Pat L. Nickols

RJR Fabrics proudly welcomes quilt historian Pat L. Nickols, regarded as one of the very best in her field. Pat's extensive fabric study is the background for her reproduction designs, and she pulls from an array of fabrics, in specific time frames, to create beautiful reproduction lines for today's quilters. This gives quilters the unique opportunity to work with antique designs as close to the original as modern technology will allow, including the bright colors preferred by 19th century artisans. Her lines include a variety of small, medium, and large-scale prints, along with strong floral and unusual patterns, each with a unique story, and often inspired by fabrics from England and France. An example is seen in the large-scale multi-floral chintz furnishing fabric in the Fairhaven collection. Chintz was created by glazing finely woven cotton to increase wear and add sheen to the fabric. It was quite a novel process in Europe at the time.

The beautiful, intricate wood block, engraved plate and cylinder designs used to create the fabrics with printed patterns were originally created by hand, with extreme attention to detail. These weren't simply fabrics; they were works of art. "Engravers in those early 1800s were considered artisans, fine engraving was an art form," explains Pat. So is recreating these beautiful prints. Pat spends hours poring over antique fabrics and quilts searching for just the right pieces to make up a collection. She pulls her images from her extensive collection of antique quilts and fabric pieces, then identifies and documents her selections using source books from her library. This sometimes requires her to translate art history texts from different languages to tell the fabric's stories.

Pat designed three collections with P&B Textiles in from 1997 to 2004. All of the collections were reproductions of the same time period - the 1840s — and were very well received by the quilting community. We are pleased to have her working with RJR to continue bringing authentic patterns of antique prints to quilt makers. Look for more collections of her reproduction prints, from the sought-after 1840s as well as other time periods.