One of my goals this summer was to track down and order several books on my “wish list” of quilting books. One of these was the book “Indigo Quilts” from the Poos Collection.

I love history, especially medieval and colonial American history. Quilts have been around a long time. According to Carolyn Ducey who compiled a list “Quilt History Timeline, Pre-History – 1800″. the oldest quilt found so far is dated to 100 B.C in Siberia. I find historical textile skills and historical quilts fun to research and reproduce.

When time allows, I travel to historical events of both the medieval and colonial time periods. I like to see the textiles and talk to the various demonstrators about what they are doing. To me it is fascinating.

Now for the book “Indigo Quilts”

This one Indigo Quilts – 30 Quilts from the Poos Collection by Kay and Lori Lee Triplett is certainly the most interesting from a historical point of view.

The first chapter is about 40 pages of the history of indigo and the whole process of how it was (and is) processed to be used as a fabric dye.  Great photos and lots of wonderful info. 

The list of sources for this book is 6 pages long, so lots of places to check for more information.

I want to share this historical quilt that is a French Indigo Resist Whole cloth quilt is featured on pg. 62-63.

According to the information it is 68″ x 86″ and was made in the last quarter of the 1700’s.  It is block printed – probably in Rouen which had an on-going trade involving indigo with Brazil in South America. It is backed with white homespun, and hand quilted in what appears to be an allover crosshatch design.

There is a brief discussion of how the small dots were made in the design using a sharpened stick, which today is done in Indonesia with a copper “cap”.

PLEASE NOTE: 
ALL PHOTOS AND WRITTEN CONTENT ARE MY OWN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.

FB/P/I