A Quilt Leaves the Closet

I came from a long line of pickers. We just can't resist. When we see something 'good' alongside the road we just have to rescue it from oblivion. I remember walking to elementary school and crying over the good things sticking out of the trash cans on garbage day. My dad had a big ole' pickup truck and brought home chair sets and outboard motors, bicycles and lawn mowers, and trunks. He would fix them up and sell them in a garage sale, not to make a little money, but for the fun of it.
Dad picked up a trunk and when he got it home found a quilt inside. He gave the quilt to me.

It is a Carolina Lily pattern. The stitching is primitive, so is the quilting. But it has an exuberance and joy.

I shared it recently on Facebook and a collector asked to buy it. She believes it is a Southern quilt. And yesterday I shipped it. One more quilt out of the closet.

1990s Amish Made Quilts

Dianne recently came across a local estate sale that included a quilt collection. She was able to purchase a number at rock bottom prices. The quilts had labels with their provenance. They were predominately hand pieced and hand quilted.

This Mariner's Compass from Scottsdale, PA was labeled as Amish made in  1990. The label called this a "designer quilt," likely because it used one of the early designer border prints.

 The Medallion style quilt's many borders!

 Here you can see the hand stitching in the compass center.

  Another Mariner's quilt variation with a Broken Star setting.

 This Flying Geese in Cabin was marked "Amish." 

 An interesting Carolina Lily variation from Scottsdale PA.

The sashing is a designer border print.

Two floral appliqués. The first is Country Love by Rachel Pellman. Her Country Bride quilt sparked a whole series of new appliqué patterns that appealed to the Country decorators in the 1990s.

 I saw this quilt in these colors on Pinterest, pinned by Amish Country Lanes .

The second looks like another Rachel Pellman pattern but I have not been able to identify it yet.

The 1990s colors of mauve and dark green predominate in these quilts. I assume the colors were chosen to coordinate with the decorating colors of the era, the quilts meant for actual use. Lucky for Dianne, these were unused and unwashed, in original condition. Quilt marking lines could be seen.

An Amish made Whig Rose is dated 1989 from Evansville, IN.

An unusually large reverse appliqué Hmong quilt was stunning.

 It was found in St. Louis.

Poison And Other 19th c Greens

Dianne has quite a few 19th c quilt tops with green as a predominant color. Certain 19th c greens are called "Poison" Greens as explained in Barbara Brackman's post here.

This unusual two color quilt's baskets have a 90 degree handle. The solid green was more blue green.

 

This basket looks like the 1850 pattern no. 662.5 in Brackman's "Encyclopedia of Pieced Patterns". Note the base of the basket is a whole square not a half square.

 

This quilt had a great border of tree shapes. No two trees were the same!

This Carolina Lily variation has a more yellow, or Poison, green in the border and a blue green in the pieced block.

 Here you can see the two different greens, as well as the interesting checkered floral print.

This block is almost a snowball variation, but set on point and with alternate blocks it loses the balls.

Various yellow greens were used with the double pinks for the blocks. The border is a more blue green print.

A row of green pops in this Blazing Star center. The setting blocks have been removed; the needle holes and bits of thread were still evident in the seam allowances.

 I do love all those polka dots!

 

Here are some interesting articles on green dyes in the 19th c.:

http://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2010/03/05/emerald-green-or-paris-green-the-deadly-regency-paint/

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/20/arsenic-century-james-whorton-review

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/arts/05iht-design5.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://hyperallergic.com/133571/fatal-victorian-fashion-and-the-allure-of-the-poison-garment/

Snippets of fabric samples illustrate the article at
http://info.fabrics.net/madder-minerals-and-indigo-cotton-dyeing-in-the-18th-19th-century/