Description:
Wholecloth blue and white, resist-printed, cotton and flax blend quilt (both warp and weft woven with a density of 56 [warp] x 44 [weft] threads per inch) with a large-scale, floral pattern in two shades of blue on a white ground, and pieced at one end with a different blue resist fabric (some patches show three shades of blue); a cream-colored, looser-woven crepe wool backing patched with matching wool crepe fabric; and mainly blue-dyed, wool batting. The quilting is done in a chevron design in rows of stitching spaced about 1/2" apart at 8 quilting stitches per inch. The indigo-resist pattern (known in the 18th century as paste work) was made by applying wax, starch, or (later) a chemical paste in the desired pattern to white fabric. When the fabric was dipped into the indigo bath, the paste "resisted" the dye, leaving the "waxed" fabric white. In this example, the wax was reapplied within each design to make multiple shades of blue; when the cloth dipped again, those areas not covered by the wax became an even deeper blue. Linda Eaton, Director of Collections and Curator of Collections (May 14, 2011), said that the face fabric is probably English, but could also be American; there is some evidence of a Long Island, New York, connection to this kind of printed fabric. Eaton notes that the blue indigo-dye was cheap and that indigo-dyed fabric not terribly expensive. She also suggests that the lighter blue may be the result of a discharge or bleaching process rather than a multi-step vat dyeing. The wool batting, which appears undyed in some areas of loss in the face fabric, and dyed blue in others, suggests that the quilt was made in England or America since Indian-made quilts used cotton batting. See also quilt, HD F.005.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+F.087 |
