What era are these quilt fabrics from?

Marzilli_Vintage said:
At least some of your browns were probably brighter colors that oxidized over the years; I forget which colors did-so. If what you have is a quilt top, it was probably finished and put away in storage but never incorporated into a quilt. The pattern is very basic and no real help with dating, and if it is 19th Century, its rural/country character would make the size also of little help in dating. Due to the "make-do" nature of rural life at the time, it's even possible the bed may even have been made to fit the quilt and not the other way around! Making a rope-bed from scratch and materials at-hand would take much less time and be less costly than buying the fabrics and making the quilt.
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...but would a country quilter be inclined to buy fabrics. Wouldn't they come from worn clothing, fabric scraps?
 
JenniferO said:
After looking at the Grandma's Attic pages, I have to say, my quilt feels more like her examples. As mentioned above, perhaps there is a range of fabrics in the quilt, but some must be of the Victorian era - especially the shirting pieces that I see. I think Linn's idea of questioning the size of the quilt is also a good idea. For what purpose was she quilting, and what scrap bag was she drawing from, and when did she decide to piece the quilt? Again we might only know the approximate date of the fabrics...when they all came together is another question. To be conservative, could we say fabrics from the turn of the 20th century?
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...but then again, as Linn mentioned, there are some art-deco inspirations...
 
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 :)
 
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Marzilli_Vintage said:
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 :)
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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?
 
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.
 
Marzilli_Vintage said:
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.
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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
 
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!
 
Marzilli_Vintage said:
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!
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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.:)
 
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