1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

What era are these quilt fabrics from?

Discussion in 'PUBLIC Vintage Chatter - Anything and everything' started by JenniferO, May 28, 2019.

  1. JenniferO

    JenniferO Registered Guest

    ...but would a country quilter be inclined to buy fabrics. Wouldn't they come from worn clothing, fabric scraps?
     
  2. JenniferO

    JenniferO Registered Guest

    ...but then again, as Linn mentioned, there are some art-deco inspirations...
     
  3. Marzilli_Vintage

    Marzilli_Vintage VFG Member

    Most would be scraps, yes, I didn't think of that :). The point was that beds were not so standardized in rural 19th Century as they are today, and so dating a quilt by size is problematic.
     
    JenniferO likes this.
  4. Marzilli_Vintage

    Marzilli_Vintage VFG Member

    If you don't mind my saying so, dating these to the turn-of-the-century would be inaccurate. We have a disagreement on whether they're 19th Century or Depression Era, but picking the years in between isn't the solution. All one can do in these situations is one's homework, but eventually the equivocation has to end.
    an idea emoti :)
     
    Last edited: May 29, 2019
    JenniferO likes this.
  5. JenniferO

    JenniferO Registered Guest

    Right, but could the fabrics indeed be a mix? Should we assume all are from the same time period? Knowing how a person starts and stops a project; not knowing if fabrics, shirtings, skirts were tossed into the mix from different sources and dates. There has been a good discussion of patterns that seem influenced or from the Victorian era, as well as Art Deco. What say you?
     
  6. Marzilli_Vintage

    Marzilli_Vintage VFG Member

    A quilt is dated by its latest fabrics as it obviously couldn't have been made earlier, even if some fabrics are earlier. To me, the fabrics that could possibly be from after the turn-of-the-century are the simple stripe/checked/gingham shirtings which changed very little if at all during the years in question, but even with those there are differences as previously noted. I think it's a 19th Century / late Victorian quilt.
     
    JenniferO likes this.
  7. JenniferO

    JenniferO Registered Guest

    Wait, help me understand : latest means - back in time, or current? Even with the Art Deco looking pieces you would go with late Victorian. Exciting! J
     
  8. Marzilli_Vintage

    Marzilli_Vintage VFG Member

    Latest as in most recent. Excepting repairs, of course, a quilt can't be older than its latest, or newest, fabrics. If there are, for example, a combination of 1930's feed sack prints and mid-19th Century prints and there have been no repairs or replaced pieces, the quilt as a finished product can be no older than the 1930's. As far as the "Deco looking" prints, I'd bet older women in the 1920's found many Deco prints derivative!
     
    JenniferO likes this.
  9. JenniferO

    JenniferO Registered Guest

    Ok, so so so... If a quilt has 30's feed sack fabrics it is dated from that era. The older (earlier) fabrics in the piece - if there are any - dated 1895 - are inclusive, not determining. Sorry to drive you crazy. It's like this, as a fly fisher...when you are told to cast in front of the boulder....you may get confused depending on which side of the boulder you are standing -- upstream or down stream of the boulder. SO - when instructing people I have to say, cast upstream above the boulder, or downstream below the boulder. Older to me = back in time, Newer = closer in time.:)
     
  10. Marzilli_Vintage

    Marzilli_Vintage VFG Member

    Right... the older fabrics are not determinative of the age of the quilt unless the newer fabrics are repairs / replacements. As to early/late, think early times / later times.
     
    JenniferO likes this.
  11. JenniferO

    JenniferO Registered Guest

     
  12. JenniferO

    JenniferO Registered Guest

Share This Page