Alabama Quilts

Seven Sisters variation (Egyptian Design) 

Pike County, Alabama

I stumbled across a picture file of Alabama quilts in the

Alabama Decorative Arts Survey in the online files of the Birmingham Public Library.

I fixed up the photos a little to show you some of my favorites.

Louiza Gibson Simmons

Late-19th century to early-20th century quilts,

solid colors, prone to fading to tan or gray.

Allie & Adar Roling. Family attributes it to 1890.

Is this the oldest Double Wedding Ring Quilt?

Or just one of the best?

"Directed by the Birmingham Museum of Art and begun in 1985, the Alabama Decorative Arts Survey was a nine-year search throughout the state, in both private and public collections for ceramics, quilts, coverlets, furniture, paintings, photographs, metals, textiles, and grave markers that were made in nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Alabama. The project identified thousands of objects, created survey sheets on objects and photographed objects. The survey sheets record the type of object, describe the object and its condition, list the maker and year of creation if known, and list the location of the object.

Nannie Leath Blackburn

"Highlighting objects from the Survey, the Birmingham Museum of Art created the exhibition “Made in Alabama: A State Legacy,” which opened at BMA in 1994 and then traveled to the Huntsville Museum of Art, the Mobile Museum of Art, and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. An accompanying catalog, also entitled Made in Alabama was published."

Rebecca Heard Griffin

Mitchell Family

Seems like a perfect definition of a type of late-19th-century Southern quilt.

Complex pieced design, solid color with fabrics that fade, blocks set in a square grid,

wide sashing, fan quilting.

But lest you think those Mitchells were conventional, here's another family quilt.

Unknown pattern it says.

Whig's Defeat variation I say.

One of the greatest versions EVER.

Here's the link. You can click on each file to read the worksheet and see the quilt.
http://www.bplonline.org/virtual/ContentDMSubjectBrowse.aspx?subject=Quilts