Originally Posted by butterflywing
there are a number of new ones, machine pieced and hand quilted. a very few machine quilted that i was able to see. i don't know about what was up top.
i only saw three dates and those were worked in as part of the piecing ...1858, 1856 and 1853. none of the others that i saw were dated. many had places worn right through and many had holes due to the red dyes. it will be there until the 30th.
ADD: i only saw one that had a small pale flowered print on the back. the rest were all muslin. of course, the backs were mostly hidden by other quilts.
I believe the red dyes were mostly Turkey red-- very stable.
Those small holes are often where the black or dark printed figures were on a red fabric. Those places often oxidize and rot due to the iron mordant used to make dark colored dyes, black or brown.
How wonderful that the red has survived so brilliantly!