i was under the impression that the amish don't use prints of any kind ,but i've seen so many on qb that have print fabrics in their quilts. am i mistaken?
thanks for your input/
dar

I believe you are correct at least for the older Amish quilts. I have stopped at some Amish quilt stores and the younger quilters are using small prints in some quilts I watch them creating.

I just recently went to a show with nothing but Amish quilts, some quite old. All solid fabrics.

When I was back in Philadelphia I had someone admit to me that not all the quilts back there are "Amish". Anyone that wants to handpiece and handquilt a quilt can call them Amish apparently and sell them.

interesting. all of our different cultures are continually changing, aren't they

The younger "Amish" quilters are using prints in their quilts. I just spent 4 months in IN.(with my older brother) in the "Heart" of the Amish - Shipshewanna!! There was a lot of Amish quilts displayed in the quilt shops that I visited that had print fabrics in them. I also brought home a suitcase full of fabric from their shops at only $3-6/yd.!!

It's the difference between Amish and Amish-style quilts. We have the same thing in New England...Shaker vs Shaker-style furniture.

The times they are a-changing. Traditional Amish quilts were solids with very simple patterns. Now Amish women are producing quilts with all kinds of non-Amish designs (including the one in my avatar), lots of batiks, applique, anything that will sell, and they're being sold on the internet as well as in Amish communities.

I went to an Amish shop in a little town outside of lancaster pa. And older amish lady owned the shop. After looking around at all quilts and quilt tops for sale, I asked if they were all made by the amish and she said most. There were a few that the local ladies had made but they were marked. So I went back to look to see which was which. and you couldnt tell the difference, they all were machine pieced and with a variety of colors and prints. Some were machine quilted and some not. the ones that were hand done were displayed at the front of the store, I suppose so they could keep a better eye on them, but they too had prints. she had a small section of bolts of fabrics in the back room, all were prints, she told me that yes it was for sale by the yard and yes she and the others would also use that fabric for making quilts. so I suppose in the old days the amish only used what they dyed themselves but now adays its just not so. This lady was so amish that she didnt even have buttons on her shirt, it was held together with straight pins, buttons are considers fancy things.

I live in the midst of the Amish and have found them to be very nice people. For the most part they just want to be left alone, no pics. There are many different segments of their religion and just like ours, each segment has different beliefs. Some will work outside the home, some will use gas mowers, and some will use printed fabrics in their quilts. So the fabric used in a quilt doesn't necessarily make it
"not an Amish quilt".