Nine Blocks: Same Nine Blocks

From Freeman's Auctions

How were quilt patterns passed around in the 19th century?

One clue is in this sampler, which is quite a bit

like the sampler below. Both are from online auctions

over the past few years

From eBay seller Gurley

Once I find a pair of twins I often notice more,

and in the case of this nine block sampler---several more

Source?

Very much like the one at the top of the page.

Anita Schorsch pictured this in her book

Plain & Fancy: Country Quilts of the Pennsylvania Germans.

Collector Sara McLane noticed the similarity to

one she owns.

The arrangement varies in each as does the border

but the central block is remarkably consistent.

It's not a common design. We could describe it

as roses with reverse applique around a central

flower and buds, arranged in four-way mirror-image symmetry,

the formal structure often seen in American appliques.

From Sara McLane's

The other blocks are usually based on different symmetries.

This floral sprawls in a more naturalistic manner.

The blocks with two-way symmetry frame the center block

in rather graceful fashion making a well-designed layout for the nine blocks.

Another slashed rose with a slashed cockscomb &

reverse applique---this one from the eBay seller. 

Notice the heavy embroidery around

this block. It seems to be a late-19th-century example

by the fabrics and multi-strip border.

And then there are the baskets.

I mentioned that there are clues in these coincidental quilts

but how can we read them?

The words well-designed seems one clue. I'm guessing that some

talented woman somewhere sold either the patterns or the blocks or

the kits to make into blocks. She might have taught needlework

or had a pattern business....

Like the designers of the high-style blocks in Baltimore albums

in which we see the same blocks in the same fabrics made by

various seamstresses.

A Baltimore album in the collection of the International

Quilt Study Center and Museum dated 1847.

#2005_056_0001

From the quilt at the top of the page.

From a BAQ in Joyce Gross's collection at

the Briscoe Center at the University of Texas.

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

AQSG Special Exhibit

A Crazy quilt from Montpelier, Vermont. Sharon Waddell's collection.

The quilt exhibit at the hotel for the American Quilt Study Group's Seminar last months was Chintz, Calamanco & Cotton: Quilts of New England. Collector Sharon Waddell curated the show which featured many quilts from her own collection and that of Debra & Richard Grana.

We saw a wide range of New England quilts.

Strippy of two toile-style cylinder prints

about 1830. Sharon's collection.

Variable Star found in Maine from Deb Grana's collection

Honey Bee with a white-ground chintz border from

Deb's collection.

Wool worsted quilt from Sharon's collection

Diamond Hexagon from Western Massachusetts, about 1830

from Deb's.

Album quilt with dates 1854-1855. Deb's collection.

Deb, second from left, talking about her giant sampler

that was cut in half

Circle Star about 1870. Sharon's collection.

Crazy from Deb's collection with a quirky inscription:

"This is not all the fancy work I ever made but must quit this and go 

to work at something else. We'll call around. Good by. This was made by 

Granma A. M. Farnsworth. Age 95 years old."

Next year's AQSG Seminar is scheduled for October 3-7, 2018

in Bethesda, Maryland.

You'd better come. They'll try to top this show (not easy.)

https://americanquiltstudygroup.org/seminar/

Kentucky Album Quilts: A Curious Absence

Quilt in the popular album pattern known as Chimney Sweep.

This quilt was documented by Quilts of Tennessee, but the

family thought it might have been made in Lexington, Kentucky.

The chintz border indicates a pre-1860 date. The blocks don't appear

to be signed.

For my 2018 Block of the Month Antebellum Album I've been looking for examples of regional signature quilt styles before the Civil War. Strangely, I am very short of examples from pre-war Kentucky. In fact, my entire picture collection of friendship style quilts attributed to Kentucky between 1840 and 1860 is shown above.

Same pattern, attributed to Ellen Smith Tooke Vanzant,

1901-1929. Kentucky Project

I did find a few Kentucky quilts in traditional album designs like the Chimney Sweep, but they were made long after the Civil War.

Quilt attributed to Elkton, Kentucky, found in Quilts of Tennessee.

Last quarter of the 19th century.

And I really do not see any evidence that anybody signed these blocks.

What I was looking for:

Signatures on the blocks like this one:

Album or signature sampler quilt dated 1843 for Hannah Nicholson 

from the Smithsonian's collection

(blocks signed by people from Philadelphia and New Jersey)

How can this be? During the hottest phase of the signature quilt fad there were plenty of quiltmakers and quilts being made in Kentucky. In 1850 Louisville with over 43,000 inhabitants was the 14th largest U.S. city, larger than Newark or Rochester, where EVERYBODY was making signature quilts.

Signature quilt dated 1853. Among the

place names Sumterville, SC. Collection of

the Charleston Museum:

http://www.charlestonmuseum.org/research/collection/pieced-chimney-sweep-quilt/CCDCB9F2-87B2-4B12-A32D-111071001482

Kentucky had 982,405 residents in 1850 and no one got up one morning and said I am going to make some blocks and get my friends to sign them?

Made in Kentucky about 1900 by Jessie Cummins.

Kentucky Quilt Project 

I checked many sources for the elusive early Kentucky album.

The Kentucky Quilt Project was my first idea. I looked through the book Kentucky Quilts by Finley & Holstein and looked at every quilt made in Kentucky on the Quilt Index. Mary Washington Clarke in her book Kentucky Quilts mentions Friendship Quilts or Presentation Quilts, but the earliest she describes in dated 1896.

Mid-20th century album with signatures on the blocks.

Ada Belle Guthrie Bryson, Western Kentucky University.

Other sources:

• Quilt Files at Western Kentucky University

• Kentucky Online Arts Resource: Search Quilt

Here's a great quilt at the Speed Art Museum.

"Sampler Quilt, about 1885, Possibly New York."

• Speed Art Museum in Louisville

• International Quilt Study Center and the Smithsonian files

Signature Quilt made in Scochoh, Kentucky

dated 1884-1886. Online Auction.

And I did websearches for words like Kentucky album, Kentucky signature, sampler, friendship, etc.

NOTHING!

They were certainly making quilts in pre-Civil-War  Kentucky, but not album quilts. Go to the Quilt Index and search for quilts made in Kentucky. You'll see 945 quilts, which will keep you entertained for quite a while.

http://www.quiltindex.org/search.php

Friendship quilt from Kentucky for 

Lottie McNeilly Harpole, documented in the Arizona Project,

1930s.

Can anybody come up with a signed, friendship-style quilt made in Kentucky between 1840 and 1860?