Stars in a Time Warp 21: Neat Stripes

Reproduction star by Becky Brown with three neat stripe prints

Vintage star about 1875---three stripes

Stripes for figure and background, about 1880.

Subtle stripes make great period backgrounds for your stars.

Two neat stripes.

Reproduction star by Bettina Havig

The fabrics were often referred to as "neat stripe effects," as in the fashion note for wools below.

"desirable spring shades, especially old rose and wisteria...The cutting-up trade has taken large quantities of these shades in neat stripe effects of ladies' suits."

1916

1909

Men's ties in "pearl gray, green and red, helio, lilac,

Alice blue, old rose, magenta, catawba and coral in small, neat stripe patterns."

Reproduction by Bettina Havig

Neat stripes were part of the men's wear

look that was so popular in the 1890-1920 period.

Vintage star about 1910

Portrait in a fussy-cut striped dress.

about 1870-90

The neatest stripe I'd guess is just a

hard-edged, alternate dark and light.

The basic stripe of color on white was quite 

popular in the 1870-1900 era.

Don't let the Nile green fool you into thinking the block is 1930s---mint green stripes were popular in the 1870s.

Fussy cut stripes,

Mother with children, maybe the 1870s

You need simple stripes in your repro stash whatever time period interests you.

Block from about 1820-1840

Stripe of dots in a quilt dated 1823

Block from about 1820-1840

Many stripes had pattern in them but

there was a hard-edged, rather neat quality to them.

Block from about 1840-1860

Look for neat stripes in all colors.

Reproduction star by Becky Brown with a neat stripe

of double pink

Block from about 1870-1890 

Pinks and...

particularly madders, which were the rage in the 1870s.

Log cabin backing about 1870-1890

We can contrast the neat stripes to serpentine stripes

Quilt from about 1800-1830

Rainbow stripes,

Quilt from about 1820-1840

And border stripes.

Repro border stripe from my Civil War Homefront collection

Border stripes are larger scale than neat stripes.

Railroad Crossing repro quilt by Roseanne Smith with the red version

of the large stripe as the mitered border.

Reproduction by Bettina Havig

A neat stripe---or is it a chintz in a striped set?

Either way it's a good repro look.

The light background stripe has that excentric look

of a mechanical drawing. (See last week.)

You need all sizes of stripes.

Krissy's Antique Stars

A reproduction kit from Petra Prins's shop

http://www.petraprinspatchwork.com/c-2614629/quilt-kits-reproduction-fabrics/

Rainbow stripes, serpentine stripes and larger border stripes each had a limited heyday, but neat stripes are found throughout the century.

Neat stripes and California gold in a vintage block.

You know how careful we are at matching stripes.

Forget it!

Vintage star about 1880

Vintage star, about 1850

Reproductions

Ann in her Notes From the Quilt Lab blog showed her

reproduction (on the right) of a faded four patch.

Stripes aplenty.

Becky fussy-cut a star of triangles to get this neat effect.

See Bettina's version above

Becky says, "I love stripes, because of their endless design possibilities, so it was difficult to narrow it down."

A neat madder stripe I did in my 1862 Battle Hymn three years ago.

My latest Moda collection has a neat stripe called Frederick

Reproduction block By Becky Brown

Moda's Collection for a Cause: Community, in shops now.

Paula Barnes, Border Companions

Two by Nancy Gere

And two by MollyB in Victoria's Violets

Moda---the light stripe is woven, the dark printed.

What to Do with Your Stack of Star Blocks?

Frame each with a larger star.

6-inch star inside a 12-inch star

The star inside a star design is an old one, first published as Stars and Squares by the Ladies Art Company pattern company about 1890. Ruth Finley called it Rising Star in 1929.

It's #2167 in BlockBase. Below are the instructions for the outer star.

A-Cut 4 squares 3-1/2"

B-Cut 1 square 7-1/4"

Cut into 4 triangles with two cuts.

C-Cut 4 squares 3-7/8"

Cut each into 2 triangles with a single diagonal cut.

16 stars finishing to 12" will give you a 48" square quilt

This triple star also has a BlockBase number: #3993

You could just go on and on....

One More Thing About Stripes

Stripes have a deep cultural context, according to Michel Pastoureau, a French scholar with a background in medievalism. In his 2001 book The Devil’s Cloth: A History of Stripes and Striped Fabric he noted that stripes long held negative connotations in European culture as the identifying fabric of the outcast----prisoners, slaves and prostitutes.

A French Revolutionary in radical dress.

A woman in striped pants and a red liberty cap

Attitudes changed with the American and French Revolutions at the end of the eighteenth century, when stripes became an important symbol of the new societies. The first American flag, 13 red and white stripes, and France's Liberty cap, a striped knitted hat,  symbolized the lowly, indicating a sense of fraternity and equality.

Note the striped liberty cap on the right side

of this Baltimore Album block

Stripes came to symbolize the avant-garde and moved up the social ladder to the world of the upper class always eager for novel design. 

Fashion plate from the 1830s

Vertical stripes can be figure flattering---but that sleeve fashion.....

Here's a sneak peek at a neat stripe repro that will be

in my late-fall 2015 collection.

Sales reps will be showing Old Cambridge Pike to shop owners

next month.