Originally Posted by
joe'smom
I've heard the term 'mourning print' once before. Does it refer to gray and black prints?
Yes, it does. The black fabrics with white prints on them and the medium grey fabrics with black and white on them are called mourning fabrics, made from dresses ladies wore while in mourning after being widowed. It was popular around 1880 for ladies to only wear black for about a year, the practice having started after one of the queens did so (I forget which queen). After some time, they sometimes wore "half mourning" dresses, which were a light grey or mostly white with black print. Those fabrics show up in quilts, too.