Cheater Cloth - Geometrical Chintz

Printed patchwork, about 1880.

Probably from the Cacheco Mills.

Wholecloth quilt. Note the diagonal seam.

This was a very successful print at a time

when "patchwork prints" were the fashion.

A business paragraph reprinted in many newspapers

in 1878

The hexagonal print, which textile historian Deborah Kraak found numbered #8896 in

some Cacheco records, was used rather creatively by quiltmakers.

Here it's the focus in a charm quilt from an

online auction.

It's fussy-cut here too in a sampler from the Pat Nickols collection at the Mingei Museum

(Is it a quilt as you go/potholder style construction?)

Most of you know the term potholder style, and might describe the fabric as cheater cloth or faux patchwork. How historically correct those terms are is disputable, but they do communicate.

Other quiltmakers thought the Cacheco patchwork print quite appropriate for a setting fabric.

Going along with the whole Victorian idea of more is better.

Another colorway

Less contrast, but still a bit much.

Here it is as a border.

The best idea may have been as a whole cloth quilt

or a backing.

And if you didn't have enough---

Faux Patchwork is faux patchwork, I guess. Combine

two of them.

When I wrote Clues in the Calico in 1979 I noted several names for the style. Printed Patchwork seems to be the period name from the late 19th century.

I was wrong 28 years ago about the dates on the style but that's another post another time. They seem to go back to the 18th century in Europe and earlier in the East.

Geometrical Chintz and Faux Patchwork were terms Ruth Finley used in her 1929 book. I haven't found any period references to the name Geometrical Chintz. Finley's Old Patchwork Quilts and the Women Who Made Them is the first publication in which I've been able to find of the term Faux Patchwork.

For Cheater Cloth I was surprised to find a 1910 citation in the industry periodical America's Textile Reporter.

Cheater cloth, 24-27 inches wide 9 cents a yard under ginghams.

Gingham at the time was not narrowed to a woven check. It meant a plain woven, cotton fabric.

That word might actually be Chester cloth but I haven't found any other references to Chester cloth. Or any other period references to cheater cloth for that matter.