I'm glad I wasn't trying to run a quilt business in 1875.
There doesn't seem to have been much enthusiasm
for patchwork. I base this on the number of date-inscribed quilts
from that year. And the look---from this perspective
style was not that innovative or exciting.
On the whole things seemed pretty dull....
...If you look at quilts dated 1875.
Associated with Matilda H. Nichols, 1875
Ohio History Connection
1875, associated with Johanna Sullivan
Minnesota Project & the Quilt Index
Classic style was recycled.
Inked name on reverse
"N.S. Vassar, New York City, 1875"
From the Goodwin family in West Virginia.
Seen by the Arizona Project.
1875 in the quilting
Applique in red and green was still in style although
the masterful handwork of previous decades was missing.
1875, Sara Strong
Modern Times---Old Fashioned Quilts
Irish Chain from dealer Vintage Blessings
1875 in white embroidery
Made for Mary Rose Bixby Law by her husband's aunt Sally Ann Porter Sharp.
Mattatuck Historical Society in Waterbury, Connecticut.
.webp)
1875 Fashion: Fringes---bangs.
Fussy detail.
The editor at the Girard, Kansas newspaper thought the
needlework display at the fair in 1875 was "not so good."
What was needed? New ideas--new fabric in new colors, new patterns and fads.
A small silk Log Cabin 50" x 62"
For Elizabeth Larned Alexander by Kate Benson.
One relatively new idea was the Log Cabin design. Of the 7 patchwork quilts
at the Girard fair two were Log Cabins.
Collection of the New England Quilt Museum
C. Hutchins
Six-inch blocks in the latest prints
F.E.L. Wheat 1875
North Carolina project & the Quilt Index
Found in New Jersey
Dated 1875, by E. E. Mathews for Mattie W. Bowdick (Burdick)
The fair in Wilmington, North Carolina had a better turn out than the Kansas display. I count 22 quilts
with 4 of them Log Cabins. Several other intriguing names---puzzle quilt, Odd Fellow's, Save-all
I found 9 date-inscribed 1875 on the Quilt Index
with three Log Cabins. It was obviously a popular design.
Family quilt from Illinois
Elizabeth Cadwalader
Another pieced design that would become
quite the rage was what we call Ocean Wave.
Two dated 1875
Massachusetts Project
Ila Mayfield
Sarah Polhemus, 1876
More half square triangles.Could it become a fad?
A couple of other new ideas---at least in small Pennsylvania communities.
Colonial Williamsburg Collection, dated 1875 in the quilting
The Amish adopted patchwork bedding about that time.
And did their Pennsylvania-German neighbors
begin making their patchwork with bright color right
next to bright color?
This one in classic late-19th-century Pennsylvania style
is certainly dated 1875. The flaw in my methodology
is that the date might have been commemorative, recalling an event other
than finishing the quilt.
Susie Walker's silk, embroidered extravaganza in the Manchester Connecticut Historical
Society is said to be inscribed 1875.
I have my doubts about Susie Walker's piece, based on the embroideries in the black shapes. Aren't those florals the machine-embroidered slips that were quite popular for crazy quilts and other crafts and clothing about a decade later?
.webp)
Inexpensive silks still in the future in 1875.
And if you consider economics: 1875 was just 2 years after a
financial panic. Perhaps no one was buying new fabric.
Perhaps mills were not printing new fabric.
The "Panic of 1873". The Grant Administration was
not a stable time.
Trends in looking at these quilts dated 1875?
Pink!
Lucie J Bassett/1875, Massachusetts Project
1875 in the quilting
Which may indicate that pink prints and solids were
popular for girl's clothing.
Was it always going to be this dull???
