Chester County History Center

 

Eagle quilt top donated by Msry P Way (Satterthwaite?) with

dates 1868 and 1933

Here is a sale with the possessions of Mary P Way in 1951 when this quilt was donated. One wishes one could time travel to the sale and see if this is among the "linens of all kinds." There are a couple of possibilities for a Mary P. Way but how she obtained this top is unknown.  Did she make it? Inherit it? Buy it at another "vendue" as they called sales in Pennsylvania.

Almost as much fun as shopping at Mary's sale 70 years ago is checking out the catalog of quilts at the Chester County History Center. They have an exemplary catalog. Chester was an important county in the development of the American quilts. Check out the catalog here:

https://mycchc.catalogaccess.com/search?search=quilt&includedFields=Objects%2CPhotos%2CLibrary%2CArchives%2CPeople&page=1&size=10&withImages=false

The museum has an equally exemplary exhibit up until through March 2, 2025 in West Chester.

Album made for Daniel & Mary A. Ubil, mid 19th c.

Curator Ellen Endslow is going to do an online lecture on their collection on December 3.

Here's her book of their quilts too.

Layers Unfolding: The Stories of Chester County Quilts (ed. E. Endslow)West Chester, PA: Chester County Historical Society.

Pomegranate Applique

 

Kentucky Paw-Paw by Elsie Ridgley

Over at the CivilWarQuilts blog we are doing a Kentucky Classic applique sampler this year. The blocks for the BOM come from some mid-19th-century Kentucky quilts and those Kentuckians seem to have been fond of Pomegranate imagery---did they grow pomegranates in 19th-century Kentucky?

BillieJo Rondi Lesley's purple palette.

I'm calling them paw-paws in Kentucky.

A Rose tree

Elsie's William Morris prints

Becky Brown went off on her own tangent...

See posts with the free patterns for Kentucky Classic here:

https://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2024/10/links-for-kentucky-classic.html

I thought I'd look around for more Pomegranate designs. I found many ways to arrange and set the fruit blocks.

Kansas Museum of History

Top by Mary Jane Scruggs of Nicodemus, Kansas last quarter 19th c.

Tennessee project & the Quilt Index

Michigan State University/Cuesta Benberry Collection

For Hattie Dorsey Moore by her sister Mary Stanford, 1876

Denver Art Museum/probably Kentucky

Fons & Porter Collection, dated inscribed 1860

But surprisingly little variety in the fruit itself.

You can add a couple of flourishes 

but it's generally two layers or three.

Round or squat.

The major creativity is in the "top-knots."

A design transferred to quilts straight from German-American traditional arts.

https://encyclopediaquiltpatterns.blogspot.com/2019/04/hospital-sketches-block-3-love-apple.html 

Color Trends

 

I didn't go to Market but I do enjoy pirating pictures to

see what the trends are.

Here's a short virtual tour.

Lots of samplers

Interesting to see how many featured houses....sign of the times

when a little homey shelter is called for?

Cute--- as usual--- is a mainstay.

What about color?

White or close to it is everybody's go-to neutral.

Poppie Cotton gift to founders

Island Batik

Tipsy Needle

Tula Pink

With exceptions.