Civil War quilts - contrast??
 

For a couple of years, I stopped each month at an LQS while in a larger town to go through their trunk full of scraps (they were sold by the pound). This was a fun adventure and I gathered a good assortment of Civil War repro fabrics. The shop has since been sold and the trunk is no longer a feature. It is time to start making something out of these jewels. But I have one question......how do you get good contrast when they are all muted, grayed, dull tones with similar value? Not sure I want to mix with white.
Thanks for your input. ;-)

From the research I've done over the years I don't think there was much white used in those quilts. They tended to be rather muted. I don't have any quilts quite that old but I have some almost that old and they aren't colorful, but they have their own special appeal.
Maybe you can do an online search.

Just a guess here...but perhaps natural color muslin would be a good choice...that might be what was available as a background type fabric then.....

I would mix in a lot of rich reds.

Prism, I adore rich reds!!

I was thinking the same thing

I have made several civil war period quilts and cream (more like an off-white) was used in my quilts. These typically had a tiny floral print a couple shades darker. I, also, used a muted gray as background. Here is one quilt that all different colors (including purple) used to make ohio stars. There are 2 background fabrics in this quilt. One background fabric is cream with gray florals the other cream with darker cream tiny florals. They typically did not use solid fabrics in their Quilts....and the color red they used mostly was Turkey Red....you can find this color in embroidery floss... I think it's #304. I love making these quilts and I'm pea green with envy over your fabric stash... Have fun!

You can buy Civil War shirting prints online. Those where the "lights" used in Civil War times. Apparently the shop just didn't include them in the trunk scraps, but that's what you need for authenticity. They are white or light fabrics with tiny prints on them in medium tone colors, used for men's shirts at the time.

Yes, and the muted tiny prints were from the women's dresses. Last year many of us worked on a civil war BOW and posted our blocks each week (27 pages long is the thread) ....but it might give you contrasting ideas. So many of us made them from scraps. You many want to take a peek: https://www.quiltingboard.com/quilti...t-t287811.html