Puss in the Corner Antique Quilt Top

Last week I shared an antique quilt top gifted to me by a friend. I have another early 1900s quilt top in my collection, purchased many years ago at the Royal Oak Flea Market.

The block pattern is Puss in the Corner. The blocks are set side by side with a wide sashing in a mourning print, popular around 1890 to 1925, and cinnamon pink squares at the corners. Double or cinnamon pink was common between 1860 and 1920.

The block pattern is very simple, consisting of a center square, four rectangles, and four corner squares.

What made this quilt stand out for me was the sashing fabric, a busy black, white, and gray print of circles and filigree shape. Seen close up, the border print keeps the eye moving across the quilt. From a distance, it almost looks gray.

Mourning prints, also called Shaker Gray, Lenox Gray, and Silver Gray, were popular until 1925. In her book Making History, Barbara Brackman quotes a Montgomery Ward catalog as calling them appropriate for 'elderly ladies.'

The fabrics in this top are typical of the late 1900s and early 20th c. Mourning prints, navy and cadet blue prints, shirtings, woven checks, and double pinks make up the majority of the fabrics, with some browns and wines.

In the photo below is a white on navy floral print, a blue check, and a mourning print.

In the center of the quilt is a yellow calico print, a splash of brightness used in only two blocks. Perhaps it represents a glint of hope.

Turkey red was a colorfast dye that was highly popular through the 1920s when it was replaced by newer dyes. In the photo below are two turkey red prints, a cadet blue polka dot fabric, and a black and white mourning print in a floral stripe.

Below is a block with several cadet blue fabrics, typical of 1880s to 1910. Also, a navy blue with a print in small dots forming a background image for a floating floral shape. The center square is an interesting mourning print in bubble shapes.

 There are also woven checks and a few brown prints.

There are not as many fabrics in claret or wine on this quilt, which was typical of quilts 1880-1910. Below, upper right, is an example.

 The top was hand sewn with with thread.

These fabrics are in quite good condition and the top was not washed.

Free online patterns for Puss in the Corner can be found at

http://qacdg.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Block-9P-Puss-in-A-Corner-PAIR.pdf

https://www.all-about-quilts.com/support-files/pussinthecornerrotarycutting.pdf

A downloadable pattern for $6 is available at
https://www.keepsakequilting.com/puss-in-the-corner-digital-pattern

A Turn-of-the-Century Log Cabin Quilt Top

Around 1979 my friend Martha purchased a quilt top at a quilt show. She had hoped some day to finish it. This past weekend she gave it to me.

The block pattern is the traditional Log Cabin set in a Fields and Furrows setting. The block traditionally has a red center square, representing the hearth of the cabin, with strips in light and dark values building out from it. It was also traditionally hand pieced, as this quilt is. The pattern seems to date to the mid-1860s in America.

The fabrics in this quilt date to the turn of the century, between the late 1900s and pre-World War One era.

The central red blocks is an interesting diaper print, an interlocking pattern.
In the photo below you can see a black and white print and a butternut calico print then at the left outer edge a brown print.

 I love the poison green print, seen below.

There are a variety of shirting prints in salmon pink and pale blues. Also, below, note the purple print with a serpentine design in white and the indigo blue with a white circular print.

Black and white prints were popular during this time period and are called Mourning prints.

 More shirting prints, with a golden brown check.

The border was machine sewn on and is a dotted maroon print. 

The back shows the hand stitched blocks and machine stitched borders.

The quilt top was washed by the seller. I cut off lots of tangled threads from the back. There are some small worn spots and holes and the fabrics, overall, are brittle. I think the fabrics are too fragile to finished into a quilt.

Free online instructions for making Log Cabin blocks can be found at:

http://blog.modafabrics.com/2013/09/two-tricks-for-perfect-log-cabin-blocks/

http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/quilt-patterns/log-cabin-quilt-patterns

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2011/02/7-log-cabin.html

http://delawarequilts.com/BOMs/LogCabin/index.html

Vintage Dresden Plates and an Antique Fabrics Mystery

My weekly quilt group had fun learning about early 20th c fabrics by studying vintage Dresden Plates quilt pieces and a set of cut fabrics circa 1905.

 Cathy had Dresden Plates made by her grandmother.

The blocks inlcuded a marvelous selection of 1920s and 1930s fabrics. Each plate included two solids across from each other. Don't you love the orange in the block below?

The black and white fabrics struck as less usual in Depression era quilts.

The prints included abstracts and florals.

The black on white ground with yellow flowers struck everyone.

This pink is more fuschia than the Bubble Gum pink I connect to 1930s quilts. Note the yellow fabric.

The second quilt we looked at was also a Dresden Plate. Karen had an antique quilt top that she took apart to make her Dresden Plate. She had a photo of the original top and an original block.

The original quilt top

She was in the process of hand quilting the completed top. She used yellow sashing to match a vintage quilt she had liked. We noted how alike the yellow was to the color in Cathy's Dreden Plate blocks made by her grandmother!

Karen showed us how she made paper templates to cut the old fabrics. She left the templates on until the Dresden Plates were appliqued, then pulled them out.

Karen showing the templates 

The templates and extra fabrics are shown below.

Dresden Plate templates

Karen's antique fabrics were very interesting. I was sure they dated to the first fifteen years of the 20th c with some from the late 19thc. But how to 'prove' it?

The fabrics included indigo, double pink, black, and madder browns in checks, stripes, and various prints.

 This pink print has a wonderful optical design.

Some of the fabrics were very thin.

Turkey Red!

This print had a puce ground with light brown stripes and white spots.

Indigo

There were a number of checks, some with light grounds. And black and white prints.

 I noticed one paper template among the fabrics.

 There was part of an illustration on one side and writing on the other.

I saw the name Delacroix, the famous French painter, that appeared to be under an illustration. And an article by Alice Viola, with her last name only partially left. She wrote that Mr. Fournier had returned to Paris to work. Was the paper from a magazine about art?

I shared photos of these fabrics and the template on the Facebook group Quilts-Vintage and Antique. I heard from Eileen Fry who commented that the article was written by Alice Viola Guysi, born in 1863 and died in 1940. Guysi was a native of Cincinnati who taught art in Detroit schools and the Detroit Museum of Art. She was a contemporary of Alexis Jean Fournier and they both painted in the American Barbizon style.

Fournier was from Minneapolis. He made trips to Paris in 1893, 1895, and 1901.
That indicated that the template paper was printed after one of Fournier's later trips to Paris. We can conjecture that the fabric pieces are from the same time frame, dating them from the late 19th to first few years of the 20th c.

I was interested to discover  Fournier's association with Elbert Hubbard and the Roycroft arts community of East Aurora, NY. Fournier was one of the most prolific Arts and Crafts painters. His murals grace the Roycroft Inn.  He moved to East Aurora late in life.

I found that Guysi exhibited in the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

Alice Violet Guysi's painting exhibited at the 1893 World's Fair

Read an article by Guy from School Arts at
https://books.google.com/books?id=bT2hAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA241&lpg=PA241&dq=Alice+Viola+Guysi&source=bl&ots=4fw872jxRm&sig=aTBgwVBKKNnhUdVgdchtMtsDbPc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjgrOTN-IPVAhWCSD4KHaa9ARkQ6AEIQTAH#v=onepage&q=Alice%20Viola%20Guysi&f=false

Read more about Elbert Hubbard and his death on the Lusitania at
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2016/04/dead-wake-last-crossing-of-lusitania-by.html