Textiles and the Triplett Sisters

One of the joys in quilting are the many techniques and choices to make. You can take a taste of all or focus on a few; it is whatever makes your heart sing as you create your art. I love what is commonly known as English Paper Piecing. (I’m still advocating for the name “Italian Paper Piecing” since the oldest known example of paper piecing is the Imprunetta cushion from the 15th century. If you’d like to see the pillow, here is a link to the blog about it.) So far, the Triplett Sisters have done 3 Block of the Months: 1856 Huguenot Friendship Quilt, The Wedding Quilt, and Bird in a Lace Cage. (We called them Block of the Month’s because we focus on a block every month, but everyone is encouraged to work at...

Somerset is a county in the South West of England by Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Dorset and Devon. . Parts of the area were settled very early, with bones dating to 12,000 BCE. It comes from an Old English name “Sumorsaete meaning the people living dependent on Somerton.” The first known use of the name is in the law code of King Ine, a Saxon King from 688 to 726, which makes Somerset one of the oldest existing units of local government. The Quakers established a “Meeting” in Somerset in 1656, eventually establishing a meeting house and during the 1700s the town became predominantly Quaker. In 2015 a suitcase was discovered in the attic of this Quaker town, which had more than 70 fabrics from the mid-1800s. According to Anne Varley, the owner of the antique fabric stash...

My sister continues to shovel as additional snowstorms come her way. However, I’m so thankful that Spring is coming to my area. Jonquils and narcissus are blooming with the magnolia tree showing color, which means that it’s time for a Spring update. My quilt designs are definitely turning springlike with birds, blooms, and butterflies. So, stay tuned to Saturday Sampler to see more of those. I’ll also be adding some Spring colors in reproduction fabric (vintage and new) to the Etsy shop to help with these Spring designs. The Triplett Sisters Block of the Month is full of birds and blooms with some choosing to add butterflies. We’re just getting started on this BOM and everyone is invited to work at their own pace, so please don’t hesitate to join us. You will also see this...

Several blogs back I wrote contemplating whether there might be a regional style of chintz quilts associated with Philadelphia. If you don’t remember the blog, here is the link to re-read or look at those glorious quilts again. I decided I wasn’t done with this topic and needed to share more. I’m working on a mini-database of these quilts. I’d love to identify specific characteristics, a specific block or even fabric that wasn’t readily available elsewhere that would allow me to note “possible Philly” connection even without the provenance. (Okay, it’s a goal, who knows if it will work out.) I’m continuing to pull more quilts together that fit the Philadelphia style to create a database and to inspire others to make these again. (You know who you are!) If you are aware of an antique...

It seems like many textile people have a strong feeling about printed patchwork, they either love it and collect it or they hate it and consider it a cheat way to make a quilt. Hence the nickname of cheater cloth which according to Barbara Brackman was used for the first time in print in 1910 by “America’s Textile Reporter.” In 1929 Ruth Finley’s “Old Patchwork Quilts” book refers to this style of fabric as Faux Patchwork and Geometrical Chintz, a term still in use at the Winterthur Museum. Surprisingly “patchwork prints” the phrase used in the 19th century ads has been around since the mid-18th century, according to Deborah E. Kraak’s paper in Uncoverings.While the “pretend patchwork” seems to have been popular in the 1830s-1840s, the Centennial Exposition of 1876 caused an explosion in the printed...