Document and Reproduction: Sparta

Document

The document print for the Sparta fabric in my Arnold's Attic collection dates to about 1880-1900. I called it Sparta after a place name in Arnold's neighborhood.

It's an eye-catching print---little shredded wheat bites and pink commas floating on a carmel-colored grid. So modern looking it's hard to believe it's 1880.

That combination of brown and bright pink was hot in the 1880s.

When I am coloring a whole collection I have to think about the all-over effect, so I decided against the pink. And I changed the colors by greening up the tans and shifting the carmels to red so all the prints would go together as a group.

Reproduction

Above are the other colorways in the collection

Roseanne Smith fussy-cut the little spirals out for the inner points in her mariner's compass quilt.

It's a 4-Block quilt top made with paper-pieced designs in Arnold's Attic prints.

More on Sparta:
After I received the fabric I realized I'd seen that reprint before. Somebody else reproduced it a few years ago. What the heck! It's a great print.