Deconstructing a Very Damaged 19th Century French Quilt. Part 3

I became very intrigued by Porcupinetree's comments on the last post, she thought the 'Cartouche & Jewel' motif was upside down in my photo, I had a look and was positive that she was right, so I put the theory to the test without further ado, and plunged in to remove some more stitching to free up a longer section of the patterm. The results are very interesting, please click on the pictures to see the detail. There was quite a bit of fabric folded into the edge, and after a gentle iron, the pattern was revealed a bit more fully, some of it unfaded, and almost as good as the day it was printed. Strangely though, the motif turns out not to be upside down, as revealed by the direction of the tassel at the bottom of the motif, but without seeing the rest of the patterm it certainly looked that way.

Underneath this section is a panel in reasonably good condition of the pretty little cotton print that has so far only peeped out of holes in the Cartouche & Jewel (C&J)cotton. It turns out to be a fantastic design, quite similar to the C&J, but with little clusters of Roses, florals and what looks like Strawberries(R&S), on stems that are quite styalised, and architectural. I believe both pieces to be French madder dyed prints, the outer C&J possibly dating to around 1850-60. Perhaps the inner R&S print might have a similar date, but it may be earlier, as all the pieces of R&S seen so far are beneath the C&J layer.

The similarities in the two the fabrics make me wonder whether they were chosen by the same quilter all those years ago to rennovate the quilt at different points in its lifetime, as the same taste seems to have been expressed in the choice of both fabrics. Additionally, in my experience of French fabrics of this sort of period, there seem to be quite strong regional similarities/styles in the kind of prints available in particular areas of France, and local printed cottons may have been cheaper and easier to obtain than expensive imported fabrics. People who were used to living out their entire lives living in the same area would have most likely purchased their fabrics from the same, or neighbouring factories.

Any comments theories or observations would be very welcome, I look forward to hearing what you think.