Regency Era Color: Idea #1

Detail, the 1797 Sundial Quilt from

the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum

One of the few block samplers from the era.

The color above seems typical of Gerorgian/Regency quilts. 

See the bottom of the post for links to more pictures.

We've been working on the blocks for the Austen Family Album---mainly thinking about color and fabric. Becky, Dustin, Georgann and Bettina are making model blocks.

The block post start on April 6 but you will want to be thinking about fabric.

Detail, the King George III Reviewing the Troops quilt from

the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum

We are making a 21st-century quilt but my thinking on color at this point is, naturally, "1800 England." There were a few popular color palettes for patchwork at the time.

Detail of the quilt known as the Jane Pizar quilt

The first look is a combination of light muslins ---either white or ivory---print or plain---with chocolate browns and pastel pinks, blues and lilacs. It's a light palette with the madder browns for contrast.

The lightest prints were often called Spotted Muslin.

From Barbara Johnson's fabric album in the collection of the 

Victoria and Albert Museum:

See a post I did about Spots here:
http://quilt1812warandpiecing.blogspot.com/2012_07_01_archive.html

 King George III Golden Jubilee Quilt, 1810, 

collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum

The blues tend to be bright mediums and lights rather than the navy blues also produced with indigo dyes.

As for the pinks---there is a wide range. It's really an

absence of true reds that defines this palette.

You also see the palette in quilts found in the U.S.:

Mosaic quilt attributed to Catherine Brobst or Fanny S. B. Jungman,

 Pennsylvania. Collection of the Winterthur Museum.

Curators attribute the fabric to England between about 1770 and 1815.

Detail of an English quilt in the collection of 

the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

For more pictures of English patchwork see Penny Tucker's Pinterest Page
http://www.pinterest.com/penelopetucker/antique-english-patchwork/

Several years ago I designed a Regency reproduction

line for Moda called Hartfield

Do a web search for the words Hartfield Moda and 

you'll find shops and online sellers who still have some

yardage and precut packages.

Next Sunday: more color ideas.

Links to see more of the quilts:

The 1797 Sundial quilt:
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O14716/patchwork-quilt-unknown/

See a post about King George III Reviewing the Troops at the Queensland Art Museum blog:
http://blog.qag.qld.gov.au/popular-prints-and-patchwork-in-18th-19th-century-britain/

More on the Jane Pizar quilt:
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2012/03/jane-pizar-quilt-how-old.html

An online article about the King George III Jubilee quilt:
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/research-journal/issue-03/x-radiography-as-a-tool-to-examine-the-making-and-remaking-of-historic-quilts/

The Winterthur's hexagon quilt:
http://museumcollection.winterthur.org/single-record.php?resultsperpage=60&view=catalog&srchtype=advanced&hasImage=&ObjObjectName=&CreOrigin=Pittsburgh&Earliest=&Latest=&CreCreatorLocal_tab=&materialsearch=&ObjObjectID=&ObjCategory=&DesMaterial_tab=&DesTechnique_tab=&AccCreditLineLocal=&CreMarkSignature=&recid=1967.0031&srchfld=&srchtxt=&id=8a16&rownum=1&version=100&src=results-imagelink#.UxNdNtiYZYc

And the Metropolitan Museum's British quilt
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/229936?rpp=20&pg=2&ao=on&ft=patchwork&img=2

See Barbara Johnson's fabric album at the Victoria and Albert Museum:
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O140029/album-unknown/