Quilting on the Crescent: Stars in a Time Warp: Playing with Green

Friday, April 10, 2015

Stars in a Time Warp: Playing with Green

I am still trying to catch up with the fabric colors and styles presented in Barbara Brackman's Stars in a Time Warp QAL. I made some blocks with indigo, madder and double pink prints, but the historic green colors made me pause. I wasn't sure I had a good sense of what "over-dyed green" should look like and I was pretty sure I didn't have any green calicoes in my stash.

I decided to order one of the examples of over-dyed green fabric Barbara Brackman referenced in her blog. She considered the Moda Bella solid "Leaf" (9900-192) to be a close approximation of the solid green color found in mid to late 19th century quilts.

I'm glad I ordered that fabric, because the color is nowhere near what I was picturing in my head. I immediately went digging through the toile drawer (yes, I have an entire drawer stuffed with toile fabric!), because I knew I had a fabric that would look smashing with Leaf.

I pulled the green toile and a couple of other greens that played well with Leaf. The colors in the picture don't reflect the true colors at all! I'll just go ahead make some Sawtooth Star blocks and I bet everything will look great. Or, maybe to be really authentic, I need to make the blocks with some red or chrome yellow fabric!

I was also concerned about the lack of green calicoes in my stash. However, I found a wonderful surprise when I was digging through the toile drawer.

This bundle has been marinating in the stash for over 10 years! It's a collection of FQs by Laurene Sinema entitled "1850's Legacies and Beyond". Finding this bundle brought back sweet memories of The Quilt Cottage - New Orleans' premiere quilt shop for years and years. Sadly, the shop closed in 2007 after the death of long-time owner, Carol Schiaffino. The Quilt Cottage deserves its own blog post - and I'll write that some day.