Spider Web Quilt

This quilt really grew on me as I worked on it.  This kind of patchwork scrap quilt is what lots of people think of when they hear the term "American quilt."

The pattern is Spider Web, a close variant of several that appear in Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.  I estimate is was made in the 1950s, from a pretty deep scrap bag with quite a few fabrics dating back to earlier decades.  It's got lots and lots of strong colors, i.e. not many pastels, a good sign that it was made after the 1930s and 40s love affair with pastels and before the neons of the late 60s and 70s.  There are very few solids, and quite a lot of ginghams, plaids, and stripes.

The colors and print styles have lots of 1950s markers.  The block on the left is a great example.  It has turquoise and grey, both very popular 50s colors.  And it has what I think of as "men's pajama prints", small geometric designs, rather than the flowers of earlier eras.

The blocks shown below have more men's pajama prints.  Also note the turquoise one where the designs are in little interlocking rectangular sections.  That also is a 1950s thing.  I think that the really large florals in the lefthand block could be 1940s or 50s.  This photo also shows some of my patches: the black and grey gingham at both top and bottom, and the north-south triangles in the center of the righthand block.  Those are patched with a 1930s reproduction print. 

Here are a few other 1950s markers - the green leaning towards olive in the lefthand block, the solid navy, and the printed navy and red stripe in the righthand block.

The black print with dots and flowers in the righthand block seems quite 1940s to me, while the multi-colored plaid in the left hand block seems 1950s.

The indigo print in this block is one of the oldest fabrics in the quilt.  These prints were widespread from the 1880s to the 1920s, so it's hard to date precisely, but the style looks early 1900s to me.  The big flowers on the right are 1940s.

Here is some more of my patching - two triangles of that black and grey gingham at top center, and the two lozenges lower right, a floral black print and a floral maroon print, both vintage fabrics.  The purple and turquoise print in the center of the lefthand block is another 1950s thing.

And here are several other blocks for your viewing pleasure.

Scrap quilts like this make finding repair fabrics pretty easy.  As long as the colors and print styles are consistent with the other fabrics in the quilt, the patches will blend in quite nicely.  It's two- and three- color quilts, and quilts with regular fabric placement that make the fabric search take a bit longer, sometimes a lot longer.

Here are previous posts that highlight cotton prints of other decades:

mid 1800s

1870s

late 1800s

1900-10

1930s

1970s

1990s