Fabric Sample Books

As a quilter and quilt collector I am naturally drawn to fabrics. New or old, I love fabrics. One of the best ways to learn about fabrics is to study books on fabrics (and quilts) and study fabrics in fabric sample books. Over the years I have come across some great fabric sample books, the following date to the 1930's era.



Two fabric sample books from 1936 and 1937.

Ely and Walker were large fabric manufacturers and Quadriga Cloth was one of their most popular dress weight cottons. "Needleized" refers to the manufacturing process of piercing the fabric which improves the texture or "hand".


A wide variety of solids in pastels and cheerful colors.

Cute prints that we might find in 1930's quilts.

Small prints in many colors.

There are also prints that we wouldn't expect to find in 1930's quilts. One of their lines was the Quaker Chintz Prints. These were similar to fabrics from the 1800's, like the double pinks, and the yellow fabrics with small floral designs.

Also fabrics in greys, blacks, navy, and darker jewel toned prints. Prints like this can throw off our quilt dating if we are not aware that they were still available in the 1930's - 40's.

Quaker Chintz Prints in double pinks and yellow.

Blacks and greys similar to mourning prints, not what we would
expect to find in 1930's quilts.

Colorful jewel toned florals.

Beautiful delicate floral dress prints.

Bold bright larger scaled prints.

Another sample book dating to 1939 from Rice - Stix converters offering their "Topmost Fashions" line of cotton fabrics.

Sample book from the fall of 1939, the year of the New York Worlds Fair.

Solid fabrics in just about every hue. The "New York World's Fair Colors"
are apparently the orange and blue at center bottom.

Pretty, softly colored floral prints.

Bolder or brighter colors here.

Figures on bolder colored backgrounds.

Bright florals on white backgrounds.

More figures on white this time.



Small prints on bright backgrounds.

I will be posting more on sample books as I take more photos.