Pink Fusion, c. 1930 by Sara Morgan

Often referred to as the “Renaissance of Quilting, the 1930s brought a great quilt revival, a result of the hard times of The Great Depression. All across America, activities devoted to the home arts became popular. Quilting groups, shows and newspaper gained popularity, bringing women from California to New England together around their quilting frames. Eleanor Roosevelt's campaign for American Arts and Crafts further helped propel quilting to the forefront of activity. Although times were tough for Americans, quilts of this era were usually bright and cheerful.

We tend to think of quilts from the Civil War era as full of blues, grays, blacks - generally dark colors. These fabrics, reproduced from a quilt of the same name in the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum collections, is a cheerful exception.  Most of the fabrics in this quilt date back to 1860-1880, although RMQM believes the black ombre may have been a little earlier. The vibrant green color in the small-scale prints was obtained by an overdyeing process popular at that time. The other prints, although typical of the time period, are somewhat rare finds: the dark red with blue and brown, the double pink with machine ground, turkey red with chrome yellow, and brilliant Prussian blue. It is these beautiful fabrics that inspired Blue Hill Fabrics™ to re-create a vintage collection that would appeal to both traditionalists and contemporary quilt artists.