Another Ohio Garden of Eden Quilt

 

Sylvia's grapes

And one more connection for a last post this week.

See previous blogposts about Sylvia Queen's quilts and other Garden of Eden quilts:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2023/09/sylvia-queen-and-garden-of-eden-quilt.html

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2023/09/sylvia-queens-second-quilt.html

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2023/09/who-is-sylvia.html

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2023/09/more-garden-of-eden-quilts.html

Those tightly stuffed grapes, likely of wool or mixed wool fabric, in Sylvia Queen's quilt in the Johnson County Museum reminded me of something I'd seen.

And then in the middle of the night (of course) I sat up and said

Olive Bachelor Wells, Spencer Museum.

https://spencerartapps.ku.edu/collection-search#/object/12807

The grape vine border---the Garden of Eden theme.

And Olive Bachelor Wells lived in Ohio, just a few miles from Sylvia Queen.

Olive Wells's Adam & Eve are "stump work," three-dimensional

 figures stitched to the surface.

As I recall the late Jean Mitchell came across this quilt in Kansas City and suggested that the owner, "the maker's great-grandson's wife," donate it to the Spencer, which she generously did in 1978.

The unusual dark background fabric was intriguing

and that is another design characteristic this Garden of Eden

shares with the Sylvia Queen quilt.

Jean and I spent some enjoyable time examining the Spencer donation. We communicated with Quilt Historian Ricky Clark of Ohio who was analyzing the Ohio Project's findings in Quilts in Community: Ohio's Traditions, published in 1991. 

Rhoda Wells Warner, Painesville Ohio.

 Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society

Each star represents a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Ricky had noted the Wells Garden of Eden's similarities to a patriotic-themed extravaganza by Rhoda Warner, summarized below by Aimee E. Newell in a footnote in her book A Stitch in Time.

Fading purple stuffed grapes in Rhoda Warner's quilt

These women all lived up by Lake Erie in eastern Ohio in Geauga and Lake Counties in the 1850s, within thirty miles of each other. Similarities in their quilts give us a glimpse of the influence of fair prizes, sharing of techniques and perhaps some professional quiltmakers. 

And a glimpse is all we have.

And that's the last post on the Garden of Eden quilts and the elusive Sylvia Warner Quinn (Queen.)

Rhoda Wells Warner's husband's grave:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67235057/david-warner