilt" idea remained for the rest of the century and into the next as

we can see in the fair results in Bel Air, Maryland in 1901. Despite new fashions such as Log Cabins and Crazy Quilts local women were still winning prizes for transposed quilts.

Did everyone know what a transposed quilt was???

I still don't.

I got a clue from Marie Webster's 1915 book where she alluded to what we call "counterchange" in design today. What's dark in one area is light in the adjacent area.

A word long used in describing heraldry and coats of arms.

And you do see it in mid-19th century patchwork as in these

sampler blocks. But one counterchange design in a sampler

is NOT a transposed quilt.

This idea might be a "transposed quilt"----turkey red and white---

but this style is late 1880 and into the 20th century.

Not what was happening in Buffalo fifty years earlier.

American Folk Art Museum Collection

Quilt signed & dated: Mary Grow, 1856

Maybe this would be considered a transposed quilt--- what we

might call a Feathered Star in Scraps,

The idea of changing the colors and fabric for each block is 

not that common in the 1850s. The style may have been considered

innovative.

Cowan's Auction

Album date-inscribed 1853-1859. Alabama & Georgia.

Mostly seen in album quilts. Wouldn't you call this an Album

Quilt?

I am always warning aspiring Quilt Detectives to avoid trying to

read minds. You cannot read the minds of your family today. You certainly

shouldn't attempt to mind read actions over a century and a half ago.

And here I am doing it.

With few conclusions to draw from the whole exercise.