what makes it Vintage?
What makes a vintage quilt look vintage?
Last week while writing a lesson on fabric genre for Color Intensive, I described vintage-style fabrics as having small scale prints, often designed to look realistic with a fair number of details. Does that sound right? Then I received a book from Stash Books by Kathy Doughty called Adding Layers.
The colorful cover caught my attention. That and the idea of "layering". I know I like layers of interest in my quilts.
Inside, most of the quilt designs don't actually grab me, but this Vintage Spin definitely has my attention. It's funny because the colors and design are not really "me", but I'm totally intrigued by this quilt.
I was trying to figure out what was speaking to me when I read, "Make a pile of your "old"-looking fabrics. The fabrics are just part of the look - the trick to making quilts that look old is to try not to match! There are subtle links in all the pairs used in each block, but they don't necessarily look like they came from the same fabric line" (pg 22).
Aha! I think that's it. This quilt does feel vintage to me (even before I read the quilt's title). The fabrics don't match, but they do. That seems to reflect how a quilter might actually behave when working with a very limited selection of scraps. She might make connections as best as possible in places, but the overall quilt would not have a color scheme. It would not be fabric-designed, just construction-designed. And, yes, many vintage quilts use value to define a design.
Musing things over reminded me of this quilt, a long-loved pin that inspired my first Penny Patch quilt. Small scale fabrics, repetitive construction, no color scheme (though feels somewhat soft, overall). This quilt has always felt vintage to me.
What do you think? What makes a quilt feel vintage?
p.s. There is one quilt in the book that absolutely captures me - colors, design and all. Isn't this gorgeous? "Dream Catcher" indeed!
Disclosure: I received this book free from the publisher. My review is my honest opinion, as my relationship with my readers is far more important than receiving free books! The book link is an affiliate link to Amazon.
Last week while writing a lesson on fabric genre for Color Intensive, I described vintage-style fabrics as having small scale prints, often designed to look realistic with a fair number of details. Does that sound right? Then I received a book from Stash Books by Kathy Doughty called Adding Layers.
The colorful cover caught my attention. That and the idea of "layering". I know I like layers of interest in my quilts.
Inside, most of the quilt designs don't actually grab me, but this Vintage Spin definitely has my attention. It's funny because the colors and design are not really "me", but I'm totally intrigued by this quilt.
I was trying to figure out what was speaking to me when I read, "Make a pile of your "old"-looking fabrics. The fabrics are just part of the look - the trick to making quilts that look old is to try not to match! There are subtle links in all the pairs used in each block, but they don't necessarily look like they came from the same fabric line" (pg 22).
Aha! I think that's it. This quilt does feel vintage to me (even before I read the quilt's title). The fabrics don't match, but they do. That seems to reflect how a quilter might actually behave when working with a very limited selection of scraps. She might make connections as best as possible in places, but the overall quilt would not have a color scheme. It would not be fabric-designed, just construction-designed. And, yes, many vintage quilts use value to define a design.
Musing things over reminded me of this quilt, a long-loved pin that inspired my first Penny Patch quilt. Small scale fabrics, repetitive construction, no color scheme (though feels somewhat soft, overall). This quilt has always felt vintage to me.
What do you think? What makes a quilt feel vintage?
p.s. There is one quilt in the book that absolutely captures me - colors, design and all. Isn't this gorgeous? "Dream Catcher" indeed!
Disclosure: I received this book free from the publisher. My review is my honest opinion, as my relationship with my readers is far more important than receiving free books! The book link is an affiliate link to Amazon.