Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Orange Crush

Double Wedding Ring, c. 1950, Missouri
Look what arrived on Tuesday. It's a Double Wedding Ring, and it's ORANGE!! That's something to be very excited about, in case you don't know. And it's a strong "Cheetos" orange, none of that wimpy orange creamsicle color from the Depression Era. Very rare!


Just how rare is a bright orange Double Wedding Ring? A search of the Quilt Index produced 1368 results using the term "Double Wedding Ring". A few of those, maybe a half dozen, were cheddar orange- a more yellowy color. There was really nothing that compared to this color orange. I looked through Robert Bishop's "The Romance of Double Wedding Ring Quilts" and found one cheddar orange out of more than 60 quilts, but no "Cheetos" orange.


It's the color of the old Denver Broncos, the Orange Crush, and I have a crush on this quilt! My new nickname for it is "Orange Crush". There are 40s and 50s fabrics, so I think it's c. 1950. Quilted in fans, or elbow quilted - very much utility quilting. It's the second rare colored Double Wedding Ring I've collected. The first was a blue one, and a Quilt Index Search produced less than a half dozen of those.


What can I say? A white Double Wedding Ring is beautiful, but common. There are thousands of them. I like 'em rare, and "Orange Crush" and the blue Double Wedding Ring are about as rare as they come. 
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18 comments:

  1. YankeeQuilterSeptember 19, 2012 at 6:23 AM

    Last summer I bought a red one at a local auction...love the colored backgrounds on the dwr!

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  2. Victoria Findlay WolfeSeptember 19, 2012 at 6:43 AM

    Omg. Love love!! This needs to be at my house with my orange quilts... Sigh.

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  3. LoriSeptember 19, 2012 at 6:48 AM

    Such a bold statement the quiltmaker was making with that color!! Love it!

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    1. Bill VolckeningSeptember 19, 2012 at 11:04 AM

      I love it, too. We see so many DWRs on white, when something other than white comes along it's almost jarring. This quilt definitely calls out for attention.

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  4. AnonymousSeptember 19, 2012 at 9:27 AM

    There is an orange one in the book Vintage Quilts , by Bobbie Aug, Sharon Newman & Gerald Roy...
    yours is a beauty...and I love your color definition of 'Cheetos Orange' perfect!

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    1. Bill VolckeningSeptember 19, 2012 at 11:02 AM

      Nice. I think I like mine better, or maybe it's just the pictures. I was really surprised the bidding wasn't a lot more spirited. It was dirt cheap.

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  5. Anna Lena LandSeptember 19, 2012 at 10:52 AM

    Bill, do you know orange is my favorite color??? My studio is orange and aqua and the whole reason I got into designing fabrics is because no one (at that time) was doing orange in the Thirties reproductions! Darlene Zimmerman used to call me The Orange Heckler! Thanks for sharing this beauty.

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    1. Bill VolckeningSeptember 19, 2012 at 11:08 AM

      Glad you enjoyed it. When Elle Woods rejected the idea that orange was the new pink in the film Legally Blonde, I think she made a mistake. Orange is so much better than pink, as far as I'm concerned. I love having a quilt that I can handle, without a care in the world, after snacking on Cheetos.

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  6. DawnSeptember 19, 2012 at 9:30 PM

    you scored, Bill, no doubt about it! What a gorgeous quilt.

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    1. Bill VolckeningSeptember 20, 2012 at 12:20 PM

      I agree. At some point I may sell it, but for now I'm enjoying my two rare colored DWRs. They are both very good talking points about how to infuse a traditional quilt with originality just by choosing a great color.

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  7. reganSeptember 20, 2012 at 6:35 AM

    Holy cow! I love orange! This quilt is IT! Thanks for sharing it!

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    1. Bill VolckeningSeptember 20, 2012 at 12:22 PM

      I love orange, too! People seem to love orange a lot lately. This particular orange really tickles my fancy.

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  8. Lizzy DSeptember 20, 2012 at 1:07 PM

    I own a cheddar wedding ring quilt. I love the folky strong colors. You can see it on my blog:

    http://gone2thebeach.blogspot.com/2012/09/cheddar.html

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    1. Bill VolckeningSeptember 20, 2012 at 1:57 PM

      Nice one, Lizzy! you have a rare and wonderful thing. I love how it's all solid fabrics. And it's also midwestern. It's so much better than the usual white background, isn't it!

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  9. AmySeptember 20, 2012 at 7:20 PM

    Beautiful quilts! I thought you might like to see the orange double wedding ring we have in our family. It was likely made by my great grandmother. Due to limited space and light at my mother's house, the photos are not great, but you can get the idea. http://www.amyalamode.com/blog/2009/01/08/family-quilts-orange-double-wedding-ring/

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    1. AmySeptember 20, 2012 at 7:22 PM

      I should have mentioned that we have a white one and a red one as well in the family...
      www.amyalamode.com/blog/2008/11/02/family-quilts-vintage-red-double-wedding-ring/
      http://www.amyalamode.com/blog/2009/01/06/family-quilts-white-double-wedding-ring/
      I've actually slept under the red one many times - my mother has it on her guest bed!

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