Rounding Out Stars in a Time Warp

The end of the year is always a good time to take stock of projects underway and make plans be inspired for the coming year.  I'd like to devote a post to projects finished in 2015, but that will have to wait until after the first of the year.  We're taking off later today for a short road trip, so I've spent my blogging time prepping projects to work on in the truck.

I do have some pictures of the last of my Stars in a Time Warp blocks.  I've wound up with 88 finished 4" blocks.  I have a plan for setting them, but may need to add a few additional blocks to make the quilt top work out properly. 

These blocks are my versions of Roller Print Clouds & Storms.  There are lots of fun varieties of this style of fabric - I just don't have many of them in my stash.  Yet.

 

Next, we learned about Coral & Seaweed prints.  I was happy to use some of the green fabric on the left - I think it has been in my stash for over 15 years!

The last episode of Stars in a Time Warp was for Shawl Prints, Stick Prints and Cracked Ice.  I had a great example of a shawl print (left) and some blue cracked ice.

Back in week 41, the theme was Neon Novelty fabrics.  I didn't have any at the time, but in the following weeks managed to find a small print that sort of fit the bill.

I'm happy to have all my Stars in a Time Warp blocks finished before the end of the year.  I wish I was one of those fast-working people who already had their top pieced, but I'll have to wait for 2016 to realize that plan!  

And now Dear Husband is home from the office and it's time to hit the road.  Happy New Year to all and see you on the flip side!

Stars in a Time Warp: Approaching the End

In this week's Stars in a Time Warp post, Barbara Brackman mentioned there were only 3 more weeks left in the star-a-thon.  I will miss the weekly fabric history lessons, but it will be fun to get the final quilt assembled.  For those who haven't been participating in Stars in a Time Warp, you may be intrigued by BB's next stitch-along:  the Morris Hexathon.

 

I finally got a new SD card for my camera, so I can finish documenting my Stars in a Time Warp blocks.  These are my representatives for Chocolate Blue. 

 

Black and gray fabric dyes were not reliable until the end of the end of the 19th century.  

 

Again, related to improvements in fabric dyes, wine-colored reds - claret reds - became fashionable in the late 19th century. 

 

Another late 19th century fashion color was cadet blue. 

 

Skipping backward in time, sprigged muslins were all the rage in the early 1800s. 

 

And from the same time period come provincial prints. 

I'm still debating how I'll put all these blocks together.  I think I'll save it for the dark, dreary weeks of January and February, when all these colors and fabrics will help keep me smiling!

Stars In A Time Warp: What To Do With All These Blocks?

I haven't been documenting my Stars in a Time Warp progress in a timely fashion.  Picking out fabrics for the blocks each week is always fun, but I never remember to share what I've made.  I've skipped a week or two due to lack of appropriate fabrics, but the stack of star blocks still manages to keep growing.

 

Going back to the end of August, we learned about "newer" Turkey Red prints, which reflected changes in the dyeing processes and resulted in more affordable red fabrics.

 

September started out with Bronze Style prints, a fashion for new brown prints with a greenish or golden tinge rather than the earlier red tinge. 

 

Cretonne prints were designed as furnishing fabrics, but found their way into quilts.  Since my blocks are only 4", I had to choose prints with a smaller scale.

 

Blue fabrics with a touch of violet, known as Lancaster Blue, were popular in the late 19th century.  I'm not sure my blues are completely correct, but they serve the purpose.

The memory card for my camera is now telling me it's "full", so I need to go get a new memory card before I can share any more photos.  

Meanwhile, I'm contemplating how I want to set all my Stars in a Time Warp blocks.   Barbara Brackman has been sharing setting ideas with each week's fabric history.  My first idea was to set the blocks strippy style with zig-zags between the blocks instead of striped fabric.  BB calls this setting Rail Fence style (scroll to the end of the post for examples).  On the other hand, BB has presented a virtual encyclopedia of setting styles, so I don't know what I'll finally be inspired to do!

Stars in a Time Warp: Fabric History Lessons

I've been saving up my Stars in a Time Warp blocks until I had a batch to display.  Each week's fabric history lessons are always interesting and make me want to go hunting for great examples of each type of fabric. The hoard stash of reproduction fabrics continues to grow, as does my appreciation for the history of fabric printing.

 

Woodblock prints were printed with wooden blocks with the design carved into them.   

 

Quercitron was the name coined for a color-fast yellow dye.  The yellow color and its frequent companions of brown and green became known as "drab" style.

 

Early indigo prints were usually large designs and were originally used for bed hangings and other home furnishings.  Since my blocks are only 4", I had to look for smaller scale prints.

 

Lapis blue fabric prints combined indigo and madder dyes.  In other words, early red, white and blue prints - what's not to love?!

  

Trailing vines and flowers were known as Floral Trails.  I was pleased to use some very old repro fabrics in my stash for these.

 And my all-time favorite - toile.  Original toile fabrics were printed using large (36"), engraved copper plates.  That's why early toile fabrics were often called copperplate prints.  Now the fabrics are roller printed or screen printed.  

I've got 60 time-warped stars at this point (I skipped a week 'cuz I couldn't find any appropriate pillar prints).  I have lots of ideas for how I will incorporate them into a quilt, but for now I'm just enjoying the history lessons and the block-making process!

 

 

 

Stars in a Time Warp: Fabriholic!

I have been faithfully keeping up with the weekly Stars in a Time Warp blocks.  Barbara Brackman's weekly lessons on fabric history have really encouraged my already fervent love of fabric!  My stash of reproduction quilting fabrics is growing, and I'm going to need more storage space.  I see many more reproduction-style quilts in my future!

These eccentric prints are made by creating wavy or eccentric lines on the printing cylinders.  I have had eccentrics in my stash in the past, but came up empty when it was time to make these blocks.  Oh horrors - another trip to my LQS!  The two prints featured in my stars are from Moda's Collections for a Cause 2015, which benefits the Texas Quilt Museum.

 

Next up, we have some neat stripes.  Since my blocks are only 4 inches, I had to find stripes of a suitable scale.

 

Now the Stars in a Time Warp blocks are focusing on one of my favorite types of fabric:  chintz.  These blocks represent white ground chintz, a style of fabric with multicolored figures on a white ground.

 

Blotch ground chintzes reflect a trend away from the light backgrounds of earlier chintz fabrics.  The fabric printing processes of the time often resulted in poor registration between the multicolored figures and the dark background, hence the term blotch ground.

 

Fancy machine ground chintz fabric has finely printed designs in the background instead of solid color.  The small background dots are called picotage.  (click on the picture for a larger version)

 

I now have a stack of 48 blocks and I've been daydreaming about how I will eventually assemble them.  This is a year-long BOW, so there are still plenty of fabric styles to learn about and drool over!

Stars in a Time Warp: Finally Caught Up!

I have finally caught up with all the Stars in a Time Warp blocks.  Mother's Day provided an opportunity to spend most of day sewing, so I had a little stack of 4" stars as my Mother's Day present!

 

From top to bottom:  ombre' prints, conversational prints (a weakness in the collection - I'll be watching for more of these fun fabrics!), chrome yellow, purple, paisley and over-dyed green (L) and green calico (R).   If you want to see a closer view of the fabrics, click on the picture for a larger version.

 

The latest Stars in a Time Warp fabric color/style is called California Gold - a chrome orange or yellow in fine lines on a white background.  I happened to have a couple of these in my stash, so it was easy to make two blocks this afternoon.

I have not yet attempted to play with any block arrangements.  Every week Barbara Brackman offers new suggestions on how the blocks might be set and every week I change my mind about what I want to do with my stars.  

I have been keeping tabs on all of the Stars in a Time Warp blog links using my favorite quilt catalog program - Evernote.  OK, actually Evernote is a great program for keeping track of all kinds of things, not just quilts.  The best part about it is that it syncs across all my electronic devices: computer, tablet and smartphone.  I can access my "notes" from just about anywhere!  If you're interested, I wrote a more in-depth post about it here.  I'm finding it handy with the Stars in a Time Warp blog entries, because I can go directly to the blog entry I want to review without having to scroll through numerous blog entries to find it.

Stars in a Time Warp: Playing Catch Up

I have been faithfully cutting parts and pieces for my Stars in a Time Warp blocks, but actual stitching proceeds slowly.  During some free time this week, I got 8 blocks assembled.

 

From left to right:  foulard prints, woven plaids, printed plaids, overdyed green (top) and green calico (bottom).  A couple of these don't have a lot of contrast, but I think I'll leave them that way.  Making these blocks in the 4" size is a bit more of a challenge when it comes to choosing the right size fabric designs!

Speaking of Civil War fabric styles and cotton fabric in general, Dear Hubby and I made a trip to the heart of U.S. cotton-growing country last weekend.   We went to meet up with some friends for a cooking class at the Viking Cooking School in Greenwood, Mississippi.  I had never visited the Mississippi Delta, so it was fun exploring and learning about the history and culture of the area.   BTW, the Mississippi Delta is distinctly different from the Mississippi River delta - worlds apart, in fact!

 

As luck would have it, the local independent bookstore, Turnrow Books, happened to have a copy of Empire of Cotton: A Global History, which I had just read about on Barbara Brackman's Material Culture blog.  I have only read the introduction to the book thus far, but I am looking forward to delving into it this weekend.

 

Dear Husband also did his part, picking up this cookbook by a former chef at the Viking Cooking School.   I've paged through it, and it looks like one of those cookbooks where you want to try each recipe, starting at page one!

 

Our cooking class was excellent fun!  We have cooked together with our friends many times over the years, but we're no longer next-door neighbors so our cooking opportunities are few these days.  We had a great time learning new kitchen tips and tricks from our chef-instructor and enjoyed a delicious meal with our other classmates.  I would definitely recommend a trip to Greenwood and the Viking Cooking School!  I'm hoping for a return trip to the Delta in the not-too-distant future - I have yet to find a quilt store in the area!

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.

 

Look at all those gorgeous reproduction colors!

 

There are 14 fat quarters in a wide array of 19th century colors and patterns.  No worries about green calicoes now, or chrome yellow.

 

The collection also includes a stripe...

 

Some faux applique frames suitable for labels...

 

And some "cheater" applique blocks!

I think the Stars in a Time Warp blocks are the perfect way to start using this wonderful fabric collection!