Barbara Brackman's MATERIAL CULTURE

Queen Charlotte's Crown: Centuries of Historical Inaccuracy

2026-05-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

Queen Charlotte's Crown in Morris Muse fabrics from Moda, Morris & Me

National Galleries of Scotland

Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

as England's new Queen, 1761 or 1762 by Allan Ramsey.

Several copies of this bride's portrait are in museums.

I have been wiling away my May afternoons reading for the second time Janice Hadlow's 2015 biography of the royal family of King George III and Queen Charlotte. Well written, flows nicely and historically supportable. Perfect. I'm only up to the year 1761 and Charlotte's marriage and I know things get tough. Mad King George had mental health issues, shall we say, all his life as far as I am concerned---no late onset porphyry. But they had a happy marriage for quite a while (if a few too many unhappy children).

Perhaps Ruth Finley noticed the Queen's royal headgear in the "Nuptial Crown" portrait when she wrote about a pieced quilt pattern "Queen Charlotte's Crown" in her 1929 book Old Patchwork Quilts.

Finley's block reflects the visual pairings in the "Nuptial Crown."

Queen Charlotte was the last of our Colonial queens and we still have a city named for her. Charlotte, North Carolina (The Queen City) boasts a sculptural portrait with crown in hand at the airport (no more historical basis for the statue than for Ruth Finley's block.)

Charlotte at about 20 with her eldest daughter

the Princess Royal.

The Nancy Cabot quilt column in the Chicago Tribune in 1933

must have used Finley's book for pattern copy.

The gray highlighted area is Finley-style "history."

Both book and newspaper column seem to have fabricated the whole quilt tale, as we might say, out of whole cloth.

The Cabot column modified Finley's design in a later issue,

eliminating the set-in seams.

Queen Charlotte's Crown was not a popular design. Certainly there are none that appear to have been stitched before Finley's 1929 publication date as the design is not the kind of thing one would see in the 18th century here or in England. After Finley published her pattern a few were done, probably because it a bit hard to sew and rather awkward in composition.

I found a couple of mid-20th c. quilts in the Quilt Index. The Nebraska and Iowa projects recorded some stitched soon after Finley's book was out.

Mary Schafer of Michigan decided the "historical" design would be a perfect pattern for the Bicentennial collection she was stitching before our 200th birthday in 1976. The history is the sort I was raised on: Far-fetched hypotheses, questionable research (if any evidence at all) and sweet stories designed more as propaganda than accurate accounts. (Don't look now but we are living in a revival of the attitude.)

About ten years ago we stitched a Block of the Week on the Austen family of Queen Charlotte's era and included this one.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/58240246@N07/albums/72157644301168681/

Austen Family Album

From my latest Moda collection Morris Muse, inspired by Georgann's red block and the focused cutting.

More Ideas....

Sunrise Quilts used the Nancy Cabot design recently.

Laura Conowitch at LCSCottage.wordpress.com

Blue for Charlotte's German heritage and red for her English role.

Blocks rotated

If you've been watching the streaming series Bridgerton over the past few years you

will be familiar with their plot line that Queen Charlotte was a Black woman, a concept not found in Julia Quinn's series of Bridgerton novels.

Producers and writers running the series introduced this far-fetched idea made plausible due to the skill of the casting director who matched actor Golda Rosheuvel to the Queen's portraits. Despite her award-nominated acting the historical idea is as unlikely as Rosheuvel's hair-do.

This all seems relatively harmless and perhaps a good idea by the show runners to shake up our preconceived notions

BUT

There is a big problem in the whole concept of the German Charlotte's ancestry even as an obvious fictional trope. The idea was a principle of Nazi racial bigotry, first described in a 1920s book Racial Mixture as the Basic Principle of Life by Artur Ernst Klaar (Penname: Brunold Springer) who decided the Queen's unfashionable facial features were evidence of African ancestry.

"Nordicism," the idea of a master race, was explored in several pseudo-scientific publications in the 1920s. Books like Hans F.K. Gunther's Racial Studies of the German People impressed Himmler and Hitler, informing their ideas on white supremacy threatened by "degenerate" racial mixing. Euthanasia (the Holocaust) developed from concepts of Nordicizing the population and it continues today in unfortunate American rhetoric.

Nazi leadership was delusional about how they fit Nordicism's ideals

I have worked in the movies and know the industry pretty well through friends & family. Producers feel little obligation to give a responsible point of view based on historical accuracy. Their idea has sold well; viewers enjoy the turn-around in casting and nobody recalls Nazi sources for the pseudoscience.

But don't you forget!

https://aelarsen.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/bridgerton-was-queen-charlotte-black/

Morris Muse: Catherine Raven Holiday

2026-05-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

Collection of the William Morris Gallery Waltham

Catherine (Kate) Raven Holiday (1839-1925)

by her brother Milville Raven 1861

In 1864 Kate married painter and stained-glass artist

Henry Holiday. They celebrated their 60th anniversary in 1924.

Embroidery attributed to Catherine Raven Holiday

Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Morris praised Kate's embroidery techniques and color skills. "I’d back your wife for heavy sums against all Europe at embroidery."

Silk cushion cover by Kate Holiday

Kate began embroidering Morris-designed textiles for Morris & Company in the mid-1870s. William Morris permitted her to commission the colors for silk thread from Thomas Wardle's mill and he allowed her to decide on stitches and techniques to fill the shapes, a show of trust in her talent.

To remember Kate Holiday, Morris's favorite artisan: A pieced star from BlockBase+ where the block is pictured without a name. "Holiday Fest" sounds good.

Playing with the shading

Pattern above for a 12" Block

Print 8-1/2" x 11"

APPLIQUE OR EMBROIDERY

Collection of the William Morris Gallery Waltham

Table Cover designed by William Morris

Executed by Kate Holiday

92" long

Pattern inspired by Kate's embroidered piece at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

This 1890 exhibition catalog uses the word "darned" to describe Catherine's embroidery.

National Gallery of Melbourne

Design attributed to Kate's husband Henry Holiday

Stitching to Kate

Transposed Quilts: More Ideas on the Term

2026-05-13T06:00:00.591-05:00

New York Project, Relyea family, Ulster County

A Transposed Quilt????

A few weeks ago I posted about my search for "Transposed Quilts" mentioned in agricultural fair records after 1850 or so. What did that term mean?

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2026/04/transposed-quilts.html

Since then Louise Tiemann and I have been looking for the words "Transposed Quilt" in 19th-century publications, finding some repetitive how-to copy telling us that Transposed Quilts are a rather medieval style of applique similar to what we call "intarsia" today.

Louise found this reference in an American needlework book.

The old European textile technique works best with sturdy wool fabrics.

U.S. museums have a few imported early examples but intarsia applique

(or is it piecing?) is rarely seen here.

And it certainly has little to do with the kind of needlework winning prizes at New York agricultural fairs in the 1850s, those we see described as "transposed quilts."

With no definitions apparent Louise and I examined the context in which we found the words "transposed quilt."

It may be important that we see the earliest references in upstate New York.

Typical mid-19th c. quilt in fashionable style.

Oak Leaf and Reel attributed to

Mary Hasbrouck Wilklow of Ellenville, Ulster County

New York project & the Quilt Index

Buffalo's 1857 newspaper tells us that Mrs. P. Staats won a first at the fair, topping Mrs. J. W. Brown who received a second and a third award for "Best transposed quilt." Mrs. Brown would be hard to find but Mrs. P Staats with her rather unusual Dutch name was easy to track.

Permelia Staats living at 117 Franklin in Buffalo's city center.,

Widow of Barent J. Staats.

Permelia's generation boasted several Barent Staats, one Mayor of Albany in the early 1840s. Her husband's Staats family had been in New York and earlier New Netherland for centuries with American family founders Abraham and Trijntje Staats arriving in what would become Albany in 1642.

Map of New Netherland before it became New York in the 1660s

Hudson River in red near Fort Orange--

later Albany---center of Dutch colonization.

The other clue in the context we noticed was the lack of the word "applique" in the list of style categories. It may very well be that "transposed" means appliqued. Louise found more information on Mrs. J. W. Brown's quilts identifying one as a "chintz applique' when it was entered but her prize was awarded in the "transposed quilt" category. We both think the odd term meant "applique quilt" among that group of upstate needlewomen who were familiar with three types of quilted bedcovers, described below in the list of New York fair winners with representative examples of each .

3 QUILT STYLES

It's also important to our conclusions that we find the term first in the New York area that was so persistently Dutch.

New York Historical Society

Petrus Stuyvesant

Most Americans know of a single Dutch colonist, one-legged Peter Stuyvesant

who surrendered New Netherland to the British in the 1660s.

Inheritors of Dutch culture have been ignored in American history with English descendants dominating politically and culturally for the past 400 years.

Yet, Dutch culture, folkways and language have long survived in New York from Flatbush north to Niagara.

Red and green applique quilts shown here seem typical of those made by New Yorkers of Dutch ancestry about 200 years after New Netherland became New York.

My guess is that the term "transposed quilt" is regional English with roots in Dutch language and needlework classification systems that began in the home of the Dutch New Yorkers. The unusual name was used in a few other places as the century continued.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania word use: 3 categories for prize winners:

Silk, calico and transposed.

Silk quilt [e.g. crazy etc.], Cotton pieced? and appliqued?

The whole search is Louise's and my idea of a good time. We do love those old newspapers.

Morris Muse: Nellie Whichelo

2026-05-07T06:00:00.003-05:00

Mary Eleanor "Nellie" Whichelo (1862-1959)

Head Designer at the Royal School of Needlework

Nellie Whichelo came from a family of professional artists including her father, grandfather and his brother. When 17 she and sister Georgiana (1856-1917) were hired by the Royal School of Art Needlework founded in 1872, a project of Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Helena (1846-1923).

Queen Victoria's daughters Louise on the left and

Helena with what looks to be a needlework pattern

The school moved to ever impressive quarters over the decades.

1879

Late Victorian taste defined by the Royal School in their headquarters

the year the Whichelos joined the staff

The name was shortened in the 20th century.

The Royal School had two goals: Reviving "an almost lost art" (or at least producing designs to suit Arts & Crafts taste) and providing work for gentlewomen in reduced circumstances.

Queen Elizabeth II coronation embroidery

Designers and needlewomen there also served as official seamstresses for the Royal Family, still stitching for coronations, funerals and weddings.

The RSN was an important part of British public relations, entering work in international competitions such as America's 1876 Centennial Exposition.

Workroom 1912

Nellie quickly worked her way up in The Paint Room (the design department) becoming head designer there where she presided until 1939.

Many artists worked with the school to create a signature style, among them William Morris

and his good friend Walter Crane.

Portraits by Walter Crane (1845-1915) Photoshopped into a frame created from

Crane's curtain border designed for the Royal School

These two Whichelo sister never married, living together

in the Putney area of London until Georgie died in 1917.

1911 Census

Edward VIII

Imagery contains symbols of

England and its territories

Nellie designed and supervised the embroidery on this coronation robe to be worn by King Edward VIII in 1937 but Mrs. Simpson disrupted those plans. Miss Whichelo was probably not a fan of "That Woman."

A small obituary in 1959 for an almost forgotten 97-year-old.

Lately Lynn Hulse who specializes in Arts & Crafts needlework recently has written a long-overdue

biography of Mary Eleanor Whichelo for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

PIECED DESIGN ROYAL STAR

Set on point in EQ8 using Morris Muse prints

Same set but two shading variations alternated

Eliminating the edge blocks for a different look.

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/search/?page=1&page_size=15&q=Morris+Co+embroidery+kit

Orange Tree

Embroidery pattern drawn from Walter Crane's sketch for a curtain border.

Embroider or applique this design to a square cut to 14-1/2" or larger.

Transposed Quilts

2026-04-30T06:00:00.178-05:00

A Transposed Quilt???

The fair board in Buffalo, New York mid-19th century seem to have been rather innovative in their categories for textiles. In 1857 and 1858 they included a category for a "transposed quilt."

Buffalo, New York

Two years later the New York state fair showed four "transposed quilts" worthy of prizes.

The popular Godey's mentioned a transposed quilt in 1861--- with no explanation of the term for its widespread readers---including me.

The "transposed quilt" idea remained for the rest of the century and into the next as

we can see in the fair results in Bel Air, Maryland in 1901. Despite new fashions such as Log Cabins and Crazy Quilts local women were still winning prizes for transposed quilts.

Did everyone know what a transposed quilt was???

I still don't.

I got a clue from Marie Webster's 1915 book where she alluded to what we call "counterchange" in design today. What's dark in one area is light in the adjacent area.

A word long used in describing heraldry and coats of arms.

And you do see it in mid-19th century patchwork as in these

sampler blocks. But one counterchange design in a sampler

is NOT a transposed quilt.

This idea might be a "transposed quilt"----turkey red and white---

but this style is late 1880 and into the 20th century.

Not what was happening in Buffalo fifty years earlier.

American Folk Art Museum Collection

Quilt signed & dated: Mary Grow, 1856

Maybe this would be considered a transposed quilt--- what we

might call a Feathered Star in Scraps,

The idea of changing the colors and fabric for each block is

not that common in the 1850s. The style may have been considered

innovative.

Cowan's Auction

Album date-inscribed 1853-1859. Alabama & Georgia.

Mostly seen in album quilts. Wouldn't you call this an Album

Quilt?

I am always warning aspiring Quilt Detectives to avoid trying to

read minds. You cannot read the minds of your family today. You certainly

shouldn't attempt to mind read actions over a century and a half ago.

And here I am doing it.

With few conclusions to draw from the whole exercise.

Something to Say: Adding Words

2026-04-23T06:00:00.036-05:00

r/quilter

Today everyone has something to say....

You might want to put a few words in your quilt (or a paragraph...)

I have been considering how to do this and have come up with several options.

Barb Vedder

Many needleworkers are using blocks of pieced letters, which they've

designed themselves or stitched from PDF alphabet patterns.

You'll find a variety on Etsy.

Design Your Own?

APPLIQUE

Myers-Lowe for a protest parade

Altered T-shirt

Crafty_badger 78

Does neatness count?

No!

PRINTING

It looks like Jamie Fingle stamped or printed these

letters onto fabric.

I like the idea of printing using my desktop printer and

some treated cotton.

FUSSY-CUT FABRIC

Another option (perfect for the seamstress of my skills) is an alphabet print.

Just have to find the right scale. A new shopping goal.

EMBROIDERY

Needleworkers are altering vintage linens and creating new ones with basic

embroidery stitches. See especially the Tiny Pricks project.

https://www.tinypricksproject.com/

Some artists are ambitious!

We can look to crazy quilts from about 1880-1920 for embroidery ideas.

One way to make a mark, a satin stitch.

A little more skillfully done

Studying crazy quilts and all the messages on them has led to the conclusion that the most skillful

embroidered words and dates were done with the aid of a commercially available tool, sometimes

called Skeleton Letters.

Stephanie has a set of "Tico Forms, for Padding & Stamping."

The stitcher bought these, attached them to the fabric background and

embroidered over them (again with a satin stitch) and produced

an elegant, graceful message---usually initials and a date.

"Padded Letters, Skeleton Letters, Embroidery Forms."

Nancy has a similar set.

They do not sell these anymore...

Too bad for us.

But you could make your own with a thick pellon or interfacing using stencil sets that are available now.

Either Plastic Stencils

Or Paper Patterns

QUILTING

PamDorra using white thread on a black background.....

Other ideas: Wearables

Shoulder loops at top corners, waist ties at bottom corners.

Ties could be velcroed on or stitched.

I've had my red hat for years. Merikay gave me a vintage rhinestone Scottie

Dog which I added a couple of years ago. But you know---red hat---

I haven't worn it in quite a while. I decided to take back the red hat.

The Scottie now has an attitude.

I was going to

Embroider the speech bubble

Print it...

Then I realized I could just draw it onto fabric and sew it on.

My HAT

There's a lot of potential here...

A Little Photoshopping

Morris Muse: The Wardle Family

2026-04-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

Collection of the Whitworth Museum University of Manchester

Elizabeth Young-Wardle Wardle (1834-1902)

in the early 1890s with a sewing box.

Not a conventional muse but an important business woman & artist

In 1857 Elizabeth Young-Wardle married distant relation Thomas Wardle, heir to a dye works in the area of Leek in Staffordshire, England and gave birth to 14 children before 1878. Despite marathon motherhood Elizabeth made a career of needlework and embroidery for herself, her family and her neighbors.

Thomas Wardle is pictured with ten of his surviving children in the late 1870s. Textiles were the family business. In the 1870s Thomas and Morris became friends united by similar interests in antique textile processes. Thomas experimented with traditional indigo dyeing & printing methods that Morris commissioned for his prints. Morris and Elizabeth Wardle were both interested in traditional embroidered ornament.

Elizabeth and embroidery students 1888

Elizabeth and friends in the late 1860s began embroidering ecclesiastic hangings in traditional style, altar frontals and other decorations for local churches. Architects who were building and restoring churches commissioned the Leek women to stitch their ideas for traditional needlework.

Khartoum Altar Frontal at Bradford Cathedral
by the Leek Embroidery Society

Elizabeth became skillful at design, handwork, research and teaching and in 1879 after that last baby she organized The Leek Embroidery Society occupying a classroom, store and workshop space next door to her home.

Wardle House, 54 St. Edward Street

The Morris/Wardle collaboration also provided secular merchandise for William and May Morris's London shop, which sold embroidery patterns, kits, finished panels and furniture like this fire screen incorporating the needlework.

A few years ago a group of Lady Elizabeth Wardle's embroidery

memorabilia was auctioned. Now in the Whitworth Museum's collection.

The Society’s work for churches and hobbyists was in demand into the 20th century providing income and employment for many Staffordshire women. Patterns, kits, materials and finished needlework were sold in Wardle’s shop in New Bond Street, William Morris’s showroom in Oxford Street, Liberty & Company in Regent Street and at Debenham & Freebody, off Oxford Street.

Details showing stitches in Leek Embroidery Society work

Much of the thread is an Indian silk in which the Wardle dye mill specialized. Tussar silk grew wild in India with different qualities than cultivated silk, among them some negatives such as resistance to conventional dyes. Thomas Wardle figured out how to give the Indian silk permanent color and became the leading British importer for a product that was much in demand during the Arts & Crafts embroidery fashion.

Collection of the Whitworth Museum University of Manchester

Sample of Wardle's indigo block printing

When William Morris and Thomas Wardle began working together in the 1870s Morris persuaded the dyemaster to learn the art of woodblock printing. Wardle's mills became the leading site of the old-fashioned technology, printing Morris patterns and yardage for others.

Leek Embroidery Society members designed patterns but they also transformed Wardle's block-printed silks, velvets and cottons by laying embroidery stitching over the printed designs.

An altered print?

The Society used a rather narrow range of simple stitches that

showed off the Tussar silk's color and lustre well.

Another link between Leek and London was Elizabeth's brother George Young Wardle (1834-1910) who assisted William Morris, managing the business and perhaps using his painting skills to finish Morris's print designs.

Collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum
Wreath or Poppy About 1880
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O250934/design-wreath-poppy/wreath-design-morris-william/

The V&A catalog for this watercolor on paper tells us (to my surprise!)
"Wardle was an excellent recorder of pattern....The draughtsman responsible for this technically adept drawing (intended as a guide for the printer to use when matching the colours) may not have been Morris, as his strengths were more conceptual than illustrative. Instead, it is possible that... George Wardle executed this design for production, working from Morris's first version....This design was intended as a guide for the printer to use when matching the colours. Pencil notes with instructions about the colours have been added to the drawing on the front and on the reverse."

From the Leek Embroidery Exhibition at the Nicholson Museum in 2013,

Detail Nine Orders of Angels. drawn by

George Young Wardle in 1864. Embroidery done in 1899.

This set of angels was embroidered by "Miss Winterbottom of Stone, Staffordshire, a member of Leek School of Embroidery," possibly Christina Winterbottom (1861-?) listed in the 1881 census in Stone as a "Shop Keeper Fancy And Embroidery" or her sister Amanda A Winterbottom (1858-1948) a "dressmaker." Christina taught at the Leek School.

George Wardle's tale had taken a dramatic turn in 1861 when he wed a notorious murder suspect from Glasgow. Madeleine Hamilton Smith had been tried four years earlier for killing her lover by poisoning him with arsenic, charges had not been proven in court.

The newspapers could not get enough of the crime.

"This case, regarding which such an intense interest has been excited, not only in Glasgow but over all Scotland, commenced this morning ...in Edinburgh. About a dozen .... ladies, were in court, and some of them evinced such a determination to sit out the proceedings that they brought their work with them and commenced stitching as soon as they sat down.... Madeleine Hamilton Smith, a very pretty girl, was placed at the bar...."

Glasgow Herald,- July 1, 1857

The jury weighed circumstantial evidence that she'd poisoned former lover Pierre Emile L'Angelier

....Madeline had purchased arsenic; L'Angelier was threatening to blackmail her but the jury delivered a verdict of "Not Proven."

Magdalene Hamilton Smith 1835 -1928

Among her names: Magdelene, Madeline, Lena

After the verdict she fled to London.

George may have met Madeline in London's Morris workshops where she possibly worked as an embroiderer. The business end of the shop was ably managed in the last decades of the century by two brothers Frank and Robert Smith---her relations?

During the years George managed Morris business the Wardles raised two children Mary and Thomas born in the early 1860s. In 1889 when George retired from the firm they separated. Madeline moved to New York City following son Thomas. After George's death in 1910 she married George Sheehy, a concrete contractor over 20 years younger than she. New Yorker Lena Sheehy died in 1928 in her 90s though loathe to admit her age.

Lena Sheehy with granddaughters

What Elizabeth Wardle thought of her sister-in-law has not been recorded.

Looking at the talented Wardles one realizes the Morris Arts & Crafts movement was a collaborative enterprise between like-minded artists and business people. William Morris gets most of the credit today but we would have less of a legacy without the Wardle family who provided design, production and materials.

Collection of St. Edward the Confessor Church in Leek

Photograph by Richard Knisely-Marpole

Embroidery by the Leek Embroidery Society

Silk thread perhaps on silk damask

See Richard Knisely-Marpole's photos for details of more miniature masterpieces.

https://www.rakm.co.uk/churches_pages/st_edward_embroideries/index.html

His photo of a sunflower embroidery gives us a pattern adaptable to a light-colored print in the Morris Muse collection:

Flowering Scroll in the Parchment colorway

Print this on an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet.

The proportions of the embroidery and print in the digital drawing will vary so you might want to adjust the pattern size to fit the fabric you have.

This entwined circle border was a standard design in Leek.

Further Reading

Cathryn Walton, Hidden lives: Leek's Extraordinary Embroiderers

Brenda King, The Wardle Family and its Circle: Textile Production in the Arts and Crafts Era

Preview

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Wardle_Family_and_Its_Circle/OAo7EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=wardle+family+brenda&printsec=frontcover

D G Stuart (ed.): The History of the Leek Embroidery Society; Department of Adult Education, Keele University

Show Us KIAs Your Quilts: Topics

2026-04-12T06:00:00.011-05:00

We 6 Know-It-Alls Plus have been maintaining a

Facebook group for about two and a half years.

See: 6knowitalls:showusyourquilts

https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=6knowitalls%3Ashowusyourquilts

As far as I can tell we have been posting since November, 2023.

It's a group you have to join but do request membership. We'll let you in promptly. We have about 2,000 readers and contributors.

We want to see your quilts and show off our own photos. Each month we choose a focus based on fabric, color, techniques, geography, etc. This month the focus is "Regional Clues." What style, fabric, pattern, set and techniques offer a clue to where the quilt was made?

You can ignore the focus, though, and contributors do---

showing us something they just found or asking questions.

From Julie Silber's inventory of antique quilts

Some readers are total novices and others famous experts. We welcome both.

Pennsylvania-German descendant Angelina Ritter's deppich (quilt) from

the Goschenhoppen Historians Museum

We'll answer your questions as best we can and bring up new ideas. Our major focus is the visuals---how does a quilt's appearance give us information about the who, where and when a quilt was made.

Charleston (South Carolina) Museum

As we aren't mindreaders we rarely can tell you Why a quilt was made.

February 2024

We are fortunate to have many true experts in the group, specialists in regional quiltmaking, dealers who've seen thousands, collectors who own many and textile curators who specialize in various types and ages.

Maine Sampler/Album

Dated 1845-1846 from Cape Elizabeth

We try to be courteous and we'll "86" you if you insult another member.

But you can swear all you want.

Our archives there contain a LOT of information.

Search our information by looking for previous posts as topics.

If you don't see this search prompt on your screen look for Search by clicking on the image of the 3 dots.

6KnowItAlls Facebook Group Monthly Topics

2023 November?
11 New York Style
12 Pennsylvania Style

2024
1 Perhaps String Quilts in here
2 Maine Style
3 Feedsacks
4 Early Southern Coast Style
5 Modernism
6 Virginia Style
7 Crazy Quilts
8 Linsey-Woolsey
9 Dogtooth Applique
10 German-American Influence
11 Early Pictorial Applique
12 Scrap Quilts

2025
1 Medallion & Frame Quilts
2 Silk
3 Blue
4 Wool
5 Quilting
6 Dye & Color Problems
7 Inscriptions

8 Home vs Factory Dyed
9 Cotton before 1800
10 Needlework Techniques
11 Professional Designers 1900-45
12 Red & Green Quilts

2026
1 Early Roller Prints
2 Log Cabin Quilts
3 Samplers

4 Regional Clues

Updated-Backdated Embroidery Style

2026-04-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

Considering ideas for a 250th Anniversary Quilt to

mark this year we've looked at the state flowers & birds

fashion of the mid-20th century at this post:

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2026/03/state-birds-flowers-embroidery.html

Re-working this embroidery style a century later is only

going to appeal to the nostalgic---of which you might be one.

The aesthetic problem is the datedness of the look. Outline embroidery

was so popular from about 1880 to 1980 that it defined the craft back then.

From Crazy Quilts & Redwork in the 1880s through

the fashion for state flowers, etc.

Laura Wheeler design for State Flowers

The idea of pictorials outlined in thread replaced the centuries-old technique of filling in the shapes with a variety of stitches.

Early-18th-century filled embroidery

Embroiderers learned a number of filling stitches.

A new era of sharing pattern began about 1880 with a couple of innovations in printing.

One: Printers were able to illustrate inexpensive publications.

Page from Peterson's Magazine showing

typical late-19th-century embroidery design in outline

form. Did the editor expect you to fill in the butterfly?

Two: Designers like Briggs & Company could print a new hot transfer method in their publications.

Transfer patterns from 1913

Heat released the inked outline.

Read much more about this technology at Mrs. Depew:

https://mrsdepew.com/blog/f/the-fabric-tattoo-all-about-vintage-kaumagraph-patterns?

Modern Priscilla 1925

At first the outlines were meant to be filled in with fabric or stitches

but embroiderers soon found an outlined chain stitch or running stitch attractive.

I heard Ginny Gunn explain the whole fashion in a couple of sentences that went something

like this: "Limitations in printing in the 1880s dictated the illustrator show an outline with

instructions to trace the image and fill it in. Of course, they just traced

it and outlined it in embroidery---no filler."

Typical outline embroidered in a small, neat chain stitch

Another example of commercial needlework shaping style.

Advice to be ignored in the Omaha World-Herald 1938

Bright colored threads of the time defined the look as did comics

illustration style. One did not mix those threads as in combining

two or three of different shades.

That outline look replaced two techniques. One---traditional

filling stitches. Two---Applique plus Embroidery

TRADITIONAL FILLING STITCHES

The Kensington stitch was a long and short filler stitch taught

by the influential Royal School of Art Needlework, located in Kensington, London.

Satin Stitch---one length

APPLIQUE PLUS EMBROIDERY

I'm thinking birds from Quilt Journeys with variations of filled applique stitches....

Simple shapes, which is where I need to start.

The second style advocated by the Kensington school:

Combination of appliqued fabric plus embroidery

A style that became a characteristic of the Glasgow School of Embroidery

Classic Stickley gingko pillow design repro by Dianne Ayers combining

applique plus embroidery

Ann MacBeth design

Glasgow School of Embroidery

Tea Cozy with appliqued leaves & florals outlined in a satin stitch

Trickling down....

Combination of Morris Muse fabrics and a neat, contrasting chain

stitch around each shape.

Sue Spargo has led a small revolution in taste using combined applique & embroidery.

Her applique fabrics are primarily wool but she also uses plain and print cottons.

One could use all those state flower drawings with a filled or applique + embroidery technique.

A Laura Wheeler Sunflower appliqued with

decorative stitching.

EQ8 with Quilt Journeys Add On

It's all a design experiment. I think I'd be better off using the simpler state flowers and birds from Quilt Journeys. Here's a Columbine for Colorado.

Take A Chance or Two: Fundraisers for 2026

2026-04-01T06:00:00.172-05:00

https://www.kawvalleyquiltersguild.org/shop/opportunity-quilt

Every once in a while I scroll for Opportunity or Raffle Quilts online to see what's new and if there are trackable design trends. This spring I haven't seen much in the way of style trends---quilts from various guilds are diverse. A minor trend is one our Kaw Valley Quilt Guild is participating in. As members age older quilts are being returned to raffle off once again. This year's KVQG star was made for auction 15 years ago, won and was recently given back to raise more funds. It's mostly fabrics from a Moda collection of fabric Terry Thompson and I did called Seneca Falls.

Stitched by The SewWhatevers: Jerry Van Leer, Wendy Turnbull, Roseanne Smith,

Janet Perkins, Nicki Listerman, Carol Jones, Sarah Fayman,

Georgeann Eglinski, Barbara Brackman.

Long-Arm quilting by Lori Kukuk

On the Left: #1997.007.0660 IQM from the James Collection.

Pennsylvania. 1840-1860

https://www.internationalquiltmuseum.org/quilt/19970070660

Design was inspired by a Star of Bethlehem quilt in the collection of the International Quilt Museum.

Many guilds are making tickets available on line as is Kaw Valley so you can try your luck in the comfort of your own scrolling spot.

Orange County, California for Guide Dogs of America

Or if you'd like to mail a check for tickets at $5 each we will enter your name.

Kaw Valley Quilters Guild

ATTN: Opportunity Quilt Tickets

P.O. Box 1481

Lawrence, KS 66044

Allen Quilters' Guild

Omaha Quilters' Guild

Ozark Piecemakers

This wonder by the late Freddie Moran was donated by her family.

Drawing in July, Sisters Oregon.

Morris Muse: May Morris

2026-03-27T06:00:00.309-05:00

Portrait by Dante Gabriel Rossetti May about 10

Mary "May" Morris (1862-1938)

May and mother Jane

May Morris was truly her father William's design partner, designing and stitching the pieces sold in Morris & Company's decorating shop. She managed the textile department, creating her own prints in Morris style and continuing in his path after he was gone.

MORRIS & COMPANY DECORATORS

449 Oxford Street

The firm's showroom was situated here from 1877 to 1919.

Description of what you might find at the shop

Woman at work seemingly pleased with the results

After her father died in 1896 May went out on her own, primarily as a needlework teacher for the influential Royal School of Art Needlework. She published a book and magazine articles on technique and design.

And impressed that end-of-the-century arbiter of

taste Oscar Wilde.

Portrait of Oscar in a crazy quilt

Quilts from the Morris Muse prints:

Almost Maybe from LouannaMaryQuiltDesign

Click here to buy the pattern:

https://www.facebook.com/louannamaryquiltdesign

I gave friend Denniele Bohannon yardage from this line several weeks ago. She used the gray colorway to create a terrific pattern in her signature style emphasizing secondary patterns. Becky Collis long-arm quilted it. Denniele says it's done with templates and has no Y seams.

A SAMPLER QUILT

Moda asked Wendy Sheppard to give us an updated sampler

for Morris Muse.

"Oh Happy Day" uses a Fat Quarter Bundle

for a 76" square quilt.

Patchwork was not an interest of the Morrises who counted on embroidery as THE textile decorating technique.

William Morris began embroidering as a young man trying to

capture the appearance of old tapestries. He worked with many

women over the years to perfect the look he wanted.

Daughter May was his chief artist.

From the Victoria & Albert Museum Site

Pattern for Morris-style Embroidery

Flower Pot

Father and daughter designed this popular piece together when she was young. The Victoria and Albert Museum has an example that May embroidered in the 1890s..

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O88437/flowerpot-embroidered-picture-morris-william/

Linda Parry showed a detail of one version.

Meg Andrews once had this in her inventory.

Several examples of the Flower Pot by various hands have

survived. Pattern and finished panels must have sold well at the shop.

Pattern for a 12" block

One side is the same as the other---just flipped.

Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago

Embroidered panels often were incorporated into fire screens which one could buy finished at the showroom.

See more interpretations of the Flower Pot design.

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2014/03/morris-flowerpot-design.html

May on the left with Jane (Jenny) Morris (1861-1935)

May's older sister Jennie was afflicted by a case of grand mal epilepsy becoming more handicapped over her life due to seizures and medication. Her mother Jane noted in 1901 the she was "so much slower in speaking and apparently in thinking than she was a year ago." To her mother every seizure was "as if a dagger were thrust into me." Jennie died in an institution in her mid seventies.

May and her father were quite active in socialist politics as was her husband Henry Halliday Sparling, who worked for Morris..

Collection of the Cheltenham Gallery & Museum

May next to her husband with the bearded

George Bernard Shaw drawing their attention.

The Homestead and the Forest

Kelmscott Manor Collection

May and Jane must have had plans when they embroidered

this crib quilt designed by May before her wedding.

Detail of The Homestead and the Forest.

Mottoes and quotes of various types are embroidered in the borders, among them:

"Love me; Love my dog."

May and Henry were engaged for four years before their 1890 marriage and married for seven. Romantics like to think her true love was the elusive Shaw who indeed was living with them when husband Henry moved out in 1897. The following year Shaw married Charlotte Payne-Townsend despite his oft-stated position against marriage.

Mary Francis Vivian Lobb (1878 – 1939)

During World War I May met Mary Lobb who soon moved into Kelmscott Manor to live with May the rest of her life. May left Mary rights to live in the house after her death in 1938. Mary Lobb died the following year.

May and Mary at Kelmscott Manor

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/10/lynn-hulse-may-morris-and-broderie-perse.html

Embroidery patterns

Lynn Hulse, May Morris designs: “The very soul and essence of beautiful embroidery”, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 2025

Victoria and Albert Museum article on Morris embroidery:

https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/willam-morris-textiles?srsltid=AfmBOoovlPBSDCmWxieaenEVzHws8b503hhnC27sO6mS19qRaMixJ1dO

Details of the embroidery at The Unbroken Thread:

https://www.theunbrokenthread.com/blog/2017/11/08/may-morris-art-life-exhibition/?

Reproduction Prints Spring 2026

2026-03-21T06:00:00.026-05:00

A good part of making reproduction textiles is the hard part....finding the right period print. It's time to shop! Several good repros in shops now (or very soon.) The most difficult prints to find as reproductions are chintz styles before 1840 or so. Michelle Yeo often does early collections. Her latest is Lost Gardens of Heligan named for a site in Cornwall.

Quite romantic and accurate

Ingrid’s Garden of Heligan from Michelle, available as a kit

Kaari at French General has a new collection in her distinctive style (reds that don't run and Gallic romance)

Jardin du Soleil (Sun Garden)

https://shop.modafabrics.com/collection?group=Fleur+de+Paris

From the early 19th century with an English accent, a large group called Jane Austen at Home

Betsy Chutchian usually has a good mid-19th-century collection

in the works. The latest is Pamelia's Path.

It's the year to buy red, white and blue. Carrie Quinn's American Icons features a Centennial print between the stripes. In 1876 the image was printed as a cheater cloth print.

Centennial faux patchwork

Over in the right column here I keep track of the prices for new prints. The fairly consistent price
is about $13 a yard.

Morris Muse: Jane Burden Morris

2026-03-16T06:00:00.032-05:00

I have a new Moda line called Morris Muse, the latest in our "Best of Morris"

series of reproduction Arts & Craft prints. Bolts should be in your

shop this week.

Roseanne Smith's log cabin cut from strips of the Russet red colorway for centers.

See the prints here:

https://shop.modafabrics.com/collection?group=Morris%20Muse

Morris Muse celebrates the unsung women of craftsman design, artists in their own right, designing, stitching and overseeing masterpieces of Morris needlework. Despite late-century conventions that kept them behind the screens they stitched, women in Arts and Crafts circles were true design partners. Prints in the Morris Muse collection continue the Morris theme of nature-inspired patterns with rich reds and color complements echoing interior fashion and the women’s personal style.

Morris's prime Muse was his wife Jane Burden Morris,

Auburn-haired Jane looking wistful, a rather typical look

Painter Dante Gabriel Rosetti was obsessed with her face and form---

you'd probably look wistful too if you had to choose between Rosetti & Morris.

She really never did.

Jane and her fellow female Muses designed and stitched much embroidery for the firm. This bag by Jane from the late 1870s is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum.
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O368440/bag-morris-jane-burden/

Over the spring we'll discuss other Morris Muses, show some period embroidery and new quilt patterns perfect for this fabric line.

We've cut a kit from Morris Muse for Modernly Morgan's "Same Sky,"

should be in shops momentarily.

Pattern for a simple quilt making the most of the reds & greens in

Morris Muse.

See a post with state birds and flowers drawn in my new EQ8

Add-on Quilt Journeys here:

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2026/02/quilt-journeys-bird-borders.html

Border design for embroidery or applique drawn from the print at the top of the page.

Print this pattern on an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet

for a border strip finishing to 24" x 4".

Read More:

Debra N. Mancoff, Jane Morris: The Pre-Raphaelite Model of Beauty

Wendy Parkins, Jane Morris: The Burden of History

Preview here:

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Jane_Morris/M1GrBgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

Neighborhood

2026-03-11T06:00:00.031-05:00

Quilt feature writer Ruth Finley apparently was not fond of house quilts.

Top, about 1900-1925

Some of us, however, are always glad to come across a neighborhood with

distinguished architectural style.

Such as this one with embroidered names.

It looks like the maker used a pattern similar to one from Capper's Weekly

called Abe Lincoln's Log Cabin.

From Old Hope Antiques

"Similar" seems to be the principle here in drawing up

house plans.

Everybody wants to express themselves in their home design, I guess.

From the late Laura Fisher's inventory

Houses with the striped logs may be my favorite---horizontal

logs or vertical.

About 1900-1925

After looking at architecture I saw logs, roofs and doors in this

quilt recorded by the North Carolina project.

Attributed to Mary Simpson Garrett (1841-1916) of Edenton, Chowan County, North Carolina

https://quiltindex.org//view/?type=fullrec&kid=21-17-1492

It's actually a combination string/crazy quilt

alternating horizontal strips of stripes with strips of angled shapes.

But it COULD be a house quilt....

Rectangular blocks--- 16" wide, 12" tall

80" wide x 60" without a border

State Birds & Flowers Embroidery

2026-03-05T06:00:00.047-06:00

Quail and Poppies For California from

Aunt Martha

Karl is holding up Roseanne Smith's State Birds & Flowers embroidered quilt at the Kaw Valley Quilt Guild meeting in February. It's heavy. She used a sheet for the backing many years ago.

During the Bicentennial Celebration of 1976 the blocks were embroidered by her mother Lucy Smith

who was born in Australia and came to the U.S. after marrying a soldier in World War II.

A lot of embroidery stitches in the backgrounds

Roseanne who'd made two quilts back then volunteered to put it together. A group in their hometown Phillipsburg, Kansas quilted it and didn't complain about hand quilting through the sheet.

I volunteered to find the pattern source. Is there an index to embroidered state birds, flowers, etc.?

There is now. My best reference was Rose Marie Werner's article in AQSG's Blanket Statements newsletter #95.

See a PDF here:

https://kora.quiltindex.org/files/35-90-478/095_2009_Spring.pdf

The INDEX

ALICE BROOKS: (1970s) For the Bicentennial anniversary in the mid 1970s

birds & flowers in a curved ribbon.

ANNE CABOT: (After 1959) New states Alaska & Hawaii in border

AUNT MARTHA/Colonial Patterns: (1930s) Scroll behind flowers and birds.

CAPPER'S/ KATE MARCHBANKS : (1970s) From this Topeka, Kansas source---rectangular blocks with much information and a U.S. map along with other patterns for birds and flowers. The 50-State

Educational Quilt seems to be where Lucy Smith found her patterns.

Roseanne's mother lived a couple of hundred miles northwest of Topeka where she would have had access to the Capper's needlework designs either with her own subscriptions to their publications or she may have received clippings from her many nursing patients.

LAURA WHEELER (Old Chelsea Station): (1960s)

Shield with flowers and the state name

Do note different florals at the top of the shield---some 3; some 1.

MCKIM: Ruby McKim's designs are easily recognized

by stylized initials for the state name.

UPDATE: OMAHA WORLD HERALD:

Louise Tiemann added a 1938 series from the Omaha newspaper's columns under the byline

Nadine Bradley who was "Director of Household Arts." Rectangular pattern drawings were signed M. Lieb for Merriam Lieb, the paper's artist.

RAINBOW: Both Flowers & Birds with

old state abbreviations of 4 letters.

VER MEHREN: Hubert Ver Mehren's flower design with his

signature innovative modern border

Rose Marie wondered if this bird series is also from his Des Moines studio.

VOGART: Rose Marie did not include information

about this company that went bankrupt in 1990.

Florals & Birds captioned with the state's full name in capitals.

WORKBASKET: This spinoff from Aunt Martha/Colonial Patterns labeled the blocks with a rather elaborate floral scroll.

UNKNOWN: Did not find a source for this state flowers design with a crinkly ribbon. Must be after 1959 as Hawaii is included.

From the Arizona Project

Back to the Capper's/Kate Marchbanks pattern that included the date and order of the state's entry into the Union. They also published the "50-State Educational Quilt" with hexagonal blocks. Again the overall set was rather vague, which encouraged some creativity.

Indiana Project & the Quilt Index

By Vera VanHorn Castor

Oregon Project & The Quilt Index

Westside Community Club

Fence Rail Polka Practice

2026-02-28T06:00:00.151-06:00

Fence Rail Polka

It's a good thing I have Electric Quilt to draw patterns and barely enough discipline to spend an hour a day on graphics programs, combining EQ8 with Photoshop because Malcolm Gladwell has convinced us that if we want to get good at some complex skill we have to spend 10,000 hours of "deliberate practice." C.A.D, is a complex skill.

Practicing tennis and piano playing did not work out well for me in the past but spending time in computer aided drawing keeps me entertained and I am getting better at it over time. (Just in time to be replaced by AI, I fear.)

Oops I digress.

I have been spending time trying to draw this quilt, an idea I lifted from Bonnie K. Hunter's pattern for "Checkerboard Rails."

https://quiltville.blogspot.com/2018/03/checkerboard-railsa-quilting-finish.html

It took me awhile to figure out the repeat and then a longer while to figure out how to draw it. It's really very simple---if you think like Bonnie Hunter.

The block is the traditional Fence Rail, a square pieced of strips---above from BlockBase; 5 strips set in groups of four squares.

Vintage Examples

8 strips per square, looks about 1900.

Sixes & Sevens ---about 1900

Five --- Mid 20th c?

Set on point which gives it a different effect.

Four---about 1960

Three ---About 1920

Bonnie's Fence Rail has 6 strips----four plain-colored fabrics and two strips of alternating black and white squares.

And the blocks are set on point creating the illusion that the black and white checkerboard pattern is background.

Well....one thinks about it and says "That woman is really good at pattern!"

But then one wakes up in the middle of the night and says: "Polka Dots!"

A border of the "background fabric" floats the composition increasing

the illusion.

UPDATE:

Woke up and thought....Divide square in half, half dots plus two strips. Lots less work.

Here's the repeat....

But not in my Encyclopedia.

Quilt Journeys: Bird Borders

2026-02-18T06:00:00.024-06:00

Quilt Journeys

State Birds in a Scalloped Border

in Morris Muse fabrics

During this Anniversary Year of the Declaration of Independence

I am thinking a border of state birds combining the appliqued patterns

from my EQ add-on program Quilt Journeys with my latest fabric

collection from Moda: Morris Muse

Morris Muse should be in quilt shops soon with a range of primary colors plus black

for your Eastern Goldfinches...

...and Western Meadowlarks.

Red birds and Blue.

Inspired by some favorite vintage bird borders....

using scallops and vines

We have here border patterns on which to perch your state birds

Print these on 8-1/2" x 11" sheets. Adjust to fit your quilt and your taste.

The state birds are full of duplicates as the birds do not

respect the border lines.

For a 250th Anniversary quilt you might want to pick a block

from your state and stitch a border of birds and flowers from places you

have lived. Here a Kansas Troubles block from a quilt by

Jean Stanclift with a new digital border.

And then there are the Odd Birds

chosen to please the poultry farmers

and the hunters.

A chicken border?

Rhode Island Reds

Delaware Blue Hens

UPDATE: I used Quilt Journeys to make a card to send to my bird watcher friends. It's been a raucous afternoon around here. The robins are drunk again.

Alternatives to Doom Scrolling

2026-02-12T06:00:00.281-06:00

Tough Times Call for Corny Solutions

I am spending way too much time "Doom-Scrolling" as they call it. And so are you. Free minutes are taken up looking at terrible news. For the sake of our mood and mental health we need to quit ruminating, pick one or two action activities and act and while we are doing something look at lighter fare online.

What entertains me is a daily dose of canines, costume history and color, color, color: A list of sites to make you smile when you click.

Most of these are Facebook sites and I know some of you won't use it but do remember it's a tool. Use it to your benefit. I wish there were more blogs with more text & info but alas blogs are passe. There's a lot on Instagram but little text there.

TEXTILE HISTORY

Fashion Institute of Technology

https://www.facebook.com/FITfashionhistory/

Our 6KnowItAlls Page on Quilt History
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6knowitalls

https://costumesociety.org.uk/blog

HUMOR

Frequently Posted Jokes from

The Unitarian Universalist Hysterical Society
https://www.facebook.com/groups/uuhystericalsociety

Great Long-Gone Cartoons

Far Side by Gary Larson
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1661863323971577

Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Waterson
https://www.facebook.com/CalvinAndHobbes

ANTIQUE PHOTOS

Antique Photography (1850-1930)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/802261293856504

Shorpy
https://www.facebook.com/shorpy

Arthur Rothstein

Photographers of the Farm Security Administration (WPA)

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551575812402

https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingvictorian/

CURRENT QUILTS & FABRIC
Pick a favorite designer. Look at the daily PR.

Edyta Sitar

https://www.facebook.com/LaundryBasketQuilts

Lou Taft

Kaffe Fassett Collective

https://www.facebook.com/groups/60352772359

The William Morris Society
https://www.facebook.com/TheWilliamMorrisSociety

HISTORY

Spared & Shared
https://www.facebook.com/Griff.CWLetters
Found letters from the Civil War Era

Civil War Women/In the Swan's Shadow

https://www.facebook.com/civilwarwomen

The History Blog

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/

PETS

Cats

Larry the Cat for PM

A good excuse to post miscellaneous cat pictures:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/197534374496197/

Funny Dogs

https://www.facebook.com/groups/300408794477260/
Cute dogs
https://www.facebook.com/cutenessdogs

We Rate Dogs

https://www.facebook.com/WeRateDogs

ART & ART MUSEUMS

Contemporary Art Daily

https://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/

Art Viewer

https://artviewer.org/

What's happening whether you like it or not.

The Louvre
https://www.facebook.com/museedulouvre

Victoria & Albert in London
https://www.facebook.com/victoriaandalbertmuseum

Any other ideas? We'd like to hear about them in the comments.

Whose Orange Peel? Material Culture

2026-02-07T06:00:00.005-06:00

"LaFayette Orange Peel"

Rhode Island Project & the Quilt Index

Signed Amanda Dodge (Rose)

About 1875, Block Island

This repeat block pattern is one of the earliest of American fashions in quilt design with at least a dozen surviving variations in the fabrics of the early-19th-century from 1800-1830 or so. Although not published with a name until the late-19th-century the design now has many names, several with a historical association to an early-19th-century celebrity the Marquis de Lafayette.

See more quilts here:

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2026/02/early-american-patchwork-orange-peel.html

An 1824 set of playing cards featured French aristocrat

Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, as the Ace of Spades

In 1824 Americans became celebrity-crazed when the hero of the

Revolution was invited to tour the U.S. at our expense.

Maine Memory Network

Gilbert du Motier (1757–1834)

By Orramel Hinkley Throop

The name Lafayette Orange Peel was published by Ruby Short McKim in her 1929 book 101 Quilt Patterns where she told us that the pattern name is associated with the Marquis who had come as a young man to the American colonies to fight and fund the American Revolution.

McKim 1929

McKim "proudly [added] the name of 'Lafayette' " to the Ladies' Art Company's older name of Orange Peel to commemorate the return of the Marquis as "the Nation's Guest" where he was feted in cities large and small.

Triumphal Arch in Philadelphia

"The story is....in Philadelphia a fair guest at the banquet took home a most beautiful fruit as her souvenir...To preserve her treasure and the memory of the day a pattern was carefully made from the pared rind...." McKim

New Jersey project & the Quilt Index

Lambertville Historical Society

Over the years the "history" expanded. We never find the name of the Philadelphian but the citrus story has expanded to the idea that Lafayette impressed the guests by deftly peeling an orange with his penknife. From a recent blog post:

"Lafayette chose an orange, which he cut into four segments before he peeled it. One of the female guests later picked up the discarded segments and, in honour of the French hero, used them as the basis for her next quilt pattern."

Is there any truth to this story? I found a recent history of the 1824 return tour, Ryan L. Coles's The Last Adieu: Lafayette’s Triumphant Return, the Echoes of Revolution, and the Gratitude of the Republic, published in September.

Orange Added

The only references to the word "orange" in the book mention the arboreal Southern landscape and the county of Orange in Virginia where the population gave him a memorable reception recorded in an 1824 issue of the Washington Gazette.

Stories about the above festivities in Virginia are also the only pre-1900 reference to the linked words Lafayette and orange in Newspapers.com's enormous print file.

Delaware Project, date-inscribed 1840

with five sets of initials

So here I am ranting about a historical attribution of very little consequence.

Hubert VerMehren sold quilt patterns in the 1930s,

adopting McKim's "Historical" name.

It's certainly not the equivalent of the false history told in the "Quilt Code" tales of the Underground Railroad. But as with that problematic story: Bad history tends to drive out good. I bet very few of you are familiar with the material culture of Lafayette's tour over 200 years ago.

Collection: Massachusetts Historical Society

One of several surviving leather gloves

sold as souvenirs of the occasion for women

Scottish Rite Museum

And men

Silk sash

Lafayette College has a huge collection of Lafayette-related items including textiles:

https://academicmuseum.lafayette.edu/special/marquis/MarquisFindAids/memorabiliacollection3.htm#Textiles

Detail of a bandana or scarf

Surviving in two colorways (the blue one may be a repro.)

"Welcome Lafayette"

The National Museum of American History owns this cut paper tribute

Collection: Museum of the American Revolution

For your blue and white transfer ware collection

Robert E. Lee's tutor Benjamin Hallowell of Alexandria, Virginia penned a verse about the tour of the era:

"Each Lover of Liberty surely must get

Something in honor of Lafayette

There's a La Fayette Watch Chain, a La Fayette hat

A Lafayette this and a La Fayette that'

A few more.....

International Quilt Museum

2009_039_0009

Newark Museum

Attributed to the Nichols family of Newark,

first considered to be about 1800

but fabrics and style later.

The Wyoming Project recorded this recent version stitched by Merle Fox in Indiana.

Early American Patchwork: Orange Peel Blocks?

2026-02-03T06:00:00.087-06:00

D.A.R. Museum

Center of an early quilt possibly made before 1800

This medallion with a basket center came up when I was searching for accurate quilts

made in the last quarter of the 18th century to celebrate our

250th anniversary this year.

Colonial Williamsburg

The curved "melon" or "orange peel" border is similar in another early quilt attributed to the Philower family of Virginia.

The curved leaf shape could be pieced or appliqued. And variations became popular in the early years of American independence after 1800, particularly as a repeat block pattern.

International Quilt Museum
Byron & Sara Rhodes Dillow Collection
Possibly New Hampshire, 1820-1840, 2008.040.0083

https://www.internationalquiltmuseum.org/quilt/20080400083

Such repeating block-style designs were not stitched until the 19th century when the rather sophisticated curved design developed, often pieced in the contrasting Pompadour browns & purples common at the time for dresses.

Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas

Sally Casey Thayer Collection

See more quilts in this popular brown & white combination at these two posts:
https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2018/11/dark-ground-chintzes-4-what-color-is-it.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/11/250th-anniversary-quilt-pattern.html

One pattern variation is a square enclosing a shape with curved sides.

In these early versions the quiltmakers set up a high contrast

between the dark & light florals as had been a fabric fashion for several years

around the turn of the century.

The alternate shading idea is called counterchange.

What's dark in one block is light in the next.

Connecticut Project & the Quilt Index

Dates: Probably 1800-1820 on the brown & white versions.

Deerfield Museum Collection

And with changes in color perhaps 1810-1840

The dramatic blue border print has a rather short repeat indicating it is a roller

print after 1810 rather than an earlier plate print or toile.

The Orange Peel pattern continued popular, becoming a staple in the commercial pattern business that began in the late-19th-century. BlockBase shows several variations.

The top row is color variations on the classic design with #1520 a shape variant.

Patterns in the bottom row have more seams but a similar effect when set all over.

1527b perhaps 1820s-1830s

The Connecticut project recorded this quilt made in Woodstock, attributed to two women:

Sophronia Barrett (1822-1917) & Emily Vinton (1843-1919), probably mother & daughter.

In pink & green calicoes, perhaps post-Civil-War.

https://quiltindex.org//view/?type=fullrec&kid=17-13-23

The earliest published name and design seems to be this

from an early (1890 or so) Ladies Art Company catalog

where an Orange Peel cardboard pattern cost a dime.

One can see the origin of the name

although Ruth Finley in her book published in 1929 called it Melon Patch.

The spherical melon, like an orange, is usually eaten after being cut into curved sections.

In 1929.the same year Finley's book was published, pattern designer

Ruby McKim called a version "Lafayette Orange Peel"

in her Kansas City Star column adding a historical tale to

the Ladies' Art Company's name .

Version from the syndicate using names Laura Wheeler & Alice Brooks

I was disappointed this rather sophisticated repeating block design is just not an 18th-century

early pattern but "after 1820 or so." And what did LaFayette have to do with it?

More on the pattern's "history" in the next post.

Sewing Insurrection

2026-01-27T06:00:00.003-06:00

Wistar Family Quilt, blocks inscribed1842-1843

IQSC collection #2005.059.0001

https://www.internationalquiltmuseum.org/about/quilt-month/album-0

Needlework has long been a medium for dissent.

Quilt inscribed 1814

Our current culture inspired by the ideals of Beavis, Butt-Head and Bro demands protest from the streets to the sewing room.

Sew, Sue Me!

The Seamsters' Union is working on their second

Sunbonnet Sue protest quilt "A Pieceful Protest." My job this week is

to find some gold lame.

If you are looking for inspiration do read the posts on our Facebook group page:

SuperSueQuilts

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1133604988289574

And there are plenty of other needleworkers using textile media to protest and demand change. Below a few of the many I found online:

Quilt: Against Erasure

Lisa Rackner

Embroidery: Days of Rage

Melora Bales at Harvest Moon TieDye

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1857388144/sunbonnet-sue-days-of-rage-collection

Embroidery: Tiny Pricks Project

Diana Weymar

Weymar's first Tiny Pricks project

Diana Weymar has been advocating rebellious needlework since 2018 with her "Tiny Pricks Project" (it's a double entendre, kids.) She began embroidering quotes from the 45th President on vintage needlework items.

Over the years the project has evolved into embroidered quotes from numerous stitchers onto textiles of all kinds ---quotes both from the 47th Commander in Chief and many from his critics.

Most are stitched to old handkerchiefs, good use for an archaic textile. She has thousands of donations and has exhibited them occasionally in the past seven years. “ 'Tiny Pricks' is a digital quilt that never stops growing."

Her Tiny Pricks Instagram page:

https://www.instagram.com/tinypricksproject/?hl=en

SewMaryHappy recently posted this on Instagram. Look for the keyword: protestquilt

https://www.instagram.com/explore/search/keyword/?q=%23protestquilt

And then there is the T-shirt--- a textile serving as the broadside poster of our times.

Quilt Journeys: State Blocks for EQ

2026-01-23T10:05:00.005-06:00

https://electricquilt.com/online-shop/quilt-journeys/

For the U.S.A.'s 250th Anniversary this year I've been considering quilts to celebrate with several posts here on what kind of patchwork would be authentic for the18th-century's last quarter during and after our Revolutionary War. Scroll back to see a few.....

But the celebratory quilt doesn't have to be period-correct. We can reflect our own style in a block-style quilt honoring the fifty states or our own home with Quilt Journeys, a new computer program for Electric Quilt Software.

It's an add-on program for EQ8 with pieced blocks and appliqué motifs that represent the United States and Canada alongside fun, historical facts. The program adds dozens of blocks to your Block Library and you look them up by state. Like the rest of EQ's content you can print the block any size or alter it if you like.

Here's your options for Alaska's pieced blocks.

You also get patterns for finished designs that can be customized for

the various states. This is a page for Illinois.

The series began when I wrote regularly for Quilter's Newsletter Magazine beginning in the mid 1970s with America's Bicentennial Celebration.

My sources were earlier publications that printed designs named for states and cities.

As we entered the computer age EQ adapted the series to a program on a disk in the back of a book in 2001.

This is going to be a lot easier. More later.....

Read a post on the EQ blog here:

New Add-on: Quilt Journeys | The Electric Quilt Blog

American Quilt Style: Democracy Blooms

2026-01-19T06:00:00.000-06:00

National Museum of American History

Smithsonian Institution

Quilt date-inscribed 1795 M Campbell. Detail.

The dark brown is reverse applique with

the light overlay cut to reveal the print underneath.

https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_556173

Considering stitching a period reproduction of a quilt for the 250th anniversary of democracy this year? I've been looking at museum quilts that reflect the first 25 years of American independence and have come up with a couple of ideas. See posts here:

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/11/250th-anniversary-quilt-pattern.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/12/knickerbocker-puzzle-early-american.html

Further digging has inspired me to include a third pattern. Rather than a a patriotic eagle in the center a vase with a spindly floral bouquet seems to be most appropriate based on reliably dated patchwork quilts from the first years of our independence.

D.A.R. Museum Collection

The vase at the top of the post is reverse appliqued, a technique requiring skill. Are the rest of the early versions reverse appliqued rather than conventional, onlaid applique?

A pattern below with many of the common designs seen in the five similar quilts:

Floral container with handles
Various flowers and leaves on long stems
Symmetrical arrangement (2 way bilateral symmetry)
Repeated elements such as the 8-lobed rose, tulip and an iris-like floral
Applique image is cotton with dark brown (plum, chocolate) background & floral print, popular at the time for women's garments.

Collection of Historic Deerfield

Gown 1780-1790

https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2002.11

Digital sketch of the central vase in Hannah John's star medallion,

date-inscribed 1797 documented by the Maine project. You can see

Hannah's bouquet is taller and rangier than the pattern here.

Art Institute of Chicago Collection

Detail :Bedrug attributed to Hannah Johnson (1770–1848)

New London County, Connecticut, initialed & dated 1797.

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/49691/bed-rug

Lynne Zacek Bassett, the expert on American bed rugs that preceded patchwork quilts as popular and valuable bedcovers, reminded me of common design in these woolen spreads. This one by Hannah Johnson is similar to Hannah John's 1797 patchwork quilt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection

As is this bedrug dated 1796 with initials NL, attributed to Connecticut.

https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/ad/original/DT11600.jpg

Caption from Lynne's 2022 exhibit at the Florence Griswold Museum

New London County Quilts & Bed Covers, 1750–1825

The visual and biographic coincidences led Lynne to realize that American women in the newly independent state of Connecticut were embroidering copies of European loop-pile bedrugs in a regional fashion in New London County, probably obtaining patterns and instruction in needlework classes. That explanation also may explain similarities in the patchwork vase quilts. A needlework teacher offered a popular pattern and/or lessons....

...to the first generation of American women enjoying

new access to European prints

Below are two sheets to print on 8-1/2 x 11" paper.

The finished quilts are small but do see this pattern for more borders.

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/11/250th-anniversary-quilt-pattern.html

------------

Another border option is a dog-tooth applique border they called Van Dyck style trim.

Jeanna Kimball shows you how to stitch a period border in her Ultimate Visual Guide

The footed vase a standard image for centuries

A Patchwork Caraco

2026-01-15T06:00:00.009-06:00

I've been spending time costume scrolling---good for the mental health in stressful times.
It's like shopping but no buyers' remorse.

And I came across this caraco in the Nordish Museum (Nordiska Museet) in Stockholm, Sweden. I've been blogging about caracos (short jackets with a peplum ---the ruffle around the hips) because they are such a good example of international trade and textiles in the 17th and 18th centuries. This is the first early patchwork caraco jacket I have seen. The caption dates it to the 18th century, My lack of Swedish prevents me from navigating their catalog so I can't find much more about it.

See more about caracos at these posts:

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/12/caracos-around-world.html
https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/12/caraco-jackets-fashioning-hypothesis.html

Short jackets were a fashion fad joining European women of all classes in the 17th and 18th centuries. French aristocrat Madame Pompadour is pictured in one as is a German servant with a tray of chocolate, painted in 1745 by Jean Etienne Liotarca that's become a worldwide marketing image.

"The Chocolate Girl" and a fashion plate

Cut is similar with fabrics from both ends of the financial spectrum.

Ackermann's London publishing house released a book on Dutch costume by Miss Semple in
1817. Who was Miss Semple? She remains anonymous. Watercolors of the Dutch women show
the popularity of chintz skirts and jackets of different lengths

Dutch correspondents Conny, Titia and I are collecting names in various languages:

DUTCH
“Jak" & “Jakje” = jacket
“Vrouwenjak" = woman’s jacket
"Kinderjakje" = jacket for children)
“Kassakijntje” (Kassakeinjte) = jacket in the Hindeloopen area
“Kroplattan” = a short jacket

1790

FRENCH
“Caraco” = a camisole [caraçao pronounced kara-sow] perhaps from Turkish kerrake alpaca coat
“Cassaquin”
“Pierrot”

SWEDISH
“Kofta” = jacket

AMERICAN

"Calico Short Gown"

1959 Postcard

Woman dressed in traditional caraco style worn in Hindeloopen, Netherlands

France 1760s ---about 25 years before the

French Revolution changed fashion & society

Read more by Kenna Libes at Fashion History Timeline.
https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/caraco/

Block-Style Quilts 250 Years Ago

2026-01-07T06:00:00.788-06:00

Charlotte Merritt Roe (1774-1836) was born in Rye, New York in Westchester County but made this Nine-Patch child's quilt after she moved west to Virgil in Cortland County in 1797.
The crib quilt was probably made for daughter Charlotte who only lived for a few weeks in September, 1806. The preserved quilt became a memorial.

Paducah Nine Patch

A 19th-century echo from Pat Speth

Today we make block quilts. When searching for an appropriate early American style to recreate for Democracy's 250th anniversary this year we might prefer a repeat block format to the medallion-style, central focus compositions shown at these earlier posts on period quilts.

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/11/250th-anniversary-quilt-pattern.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/12/knickerbocker-puzzle-early-american.html

Sorry, fans of the block quilt! I cannot find any block-style quilts reliably attributed to 1776-1800, the first quarter century of American independence. Checking my picture files of date-inscribed quilts I do find some with a late-18th century date but now I am not so sure about the reliability of that date. For example:

I wonder if there is a big flaw in my reliance on date-inscribed pieces because the date on the quilt might not be when the patchwork was stitched. It might be the date on a pre-existing backing or supporting fabric. In the Nace Nine-Patch here an old linen sheet was likely trimmed and saved in the backing. That cross stitch inscription in red above is the typical household linen marking stitch often seen on sheets as they were among the most valuable items in a household. Marking sheets with cross stitch embroidery and a date and/or number was considered good housekeeping.

Embroidered block quilt with the date 1783 on the face

Julie Silber Inventory

But......

We have a piece of recycled needlework with the date of the earlier embroidery rather than of the patchwork.

Crosstitched "Amy Perry" and dated 1816
From dealer GBBest on eBay

Hard to read. Has the original inscription on a piece of needlework been altered?

The most reliable date is one on the front of the quilt, stitched to be seen

as in this star quilt dated in the center block

H Werner

1807

Debby Cooney showed the quilt in a 2017 program.

Lori Lee Triplett sent the photo.

I can't find out much about H Werner---Hannah? Werner

New England records included a lot of Hannah's of an age to make

such a quilt thirty or so years after our Independence.

Another date that may be reliable as it's the focus of the face of the quilt:

"Ann Thankful Mathewson

1815"

Collection of the Rhode Island School of Design

This nine-patch is the earliest dated block-style quilt the Rhode Island project recorded.

From the collection of the late Trish and Donald Herr

Barbara Schenken 1814

(Date on front or back?)

Trish wrote a bit about it in the 1986 edition of the Oral Traditions series:

In the Heart of Pennsylvania, 19th and 20th Century Quiltmaking Traditions

A date in the quilting is usually reliable.

As in this 1816 nine patch that Susie Wimer saw in a museum

Now you have noticed that nearly every one of these block-style quilts

dated in the early 19th century is a nine patch.

A fashion or fad?

Teaching tool?

And a good illustration of the absence of block-style patterns in 18th-century America.

See more of the same at this post:

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-classic-early-american-quilt.html