Customer Reviews

America's Printed Fabrics 1770-1890: 8 Reproduction Quilt Projects: Historic Notes and Photographs; Dating Your Quilts

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Barbara describes her book as soft on fabric science and high on the how-to of making choices, choosing fabrics and quilt styles appropriate to a time period. The antique and reproduction swatches are large and clear. Barbara brings her considered opinions, research, and years of experience to each subject she discusses.

This book is probably a better choice than her classic "Clues in the Calico" (and it's updated some of the information too) for the individual just starting to learn about textile history because it is less dense in terms of text and details, but it is by no means shallow for those entrenched in textile history.

Throughout the book, there are what I call, Barbara's signature vignettes. These are those wonderful still life pictures of colorful combinations of antique fabrics, daguerreotypes, ephemera, sewing tools, bonnets and clothing and everyday household décor found in 19th century homes. In fact, she has included many photographs depicting dresses and textiles. Brief personal quotes from old diaries, letters, and other historical writings are scattered throughout the book, as are reproduction quilts made by outside contributors to the book. I really appreciate her putting dates, specific when possible, a narrow range when not, with the photos, quotes, quilts and fabrics.

I really like the layout on this book - full color pages of historical fabric swatches on the left pages, and comparison reproduction print swatches on the right. Wonderful book for anyone wishing to glean a good understanding of what historical prints look like and how they evolved.

what a wonderful resource book for anyone who is interested in fabric/fiber arts.
i'm a quilter who likes to create quilts with a flair from yesterday. this book not only helps me to be closed in my interpretation of that time, it does guide me through the decision which colors have been more used than others. the contents/pictures are very clear and the instructions to recreate some of the quilts are outstanding. i would give this book 6 stars!

This book gives a very good compressive over view of fabrics in a certain time frame. While I bought it for reference I discovered it is quite enjoyable just to read. I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in fabrics. It would be especially useful to a beginning fabric aficionado.

Comprehensive and enjoyable. Just what I wanted for reference in creating my Civil War Quilts. I have had a very hard time finding this book and at last I have a copy. I highly recommend this book!

I like the book--it's full of pretty pictures of quilts. The author goes into a lot of detail about printing and dyeing methods through the 19th century, and shows quite a few samples of antique fabrics. However, I was looking for something fairly specific that I didn't find. I have some old quilt blocks, never set, and I wanted to both date them and get guidance on how to set them appropriately. What I found was mostly photos of reproduction quilts, lovely, but not necessarily authentic. Also, almost all the quilt photos were small, and I wanted large enough photos, or closeups of details, so that I could see the fabrics in the quilts themselves, not just swatches.

In addition, when there was a page of historic fabrics, the caption might say they dated "from 1840s to 1890s." A lot changed in those years. Couldn't the swatches have individual labels? On one page, the date range ran all the way up to the 1940s!

If you love old quilts, you'll like this book. But if you want historical depth, you won't find it here.

This is a very informative quilt history book with fantastic, close-up photos of fabric. This will be a great addition to your Barbara Brackman collection. I had mine laminated and spiral bound!!

An invaluable resource for the quilt historian ,conservator or just an interested quilter. The illustrations helped me to identify fabric by period,style and color. The text gave me invaluable information to help identify a puzzling old quilt which was found stuffed in a chimney undisturbed for 90 years. Barbara Brackman is the author to read when one seeks information about quilts and their history. I enjoyed the chapter identifications allowing me to quickly access the fabric type I was seeking.

If you love fabric and history, you must add this to your library! The photos are out of this world.

This is a good resource for the history of textiles with the purpose of dating quilts or construction of period correct clothing and quilts.