BACK TO GALLERIES

Understanding Quilt-Specific Colors: Indigo Blue

Each of these color galleries represents a color given as a value for “Quilt-Specific Colors” in the Quilt Index Comprehensive Fields. Very specific “quilty” colors often reveal specific fabrics, a specific historical time period, or a particular quilting method. The quilts pictured in these galleries range from the late eighteenth century to the 1940s, and illustrate a wide variety of fabrics and techniques. Some quilts contain examples of more than one of these colors and thus appear in more than one gallery. In addition to these galleries, a good reference for learning more about quilt-specific colors is Eileen Jahnke Trestain’s book, Dating Fabrics: A Color Guide, 1800-1960.

Indigo Blue
Indigo dye has a long history in the United States, and was used in quiltmaking from the eighteenth century onward.  In the period before 1830, indigo blue dye was very dark, often appearing black or violet, especially in digital images.  Wool and flax were often dyed with this early indigo blue and used as a solid in wholecloth quilts and calamanco.  Throughout much of the rest of the nineteenth century indigo blue was often seen as the background in prints, sometimes with the overlaying print in chrome yellow or orange.  Indigo continued to be common in cotton fabrics through the Edwardian period.  Today, indigo blue dyes very similar to those made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are still common in African quiltmaking and are sometimes used in contemporary American art quilts.

In addition to these galleries, a good reference for learning more about quilt-specific colors is Eileen Jahnke Trestain’s book, Dating Fabrics: A Color Guide, 1800-1960.

Load More

img