A Tisket a Tasket, A Bird and Fruit Filled Basket

Originally printed for furniture or wall hangings, Chintz panels were also designed as seat covers or seat backs. Approximately 40 different panels are known, with more to be discovered. The majority of the surviving chintz panels known were printed in England, but panels were also printed in India and France.

These printed panels came to be known as center medallions and were quickly adopted by quilters as the perfect center of the quilt. Approximately 200 antique quilts used these different medallions with a variety of frames and piecing. But the panels eventually became more than just the centerpiece, with some quilts using as many as 10 or more panels.

One well known panel called the Fruit Basket Medallion or Basket of Fruit has been documented in approximately 40 British and American quilts. It was a favorite of American quilt designer Achsah Goodwin Wilkins as documented by Dr. William Rush Dunton, Jr. in his books on Old Quilts. It has also become a favorite of Kay’s and mine, hence the reason we decided to reproduce the panel and make it available to modern day quilters.

For more info
Chintz Quilts from the Poos Collection, by Kay and Lori Lee Triplett, and Xenia Cord, p 142
http://www.quiltandtextilecollections.com/books

1812 War & Piecing
http://quilt1812warandpiecing.blogspot.com/2012/06/baltimore-prints.html

Printed Panels for Chintz Quilts: Their Origin and Use, Merikay Waldvogel, Uncoverings Volume 34 of the Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group