Star + Conventional Applique = A New Look


Large central star quilts changed when applique fashions changed in the 1840s.
The rather frilly cut-out chintz details became old-fashioned, replaced by an interest in the bolder Pennsylvania-German style florals
Red and green applique began to dominate in that decade.
Providing a clue to date...if the applique is conventional applique rather than cut-out chintz (Broderie Perse) the quilt probably dates from 1840 or later.
Lucy Shephard Loomis, dated 1852, Massachusetts from With Heart and Hands

Often the quilt artist chose a conventional block for the empty spaces, here a Whig Rose or Rose of Sharon
A lovely combination of oak leaf and reel in indigo prints from the collection of the International Quilt Study Center.

Some Baltimore-ish looking corners and edges.
Carolina Lilies
A nicely balanced piece.
Perfection: From the Pilgrim-Roy collection on display at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
These work so well it's surprising there are not more.
Teddy Pruett is holding a crib quilt with the star on a different axis.
A silk quilt by Hannah Smith of Brooklyn in the collection of the Kansas City Museum, about 1851
The patriotic theme is a subcategory.
Prussian blues and rainbow prints----wow!


Some are more organized than others.... This one is dated 1858-1923 by the Shephard/Temple family

An old black and white picture from the morgue of the Baltimore Sun
As the 19th century passed we see new trends.
From RickRack Quilts More color in the background...
From the cover of the California project book Ho for California.... These intense backgrounds were in favor in southeastern Pennsylvania from the 1870s into the 20th century.

Mennonite quilt with Princess Feathers corners From Woodward and Greenstein http://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/folk-art/quilts/pieced-applique-quilt-star-princess-feathers/id-f_344764/
The star here is pieced of the new shades of the 20th century, claret red, indigo, gray and black. You don't often see these calicoes combined with applique. As they were coming into fashion, applique was going out.
Except among the various Pennsylvania-German communities.

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