Stars in a Time Warp 6: Double Pink

Reproduction star in double pink prints

by Becky Brown

Block from a quilt dated 1837-1838

from the collection of the Concord Museum in Massachusetts.

Vintage quilt about 1870-1900 by Alwilda Stevens Hurd from

the Massachusetts project. Picture from the Quilt Index.

Double pinks in tops from my collection.

Pink printed cottons were popular throughout 19th century.

Vintage child's dress from Augusta Auctions

Vintage quilt about 1870-1900

Vintage quilt about 1840-1900

Vintage quilt about 1840-1900

Dyers often referred to the pink prints as Double Pink

because two shades of madder red were printed on a white ground.

I found an ad for Double Pink Prints (5 c. a yard) in a

1911 issue of a Hendersonville, North Carolina newspaper

called The French Broad Hustler. (Meanings change over time!)

The image is from the Library of Congress's excellent site Chronicling America.

You can see the white background in the center of the star flowers,

one pink is the background, the second pink is the figures.

Technical writer Jean-Francois Persoz showed this swatch in his 1846 book on dyeing and printing,

labeling it Rose Double in French [Double Pink]. The printed plaid is two shades of pink with none

of the white showing through, making for a bright print.

Reproduction star by Bettina Havig

Vintage block 1836

Lydia Maria Child's star crib quilt looks like a single pink.

The more white ground that shows, the paler the pink.

Paler pinks

One observation is that earlier pinks (before 1860)

tended to be paler than later pinks (after 1880)

but that's an observation. No data.

Reproduction: Hartfield---When I did this

Jane Austen line years ago I wanted

a pale double pink to reflect early 19th-century taste.

Reproduction: It's easy to see the two pinks in this reproduction: 

Moda's Collection for a Cause Legacy

Reproduction: Becky Brown used a pink from Terry Thompson's 

Merchant's Wife to offset the Prussian blue fabrics from the same line.

Reproduction star by me atop vintage stars

I love this double pink print in the center block but it's too pale to match

the blocks I was intending to copy.

Reproduction star by me

The lighter pinks are easy to find. The more vivid shades are scarcer. You should probably buy a yard when you see one that looks accurate. If your shop carries quite a few buy 3 or 4 fat quarters instead. The look is often scrappy rather than one print carried throughout the quilt.

Vintage quilt about 1880-1910

Pale or vivid, the pinks were printed with the same chemistry and process: 

Two shades of red on white. 

(Why pale red is always called pink in English

is a linguistic mystery to me.)

Vintage quilt about 1880-1900

The less white remaining in the final print, the more vivid the color.

Today people call that bright pink by many names. Cinnamon Pink is one.

Quilt dated 1905

Pinks were popular for setting squares

Fabric mills continued producing vivid pinks into the 20th century. Pennsylvanians were loyal customers. The Little Jane Chintz above, what I'd call a calico, doesn't seem too colorfast, having

bled into the label.

Vintage top about 1900

Pennsylvania Germans used double pinks without a neutral.

Or maybe pink was their neutral?

Reproductions

Inspiration vintage block (top left) and reproduction by me.

The 2 pink repros on the bottom are by Judie Rothermel,

the top Collections for a Cause: Legacy.

Look for two shades of pink with or without

some white showing through.

Collections for a Cause: Community

should be in shops soon.

Floral Gatherings has accurate double pinks and chrome yellows.

Reproduction quilt by Betsy Chutchian, who

does a great job of interpreting this end-of-the-century aesthetic.

A very pink quilt.

Barb Garrett has captured the Pennsylvania German style in her

small reproduction star quilt.

Rerpoduction by Nancy Near Philadelphia.

Scrappy pinks and browns.

If the true double pink is too much---remember you don't have to go vivid.

More subtle pinks work too.

A few of my pinks from Moda and one of Mark Dunn's. 

We often add a little brown to offer toned-down pinks.

Solid pinks won't do for 19th-century copies,although these Bella Solids would make good interpretations.

You just don't see many pink solids until the 1930s. My guess is they weren't colorfast and everybody knew it. Double pink prints gave you the same effect with much more durability.

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Reproduction star by Bettina Havig

Read more about Double pinks in pages 33-35 of my book Making History: Quilts and Fabric from 1890-1970.

What to do with your stack of stars?

Use them in a border.

Piece them together side-by-side for a 6" finished border in a medallion-style quilt.

Enduring Love by Carol Hopkins

Frame an applique or pieced center or a printed panel.

Pride and Glory by Annemarie S. Yohnk

www.QuiltsRemembered.com

Bobbi Finley, Jane Austen panel

Eva Severance

Bettina Havig, Wedgewood

One More Thing About Double Pink

One reason double pinks were so popular in quilts is that they were the staple fabric in girl's dresses. In 1871, Luna Warner at 15 was considered young enough for pink prints. Her mother brought home "four kinds of pink calico" for her dresses.

Read more about Double Pink in my book Making History: Quilts & Fabric from 1890-1970,  pages 33-35.

Threads of Memory Label

Here's a label to print out on treated fabric. Stitch it to

your completed Threads of Memory Sampler.

How to print:

• Create a word file or a new empty JPG file that is 8-1/2" x 11".
• Click on the image above.
• Right click on it and save it to your file.
• Print that file out 8-1/2" x 11". The label measures 5" square to give you room to write on it with
• a permanent pen.
• Adjust the printed page size if necessary.

Ed's finished his Threads of Memory top.

"I concocted a full sized top (approx. 72x84") from the 12 blocks using scraps from my stash and a bit of reproduction Civil War era yardage for the outside border."

And so has The Pink Deenster:

" I did a modified version of the basic setting. My sashing is 3" wide and I used stars only in the interior portion. I then added a nine-patch in the center of the cornerstone stars so that I could sneak in a little pink."

Stars in a Time Warp 5: Overdyed Green Solids

Vintage quilt, 1851

Detail of Sara Keplar's quilt

Vintage sunflower blocks set with stars in the sashing, about

1840-1880

The green often seen in mid-to late-19th century quilts is a grassy green, the product of two natural dyes in blue and yellow that are laid one over the other.

Sara Keplar's quilt dated 1851.

Collection of Colonial Williamsburg

See the catalog entry on the Keplar quilt here:

http://emuseum.history.org/view/objects/asitem/classification@55/1/title-asc?t:state:flow=edf2629e-fd50-4207-828a-010179ef7dc9

Elizabeth Crandell's 1852 green has held up well. Notice

the subtle shifts from yellow-green to blue-green in the swag,

indicating an overdyed green.

Vintage quilt

Shifts from yellow-green to blue-green are often not so subtle.

The lighter, yellow-green above is perhaps due to a spill on the vintage applique shown at a

Western Washington Quilt Study session. Or ...

Vintage quilt

...the shift may also be from light damage.

Was the quilt folded on that line and placed

near a window?

One of my quilts shown in Clues in the Calico.

The basket looks tie-dyed but the green is

damaged from laundering.

In the mid-19th-century quilt above the shift is from green to blue, again possible laundry damage.

Vintage quilt

Reproductions

Matching that old, over-dyed green plain fabric is difficult. (Green prints are easier---we'll discuss them later.) One aspect of the natural green dyes that adds to their beauty is the depth of color you get when two dyes are applied. It's just not done now.

Reproduction quilt by 

Joy Swartz for the American Quilt Study Group's

Quilt Study in Red and Green, 2010

Joy did a great job of finding the right green.

When choosing a green to match the overdyed look you

have to consider whether you want to do the original grassy color,

or the lime green, the color shift visible today.

Moda offers two Bella Solids:

Bella Solids Pistachio (lighter) and Leaf

Sherri McConnell used both in this pieced block.

And then you have to decide whether you are looking to get that depth of color. An approximation of the over-dyed look is in the perfect batik or hand-dye.

You might have to fussy cut around the figures

but batiks can give you that blue/green---yellow/green combination

similar to the old natural greens.

Reproduction star by Becky Brown.

She found a swirly green print with the right range.

Another option is to use the wovens called shot cottons,

which are one shade of warp and another of weft.

The crossed yarns give you a sense of depth.

The darker shot cotton is Pepper Cory's Tea Green

and the lighter is Kaffe Fassett's Chartreuse.

Pistachio in Moda's CrossWeaves is scheduled for 2015 delivery.

Sue Garman's Potted Tulips

The major factor is matching the color, something Sue Garman is good at.

 The wrong green just looks wrong.

It's never Kelly green as in these recent appliques.

Setting idea for your stack of star blocks:

Gang the stars into a nine patch like Sara Keplar did. See her 1851 quilt

at the top of the page. 

Alternate plain squares cut 6-1/2" with your 6"

star blocks. Then alternate those 18" blocks with plain blocks

cut 18-1/2".

Barb Vedder did this chain of stars a few years ago. She set her nine-patch blocks on the straight. Sara Keplar set hers on a diagonal. Either way the quilt grows fast. It could cover Rhode Island if you can't stop making stars.

http://funwithbarbandmary.blogspot.com/2012/07/antique-star-quilt-resolved.html

One More Thing about Overdyed Greens

These greens of over-dyed blue and yellow are a good clue to a mid-19th century quilt. They were quite popular with quiltmakers but you rarely find them in clothing. About 1880 a change occurred in green colors because of a change in dye chemistry. The vibrancy of the over-dyed, natural greens was replaced by a flatter, duller green. We'll return to these greens from synthetic dyes later in the year.

An end-of-the-19th-century applique with a synthetically-dyed green

fading to khaki.

See more of my blog posts about greens in antique fabrics by clicking here:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/10/faded-greens.html

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/01/poison-green.html

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2009/08/piece-and-plenty.html