My New/Old Quilt: Family History

I've been writing about this antique quilt I purchased.

with the Feather Crown in the center that was popular in Maryland

mid-19th-century.

Once I realized Nancy Hornback used to own it

and had done some research on it I had a good starting 

place to find out where it was made and by whom.

On Page 75 of Quilts in Red and Green by Nancy Hornback and Terry Clothier Thompson:

"This quilt came with a story that it was made by the Queen City, Missouri, Methodist Quilters for the 25th wedding anniversary of Henry and Francis Barr Brenizer, and that the fabric was purchased at Charlie Sweeney's dry goods store in Queen City... 

Queen City is near the Iowa/Missouri border

in Schuyler County, Missouri

[They] married in 1863, a date that would put their 25th anniversary in 1888. However, the style, fabric and techniques...makes us think it surely was made before this date....perhaps the top was made by Frances Brenizer before her 1863 marriage [and quilted in 1888]."

I certainly agree with Nancy. It does not look like a quilt from 1888.

Frances is buried near her farm.

"Frances Wife of H. H. Brenizer

Dec 13, 1842

Dec 4, 1922"

Frances was born in 1842 so she could have made the quilt in the early 1860s in Ohio. The style is something you see between 1840 and 1870.

Below are several red and green applique quilts dated in the early 1860s, made in eastern states.

1861, possibly from Fulton County, Pennsylvania

Collection of the International Quilt Study Center and Museum

2008-040-0136

http://cdn.firespring.com/images/f37565f3-8df3-4d9e-a41f-afc3e525907e.jpg

An Ohio sampler

1863, Cowell Family, Schenectady, New York

1864, made for Robert Wilson, Westmoreland, New York

The quilt might also have been made for Frances as a gift from relatives. Were there any Marylanders in Frances's family?

Frances was born in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1842. Her mother Emaline Schofield Barr was born in New York in 1816 . Emaline was the age to have made such a quilt in Ohio in her thirties when she had two young children, Frances and older brother Dudley. So the sampler may be an Ohio quilt from the Barr family. Emmaline Barr died in Schuyler County, Missouri in 1901. Apparently she lived with Frances and Henry in Queen City towards the end of her life. Mother Emaline might have brought the quilt with her when she moved west. In that case it would also be an Ohio quilt.

But there was a Maryland connection in Henry Benizer's family. His mother Margaret Griffith Benizer was born in Maryland in 1803 and married Jacob Benizer there in 1821. Jacob's family was from Pennsylvania; they moved to Maryland (some sources say Baltimore) after the war of 1812.

Too many Griffiths, here's one family in an 1888 ad

 I couldn't find anything about Margaret's Griffith family, too many Griffiths in Baltimore in the early 19th century.

The quilt may have been made in Morrow County,

in central Ohio.

Jacob and Margaret took two children to central Ohio in 1829. They settled in Westfield Township along the Whetstone River in what is now Morrow County. Between 1829 and 1850 Margaret gave birth to eight more children. She may have made the quilt in Ohio when she was in her late thirties or forties when the applique sampler style was so popular.

During the Civil War at least two of her sons, Henry and Cicero, served in Union forces.

Henry's brother Cicero Brenizer's grave is in 

Delaware County, Ohio.

In 1863 Henry married Frances Barr in Morrow County, Ohio, and the following year bought eighty acres of land in Schuyler County, Missouri, near Queen City.

The 1870 census finds widowed Margaret at 67 living with son Cicero in Ohio. Margaret Brenizer died in 1879 and is buried in the Mound Cemetery near her Ohio farm. If Margaret made the quilt it is an Ohio quilt.

The quilt or quilt top went west to Missouri, possibly with Henry and Frances as a gift from either side of the family---possibly brought by Frances's mother Emmaline Barr later. It stayed in Schuyler County, Missouri, for quite awhile until Nancy Hornback purchased it for her collection of red and green quilts, possibly in the 1980s.

I know a lot more about my quilt. I still don't know where it was made or by whom or for whom. I have to give up on my Maryland idea. It's probably an Ohio quilt.

I think I'll call it the Brenizer applique quilt, date it 1840-1870 and say likely made in Ohio.

Nancy and Terry drew patterns for the quilt, so you can make one too.

A post on the feather wreath design:
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2015/06/my-newold-applique-sampler-feather-crown.html
A post on the pomegranate:
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2015/07/my-newold-quilt-pomegranate-blocks.html

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Patchwork Pouch

Have a lot of scraps too small to save?

Here's a free project from Moda that makes use of 2-1/2" strips cut 5" long.

The finished pouch is 6" by 2-1/2" x 2-1/2".

Just right for a sewing kit.

I'm thinking leftover William Morris repros.

Moda shows it in black and white

so you can imagine any prints in there.

I'm imagining Best of Morris blues.

You use half a charm square:

Rectangles cut 2-1/2" x 5".

Or leftovers from Jelly Rolls.

See all the instructions in the free patchwork pattern here:

http://www.unitednotions.com/fp_patchwork-pouch.pdf

Tessellations 2: Four-Sided Shapes

BlockBase #131a

Hit and Miss

I've been sorting my single-shape pictures, using BlockBase numbers.

They tell me any quadrilateral will tessellate or tile, meaning you need only one pattern shape to cover the surface.

The basic quadrilateral is a square--- So basic I forgot

to give it a BlockBase number under one-patch quilts.

BlockBase #2286b

Postage Stamp or Trip Around the World

But I did give them a separate section with pattern classified by

shading rather than shapes.

BlockBase #2276-2299

From Cindy's Antiques shop

From the RickRack blog

BlockBase #2286c

There are many ways to shade a quilt of squares.

From Rocky Mountain Quilts

Not in BlockBase

The trouble with indexing quilts of just squares---

when do they become a regular old block pattern---a four patch or a nine patch like the one above?

Moving on......

Screen shot of four-sided shapes from BlockBase

I started the four-sided category with rectangles and focused mostly on shading and placement.

#131a

The common early-20th-century throw of wool tailor's samples.

This is often called Stacked Bricks today.

Any rectangle, whatever the proportions, will tessellate.

19th-century quilt from Rocky Mountain Quilt Shop

Color variations on shading pattern

BlockBase #132b

19th-century quilt sold at Skinner's Auctions

Early-20th-century Hit and Miss

Late-19th-century charm quilt.

No two pieces alike?

1 piece; 2 fabrics

Names for #132b I found in print when I wrote the original Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns about 1980:

• Old Garden Wall
• Streak O'Lightning
• Zig Zag
• General Sherman's Quilt (?!)
• Depression Quilt

I suppose a Depression Quilt meant a functional,

tied throw made of old clothes.....

Pattern on the diagonal from about 1900. 

I didn't give it a BlockBase number

1930's Amish quilt from Stella Rubin Antiques

Blockbase # 132c

More 4-sided tessellations later.

What's in Stock and in the Works

The kit for Union Blues is available now.

Union Blues was shipped in April.

I'm making a time line here for my 2015-2016 Moda fabric collections

(mostly for me but you can look too.)

I'm including links to the Moda pdf's for each line.

http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_union-blues.pdf

Morris Jewels was recently shipped.

Ilyse Moore is working on a Morris at Midnight design.

I don't know what direction she's going but it will be good.

http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_the-morris-jewels.pdf

Aren't those Moda boxes on the porch?

Here are lines in the works:

Alice's Scrapbag is scheduled for September shipping.

Which means the pre-cuts should be available in late August.

http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_alices-scrapbag.pdf

The collection features reproduction prints

from the 1850s to the '90s.

The next line has a similar look---mid-19th-century beauties.

Old Cambridge Pike is scheduled for December, 2015 delivery to shops.

http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_old-cambridge-pike.pdf

Again, 1850-1890 reproduction prints in 

a range of reds, greens and brown. It will coordinate well

with Alice's Scrapbag

Pre-cuts should be available in late November.

For 2016...

• Another Morris reproduction (in Morris-like colors!) Should be in shops April, 2016.
• Something like Union Blues with more Prussian blue repros? For the summer a year from now.

It's all in the idea machine.