Barbara Brackman's MATERIAL CULTURE

Sunday, April 12, 2026

Show Us KIAs Your Quilts: Topics

We 6 Know-It-Alls Plus have been maintaining a

Facebook group for about two and a half years.

See: 6knowitalls:showusyourquilts

https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=6knowitalls%3Ashowusyourquilts

As far as I can tell we have been posting since November, 2023.

It's a group you have to join but do request membership. We'll let you in promptly. We have about 2,000 readers and contributors.

We want to see your quilts and show off our own photos. Each month we choose a focus based on fabric, color, techniques, geography, etc. This month the focus is "Regional Clues." What style, fabric, pattern, set and techniques offer a clue to where the quilt was made?

You can ignore the focus, though, and contributors do---

showing us something they just found or asking questions.

From Julie Silber's inventory of antique quilts

Some readers are total novices and others famous experts. We welcome both.

Pennsylvania-German descendant Angelina Ritter's deppich (quilt) from

the Goschenhoppen Historians Museum

We'll answer your questions as best we can and bring up new ideas. Our major focus is the visuals---how does a quilt's appearance give us information about the who, where and when a quilt was made.

Charleston (South Carolina) Museum

As we aren't mindreaders we rarely can tell you Why a quilt was made.

February 2024

We are fortunate to have many true experts in the group, specialists in regional quiltmaking, dealers who've seen thousands, collectors who own many and textile curators who specialize in various types and ages.

Maine Sampler/Album

Dated 1845-1846 from Cape Elizabeth

We try to be courteous and we'll "86" you if you insult another member.

But you can swear all you want.

Our archives there contain a LOT of information.

Search our information by looking for previous posts as topics.

If you don't see this search prompt on your screen look for Search by clicking on the image of the 3 dots.

6KnowItAlls Facebook Group Monthly Topics

2023 November?
11 New York Style
12 Pennsylvania Style

2024
1 Perhaps String Quilts in here
2 Maine Style
3 Feedsacks
4 Early Southern Coast Style
5 Modernism
6 Virginia Style
7 Crazy Quilts
8 Linsey-Woolsey
9 Dogtooth Applique
10 German-American Influence
11 Early Pictorial Applique
12 Scrap Quilts

2025
1 Medallion & Frame Quilts
2 Silk
3 Blue
4 Wool
5 Quilting
6 Dye & Color Problems
7 Inscriptions

8 Home vs Factory Dyed
9 Cotton before 1800
10 Needlework Techniques
11 Professional Designers 1900-45
12 Red & Green Quilts

2026
1 Early Roller Prints
2 Log Cabin Quilts
3 Samplers

4 Regional Clues

Monday, April 6, 2026

Updated-Backdated Embroidery Style

Considering ideas for a 250th Anniversary Quilt to

mark this year we've looked at the state flowers & birds

fashion of the mid-20th century at this post:

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2026/03/state-birds-flowers-embroidery.html

Re-working this embroidery style a century later is only

going to appeal to the nostalgic---of which you might be one.

The aesthetic problem is the datedness of the look. Outline embroidery

was so popular from about 1880 to 1980 that it defined the craft back then.

From Crazy Quilts & Redwork in the 1880s through

the fashion for state flowers, etc.

Laura Wheeler design for State Flowers

The idea of pictorials outlined in thread replaced the centuries-old technique of filling in the shapes with a variety of stitches.

Early-18th-century filled embroidery

Embroiderers learned a number of filling stitches.

A new era of sharing pattern began about 1880 with a couple of innovations in printing.

One: Printers were able to illustrate inexpensive publications.

Page from Peterson's Magazine showing

typical late-19th-century embroidery design in outline

form. Did the editor expect you to fill in the butterfly?

Two: Designers like Briggs & Company could print a new hot transfer method in their publications.

Transfer patterns from 1913

Heat released the inked outline.

Read much more about this technology at Mrs. Depew:

https://mrsdepew.com/blog/f/the-fabric-tattoo-all-about-vintage-kaumagraph-patterns?

Modern Priscilla 1925

At first the outlines were meant to be filled in with fabric or stitches

but embroiderers soon found an outlined chain stitch or running stitch attractive.

I heard Ginny Gunn explain the whole fashion in a couple of sentences that went something

like this: "Limitations in printing in the 1880s dictated the illustrator show an outline with

instructions to trace the image and fill it in. Of course, they just traced

it and outlined it in embroidery---no filler."

Typical outline embroidered in a small, neat chain stitch

Another example of commercial needlework shaping style.

Advice to be ignored in the Omaha World-Herald 1938

Bright colored threads of the time defined the look as did comics

illustration style. One did not mix those threads as in combining

two or three of different shades.

That outline look replaced two techniques. One---traditional

filling stitches. Two---Applique plus Embroidery

TRADITIONAL FILLING STITCHES

The Kensington stitch was a long and short filler stitch taught

by the influential Royal School of Art Needlework, located in Kensington, London.

Satin Stitch---one length

APPLIQUE PLUS EMBROIDERY

I'm thinking birds from Quilt Journeys with variations of filled applique stitches....

Simple shapes, which is where I need to start.

The second style advocated by the Kensington school:

Combination of appliqued fabric plus embroidery

A style that became a characteristic of the Glasgow School of Embroidery

Classic Stickley gingko pillow design repro by Dianne Ayers combining

applique plus embroidery

Ann MacBeth design

Glasgow School of Embroidery

Tea Cozy with appliqued leaves & florals outlined in a satin stitch

Trickling down....

Combination of Morris Muse fabrics and a neat, contrasting chain

stitch around each shape.

Sue Spargo has led a small revolution in taste using combined applique & embroidery.

Her applique fabrics are primarily wool but she also uses plain and print cottons.

One could use all those state flower drawings with a filled or applique + embroidery technique.

A Laura Wheeler Sunflower appliqued with

decorative stitching.

EQ8 with Quilt Journeys Add On

It's all a design experiment. I think I'd be better off using the simpler state flowers and birds from Quilt Journeys. Here's a Columbine for Colorado.

Wednesday, April 1, 2026

Take A Chance or Two: Fundraisers for 2026

https://www.kawvalleyquiltersguild.org/shop/opportunity-quilt

Every once in a while I scroll for Opportunity or Raffle Quilts online to see what's new and if there are trackable design trends. This spring I haven't seen much in the way of style trends---quilts from various guilds are diverse. A minor trend is one our Kaw Valley Quilt Guild is participating in. As members age older quilts are being returned to raffle off once again. This year's KVQG star was made for auction 15 years ago, won and was recently given back to raise more funds. It's mostly fabrics from a Moda collection of fabric Terry Thompson and I did called Seneca Falls.