Back in 2006 I did a lecture on strippy quilts and I have been asked to reprise that talk at two study group meetings in October. The strippy style of quilt has seen off-and-on popularity in the US over the last two centuries and it's one of my go-to solutions when I have fabric too pretty to cut, or when I need to stretch a few blocks into a bigger quilt as I did with this Christmas strippy. I just couldn't separate Santa from his reindeer!
Well, it's time to review what I said almost 20 years ago and see if there is any new research to add. So yesterday I went to my studio to find a particular book that might address a specific question about strippy quilts in the UK. I spied a file folder on the same shelf and I hoped it contained my script and slides from that lecture. But NO. it was my lecture on stenciled quilts from 2015-16.
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The above unquilted stenciled spread was possibly made in New York, about 1825 and was privately owned in 1974. Picture and description in America's Quilts and Coverlets by Carleton L. Safford and Robert Bishop.
You've heard the expression "Everything old is new again." Think about it -- first, wallpaper was developed to copy more expensive textiles, then people who couldn't afford imported wallpaper stenciled their walls to look like wallpaper, and then we developed wallpaper that looked like stencils, and in 2016 stencils were all the rage again on HGTV! Go figure!!
I love your strippy quilt designs - did not know that was a historical design. I have seen all kinds of wallpaper and stenciled walls, and was never inspired to do any of it, lol! It seems like as soon as people do something like that, it goes out of style and you have to re-do. Like the light oak kitchen cabinets I finally got in the early 2000s, only to find out that dark wood cabinets were now in style!
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is true that everything comes around again. If you live long enough you might see the trend more than twice. I want to make a strippy quilt and have been thinking about it for quite awhile. I have some long cutaway strips from backings that I though might be fun to play with in a strippy quilt.
ReplyDeleteI well remember when stenciling was all the rage in the 1980’s. We lived in Maine then and the Federal ere (Maine’s coming-of-age) was the high time for stenciled walls. Now it’s hard to FIND wallpaper. The big box stores have pretty much discontinued it. It’ll come back, of course….But on to quilting: where will you give your presentations and will they be recorded? AQSG?
ReplyDeleteAbove comment by Nann who is using the iPad.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you didn't separate Santa from his reindeer. It's such a pretty Christmas quilt. Back in the day I stenciled a number of rooms in my house. Things certainly do come back around, even though some things shouldn't!
ReplyDeleteHope you eventually found the book you were looking for. I agree, it was a the right thing to keep Santa with his reindeer.
ReplyDeleteFor a while, I would use a stencil to paint a tulip/flower design around the top of the walls in every bathroom I had. I have a toile kind of red fabric that I don't know how to cut...this one of yours gives me and idea, Libby.
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