One of the lovely things at this show was the large number of antique quilts from the Quilts Inc. collection. Sometimes you see one or two, or at their museum in Texas you can see more. Often quilt museums keep the antiques under wraps – they are very fragile. So this was an extra treat.
How about this log cabin. Very traditional, red center, dark and light areas to create the block, and then a traditional layout.
Look closer, each stripe is about a quarter of an inch. This was made mid 19th century. I think it was before the civil war. Look at all those prints! Printing on fabric was relatively new – well, on an industrial level – so the number of prints is staggering. Yes, there are wovens as well, such as stripes and plaids. Stunning!
A large section was dedicated to blue and white quilts. Most of them were in this condition! And all were 19th c. Some had stains or, the white fabrics used in the background faded and yellowed, but not all, so there would be white and yellow in the background of a quilt.
This one stole my heart. A quilt made to look like a woven blanket – something that was very popular in early America.
This one is dated from around 1876, as in the centennial of America. Along side the amazing piecing is trapunto quilting, where certain areas of the leaves and grapes have extra stuffing to make them pop. This is one of my favorites.
Plenty of civil War era Green, Red and Cheddar Yellow. I’m glad this guy is in the image, gives you and idea of the size. Also, good husband, following his wife to a quilt show.
A close up of that quilt. the red and yellow are very vibrant. It is probably Turkey red that was discovered at the time. The green has probably faded somewhat.
Wonderful applique, sawtooth border and very detailed quilting.
A striped quilt. Look how straight those bands are! Also, the beautiful roses and the incredible quilting.
Somebody was having a lot of fun with this one.
Great Mariners compass. What is very exciting here is seeing larger pieces of the kind of prints that were available back then. For many quilt historians – looking closely at the fabrics will allow them to date the quilt. They always look for the most modern fabric to do so, since we all have large stashes of fabric that we either saved ourselves or even inserted.
Chintz top, it is huge, it isn’t quilted. Chintz fabric mostly came from England, it was very expensive to print. Originally it would have been block printed.
he details of birds and flowers and well as the number of colors – make it quite expensive.
Talking to other quilters. Some of the hexagons are pieced. Waste no fabric!!! some are chintz, others simple prints and others the woven stripes or plaid. Everything was used. Also, I wondered if this was English Paper pieced. Because the hexis are perfect. One quilter said – no, paper was very expensive. But then again, so was chintz and of course one would use the leftover paper. But who knows? either way, this is a masterpiece.
Leah