Forest Park

I visited the Forest Park Library to clean the quilts that have been on display for several years.  See the previous post for an explanation of the vacuuming process.

Here's a little tour of one of the quilts.  This is a log cabin, barn raising set.

It's one of those fun things, a signed and dated quilt.  It was made in 1995, designed and made by Egle Rukstelyte-Sundstrom with help from members of the Salt Creek Quilters Guild.

So, as a dated quilt, it presents us with a great collection of fabrics of the era.  Most of the fabrics are floral prints.  The flowers and leaves are pretty dense, very little background color showing through.  Many are multi-colored, somewhat realistic, sometimes kind of swirly.

Here are some comparisons to floral fabrics in other quilts I've written about on this blog:

c. 1870 - finely etched designs, realistic, widely spaced, sometimes on patterned grounds
more about this quilt

c. 1900 - two-color prints, widely spaced designs
more about this quilt

1930s - stylized flowers, Art Deco influence
more about this quilt

1940s - similar to the 30s, sometimes larger flowers
more about this quilt

1970s - bold colors, cartoon-like designs
more about this doll

embroidered date - 1976
more about this quilt

The Forest Park log cabin also tells the story of the almost overwhelming quantity of prints that have been made available to quilt makers, as the quilting renaissance after the Bicentennial grew into a major market share of fabric sales.  I was quilting and collecting fabrics in the 90s, and there's still not a single print here that I own.

As I was vacuuming and musing on the quilt, I started to think what I fine selection of fabrics it is for a library in a place called Forest Park.  Altogether quite park-y and quite forest-y.