The quilt top I’m pulling from the cupboard today is a LeMoyne Star. It dates to 1860-1880 and comes from Pennsylvania.
Many people think that old quilts are basically brown or dull colors. This isn’t always the case! Some fabrics from this era have a wonderful intensity of color and those colors are commonly used in combinations we might not think of today.
The brilliant yellow in this top is known as chrome yellow. It usually contained small black, brown, or red prints. This is the yellow that was often used as an accent color in Baltimore album quilts. This color was also common in Pennsylvania.
The pink in the quilt is called double pink.
Double pinks began to appear around 1840-1850. They have a white ground printed closely with with a red or pink, then were printed with another darker pink or red over that. Often they have a regular pattern of white dots. They are so closely printed that the ground appears pink.
The blocks were hand pieced..they were then set together with a wide sashing and cornerstones… by machine.
There are two different double pinks used and two different shirtings, both white with small blue dots or figures.
The stitching is beautifully done and the quilt top is in pristine condition. The quality of the fabric was surprising to me. It’s almost like a percale.
I don’t have any immediate plans to quilt this top, but it would quilt up beautifully, because it is not the least bit fragile.
Note: If you would like a closer look at the fabrics, they are posted in my Flickr album, where they can be enlarged. There is a link to the album on my side bar,