Quilt History
Quilt historians love making lists, finding coincidences, and tracking women's lives. Check this page for information about the history of quilts and fabric plus free patterns for reproduction quilts.
Quilt Detective Email Newsletter: "Prints, Colors & Dyes".
In November 2009 I'll begin a new digital newsletter. Quilt historians and collectors will want this year's update to my Clues in the Calico book. For subscription information click here:
Quilt Detective Information.
And click here for a free sample of the first issue.
Sample Issue.
Free Patterns for Civil War Reproduction Quilts
Barbara Brackman's Clues in the Calico
America's Earliest Printers
John Hewson's Legend
John Hewson's Life
Links to see Hewson Fabric & Quilts
America's Earliest Quilts
Free Patterns for Jane Austen-era Needlework
Free Patterns for Civil War Reproduction Quilts
One of most common questions I am asked is:
"What's a Period Pattern for a Civil War Quilt?"
I have written numerous books about this very topic but I have some free patterns here that you can download. Several were designed for my past Moda repro fabric collections but they will work with any Civil War reproduction prints. Click on the links.
The Album quilt makes good use of Moda's 2-1/2" JellyRoll® strips: New England Album.
Mary Madden made the Freestate Album on the left.
The old Broken Dishes design is appropriate for any 19th-century reproduction look:
Broken Crockery. Jerrye VanLeer made the mini-quilt on the right.
America's Printed Fabrics 1790-1890 is my book with the most comprehensive information about reproduction quilts in the 19th century. It's out-of-print and retailers are running out of copies, but you should still be able to find a copy for the list price of $29.95.
Barbara Brackman's Clues in the Calico
If you are interested in the history of America's earliest quilts and fabric you will want to subscribe to my e-Club at C&T Publishing. Every month subscribers get a chapter about the history of fabric prints and quilt style plus a pattern for a border or two for a medallion quilt. The annual subscription price is $19.95 and you can always download back issues. Click here for a preview and subscription information. Clues in the Calico.
America's Earliest Printers
Click here to download a PDF with a list of America's earliest calico printers, artisans found in 18th-century newspaper advertisements. 18th Century Printers.
Click here to download biographies of a few of those printers with suggestions for further research.
Calico Printer Biographies.
John Hewson's Legend
Click here to download a PDF with an analysis of John Hewson's Legend as "America's First Calico Printer." John Hewson's Legend.
John Hewson's Life
Click on this PDF file to download a biography I've written about John Hewson, the Philadelphia printer. Hewson's Life.
Links to see Hewson Fabric & Quilts
I've been studying John Hewson, the woodblock printer who worked in Philadelphia from 1774 to about 1810. A few textiles with his prints are viewable online. Click on the underlined words to see them.
Block printed bedcover in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
PMA Bedcover.
Quilt by Zebiah Hewson in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. PMA Z.Hewson.
Block-printed panel in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Met Panel.
Quilt with panel in the collection of the St. Louis Art Museum.
SLAM Quilt.
Quilt with panel in the collection of the Museum of the Daughters of the American Revolution. DAR Quilt.
Quilt with applique borders donated to the Smithsonian by Patricia Smith Melton. SAM Quilt.
Quilt with patchwork borders in collection of the Museum of American Folk Art. MAFA Quilt.
Cut-out chintz quilt in collection of the Winterthur Museum. WM Quilt.
Quilt dated 1848 by Elizabeth Hart in the collection of the Spencer Museum of Art. SMA Hart Quilt.
Appliqued counterpane with some Hewson fabric in collection of the Winterthur Museum (scroll down almost to bottom.) WM Tree Quilt.
The bird print is by John Hewson, from the collection of the Winterthur Museum.
America's Earliest Quilts
I've been making lists of quilts before 1820 with the date actually inscribed on them. These earliest quilts show us how style and pattern evolved. You can download or print out PDFs of these lists by clicking here:
18th Century Quilts
1800-1810 Quilts
1811-1820 Quilts
Free Patterns for Jane Austen-era Needlework
Hartfield Fabric
Hartfield is a 2009 collection I designed for Moda that echoes early 19th-century England. Fans of Jane Austen's novels will recognize Hartfield as the home of Emma Woodhouse, the matchmaking heroine of Emma. Each print is named for an English estate featured in her novels such as Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park.
The Regency-era reproductions evoke the time when fashionable cotton prints were called muslins and the Bennet girls could only be distracted from eyeing the handsome soldiers by "a really new muslin in a shop window."
--Moda offers a free pattern for a Hartfield Medallion.
--A period miniquilt pattern:
Irish Chain
--A "Scrappy Sawtooth" pieced of the Layer Cake and Charm Square precuts:
Scrappy Sawtooth
--Period Needlework for Jane Austen fans:
Dressed Picture
Needlebook
--A pieced and appliqued traditional British Manor House block that you can substitute for the central block in the Hartfield Medallion Pattern :
Manor House Pattern.
Manor House Mockup.
--The blogger in "A Quilting Life" has put together a Charm Pack of Hartfield and a little rick-rack to make a table topper. Click here to see it:
Table Topper.