Dan River Mills!

**Notice!** This is a long post warning ---lots of vintage quilt goodness all the way to the bottom, so grab a cuppa, sit down and enjoy!
I made a stop on my way up to Pennsylvania ---in Danville VA! ((Yes, and this was BEFORE The speeding ticket incidence that ruined the rest of my day! HA!))
I’ve always wanted to stop here, but time was usually an issue…Danville is a bit off of VA highway 29, and was the home of Dan River Cotton Mills ----I posted about a quilt that was gifted to me recently that was made with Dan River plaids. You can read that post HERE --- scroll down to the Rail Fence quilt! I love that quilt and wanted to do some exploring to see if I could find other evidence of Dan River Mills fabrics here in this area….
Here is a picture I took of one of the remaining mill buildings ---many have been torn down and demolished, which is SO SAD! This one also had a “condemned” sign on the door --- but as I walked by to go over the bridge across the Dan river – so I could look back and get a photo of the back side of the mill, I was able to take a picture of the historical landmark sign:

This was the view of one of the remaining mill buildings from about the center of the bridge looking back toward the mill and town:

Here’s a little run down on the mill history: ((Or a little run-down mill history! :c) ))

Time Line

• 1895 - Five of the six original founders of the Riverside Cotton Mills establish the Dan River Power and Manufacturing Company so that they can develop the waterpower of the Dan River.
  
• 1909 - The Riverside Cotton Mills and Dan River Power and Manufacturing Company merge to form the Riverside and Dan River Cotton Mills.
  
• September 29, 1930 - Seeking higher wages and more autonomy, workers at the Dan River Cotton Mills join the United Textile Workers of America in walking out on strike. After four months, the strikers return to work, partly because the union runs out of funds to feed them.
  
• 1941–1945 - Dan River Mills thrives during World War II by fulfilling orders for the military, employing 14,000 workers, and operating twelve weaving and spinning mills.
  
• Spring 1951 - When the Textile Workers Union of America calls for a strike across the South, Dan River Mills refuses to grant the union's demands for a 12 percent base pay raise, exposing the TWUA's weaknesses and ensuring that it largely loses the ability to influence wage levels in the region.
  
• 1960s - Imported textiles gradually begin to take away market share from American textile makers.
  
• 1990s - The American textile industry begins to collapse, hit by a surge of imports from Latin America and Asia. Ignoring the industry's calls for protection, U.S. policymakers sign a series of free trade agreements with developing countries, insisting that these deals will help exporters and lead to cheaper prices for consumers.
  
• March 2004 - Dan River Mills enters Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, a move that leads to the closure of a number of its facilities, including the finishing and sheet-sewing plants in Danville.
  
• 2006 - Dan River Mills is bought by Gujarat Heavy Chemicals, an Indian chemical firm that closes the main mill and moves the remaining 1100 jobs overseas.
  
• November 2008 - Dan River Mills' smokestacks are toppled by an implosion, removing one of the main physical vestiges of Danville's long textile heritage.

To me the saddest thing of all was the selling of the mills in 2006 ----closing the main mill here and moving the 1100 jobs back overseas. This area used to be so vibrant in the textile industry…and other mills around NC as well --- it’s just a dying industry.

Here’s a video I found of one of the mill buildings and smoke stacks coming down…what’s funny is that the people speaking have such a deep Danville drawl, that they had to put sub titles so that you could understand what they are saying. Hehehe.

So what did I find? OODLES! It seems like scraps of mill fabric were ample! Quilts were made quickly to be warm..some just out of samples being sewn together:

Plaids and checks and stripes! Those ginghams are a Dan River Mills standard! Look at this old ad I found from the 1950s:

Love the impossibly skinny waist and the big voluminous skirt!

This utility quilt was simply sewn from sample cuts of Dan River Mills fabrics….it’s been used hard keeping loved ones warm and comfy over the many many years of use!

How about a Jacob's Ladder sewn in all Dan River Plaids?! These quilts capture the same feeling I get when I’m sewing from recycled shirt fabrics….and just because it’s a “PLAID” quilt doesn’t mean it has to be a masculine looking quilt either! Don’t you know those ginghams came in pink, yellow and purple too? :c)

I loved the simple 9 patch out of Dan River plaids……some of the 9 patches are scrappier ……see the one on the bottom left? The eggplant sashing is a great color!

This is my favorite Dan River Plaid quilt of all! STRING STARS! Wooooo! And I love the ones that have that tan gingham as the background, and didn’t pay attention to which direction the plaids were turning. Aren’t those fun? And if you look close at the stars, you’ll see the some have the strings going ACROSS the star point diamonds, and some going the long way…..

Some across the middle, and some the long way! Great fan quilting in black thread! She did a pretty good job keeping the star points in tact, and the center matches pretty dang good for having this be such a quirky quilt!

Crazy Crazy……love the blue striped background!

This poor quilt has been used to SHREDS! But it still shows evidence of lots of those Dan River plaids ---Turkey Tracks blocks! Look at these:

Blue gingham, tiny check pink background!

Loved this one……some mint green print, some gingham triangles, on that same pink background!

The BEST part of this quilt was the two great Dan River Plaids on the BACKING!! Love that huge one --- it reminds me of the big plaids that lined the inside of our big heavy sleeping bags growing up.

Here’s a great Double T ---- also very heavily used and worn through to shreds. That beautiful bright blue must have been gorgeous when the quilt was new --- see the fun stripes mixed with the great florals?

Every where I turned were quilts that focused on Dan River plaids and other textiles!

How about some BIG CHUNKY BASKETS…look at that yummy aqua mixed with that same eggplant color for the baskets and the cornerstones! You might not see the Dan River fabrics right off the bat --- they did a lot of “feminine” florals too, even if they were greatly known for their men’s shirting fabrics, ginghams, stripes, plaids, oxford cloth, chambray and denims. Open up the quilt, and then you’ll see the “obvious” ones!

Ooh…just love those sashings and the eggplant solid!

What I wouldn’t give for a big string bag of Dan River plaid scraps! What a great variety in this crazy quilt comforter!

I saw just as many tied comforters as I did quilted quilts…..Loved this economy block alternated with rows of scrappy squares in a strippy set! Yellow Gingham has to be the happiest ever!

Dan River Plaids in a “mexican star” block! I had a hard time even FINDING the block design in some of these blocks as the value changes area to area within one block to the next --- the extra wide sashing and cornerstones over power the blocks……This one has quite the history as well. Who made this quilt? Who slept under it for years and years?

Another Dan River Mills Scrap Bagger! Just when you think its’ going to be a strippy quilt..the color on the strippy parts change and you lose the columns! This one was VERY FUN, but very worn, only cutter status…but look what a great time the maker must have had turning her saved bits into this creation!
((Side Note --- and it’s not lost on me that the rug is a gingham check too! LOL!!))

This was a “GOOD” corner of the above quilt. Love the block that looks like it’s a Tonya “A” block!

Cute little dolly quilt with Dan River 4 patches! I loved the use of the “fancy new zig zag feature” sewn in red thread as top-stitching/quilting and the stitching that holds down the back side as binding to the front. CUTE!
And before you think that ALL Dan River Plaid quilts were hunky, chunky, stringy, crumby and crazy --- there are some with such precision they’ll knock your socks off! How about a hexagon??

At first it looks like random placement, but it’s not. Each “solid” color center is surrounded by two fabrics in alternating petals ----often times the “alternate” petals are a Dan River Plaid!

Check out the red ginghams! If you follow those and look to the next blue center…you’l see how the “flowers” have alternating fabrics.

Table full of Dan River Fabrics!

This side-trip was just such a treasure trove of inspiration and a good peek in to the past of a Mill Town area and it’s long history as an area landmark. When mills stop producing, and move away – it really is the end of an era. So many people here had family members that worked in the mills going back generations. I don’t know who these quiltmakers were, but I see the evidence of fabrics in their quilts proving them ((to me at least!)) to be from this area, Dan River Mills artifacts, as much as an important landmark as the plaque on the side of a condemned mill building.