The quilt I’m pulling from the quilt top cupboard today is one of my favorites. It’s a Railroad Crossing top. It’s not a common pattern. It dates to 1860-1880. This top contains shirting, reds, madder prints, mourning prints, pale aqua, and one of my favorites..cheddar. The quilt top is hand pieced with nice tight stitches. The fabrics in this top are crisp and unwashed. It does have a couple of small spots, which I think will wash out? They don’t concern me and I display it as is.
As usual..the wind was picking up as I was trying to take pics. The top is flat and square I promise! The dark border you see at the outer edge has mitered corners and I think the maker intended this to be the binding?
The block is pieced with the cheddar running across it forming an X. The blocks were then sashed with the cheddar as well. The blocks are 9.5″ finished.
The outer corners of each block has a shirting print and the same print is used as corner stones. This use of the same fabric throughout forms a small churn dash where the blocks meet.
Here you can see where the tiniest of pieces were sewn together to form a piece of fabric big enough to cut the piece needed for the patchwork. This was a common practice and is affectionately known as a “poverty patch.” I always like to point them out, because I just love them!
Here is another example of a poverty patch. As you can see, a small 1/4″ strip was sewn to the edges of the block to make it the right size. This is the only block like this and makes me wonder if the maker cut a few pieces too small..and then added the red..or did she only have scrap bits and this was the only way to piece this portion? Oddly enough, it is placed right at the center of the quilt rather than in a corner or edge where it wouldn’t be as noticeable.
Most of the blocks have high contrast in the piecing..but not this one. Did the maker run out of lights/shirtings? When I see an odd block like this one it always makes me wonder…”why”? On the right hand side of the quilt, four rows down and second from the edge, there’s a block that’s mostly light. If the maker had switched her fabrics a bit..these two blocks would be more like the others. A common term for a block that’s different from the rest is a “renegade block”. I always like those too!
Here you see more poverty patches in the aqua, and one of the two small spots on the top. I suppose I could put a little spot lifter on and rinse with water..I just haven’t bothered.
Here you can see a couple of the mourning prints and a gorgeous madder print. Madder dyes produced a wonderful copper brown that always looks so warm and rich.
Mourning prints got their name from the fashions of the day. Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert died in 1861. She went into a state of mourning and dressed in black, later followed by very dark prints such as black with some white, dark grays, dark purples, etc. Women at that time in history wore clothing made from those same sort of fabrics.
Here you can see how I display this top. I may quilt this beauty some day, but for now I enjoy it as is.
*Note: I have added pics of the antique fabrics to my Flickr album so anyone interested in seeing a larger pic of the fabrics can click to enlarge. There’s an extra large option there too.