Eastern Shore Quilt Study Group 

Yesterday we were awash in green, very fitting on a sunny spring-like day. A pretty Dresden Plate from the 30s offered a variety of green prints as did a Broken Dishes on a mint green background.. A collection of green fabrics included a commemorative of the 1892 Columbian Exposition, a fabulous pillar print and some delicious turkey red paisleys with green highlights. Another collection featured cheater cloth in various greens. The overwhelming favorite was cheater Yo-Yos. How cutesy can you get! 

A 9-block Whig Rose (3rd quarter 19th cen.) with a vine and berry border showed various permutations of fading of two-step green dye. It was quilted in a 1/2" grid. 

It was a good day for tops: a Cherry Basket (1860s) on a background printed with brown stars had double pink sashes; a Cactus Basket with triple sashing and 9-patch setting blocks (green and double pink) came from the Hudson River Valley; PA was represented by a Triple Irish Chain in green, yellow and double pink (both 3rd quarter 19th cen. 

A 1930s String Star from TN had a thick batt and fan quilting. We saw a beautifully quilted Maple Leaf from Hagerstown, MD in Nile green. A much showier quilt on a green background was a 1950s kit with a large center spray of daffodils, a smaller spray in each corner and a white swag border. It was quilted with green thread. 

An unusual wool challis Log Cabin had green centers and a green inner border. Naturally it provoked many lame "Code" jokes and speculation about the meaning of all that green. 

A trophy from Deb Robert's first French tour was a table cover with a 1790 block print from Nantes on the back and a green Indienne (1820) print on the front. The specifics came straight from Katherine Berenson who was shopping with the lucky owner. 

We saw lots of good stuff from Maryland (of course, we have lots of good stuff to brag about). An 1840s Mariner's Compass made in a single spectacular apple green/pistachio print showed the German influence so strong in Frederick County by including a fylfot in the quilting (the motif that looks like a curved pinwheel). A folky Howard County Album had lots of examples of the way early greens could fade. Also from Howard Co. was a striking Feathered Strippy with alternating turkey red and apple green prints. Speaking of Albums, there was a delightful version from Berlin on the Eastern Shore. The maker did her own interpretation of the Baltimore quilts and created a masterpiece of original blocks. Our favorite was a goofy cherry tree with two basket at the base. This lady liked to applique circles. In addition to the cherries she had berries of all sizes, some as small as 1/8". There probably wasn't a lot to do here on the Shore in 1860 (not much has changed) so making hundreds of little circles was a way to pass the time. 

A quilt dated 1861 was made of bright green squares with oxblood sashes (all solid colors); each green square was quilted with a different wreath design. An unusual wool quilt was made about the same time. It appeared to be recycled draperies: squares of wool brocades in incredibly intense colors backed by a Civil War era paisley. Also astonishing was the 1870s Prince's Feather, red and once-green faded to tan, with (honest, I didn't make this up) whales appliqued in the border! 

I don't like the Giant Dahlia; I've been to too many Mennonite Relief sales, but the one we saw yesterday was to die for. It must be the original Ver Mehrin: a barrage of bright colors and an Art Deco border. 

There were two great mid-19th cen. York County PA quilts which used the same interesting orage print; one was made of triangles arranged in a zig-zag format; the other had white Churn Dashes set on various print backgrounds. There were several PA pieced pillowcases. My favorite had a rulle and a cheatercloth back. 

Seeing so many greens gave us a great chance to compare the color fastness and fading patterns of different fabrics. It was easy to point out how the early natural dyes, although they faded, stayed true when compared to the formerly red and green now red and beige of the chemical dyes. The question was asked "Why the switch to synthetics if they were less aesthetically desirable?" In his 1984 article for Uncoverings James Lyle states:

The early synthetic dyes, though, possessing rather poor lightfastness, produced more standard, predictable colors than natural dyes, and were cheaper and easier to apply. On the other hand, one general characteristic of the older natural dyes was that they usually faded true-becoming lighter and often more mellow with time. This was not true of the early synthetics and some of our modern synthetics. Many early synthetics turned rather hideous colors when faded, not resembling the original color at all.

Cinda on the Eastern Shore