Textiles and the Triplett Sisters

After more than 2 years because of Covid cancellations, the annual Zieber Quilt History Retreat was finally able to meet again. This year the theme was Viva La France, with guest speaker Sandy Sutton and her textiles. Besides being an avid textile and quilt collector, her son lives in the Alsace region of France, which means she has lots of opportunities to acquire the textiles there. We started the retreat with an examination of "Toile de Jouy" or cloth from Jouy-en-Josas a town/suburb SW of Paris. (Note, when purchasing the train ticket to visit, be sure you use the full name of the town. When Kay and I visited the site, I almost got arrested/thrown off the train because she’d accidently purchased my ticket incorrectly for Jouy. Thankfully the train conductor took pity on me when...

When did the use of quilt blocks originate? Is it American in origin? When I was teaching a workshop in the Netherlands, I was asked this question, and I didn’t know the answer. Sometimes these questions provide me with a new research topic. One museum expert that was present at the class stated it was American in origin. Another person thought it began about mid-19th century with the Baltimore Album Quilts. I wanted data before making any statements. Occasionally I’ve looked for academic articles about the topic or read history of quilting books to see their answers. I’ve never written about it because I never really felt I had a solid answer. I decided the best way to get the answer was to track quilts by date. Then the answer wouldn’t be about “best guess.” Barbara...

The story of indigo has a long history, parts which aren’t always acknowledged. India and Japan have long been acknowledged for their contributions to cultivation and use of indigo. Kay and I tried to shed light on the African contribution to the story of indigo in our book Indigo Quilts from the Poos Collection. If you aren’t familiar with this book, here is a link to learn more. Now it is time to add Peru to the story or perhaps it would be more accurate to say “add it back into” the story of indigo. Archaeologists at the Huaca Prieta ceremonial mound site have uncovered scraps of indigo dyed fabric. These multiple scraps of fabric are believed to be about 6,200 years old and place a new date on indigo used on still intact fabric. Prior...

This is our final blog on the American Military Textiles, and it focuses on the pictorial style. To date three pictorial American Military textiles have been uncovered. The earliest is a table cover from Vevay, Indiana and depicts events from the founding of Vevay by Swiss immigrants. Research on this table cover is what inspired research into this group of textiles. Initially added to the Poos Collection in 2015, we connected with Annette Gero for guidance on this pictorial. Annette immediately identified the two panels associated with the story of Wilhelm Tell. From there, The Triplett Sisters continued the hunt to find an early Swiss Colony in America which matched the 41 different scenes detailed in the table cover. For detailed information on this textile please see our book “Hidden Treasures” at this link. The Civil...

Continuing our exploration of Geometric military textiles, we’ll start with the Wool In-laid Patchwork Quilt Top composed of wool broadcloth, printed wools, cotton corduroy, silk plush, and other wools used in men’s clothing, with the red and blue fabrics are thought to be from military uniforms. Barnet Kobler, who served in the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment, stated in his application for pension that he made uniforms for the troops during the American Revolution and some fabrics could be from revolutionary uniforms. However, since most of these fabrics date from the 1790s, many of the military fabrics are more likely militia not from the Revolutionary War. Additionally, even though the quilt top is called an “inlaid patchwork,” also known as intarsia, on closer examination the quilt is constructed using a variety of techniques. Traditional piecing and applique are...