Prairie Quilts | Discovering A Quilt's Secrets

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Discovering A Quilt's Secrets

Quilt historians are part curator, part artist, part detective. Jenny Yearous of the State Historical Society of North Dakota gave Prairie Quilts some expert advice on how you can unlock the secrets of your heirloom quilts. Click on any picture for a larger view.

Fabric patterns can be distinctive and many are well documented. This fabric is called a "double pink" which gets its name from the two-toned red color combination. It is a type of fabric called a "conversation print" - a name used for any design composed of figures, animals, or botanicals. Some were whimsical, some are realistic. The combination of color and pattern can help pinpoint the era in which a fabric was manufactured. Contact your local library, bookstore, or museum for textile reference guides.

Faded fabrics give clues that help you date their manufacture. This gray and brown fabric was probably once blue and black. Blue dyes used before 1890 were very prone to light damage and become gray within a few years. Later blues held their color better. The amount of fading in this once blue fabric hints that it is pre-1890. The clincher is the brown. True black was not available until the 1900s - fabrics before this date used very dark brown instead.

Here's another giveaway of a quilt age. The foliage on these applique French Roses is blue. But to the original quilter, the fabric would have appeared to be a lovely green. Green dye was not available until the turn of the century. Prior to this, green fabric was created by dying it blue and then overdying it with yellow to achieve a green. On this piece, the yellow dye faded in time leaving behind the first blue color applied to the fabric.

There's one test you can make to authenticate an old quilt - a black light. In the 1950s textile makers began to use chemicals in the manufacturing process to improve the appearance of white fabric. (remember the old whiter than white advertising slogans?) The chemicals they used shine under a black light. In this picture you can see how vividly the white quilting thread glows while the surrounding fabric doesn't - a sure fire give away that the thread was made after 1950. So it turns out that what the owner thought was a quilt made in the 1930s was only a quilt top for 20 years and was quilted much later. There was also one block with a few pieces that were suspicious (see the upper right). It's possible that a patch was made at a later time, either with a reproduction fabric or with a 30s fabric that had been laundered with 1950s detergent.

Patterns can give you many clues to a quilts age. If you see a Dresden Plate, you know you've got a quilt made after the 1930s. Redwork quilts like this one were very popular in the 1920s. Crazy quilting was popular at the turn of the century. Sunbonnet Sue was a 1950s phenomena. A good quilt encyclopedia can help you identify the names of patterns and dates when they were popular.

So, you've done your research on the pattern, checked the fabric reference guides, looked at wear and fading clues and think you have a pretty good idea when a quilt was made. What next? Jenny suggest you make a label recording all this information and attach it securely to the back of the quilt. This will keep the information with the quilt and ensure that future owners know about their treasure.