heron

The plaid is remarkably like a jumper I wore to junior high in about 1970-71.

carolynjo

Too bad that some folks don't have the term and use of the word "feedsacks"in their vocabulary. I wore many pieces of clothes made from feedsacks. Once, during WWII, my mom made 2 pairs of boxers for my brother from a "bubblebath" fabric. His navy buddies were jealous and enjoyed teasing him.

Bug Lady

I think 50's and 60's
Best of luck. Karen

carolynjo

The answer to "tarred and feathered" is that it was a form of punishment (judgement) for wrongdoers or unpopular people many, many years ago. These people were frequently covered with tar and then chicken feathers were dumped on them. The tar and feathers had to "wear off" as we did not have chemical tar removers back in the day. It seems that we are very good at devising punishments for those people who do not fit our criteria.

sewbizgirl

Oh, my question was not about what 'tar and feathers' was. I fully understand the idiom...it was meant to ask why quilters would do that to other quilters. Just for the sake of being right?

crafty pat

The yellow and blue look like 40's and the rest look like 50's.

tuckyquilter

I'm thinking the Upper Left looks like a 40's-50's print. And the Black/White Plaid w/red stripes looks like the light weight wool fabric I made A-Line skirts out of in the 1960's. The other four, not a clue in truth.

Rose_P

The more I try to learn about fabric periods the foggier I seem to get on the subject. Keep in mind that many prints have been popular for decades and many have been reproduced. I was startled a few years ago to see a fabric in a store that was the exact same print that I had in a dress when I was a child in the 1950's. I still had a little doll shirt my mother made from a scrap of that dress and could verify - it's exact. I can't guess what you have there, but it's most likely 20th Century. I don't believe any of them would be impossible from the 1930's or even earlier, but check against a good reference. Barbara Brackman has a several books on fabric. There is also a useful color reference from AQS by Eileen Jahnke Trestain Dating Fabrics A Color Guide 1800 - 1960. You might be safest to state that you acquired the fabric at a certain time, so it can't be newer than that. There are some dyes and techniques that would not have been available before a certain period, and that would narrow it down, but not very precisely. There were thousands upon thousands of fabrics made from the time that factory dying techniques were developed. So the possibility of finding the exact thing isn't great. Reference books reveal trends from different periods. Plaids, for example, were made early on, but at first they were woven rather than printed. Today you can buy both. I think you can see the difficulty in dating them, just from that example. By the way, I would love to see your artwork.