Tuesday, August 23, 2011

1830's Eagle



"Birds of a Feather Fly Together"
24" x 24"  2011
This is my first commissioned piece.  It was made for Susan's Wildemuth's Eagle Quilts by the Decades project.  I am very honored to be part of this project.  Sue commissioned a varied group of quilters including a number of quilt historians and appraisers to choose a decade between 1700 and 2010 and then create a quilt that featured an eagle and read as being from that era.  I choose the 1830's -one of my favorite quilt eras and I was inspired by my antique c. 1830 flying geese w/bird pheasant toile (seen below with my reproduction).  Btw, the bird toile print in the original was printed between 1775-85 and is from an English company, Talwin and Foster and is documented in Montgomery's Printed Textiles.

Old and New
I didn't try to exactly follow the antique quilt as I wanted to use a bit of my reproduction print collection, but I think I captured the 'feel' of the original.  I especially enjoyed following her lead of combining birds themes: flying geese pattern and eagle fabric.  Hence the title, "Birds of a Feather Fly Together".  I also liked how she joined the geese in pairs so I used that idea too.


I think she had a great sense of humor and enjoyed word play, as seen in this shot of the mallard drake and hen set between the flying geese, okay wait for it .....    duck-duck-goose!
  
And finally here is a close up of my hand quilting on the eagle print (machine on the geese).

5 comments:

  1. you did a good job re-creating the antique quilt! The eagle Toile is so nice! Our challenge for next year is Flying geese at one of our Spring Quilt shows. This would be fun in my 30's Re-pros. Thank you for posting it here and on FB.

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  2. I enjoyed your post. Tell us more of the quilts the others are making. I have the eagle toile in the brown and am hoarding it until the right project comes along.

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  3. Wonderful. Your reproduction is stunning.

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  4. I enjoyed your post, 1830s is my favorite time period aa well

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  5. What a great post - and wonderful quilt! I bought that eagle/pillar print in a redish brown colorway. Your interpretation is inspiring.
    Thanks for sharing!

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