Those who study fabrics in quilts made in the late 1800s recognize black and white fabrics as "mourning prints". Perhaps the name came from the Victorian Era, when Queen Victoria wore black to mourn the passing of her husband, Albert? In Clues in the Calico, Barbara Brackman indicates that these cottons, with fine black lines or tiny figures on a white ground, making them read as gray, were very popular with quilters in the 1890-1925 era. Around that time, mourning print cottons were advertised for sale in the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs and could be purchased for very little.
Here's a photo of such fabric for sale on Etsy:
I am currently working with vintage blocks that were made from
mourning print cottons.
I have only 4 vintage blocks. Using reproduction fabrics from my stash, I am making more blocks to add to the vintage ones. This 9-patch design is simple enough to recreate. Because the squares in the vintage blocks measure 3.5" finished, I am cutting the center square 4" and those for the half-square triangle blocks, 4.5".
Curious to know the name of this pattern, I searched through my quilt books and online. The closest I could come to a name was either "Cats Cradle" or "Old Maid's Puzzle". These blocks are a variation of those, however, with half-square triangle blocks at all four corners.
I discovered more mourning print fabric as I was searching through my bag of vintage fabric scraps. I found these (obviously) 60° diamonds all tacked together.
As "wonky" as these are, I cannot imagine a quilter piecing them together and having them lie flat!
In one of my quilt pattern books I found the perfect size 60° diamond and made a plastic template. This will be traced on the wrong side of each wonky diamond so that I can hand piece them. Then what??? I am not yet sure. I will ponder this as I am piecing them.
I titled this blog post "In Mourning", not just because of the particular vintage pieces that I am now working with. I AM in mourning! I recently lost a special quilting friend to cancer...much too soon! Michelle was so creative and inspirational to many. She is already missed! If there is a quilters' room in heaven, I know that she will be there!
