Reproduction Reds

Block from a quilt in Stella Rubin's inventory

We'll be stitching some conventional wreaths over the year in our Herbarium Block of the Month.

You may want to use traditional colors and reproduction prints, which (sigh!) are in short supply.

1852 from Fourth Corner Molly's inventory

Whether plain or printed, reds in the right shade are hard to come by lately.

And it's really a problem of chemistry. We'd like a red with a little blue in it like the red on the right. Others are too dark or too orange. But the red with a little blue in it is a difficult shade to obtain with dyes today. It's the red that bleeds so always test your reds with a soak and a piece of white fabric to see if they bleed.

However, we fabric designers march on with our reds unfurled,

giving  you reds that won't bleed..

Ladies' Legacy, the most recent repro line I designed for Moda, had two green prints and several reds that might be perfect for your Herbarium. The collection came out during the pandemic so there is still some waiting for you in stores like the Fat Quarter Shop. 

https://www.fatquartershop.com/nsearch/?q=ladies+legacy

https://www.vintageandvogue.com/Ladies-Legacy-by-Barbara-Brackman-s/2214.htm

Or do a web search for Ladies' Legacy Moda.

There are plenty of reds out there.

The most accurate for our 1850s period are probably those printed with small figures

arranged in a foulard or half drop repeat pattern.

Like this print drawn from the Ladies' Legacy model

quilt from New York's Cooper Union art school during the

Civil War.

More on foulards:

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2015/04/stars-in-time-warp-12-foulards.html