Triplets: Schleifer-Kichlein Fraktur Quilts

Pattern we might call the Reel.

The green print indicates a date of about 1840.

The Reel is one of the first block patterns with curves. It began about 1830 and evolved into a classic.

Variations on #17 in my Encyclopedia of Applique.

I've been curious for years about this pair of quilts from a Pennsylvania-German family. The pattern appears to have just popped up in Pennsylvania.

These two examples alternating the block with wool embroidery are from the Kichline & Schleifer families. 

Euphemia's was recently purchased by the Metropolitan Museum's Friends of the American Wing Fund.

Read more here: 

http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/717944

The 1830 example has been in the Winterthur collection for 16 years.

Enter the object number 2000.0071 in the search box here to see more:

http://museumcollection.winterthur.org/

To add to the mystery of where patterns come from:

A third quilt dated 1829

This one was pictured in the 1966 book Pennsylvania German Folk Art

 by John Joseph Stoudt.

All three quilts alternate the block with birds perched in trees.

Del-Louise Moyer has recently written a lengthy post on the quilts.
Fraktur Quilts from the Schleifer-Kichlein Family
https://alyssumarts.com/2016/09/04/fraktur-quilts-from-the-schleifer-kichlein-family/

There's also a fourth fraktur quilt with similar embroidery but the patchwork is stars and the quilt is not date-inscribed. Christine Schafer Kichline's quilt is in the collection of the Moravian Museum in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For a glimpse see Orlofsky, plate 168.

Here's the next dated quilt in a reel pattern in my files.

"J & HW 1841" from Mass Quilts and the Quilt Index.

The applique is more complex and the trees are now in the border.

From a New Jersey album dated 1843

New Jersey Project & the Quilt Index.

After that the pattern is plentiful.