All About Baltimore Album Quilts
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Inside: All About Baltimore Album Quilts
Let’s talk about the beautiful, traditional style, Baltimore Album Quilts. Learn about their history and take inspiration from this style to make it our own!
In the 1800s, American quilters began to depart from traditional European and English designs and began to really carve out their own methods.
Medallion quilts gave way to block quilts, and applique moved away from the chintz style applique of Broderie Perse to more elaborate and detailed applique designs, including flowers, wreaths, cornucopia, national monuments, animals, and patriotic images.
All About Baltimore Album Quilts
Why are they called “album” quilts?
These block quilts, where each block is equal in size, are known as Album quilts.
Some of the most beautiful and intricate album quilts came out of the port city of Baltimore, Maryland.
Why Baltimore? In the mid-1800s, Baltimore was a very prosperous port city with a growing group of women who had plenty of leisure time to sew.
And, these women used their talent to create something uniquely American.
Stunning Details
Baltimore Album Quilts are stunning and detailed applique quilt blocks.
Some of these quilts would be made by one quilter. Others were made by groups of women, each contributing an individual block.
Often these quilts would be made in reds and greens on a cream background since red and green dyes were easily available.
These talented quilters layered their applique designs to suggest shading and contours.
Want to try a Baltimore Album Quilt – the easy way?
Recently, we explored Baltimore Album Quilts in The Meander Quilt Guild. In case you haven’t heard, Meander is an online guild where we explore a different quilt-making style each month!
Traditionally, Baltimore Album quilts were made entirely by hand; but in Meander, we learn how to make these beautiful quilts quickly by machine!
One method, in particular, demonstrated how to use fusible web to make your project much easier and we also covered multiple finishing options.
The sky’s the limit!
The sky’s the limit as to the different designs you can create, and it’s a lot of fun working on these album quilts.
Each block is different, but small and manageable, so it keeps your project interesting!
To learn more about Meander, join a free workshop that will give you a taste of what The Meander Quilt Guild is all about!
Join us for the Quilt Style Workshop, here. See you there!
