I couldn't wait until the morning to share with you the pictures I found of my family's heirloom ca. 1790 quilt!!
I had written about this quilt before, how I had donated it to the textile museum in Colonial Williamsburg, about 14 years ago. Well, they did some research on it -- some of which I do not quite understand (the family lineage-who it was passed down to) -- and they microscoped the fibers, fabrics and designs, information which I did not have "for sure" before donating it. All very exciting to me and which I will follow up on to determine how they arrived at some of the details they state on their web page! You might enjoy taking a peak at the site yourself:
http://emuseum.history.org/view/obje...9-ab506d9122dd
The colors in the quilt are pretty accurate in the photos. The flat full view was taken in the work/research room at Colonial Williamsburg under their florescent lighting. The closeups were taken in the climate-controlled storage room while standing on a work ladder, leaning over the huge flat drawer on which they are each stored. The other large view was taken by the museum. Note the one flower with intense rose and aqua color -- I found this amazing after over 200 years! The applique was all done in Broderie Perse, what we now call buttonhole stitch. The batting is quite thin and was probably carded right on the plantation in Richmond, VA.
One detail I found in my own research of this quilt while I worked in their work/research room was that, counting from the bottom of the quilt, there are 10 borders until the medallion in the center, 10 different quilting designs, and 10 different fabrics in this quilt.
Jan in VA