Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Rocky Road to Kansas via Pennsylvania -- Revisited



Another great late 1800's Pennsylvania quilt purchased from Donna (gb-best on eBay). There really must be something in the water as those PA quilters and their unique and funky color sense continue to amaze me. I don't think anyone else does pink in a such an assertive way with no fear. Okay, yes that is a lot of generalizing but after a few years of studying, it is easy to pick the PA quilts out of the line up.  To see a full picture of this quilt, click here.

This Rocky Road to Kansas has a lot of movement due to the use of the double pink Greek key print ground that reads as a stripe. That fabric choice would probably have pushed the quilt over the top had the maker not been so careful in piecing the 'stars'. They are arranged in a very controlled manner/order: red/blue in centers, then chrome yellow, then the same fabrics used in the facing points. The centers are double blue/Lancaster blue and turkey red with chrome yellow details. There are a number of mourning prints and the back is a great neon stripe.



And here it is with a  very different example of a Rocky Road to Kansas, made by my great grandmother in the 1930's in central Utah.  Click here to see more of the 30's Road
P.s.  Thanks for the lovely comments.  Glad you like this funky quilt and the photo of the 2 quilts together.   I'm thinking of doing a new lecture with pairs of quilts, comparing and contrasting.  And it would be a fun dating game - to have people decide which is older/newer.


10 comments:

  1. This is a quilt on my to do list, lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  2. At first glance you wouldn't know those two were the same pattern. What a fun surprise the backing it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. love the play on stripes....all over, including the back....

    ReplyDelete
  4. These quilts are both amazing! I love the double pink - the maker did a great job with that stripe. Thanks so much for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Two lovely quilts!! I love the backing on the PA one.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love seeing two quilts that use the "same" pattern in such different colorways.

    While living in Maryland I collected a lot of Penn quilts. For fun one year we decorated the Christmas tree using the pink, yellow, reds and blues of their quilts. Very fun!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for the lovely comments. Glad you like this funky quilt and the photo of the 2 quilts together.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love those old fabrics! A real treasure of a quilt!! I'm a big fan of the Lancaster blue and that backing fabric is amazing
    thanks for sharing
    Tim

    ReplyDelete
  9. love the purple and I have some vintage solid - now I know what to do with it. I also love string and scrappy quilts. Glad I happened on your blog, Sandra....fellow appraiser from MN, jean

    ReplyDelete
  10. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting and commenting.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...