Textiles and the Triplett Sisters

Williamsburg, Virginia was founded in 1632 and in 1698 was designated as the capital of the English Colony. It received a royal charter in 1722 and was the center of political activity before and during the revolution with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry debating many of the important topics of the day such as taxes and inalienable rights to name a few. Colonial Williamsburg as we know it now was the idea of Reverend William Archer Rutherfoord Goodwin a rector of the historic Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg. He began raising funds for the restoration of the church in 1907, and later in 1924 approached John D. Rockefeller Jr. with the idea of restoring other parts of the town. Rockefeller agreed and thus began a series of coded telegrams with Goodwin acting as Rockefeller’s...

In an earlier blog, I mentioned that there was a Chintz exhibition at the Nantes Quilt Show we attended. We write about Chintz quite a bit because we love it, so I thought I would make do with the few shots in the earlier blog post. However, this week we ran onto an amazing array of reproduction fabrics, which reminded me of the fabrics of Provence. So, I decided I wasn’t done with the Nantes Quilt Show. Several people from the Association of Tresors, Patrimoine etoffes of Marseille gave a presentation on the quilts and costumes of the 18th and 19th century Provence. The organization was nice enough to provide an exhibition of the clothing as well as wear authentic clothing. Although I can’t imagine trying to go about daily tasks dressed in these outfits, not...

The Houston International Quilt Festival has a large hall for of a variety of exhibits each year. This year one of the exhibits displayed reproductions of 19th and early 20th century masterpiece quilts made with reproductions fabrics. The biennial event was sponsored by the France Patchwork nonprofit organization, one of the largest member organizations in the European Quilt Association. With more than 12,500 members, I suspect selecting the 30 quilts for the exhibition was difficult. Each quilt artist selects a quilt which inspired the reproduction. It is a wonderful bonus for the exhibition viewers when the quilter cites the specific inspiration quilt, which allows for additional learning and comparison. It is often difficult for the casual observer to know the antique from the new quilt from photographs, as the reproductions are usually to close to the...

One last adventure from Netherlands...until next year. After leaving the amazing chintz exhibition in Leeuwarden, we traveled to Zutphen, a historic city existing from Roman times. It received the official city designation in 1190 and still has wonderful architecture to see. One of the oldest libraries in Netherlands, with the oldest and rarest books...however, don’t plan on getting to walk in and see the ancient books. Instead simply gape at the architecture. Zutphen was also where we visited our second De Hann & Wagenmakers quilt shop. I needed to pick up some Dutch Heritage fabric for my quilt Tree of Life: Netherlands, a quilt I’ve designed to remind me of my wonderful time in The Netherlands. However, the real adventure planned for the day was a visit to Quilt it & Dotty quilt shop in Overloon...

A while back I mentioned we’d be starting a non-consecutive series on using artistic principals to use reproduction fabrics in a contemporary quilt. The first element I wrote about was Deconstruction.  However, several people told me it was really the use of color that made it contemporary, not my structure.  So, that seemed like the perfect topic for the next article.   Usually when working with reproduction fabrics, the textile designer tries to replicate the colors originally seen in that period quilt.  Frequently a lot of browns are used and a sepia tint is even given to other brighter colors to give those colors “age.” Remember that some chemical dyes turn brown over time, particularly if fugitive. Note the colors in this reproduction palampore by Mary Koval available for purchase in our etsy shop.  It’s beautiful...