Dating Really Old Fabric

I think I've seen enough antique quilts to have a general feel for what is (and isn't) true vintage American fabrics, but after working on the diamond patchwork piece I decided to invest in a book to learn more about them and how to identify the real deal:

Barbara Brackman's America's Printed Fabrics 1770-1890 provides some history on 18th and 19th century textiles, with example pictures of the prints and dyes used way back when. The information will definitely help me be smarter when looking over old fabrics and quilts. Although the sample swatch pics she put in the book can't cover all the fabric prints of two centuries, she provides enough for me to make comparisons, like so:

She also includes instructions to make several quilts from the era, which tempt me terribly. But I have another project brewing, so for now I'll just read and admire.

Comments

nightsmusic said…

But you didn't say where that pattern falls in the dating!

June 5, 2020 at 12:41 PM

the author said…

Oops, sorry! Most of the calico fabrics are very close to what was being produced in the 1880's.:)

June 5, 2020 at 12:43 PM

nightsmusic said…

That's lovely! Then most of the other fabrics, even if they're not in her book, would probably be around that time or a bit later, I would think. I think brown in all its forms had a resurgence in the early 1900's.

June 5, 2020 at 12:48 PM

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to...

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

Valerean

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