Centennial Prints in Charm, Odd Fellows and Beggars' Patchwork

 I've been organizing my Centennial print files over the spring and occasionally posting about the 1876 Anniversary of our Declaration of Independence. The big event was in Philadelphia, an exhibition of international trade.

Home-made patchwork quilts were not really welcome in the fair's displays.

American fabric companies showed all kinds of wares. It was

a time to celebrate the developing American cotton industry as post-Civil-War

production improved the quality and availability of American-made prints. 

The small events that Centennial year were at local dry goods stores. Mills celebrated the anniversary and their skills with new prints commemorating the year. Knowing fabric collectors quite well I can imagine that these new American prints inspired some shopping.

A few weeks ago I did a post on how dull quilts in the year 1875 were. But the Centennial seems to have inspired new ideas with 1876's assortment of new prints in fashionable colors.

This purplish brown on a pale blue ground was

quite the thing in the 1870s.

If one has a collection one must display it. Centennial prints are often found in charm quilts, which were the perfect place to show off the new abundance of American-milled cottons.

For those unfamiliar with a charm quilt the Sacramento Union described them well in an account of needlework at the local 1879 fair.

"Charm quilt, Miss Hattie E. Sprague, 1,053 pieces, no two alike."

Commemorative handkerchief in the center of a charm quilt

pieced of one shape---a tumbler.

Period names other than "charm" include Odd Fellows or Beggar's Quilt.

Long hexagons 

The idea of a single shape repeated in a variety of fabrics seems to have become fashionable first in New England (where the mills were) in the 1870s.

Three centennial prints here.

More on Charm quilts:

Barbara Brackman's MATERIAL CULTURE: Charm Quilts: Not Everybody's a Fan

Barbara Brackman's MATERIAL CULTURE: Charm Quilts and Odd Fellows

 

Centennial Quilt from Vermont

 

Boy waving a centennial flag

A few years ago the Thomaston Auction house in Thomaston, Maine

sold this pictorial quilt. Although in rough shape it was so unusual the price

was $17,000.

One would guess it's called a Centennial quilt because his flag

 says 1876 but other than that I see nothing Centennial about it. Bridal Quilt

might have been a better name.

The quilt was long owned by a collecting family the Wellses of Vermont

who allowed it to be published in the Magazine Antiques in 

May, 1934 when it was in better shape.

Mrs. Wells may have remembered the Centennial connection.  I did find an 1876 reference to it as a Centennial quilt in the Rutland, Vermont Globe.

September, 1876

The exhibit described was not the giant Philadelphia exhibition but the 6th Annual Otter Creek Valley Fair in East Wallingford, Vermont

Here are the prize winners in their quilt contest. Maybe one of the fancy quilts?

Or maybe it didn't win a prize.

Do note as typical in that Centennial year: charm quilts and log cabin quilts

were popular. And this one is a form of Log Cabin.

Ways & Means

 

Jean Bartholomy Scott gave this quilt to her son in 1992. The family name was "Blocks."https://quiltindex.org//view/?type=fullrec&kid=12-8-603

It looks like this simple four-patch of squares and rectangles,

which I could not find in my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.

But when I examined the slide closer I saw it as an on-point set of a version of Jeff Gutcheon's very popular pattern Card Trick. 

BlockBase #1674

My first impression: Squares and rectangles! Precuts! Jelly Rolls!

Ways & Means 8" Blocks.

Cut some Charm packs into quarters so you have 2-1/2" squares.

Or combine squares and rectangles cut from 2-1/2" Jellyroll strips.

Straight & Narrow: Drunkard's Path Variation

 

Scrolling through eBay I came across this mid-20th century quilt.

Nice quilting but the pieced design seems to be a hot mess, as

we might say.

What is going on? Curves and straight lines, squares and rectangles.

Wait a minute! Drunkard's Path quilts do not include rectangles.

Drunkard's Path quilts are all curved piecing.

The block was quite popular after 1880, published many

times with many names but Drunkard's Path is what

we know it as.

And it's always curved piecing.

Never-the-less, the purple quilt has a few blocks of squares & rectangles.

Genius in the middle of a hot mess.

I drew a version in Electric Quilt.

It works best alternated with a plain block.

A Drunkard's Path without the hangover.

I'll call it Straight & Narrow.

A 16" finished block can be made from Moda's Jelly Roll and Charm Square precuts.

As in my Morris Meadow collection in shops now.

A beginner's version of a classic design.

The Great Comet---1 Applique Shape

 

Quilt from the mid 19th-century

Pieced with no published name

An album, perhaps associated with a wedding.

I'm always looking for applique projects to hand sew at various meetings

and groups. Here's a shape you could easily prep and take along.

If you liked applique.

After drawing it in EQ8 I realized that the single appliqued shape will fit into the 5" squares we package as Charm Packs, so this would make an easy to take along applique project.

I will think about that.