New Books and Antique Fabric Study

Not much work gets done around here when New Books arrive!!!  I first go through new books looking at all the photos and reading the captions.  Then, I go back and Read!  And make Notes!  Feels like I am back in school!

The "Chintz Book From the Poos Collection" is new from Quiltmania.  Great (the Best!) closeup photos of Chintz for studying!  Will provide many hours of reading and learning!  The book on the right is "Interwoven Global" from the Metropolitan Museum Exhibit of the same name.......look at the cover......it is Fabric in the Indigo Resist method!  What a wonderful idea to cover a book in Fabric!!!

Now for some antique fabric study!  This 1790-1800 quilt is owned by my friend Judy Roche and I had the Privilege of analyzing it at one of our quilt study days!  Cannot imagine why I did not take a shot of it lying on the bed for an overall view!  I will try to do that later!  The Quaker quilt is a medallion style with the brown chintz fabric below as the center.  

This is the wide border.

The center is surrounded by a broken dishes blocks, 4 patches and others in a random pattern......no matter the fabrics are the Star here!  The quilt is signed in one corner on the back "Ellen A Fell", likely a descendant of Margaret Fell, the Mother of Quakerism (1614-1702).  The handquilting is 2" diagonal grid with brown thread.

Some damage is with the brown fabric but for a quilt made from Many Brown Fabrics, it is in wonderful condition!

As I was about to fold the quilt for the storage box, I noticed through a tiny break in a seam that the sewing method was what we call English-Piecing......not EPP (English Paper Piecing).  It is a method I've seen done on American blocks made as late as 1870's......I have some and will find them for a future post.  Observing English Piecing from the back of blocks, the narrow seam allowances appear to have been folded (even creased) and then with two squares such as in 4-patches, right sides together,the seam are whipstitched together in the method popular today (and nearly 200 years ago!) with the construction of hexagon blocks.

Getting ready for a quilt show in Belfast Maine..........the Giveaway box of Scraps is Full and will give it away soon!!