How Old is This Quilt? Win a Free Fat Quarter

A long time ago Margaret signed and dated this quilt giving us an opportunity to use it as a teaching tool for dating quilts. 

I have a new feature on the American Quilt Study Group's Facebook page. Once a month in 2018 I will post an antique quilt with the date on it (and not tell you the date). Readers can guess a date and tell us why they picked that particular year.

After a week I'll post the actual date and those who came closest will get a a fat quarter of reproduction fabric in the mail.

Oh Boy!

We can all learn something by the crowd-sourced dating information. Here are some of the educated guesses about Margaret's quilt:

Sharon P: I will go with 1850s, based on fabric and double rod quilting [or is it triple rod?]. [Two lines then a skip and two more lines = double rod]

Taryn: The 1850s because I own a dated (1854 or 1857, can't tell which) quilt that has very similar fabrics, quilting and design style

Teri: I also guess c. 1850. the binding looks like that early unreliable blue-over-yellow green of that era. Also as best I can tell, the red part of the peonies is made of 3 chevrons rather than 6 diamonds, which is how some southern Indiana quiltmakers pieced Polk's Fancy quilts of the Mexican War era.

(I hadn't noticed that chevron applique Teri. Just assumed those were diamonds)

Kathy M.C: The funkiness of the appliqué, specifically the border, tells me just shy of 1850. Thus my decision on 1848.

Barbara G: 1860-1870 turkey red print set Foulard, yellow in the small figures, Indiennes? Block set on point? Vines on the border

Kay: 1848, though it could be later if someone saved fabrics. Double row quilting, yellow green with a simple print, and "Carolina lily" variation say early red and green to me. No chintz or interesting prints to date it much earlier. Repeated block pattern tends to be early or much later. Later greens tend to have more blue, but hard to tell if my computer screen makes it look different than it is.

Margaret C. Roberts her quilt

done March the 7th

1848

Here's who guessed 1848: Kathy, Kay & Roberta. And as Teri said: "A lot of us were pretty darn close." We AQSG members are really good at this. And if you want to get good make a guess and read their comments each month in 2018.

We'll do it again in February. Check the AQSG Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/AmericanQuiltStudyGroup/posts/