Fabric Time Capsules

Silk diamonds, c. 1890 -- a fabric time capsule

I love how some quilts are like fabric time capsules. One of my college friends, Kristin Hubbard who was a classmate at Rhode Island School of Design saw a photo of my silk diamonds quilt, and it reminded her of samples from garment making, specifically garment lining fabrics. They could be, although it is hard to know for sure. Clearly the quilt is a fabric time capsule.

1950s Tumblers quilt looks like a stashbuster

When you see a fabric time capsule, you know it. There are often more fabrics than you can count, and the fabrics represent one time period. Sometimes it seems like the maker got every possible fabric from the period and used them all.

Tile Blocks is a time capsule of polyester double knit

One of my favorites is a monumental scale Tile Blocks quilt made entirely out of polyester double knit. It was made in the 1970s and came from Louisiana. The maker had to have some connection to the fabric industry. The patches look like they could have been fabric swatches out of a sample book.

I also love those fabrics that Carolyn Ducey and I call "sweet little calicoes" -- the cotton print fabrics from the 1970s with small-scale, often multicolor floral designs. The green one-patch from Oregon is like a time capsule of those fabrics. When I saw it, I realized there were a lot more cotton calico designs in the period than I first realized.

My current favorite type of quilt is the Hawaiian scrap quilt, but it's more of a genre than one specific quilt. The quilts have such a variety of fabrics, the tell the story of the Hawaiian garment industry as well as the individual garments do. Tip of the hat to Kristin, aka "Hubby" for inspiring this blog post.