Black Backgound Applique

ADDENDUM to my previous Uzbek Suzani post about black background applique quilts.

Sue Reich's new book World War II Quilts shows a news clipping from January 14, 1934 about an applique quilt that Quilters Hall of Fame Honoree Ruth E. Finley designed, made and gave to Eleanor Roosevelt. This quilt has a black background with a medallion appliqued center.

I was contacted by several quilt history friends about "black background applique quilts" and was reminded that Patricia Campbell's quilt JACOBEAN ARBOR appeared on the cover of American Quilter Summer 1990, Vol. VI, No. 2.





Pat is known for her beautiful applique quilts though she does not make them all with black backgrounds by any stretch of the imagination. However, JACOBEAN ARBOR which did have a black background certainly did catch a lot of people's attention in 1990.









(Velvet Suzani above)

Also, A Treasury of Mennonite Quilts by Rachel & Kenneth Pellman has a Whig Rose applique quilt on p. 61 that is on a dark navy blue background. It is dated ca1870.





Affairs of the Heart by Aie Rossmann was published in 2004 and is a quilt with 36 appliquéd blocks on a black background. See a review of her book here.

I found another quilter who enjoys dark background applique—Kathy Delaney.
I asked her what had inspired her to do dark background applique. I am going to insert some images of her quilts that she sent me to illustrate her work in her response:

I have often stitched my appliqué to black, indigo, and burgundy backgrounds.  I find it rather boring to work on light backgrounds although I have done plenty.

Sometimes the "era" I'm working in requires it.  But if I'm working contemporary, I prefer a dark background. My very first appliqué quilt (published in BASKETS AND BLOOMS: GEMS OF

EVERLASTING SUMMER by Emily Senuta, published in 1998 by AQS) was done on

a black background.

I don't know what compelled me except I love dramatic quilts and contrast is more important to me than color.

I wish I could tell you I was emulating another quilter, but I really don't think I was.  I just like the look of working on the dark background.  When I began it was unique and unexpected.  I like hearing someone say to me, "I never would have thought to use that fabric!"  So I regularly try the

unexpected.

Delaney wrote: The Prairie Flower Journal and Red Hot Women of Design are patterns by Barbara Brackman and appear in a couple of her books - Prairie Flowers and Women of Design (Prairie Flower Journal even graces the cover of her book).  Imperial Garden is my first appliqué - the pattern from Emily Senuta I mentioned earlier - and Pots de Fleurs is my original design and the subject of my latest book (#7) Pots de Fleurs: A Garden of Appliqué Techniques.
 


I decided to go thru all my back issues of Quilters Newsletter to see when the first one appears in their pages.

I'll keep you posted.

Karen

PS: I have always been partial to applique. Betty Ekern Suiter may not be known specifically for her black background applique, but her applique work is exquisit nevertheless. Check it out here.

July 2011 Update: Here is another link to another gorgeous contemporary black background quilt.

After discovering a website selling Uzbek textiles in August 2010, I wrote a bit about their similarity to American quilts.  But it was the black background textiles that rang a bell.

Check my current update concerning this type of quilt in the USA.