Gallery**Home Page**Glossary**Bibliography** Services page** Newsletter**Links**About Us** Contact us** Back to the Quilts on Sale
Much of the below comes from "The American Quilt : A History of Cloth and Comfort 1750-1950" By Roderick Kiracofe with Mary Elizabeth Johnson. Copyright © 1993 by Roderick Kiracofe. Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., NY, NY: 1993.
The earliest quilts date to the 18th century. The designs were block-printed and made
in England, France or India. Copperplate-printing and roller-printing were invented
in the early 19th century allowing large scale and monochromatic printing. 
The subjects were still naturalistic florals but by the mid 19th century a full range of abstract star-derived designs were made with the new strongly-hued dyes like Turkey red, bronze and antimony orange. these exhuberant colours and patterns set the standard for subsequent quilt makers.
From the 1830's there was a revival of block and plate printing and this developed into semi-abstract naturalistic "seaweed" designs. The double pinks were especially popular.
Aniline
dyes were developed and small all-over repeating patterns appeared in stronger colours.
Geometrics and paisleys were favoured.
White backgrounds and simple figurative designs
in vivid colours suited the new aniline dyes. Small prints utilising different colour
combinations and even faux woven fabrics like moires were produced.
By the 1890's strong
opposing colours, light and dark, became the norm, and this fashion further developed into
Mourning prints, Shaker Greys of small figured grey and black prints on white.
The first few decades
of the 20th century saw great changes in fabric. Satins and velvets, shirt and dress
prints were all used with the invention of rayon (artificial silk).
The 1920's saw Art Deco inspired designs in strong colours on white. This inspired a backlash to pastels especially the "Nile green".
Floral prints in pastel hues also
came back but with the new distinctive haloes of white.
The 1940's saw a revival of historical colonial prints and
this continued into the fifties and is typified by the hit movie "Oklahoma". The
1950's also saw cotton flannels and animal and nursery rhyme figures used widely.
The 1960's to the present day has allowed total freedom of expression with new and old being made together and elements of all periods appearing in the same quilt.
This is a detail of
The Apple HillQuilt (1987) designed and made in Pensylvania to celebrate dedication of the
Apple Hill Medical Centre. The apple logo commemorates the propogation of the York
Imperial Apple, first grown near the site of this building in the 1820's.
Gallery**Home Page**Glossary**Bibliography** Services page** Newsletter**Links**About Us** Contact us