January 29 – February 4, 2004
These restored messages come from the Quilt History List, an online forum where quilt historians, collectors, researchers, appraisers, and enthusiasts discussed antique quilts and related textiles. The archive dates from 1996 through approximately 2016 and is being restored gradually. Sign up in the form at the bottom of the page if you want to know when a new page is added. Original spelling, opinions, formatting, and inactive links may remain unchanged.
Primary topics of this QHL Digest:
- Reversible & Duplex-Printed Fabrics — A deep dive into double-sided 19th-century textiles, including an 1894 duplex printing machine that produced fabric printed on both faces.
- Handling Old Textiles Safely — A caution about health hazards — including arsenic-based dyes — that can lurk in antique fabric.
- Welcoming New Textile Conservators — List members introduce themselves and connect over shared work in textile conservation. (see the article on repair, restore, or conserve)
- Quilt Poetry Turns to the Presidents — Sue Reich’s column shifts to Presidents’-Day-themed poems and Lincoln-era newspaper accounts.
- “Quilts as Codes” Museum Talk Draws Pushback — A member raises concerns about a museum program presenting the Underground Railroad quilt-code story as settled fact. (see the article on quilt museums)
- Thread Weight and Embroidery Floss — Practical questions about cord-weight sewing thread and DMC embroidery floss colors.
From: “Newbie Richardson”
My brother went to St. Lawrence Univ.in way up state NY. He regularly went to class out his second story frat house window on snow shoes! Newbie
—–Original Message—– From: Jocelyn Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 1:02 AM To: Quilt History List Subject: [qhl] RE: Can anyone help me find a book…
> morning to find the cabin under deep snow, their door impossible > to open and > their cow frozen to death against the house. >
Sally, Sounds like an interesting book- I hope someone recognizes it. FWIW, the door situation can still be a problem. I had a friend who was traveling on I-70 between Topeka and Denver, and had to take refuge in a motel because the highway was closed. The next day, when he attempted to leave his room, he found that the snow was drifted chest-high against the door! One good reason for building doors that open IN, in snow country. 🙂
Date: Tue, 3 Feb | From: Marthapatches36@
To learn anything about indigo fabrics the expert is in Montana with Reproduction Fabrics. www.reproductionfabri@. The 14″ Japanese fabric you mentioned is made for kimono’s. I believe it is called Kudado cloth {subject to correction as I’m working with a 67 year old memory}. When I was living in Maylasia about 18 years ago I received a skirt made of this type fabric {not 14″}. I have also purchased some about 10 years ago in both blue and brown with different designs on each side. I may still have a scrap of that. Martha near Puget Sound
Date: Tue, 03 Feb | From: Joan Kiplinger <jkip@>
I’ve just posted Connie Ark’s quilt which has some reversible fabric to eboard. http://vintagepictures.eboard.com or http://www.eboard.com/vintagepictures [password to enter is vintagepictures] Select quilt tab. Connie — I’m not sure that information is correct or clear so you may want to embellish with date and more on the two reverse sides.
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2004 | From: <chrisa@>
I looked up the Duplex machine and it was invented in 1875 in England. Prior to that they used an “s” curve and wrapped the fabric back onto the same printing roll, but when this began is not stated. Nor is the reason for printing on both sides of the fabric, which is only more curious to me because Joyce Story states that the first Duplex machine was used only on low-quality cloth that was highly textural and completely lacking in any refinement of registration. But the fabric had to be sturdy enough to handle the process. This from Story’s book on Printing. better fabric could be used when the Aljaba rotary screenprinting machine came along in the 20th century.
She writes there were also Duplex machines used for applying resin, instead of wax, to get the batik-like look on fabric on each side.
The possibility that old fabric was reused to print on again, as Eileen suggested, brought a fabric to mind I saw in a quilt. It was a dark blue medium to large plaid on a beige and white ground. Then there were rather large fern like prints on top of that scattered about. It looked like an error, but there were several pieces of it in the quilt. Perhaps this was an example of that same idea, even though the printing was done on the same side. I was even thinking it may have been a practice piece from a mill.
Based on the two clear pictures Connie sent to me, this is what I thought- one side is very obviously the right side, with the other side looking like a backside. it is definitely another print entirely, but it looks light and not particularly purposeful as a primary fabric. I wonder if the one was printed on top of the other, again like Eileen suggests? Of course the scans are only as good as the computer and camera and scan can allow them to be. Perhaps you can say more about this Connie?
Kim
Date: Tue, 3 | From: “Laurette Carroll” <rl.carroll@>
Hello, RE: the discussion of the weighting of silk in the 1800’s. I recently came across an article on the American commercial manufacture of silk in an 1885 periodical, “Harper’s New Monthly Magazine.”
It is an interesting article of about 20 pages, with a lot of information on processing the silk, from the worm to the silk fabric. Of interest to me was the information regarding the weighting of silk with metallic substances in the 1870’s and 1880’s. The process was either incorporated into the dyeing process or was done at the time of the dyeing. The weighting was done with nitrate of iron, which could increase the weight of the fabric up to 300%. The article states …”This accounts for some of the cheapness as well as the bad wear of certain foreign fabrics which look as well at first sight as goods at a much higher price.”
It was thought that the carbon in the silk and the nitrate of iron made the silk fabrics highly combustible and dangerous…….”Which caused the North German Steam-ship Company in 1879 to refuse the weightier foreign silks.”
One has to wonder how many silk dresses made with those weighted silk fabrics caught fire while being worn!
Laurette Carroll Southern California
Look to the Future With Hope
From: “Charlotte Bull” <charloumo-net.com>
I am not at all trained in this aspect historically, but, when Eileen pointed out something this morning, a bell rang in my head! I purchased and used several dark fabrics in the mid1980s to 1990s, that were prints that were evidently redyed as a solid dark, usually black. It really seemed that they were simply using up a light print that failed in some way by redying it as a solid. It was difficult to see, until you began using it for hand piecing. Suddenly the small sprigs of “brownish” florals, looking like a faint impression, a shadow or a reflection, would pop up into view. It was not obvious. But, once you knew they were there, of course you saw them! They would not be visible in a picture! And I can’t do pictures, Sorry! No camera!
As for the double prints, what a bargain. You could buy 6 yards and use it in two different projects! Actually, a very successful quilt a friend made used the back of the fabric rather than the front. It was in a Guild Challenge and she had to use the specific fabric but she detested the pattern and strong colors. The back was blurred and softer. In the quilt it did not look at all like a mistake! It was simply the right fabric for the design and it blended in better! Sometimes we can find an accidental fabric – but it was not a double print OR an overdye! It was just a clever, but frustrated quilter!
I will go for the idea of a shawl for the silk as I recently was honored with a private showing of a shawl collection and we were amazed, even the owner, with the intricate directional designs, the borders, and both sides of the fabric. But I don’t wish to sew on silk. I’m a “dyed in the wool” %cotton quilt traditionalist! (Intended pun!)Thanks for showing me your worlds!
(And to answer your question of several days ago, Eileen, yes I do own your book! And I checked out the samples, but they were not matches. Sorry. The thicker threads were much closer together. And, once again I apologize for not doing pictures.)
Date: Wed, 04 | From: Trishherr@
I am excited to pass on the news of progress here at the Heritage Center Quilt and Textile Museum. Official opening is March 31st, 2004. We are also having a sneak preview for the quilters that come to Rita Barber’s Quilter’s Heritage Show the week before.
Our website is now up and being further developed. It does not yet come up on Google. So please visit at <www.quiltandtextilemuseum.com>.
The first exhibit features the former Esprit Lancaster Amish quilt collection. Also by mid-April our original site, the Heritage Center Cultural Museum, will open with an exhibit of Pennsylvania German textiles–some non-Amish quilts are included. They are both in the center of downtown Lancaster next to the Farmer’s market and great restaurants.
Hope many of you can come and see us. The Quilt and Textile Musuem will be open year round. The Cultural Museum is open April through December.
Trish Herr
Date: Wed, 04 Feb | From: Joan Kiplinger <jkip@>
I found an illustration of a duplex printer from 1894 on the internet and thought it might be of interest to the list. It looks humungeous. See eboard http://vintagepictures.eboard.com or http://wwww.eboard.com/vintagepictures Enter vintagepictures in box. See first tab.
During this month of The Presidents, I thought it might be of interest to share some poems and news clippings that make reference to them. This is only the first part of probably three installments. (I am only allowed 64 lines) It may seem unbelievable that something like this could have survived twenty-three years. Could it be stored away in an attic or museum even today? Just a few years ago, the Connecticut Historical Society discovered in their archives the American flag that was at Lincoln’s side in the opera box on that fateful night. sue reich
Decatur Daily Republican Decatur, Illinois April 26, 1888
LINCOLN’S DEATH BED; ITS SCENES GRAPHICALLY DESCRIBED BY AN EYE WITNESS.
The Blood Stained Pillows and Quilt. Unpublished Incidents of Lincoln’s Last Hours Told by the Son of the Owner of the House in Which He Died.
Washington, April 16– I held in my hands last night some of the most ghastly relics of the history of our country. These were two plain pillow cases, stained with bold and clotted with brains. They were yellow with age, and the crimson of the blood had faded, but the great stains had dyed nearly the whole of the pillows, and where the brains had oozed out the cloth was thick and matted. I handled also a blood stained quilt, which was originally a beautiful piece of Irish worsted work, and the colors of which, strange to say, were red, white and blue. The blood was spattered over this quilt as over the pillows, and the purple stains had discolored its beauty. I examined the stains carefully, and though I shuddered I looked again and again at the ghastly sight. And it is worth looking at, too, for it was on these clothes that Abraham Lincoln, just twenty-three years ago last Sunday breathed his last. These clots of brains helped to work out the problems of the late war, and that dark red blood fed the heart of the kindest president the United States has known. A straight young man of medium height, with a pleasant face, stood by me as I looked nud, taking the clothes, showed me here and there the spots where the president had laid. This young man was the son of the owner of the house in which Lincoln died. He was a well grown by when the assassination took place, and he is now, I judge, about 40 years of age. His name is Peterson, and he was 16 years old when the assassination took place. “On this-pillow case,” said he, “President Lincoln lay when he was first brought in, but it soon saturated with blood, and Secretary Scranton asked me for another. I brought him this” (taking up the second), “and on this he dies. “The scenes are fresh now as if they had happened but yesterday. I was home for my Easter vacation, and my father lived in the brick house just opposite Ford’s theatre. This theatre was then the leading one of Washington, and a box was always reserved for Lincoln. I was well acquainted with the theatre people, and I knew the ins and outs well. Lincoln attended the theatre often, and he was surprised one time to see young Tad on the stage, dressed up to represent one of the minor characters. He did not know him at first, but his actions seemed strangely familiar, and when he saw who it was he burst into a ha! ha! which called the attention of the house to his box. To be continued:
From: Sue Reich
During this month of The Presidents, I thought it might be of interest to share some poems and news clippings that make reference to them. This is only the first part of probably three installments. (I am only allowed 64 lines) It may seem unbelievable that something like this could have survived twenty-three years. Could it be stored away in an attic or museum even today? Just a few years ago, the Connecticut Historical Society discovered in their archives the American flag that was at Lincoln’s side in the opera box on that fateful night. sue reich
Decatur Daily Republican Decatur, Illinois April 26, 1888
LINCOLN’S DEATH BED; ITS SCENES GRAPHICALLY DESCRIBED BY AN EYE WITNESS.
The Blood Stained Pillows and Quilt. Unpublished Incidents of Lincoln’s Last Hours Told by the Son of the Owner of the House in Which He Died.
Washington, April 16– I held in my hands last night some of the most ghastly relics of the history of our country. These were two plain pillow cases, stained with bold and clotted with brains. They were yellow with age, and the crimson of the blood had faded, but the great stains had dyed nearly the whole of the pillows, and where the brains had oozed out the cloth was thick and matted. I handled also a blood stained quilt, which was originally a beautiful piece of Irish worsted work, and the colors of which, strange to say, were red, white and blue. The blood was spattered over this quilt as over the pillows, and the purple stains had discolored its beauty. I examined the stains carefully, and though I shuddered I looked again and again at the ghastly sight. And it is worth looking at, too, for it was on these clothes that Abraham Lincoln, just twenty-three years ago last Sunday breathed his last. These clots of brains helped to work out the problems of the late war, and that dark red blood fed the heart of the kindest president the United States has known. A straight young man of medium height, with a pleasant face, stood by me as I looked nud, taking the clothes, showed me here and there the spots where the president had laid. This young man was the son of the owner of the house in which Lincoln died. He was a well grown by when the assassination took place, and he is now, I judge, about 40 years of age. His name is Peterson, and he was 16 years old when the assassination took place. “On this-pillow case,” said he, “President Lincoln lay when he was first brought in, but it soon saturated with blood, and Secretary Scranton asked me for another. I brought him this” (taking up the second), “and on this he dies. “The scenes are fresh now as if they had happened but yesterday. I was home for my Easter vacation, and my father lived in the brick house just opposite Ford’s theatre. This theatre was then the leading one of Washington, and a box was always reserved for Lincoln. I was well acquainted with the theatre people, and I knew the ins and outs well. Lincoln attended the theatre often, and he was surprised one time to see young Tad on the stage, dressed up to represent one of the minor characters. He did not know him at first, but his actions seemed strangely familiar, and when he saw who it was he burst into a ha! ha! which called the attention of the house to his box. To be continued:
Date: Wed, 04 Feb 2004 | From: tracy jamar <tjamaroptonline.net>
“Manufacturers gave in to consumer demands for more rustle to taffeta but mostly as a way to recoup loss of serin, a natural wax, during silk manufacturing. Weighting added any body weight lost and therefore would sell for higher price per lb…..”
I also understand it was to give silk added body and stiffness so it would hold it’s shape in garments, especially important when the style of the large mutton shaped sleeves were in vogue. If the fabric could be light weight and yet have lots of body one could have voluminous sleeves and boodles of gathers without the bulk.
Tracy Jamar
Date: Wed, 04 Feb 2004 | From: Joan Kiplinger <jkip@>
Tracy — yes, there were many reasons for weighting; consumers loved the rustle of taffeta so more weighting added that much more scroop. I believe it was Laurette who mentioned silk was weighted as much as 300% by some manufacturers. For the most part mutton sleeves also had caps of fine organdy or other lightweight stiffenings to keep sleeve gathers perky and voluminous and from drooping as just silk alone would not retain shape for any length of time. These caps were also used with other fibers.
tracy jamar wrote:
> I also understand it was to give silk added body and stiffness so it > would hold it’s shape in garments, especially important when the style > of the large mutton shaped sleeves were in vogue. If the fabric could > be light weight and yet have lots of body one could have voluminous > sleeves and boodles of gathers without the bulk.
From: Laura Syler <texas_quilt.co@>
Charlotte, As a former quilt shop owner, I can verify that during the early 80’s they were indeed overdying mis-printed fabrics. We used to do a lot of Amish classes and everyone was always amazed at how many “black” tones there were! Isn’t it fun?
Laura Hobby Syler back on QHL after a loooonnng absence!!! – yeah! Certified Appraiser of Quilted Textiles Quilt Restoration Specialist Richardson, Texas
Charlotte Bull wrote:
> I am not at all trained in this aspect historically, but, when Eileen > pointed out something this morning, a bell rang in my head! I purchased > and used several dark fabrics in the mid1980s to 1990s, that were prints > that were evidently redyed as a solid dark, usually black. It really > seemed that they were simply using up a light print that failed in some > way by redying it as a solid. It was difficult to see, until you began > using it for hand piecing. Suddenly the small sprigs of “brownish” > florals, looking like a faint impression, a shadow or a reflection, > would pop up into view. It was not obvious.
