Cats On Quilts

Appliqued sampler by Susan Rodgers, 1867

Brooklyn, New York

Collection of the Smithsonian Institution

People often write to ask me about symbolism in Civil-War-era quilts. My standard answer is we cannot presume to know what a long-ago quilter was thinking when she made her quilt.

Although there are exceptions....  I came across the quilt above when I was looking for 1860s samplers with patriotic symbols on them. There are several patriotic, Christian, Masonic and other fraternal symbols in Susan Rodgers's 1868 quilt. The meaning of  images like an anchor and a triple link chain (Christian hope and Odd Fellows Fraternity) is easily understandable today.

But I am not enthusiastic about ferreting out symbolism that isn't obvious in today's culture.

This image of cats and birds on Susan Rodgers's quilt probably has no deeper meaning than

"Watch out, birds!"

See more about her quilt by clicking here:

http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&objkey=7235&gkey=169

But that darn cat.

Sampler dated 1868 Willimantic, Connecticut from an online auction.

You see him occasionally in quilts from the 1860s.

It's a front view, he has his tail curled around him

and his legs are indicated by two reverse appliqued holes.

Here he is with whiskers from the 1867 Reconciliation quilt by Lucinda Honstain.

It's in the collection of the International Quilt Study Center and Museum.

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Lucinda put two versions of the cat on her quilt

She also did a tiger cat on a calico pillow. See a photo of the whole quilt:

http://cdn.firespring.com/images/5e612e00-d29b-45e2-bc69-9213fca49bb4.jpg

It's number 2001.011.0001in the IQSC Collection.

Well, Lucinda was from Brooklyn too.

And the pictorial quilts are both dated 1867.

I don't know what it all means.

Sandi Fox did a nice little gift book called Cats on Quilts Years Ago.

She found another of the same cat.

A yellow cat in an Irish Chain

Here's the cover of Sandi's book.

(I have to guess the graphic artist who did the cover was from Brooklyn too as the top right creature is not a cat. It's an opossum, something we have in abundance in the woods across the street from my house. And in my yard late at night.)

The story of opossums on quilts is another story for another post. The topic today is Cats on Quilts. So keep your eyes open for cats on quilts from the 19th-century.

No, Roseanne, not those kind of cats on quilts.

Dogtooth Borders

Quilt by Anne Dagge, date-inscribed 1818

Collection of the Smithsonian Institution

I've been looking at a lot of quilts with the dates inscribed on them, working on my digital newsletter for 2011. One of the things that impresses me most is how popular the appliqued dogtooth border was before 1860, and particularly before 1830.

Dogtooth border on a tattered quilt from about 1850

When you see pictures of these triangular borders you might think they are pieced, but several years ago quiltmakers Elly Sienkiewicz and Judy Severson, researching quilts by reproducing antiques, realized borders of spiky triangles that look pieced in photographs were actually appliqued. Quilters probably slashed strips in regular fashion and turned the edges under to form triangles.

The source for the name Dogtooth seems obvious; canine teeth are sharp. The word is used to describe several pointed objects such as the Dogtooth Violet in botany and dogtooth spar in mineralogy. In her quilt research, Sandi Fox noted that dogtooth is also a name for an ornament in English gothic architecture, a type of quatrefoil detail found in medieval buildings.

1797

A Vandyke scallop or Portuguese hem on the right

Fox suggests the word Vandyke scallop might be a better name for the quilt technique. She found fashion illustrations in the 1790s featuring geometric borders such as a dress described as having a "chintz border in Vandyke scallops." A search of fashion illustrations from 1790-1820 will show many such clothing details.

Queen Henrietta Maria by Van Dyck,

 wearing a few scallops in the 17th century

Louis Harmuth's 1915 Dictionary of Textiles defines a "Van Dyke" as a "pointed scallop in laces and embroideries." The name comes from the paintings of Anthony Van Dyck, an artist born in Belgium in 1599. Van Dyck achieved fame as court painter to the English king when fashion dictated small pointed beards and elaborate clothing with v-shaped scallops on collars and cuffs. His name still describes a goatee beard, but the association with dress and embroidery has been forgotten.

Vandyke scallops in 1813

Fox also defined the edge as a Portuguese hem. A 1917 book Dressmaking: A Manual for Schools and Colleges described "Portuguese laid work" as a technique "chiefly used as a border decoration."

Cut-out chintz quilt with dogtooth border by Mrs. James Lusby,

 date inscribed 1837-1838

Collection of the Smithsonian Institution

A Star of Bethlehem with a dogtooth border, a photo sent by Jane Hall

One sometimes sees these double dogtooth borders in different colors

I tried to find a tutorial on the internet about how to stitch a dogtooth border (or a Vandyke scallop) but couldn't find any. Instructions are in two of my books and in Judy Severson's Flowers in Applique.

Below is a small illustration from my Quilts From the Civil War.

Begin with two strips of fabric, for example 

1 strip 4 x 20" inches of light

1 strip 2-1/2" a 20 inches of dark

Baste them together with a stay stitch on the bottom.

Mark every 2" on the top of the dark strip

Slash 1-1/2" down at those marks

Turn the edges under and applique them into a point. 

Erma's Wedding Quilt, by Judy Severson and friends

Judy does a very orderly dogtooth border

Nancy Hornback, Reunion Eagle

And so do Nancy and Karla

  

Liberty's Eagle by Karla Menaugh

Karla Menaugh, Sunflowers

Karla has included instructions for her plaid dogtooth border in my book Borderland in Butternut and Blue, available from Kansas City Star books. Click here to read more about the book:

https://www.pickledishstore.com/productDetail.php?PID=765 

 I love to find the dogtooth appliqued edge used in other ways

A quilt from about 1850 with a dogtooth top to the basket

And a dogtooth edge on a scallop from another mid-19th-century quilt

Here's a detail of a terrific album quilt

in the collection of the Winterthur Museum.

See more 19th-century quilts with dogtooth borders by clicking on the links:

Two from the International Quilt Study Center and Museum

Number 2008.040.0195

http://cdn.firespring.com/images/6/8/4/9/c/6d24ebd8-8a84-41a8-949b-c888b4561056.jpg

Number 1997.007.0688

http://cdn.firespring.com/images/a/2/4/a/6/a65515c7-2270-4a60-a8f1-6eb169f2d267.jpg

Another from the Winterthur

http://content.winterthur.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/quilts&CISOPTR=455&CISOBOX=1&REC=3

Chirp, Barbara Brackman, 2010

Inspired by Anne Dagge's 1818 quilt at the top I put a wacky dogtooth border on my little Broderie Perse quilt of paisley birds.