America's Quilting History
Red & White:
by Deborah Harding |
Discover a delightful variety of information about how redwork embroidery fit into the ideal of the domestic woman at the turn of the last century. It gives an interesting history of redwork including where patterns were found and how the designs were stamped. It also includes information on the stitches used as well as the influences that brought about the popularity of redwork.
Harding gives us a great feel for the times by sharing advertisements like the following one that was used by the "Germania Stamping Outfit" close to the end of the 19th century.
"We herewith offer our lady patrons a new and Original Stamping Outfit that excels all others heretofore sold, in the beauty and originality of its designs, as well as in their large size and usefulness. This outfit contains such a large and varied collection of designs, that any artistically inclined housewife will find abundant material for the decoration of her cozy home: and any lady who contemplates doing stamping for others, would find in this outfit alone, sufficient designs to satisfy an extensive patronage, and thereby earn a large sum at a very small outlay." p19
The book includes many copies of advertisements from the period. You could spend a good deal of enjoyable time just looking over these ads. It's fascinating how much history can be found in old advertisements found in magazines and newspapers.
A good portion of the book introduces 20 different quilts showing wonderful pictures and close ups of each one as well as telling about each. For example Harding looks at each square of a quilt and considers where the maker found each picture. For example one picture may have come from an advertisement, another from a children's book and yet another from a catalog.
Kate Greenaway figures are scattered throughout many of the quilts. Although some of the quilts are all on one theme it is intriguing to see that many appear to be made of a modge podge of seemingly unrelated themes.
Packaged with this informative book comes a second one containing 100 patterns with detailed instructions.
© 2001 Anne Johnson (Do not reproduce any material from this site without permission.)
