Nine Patch Irish Chain Post Bed Quilt, 1780-1810, Massachusetts
This quilt is comprised of an 18th century Toile, 18th and early 19th century block prints and many hand painted prints. All of the early vegetable dye colors are represented here. Hand carving of the block prints requires a high level of skill. The blocks measure 7” square with 3-1/4” square centers. The smaller corner squares measure 1-3/4". The high cost of these fabrics tells us that the creator was probably from an affluent family.
Flying Geese Post Bed Quilt, 1825, Massachusetts
This four post bed quilt was originally made for a bed with a large cannonball post. The quilt will fit a queen size bed today. The geese pattern will cover the top of the bed and the bar border overhang will look like a dust ruffle. On an original early four post bed there could have been a child’s trundle bed under the adults' bed. The three borders are 19-3/4” wide, the rectangles are 9 x 4-1/2” and are comprised of two triangles. The middle triangle is 9 x 6 x 6” and the side triangles are 4 x 4 x 6-1/2”. The borders are a wonderful over-dyed green and yellow calico linen and a cotton red and white squiggly design. The geese are made of two fabrics, an early block print stripe and a black, red and white unusual print. I feel this is a quilt for a bed and not to hang on the wall. The quilt has cross hatch and outline quilting and the bars have 4“ quilted circles. The back is a homespun linen and the thread is linen.
Unknown Pattern, 1825, New Hampshire
This quilt has a whole cloth linen calico backing from the early 18th century with fabrics on the front including hand painted block prints. The three borders used here are a trait of the New England quilt. Why make a border on an edge if its not going to be seen? In this case, the side without a border would be the side under your pillows. The blocks measure apx 7 x 9”, the sashing measures 2-1/4” with 3-1/4” borders on three sides and hand finished with a 1/4" turned over binding. There is a wonderful square on point border created from a very early hand painted block print.
Signature Block Quilt, 1830, New England
This quilt is comprised of two fabrics: a vegetable dyed calico and an off white. The signature blocks, on point, measure apx 12” square and are then joined with a 2” sashing from the same fabric. The separate binding measures 1/4” in width and is the same fabric as the sashing and the blocks. The backing is a home spun linen indicative of the era. There are various quilting designs executed on this quilt from outline quilting to straight line quilting to V quilting. The colors are a gold on yellow and a beige, black and white on chocolate calico.
Sunburst with Flying Geese Border, 1835; New England
This quilt is comprised of simple 12” square blocks. The sunburst pattern itself measures 9-1/2” in diameter, however there is a circular piece inserted into the center of the square. The circular quilting around each center sunburst is reminiscent of a Hawaiian quilt of a much later date. The width of the quilting rows vary from 1/4 to 3/8”. The quilt is surrounded by a 4-1/2” border and finished with a 1/4” all hand applied binding. The entire quilt was created by hand and predates the public use of a sewing machine. All sides of the diamonds in the sunburst measure 1-3/4”, the diameter of the center piece is 4”, and the flying geese triangles measure 3 x 3 x 4”.
There is a three dimensional feel to these blocks with each diamond outline quilted. The flying geese border brings this quilt to another level. Each triangle is echo quilted. Fabric on the back is linen while the front fabric is a finer linen along with the faded purple. Before 1850 in America, we were unable to set the color purple, as a result the fabric faded down to these beautiful colors. These shades of purple date this quilt to c.1835.
Wool Challis Tumbling Blocks, 1835; Maine
This quilt is comprised of thousands of diamonds with 1-3/4” sides. It is completely hand pieced and each diamond is outline quilted. It’s finished with a solid narrow border finished with a 3/8” early block print wool challis fabric.
Log Cabin with Chimneys, 1840, New England
The log cabin with chimneys pattern originally came from England. From that pattern we developed our own variations that became American favorites. The construction of this quilt is made up of 10” blocks: each block made up of 1/4 to 1/2” width logs with a 1/2" center chimney. The cotton backing used for this quilt is c.1840 design. The twill tape binding measures 1/2”. The fabrics used for the "logs" are a variety of wool challis, an indication that this woman belonged to a family of affluence.
Windmill Medallion, 1845, New England
This quilt has a Center Medallion pattern which originated in England. This particular quilt, however, is an original design. The creator of this quilt was most likely from an affluent family because the fabric would have been expensive to purchase. The center medallion nine patch windmill measures 14” square. Adding the border comes to 20 inches. The corner blocks measure 14" square; all individual blocks measure 7-1/2 inches square. All blocks are joined with a 2-1/2” sashing while the quilt is bordered with the same fabric. Most of the fabrics on this quilt are from the 1840’s. The backing is a very fine linen. All the borders are zigzag quilted and the blocks are x quilted.
Mariner's Compass, 1850, New York
A circular pieced pattern is one of the most difficult sewing challenges one can attempt. On this quilt, there is a compass surrounded by a 7/8” over-dyed green circle. The blocks on this are 18” square and are joined with 4-1/2” triple sashing. The miniature blocks used here to join each section are a 4” square using a star pattern in Turkey Red and green with a chrome center. The entire border, which varies in width from 3-3/4” on opposite two sides to 5” on the other opposite two sides. The free hand drawn meandering green ribbon border takes twists and turns embellished with turkey red dangling diamonds. The colors of this quilt include: Turkey red, over-dyed green, chrome orange, double pink with white stripe and white. The separate hand applied binding measures 1/4”.
Bunnies & Starburst, 1850, New England
The circular starburst blocks have a diameter of 10”. This starburst block is one of the hardest patterns to piece because of the tiny elongated triangle points. There are 20 of these very sophisticated blocks. Changing the sophistication of this entire piece are appliqué bunny rabbits in a basket. One way to know that this was made in New England is the fact that there are two borders instead of three. The mentality was, why do something extra if no one is going to see it. It appears to be a work in progress as someone added two borders to fit a child’s bed. The pre 1850 purple is a very hard color to find, as a result you can see where some are a different print.
Feathered Stars with Trapunto, 1850; New York
This quilt is comprised of 9 feathered touching stars with center sunbursts. A trapunto and/or stuffed quilt is a multi step process. First the quilt top must be pieced, second it must be stuffed, then backed and quilted. The third step is the very laborious process of separating fibers in the back and stuffing them with cotton. The back fabric is a more loosely woven linen, making the threads easier to separate. On this quilt, there are 16” squares between the feathered stars joining the 18" squares on point. All diamonds have 2-1/2” sides, triangles 1-3/4 x 1-3/4 x 2-1/2" and the squares have 1-1/2" sides. The cross hatch diagonal quilting is 3/4” apart.
Four Patch Irish Chain, 1855, Pennsylvania
This quilt was finished with a knife edge binding found frequently in Pennsylvania. Machine pieced.
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