I've been posting about factory cutaways
and how they determined quilt style.
Here's a string quilt from about 1915 that has the distinctive shapes discarded by clothing factories,
plus a limited range of fabric style.Nearly everything in the quilt is woven pattern or solids...
The kinds of fabrics woven by southern mills from about
1880-1930. (Do note there is one piece
of patchwork cheater cloth in it, the only printed fabric
I noticed.)
Woven plaids and stripes
were often called ginghams at the time.
They were quite popular for clothing about 1900-1920
and the quilts made with them might have been
scraps from the family wardrobe.
Montgomery Wards catalog
Here the stripes are also called chambrays
The woven patterns were inexpensive and durable---
perfect for children's clothing.
Crib Quilt about 1910
Sometimes you see a quilt made of various colorways of one woven pattern or fabric so close in style you
can believe it was purchased by the pound from a mill or a clothing factory.
Tennessee mill, 1910
When Lewis Hines documented the children
working in American cotton mills
about 1910 he captured the plaids and checks
in their wardrobes.
Nine Patch of striped fabrics about 1910
It's hard to imagine the variety in the dresses
of these girls and women about 1910
but there were probably bright plaids and pastels in the mix here.
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Bow Tie About 1910
It was easier to get purple wovens
than purple prints at the time.
Mills could dye cotton yarns purple cheaper than
printing a purple figure.
You see the coming 1930s rage for pastels
in the teens with these pale quilts.
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Simple pattern in both fabric and patchwork
People sometimes use the word homespun for these rather austere stripes, checks and plaids but they were likely to have been factory-made.