Ruth Jones Black Patrick was born January 31, 1905, She was an artist, teacher and illustrator, and began making this quilt, her first, in 1932 for her infant son. He was 20 years old when she finished it! In a 1971 newspaper interview, she is quoted thus, “. . . Edward was a little boy, I needed some sort of cover for his bed and thought I’d do something original. It was just going to be a small quilt . . . but it grew as he did—into twin bed size.” She made her own designs for her quilts, inspired by life, pictures in books, and quilt patterns of the time. Her unique quilts won ribbons at Alabama State Fairs.She married December 25, 1930, Herbert Edward Black(1906-1954), and she died November 25, 1999.
This hand pieced pillow sham is made of mustard yellow, dark red, light blue, beige, and orange printed fabrics. There is a star in the center of the sham. The border consists of squares set on point with rectangles at each corner. The lining of the fabric is plain beige fabric. The back of the sham is made of beige fabric with brown and red flowers. The sham is not quilted.
Names for quilt pattern blocks change over time, by region, and as variations on traditional or classical block patterns develop. This quilt consists of nine blocks, each having a 21-inch diameter circular inset pieced in the “Sunburst” pattern. Appliqued oak leaf motifs on the corners of the blocks set off the “Sunbursts.” Red, orange and green roller-print fabrics were used to create the vibrant design. A 5 ½-inch white quilted border frames the sunbursts. Diamond grid and echo quilting, 8 stitches per inch, completes the quilt.
Pattern block names vary by era and region. Variations on traditional or classical block patterns are always evolving with new names. In this variation of the "Princess Feather" pattern, eight appliqued feathers surround an 8-pointed pieced star center in each of the four blocks that comprise this quilt. The 6 ¾-inch border has alternating appliqued feathers and pieced half stars. The quilting consists of 6, 8 and 16 petal flowers, hearts, teardrops, and medallions. The feathers and stars have outline and echo line quilting. A simple palate of yellow, green and white cottons were used for the design.
Lydia Pearl Finnell may have made this parlor throw for her trousseau. It exemplifies the fancy needlework techniques popular in the late 19th century. Motifs and designs that appear on the throw can be compared with patterns that appear in needlework manuals of the period. The patterns consisted of simple outline drawings, which allowed the user to enhance them to the best of their abilities. Lydia’s talents and schooling are reflected in her elaborate and well-executed interpretations. Highly decorated items, such as this, were often placed in the parlor to display the maker’s needlework skills.
Eighty-two patches of fabric make up this extensively adorned parlor throw. The central irregular patches are framed by an eight-pointed star made of 2-3/8" strips of black silk pile, giving it the name “Star Quilt.” Each patch is decorated with flora (e.g., pansies, sumac, thistle, etc.) or fauna (e.g., frogs, chicks, swans, owls, etc.) motifs. Ruching, and satin, French knot, plush and outline embroidery stitches are among those techniques used to embellish the parlor throw. The competent use of the plush stitch is evident on many of the motifs. This stitch produces loops that are later cut, combed, and sculpted with scissors to give a three dimensional effect to each motif. The lining is red wool embroidered with small daisy motifs. A braid attached to the 2-7/8” border of black silk pile completes the quilt.
Lydia Pearl Finnell was born March 3, 1867, to William and Sarah Irvine Finnell in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. At the age of three, she was sent to live with her Aunt Lize (Eliza Finnell Terhune) and Uncle Boley (William Terhune). They taught her the social graces as well as housekeeping skills, cooking, animal husbandry, and some rudimentary doctoring skills. At the age of 14 or 15 she attended Daughters College in Harrodsburg, where she received an excellent education for the time. This included plain and fancy needlework and the fine arts of canvas and china painting.
Lydia married Bushrod Allin (1871-1942) of Harrodsburg on November 8, 1899. Bushrod and Lydia did not have any children, but raised Mary Forsythe Finnell, the daughter of Lydia's brother Charles Handy Finnell. Lydia died March 31, 1949 and is buried in the Spring Hill Cemetery, Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Lydia’s “Star Quilt” is a unique example of extraordinary design and needlework skills, truly a “star” in the Collection.
Mary Rhopa la Cierra made this quilt on the occasion of President Barack Obama’s Inauguration in 2009. She was inspired by the television coverage of the crowds of people in attendance. Mary embroidered the very small emblem of the US Capitol at top center with radiating lines and many pieces of patterned fabrics to represent the massive crowds in attendance and the distances many had come. The title, “OUR PATCHWORK HERITAGE IS A STRENGTH” appliqued at the top of the quilt was taken from the President's inauguration speech.
The quilt is machine strip pieced, appliqued, embroidered and stamped or stenciled. “OUR PATCHWORK HERITAGE IS A STRENGTH” is hand appliqued (blanket stitch) and outline machine quilted across the top. The word “HOPE” is stenciled with gold paint on the majority of the blocks and border squares and then machine outline stitched. One hundred 7-inch blocks make up the center of the quilt; each with a red center, creating an appearance of diagonal sashing. She used fabrics recycled from clothing found at yard sales and thrift stores, especially the shop that supports a local women’s shelter. The muted colors of the blocks evoke the winter coats worn by the massive crowds in the very cold weather that day. These blocks are framed by forty-four 7-inch yellow and tan blocks as a border.
Mary Rhopa la Cierra, born in Iowa, is a retired theatrical costume designer living in Florida. On her retirement, among many other activities she began quilting. At her 80th birthday party she gave away most of her quilts to friends. One friend, the donor, was particularly interested in having this quilt, “Patchwork Heritage,” which she had admired for its beauty and its message. She enjoyed it in her home for a time, and then donated it to the Collection, with the approval of the maker, Mary Rhopa la Cierra.
The embroidered inscription “Frances M Jolly 1839” graces the center medallion of this quilt top. This signed and dated silk-and-wool-embroidered quilt top came from an African American family, and the maker, Frances M. Jolly, was said to be an ancestor of one of the donor’s grandparents. The family, of whom little else is known, is said to have lived in Massachusetts and moved to Pinehurst, North Carolina.
A 37½-inch black square set diagonally in the center with red corner triangles is the focal point of this quilt top. It is surrounded by three borders: a 9-inch black, a 10-inch orange, and an 11-inch black. Appliquéd flowers, leaves, and vines embellished with braid and embroidery decorate the surface.
The edges of the appliquéd motifs are not turned under, but are held in place by buttonhole stitching in matching or near-matching thread colors. Silk or cotton threads are used for securing the appliqué motifs, stitching, and the embroidery, except for the inscription, which is chain-stitched in red wool. The quilt has both hand and machine stitching. The outer two borders are machine-stitched, indicating that they were joined after 1860 when sewing machines became common in households. Wool fabrics are used for both the pieced sections and the appliquéd motifs. Wool and silk braid and silk ribbon contribute to the overall design.
This unfinished parlor throw or quilt was made in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, by Mary Dickson Watson (born about 1840). The raised or “biscuit” patchwork was done by basting 3 ½” silk squares to 2 ½” cotton squares with a pleat at the center of each side. Cotton batting was put under the center of each square. The covered squares were then machine-stitched together to make this colorful top.
This bedcovering and two matching pillowcases were made in China in the 1920s. Rev. Alexander Cunningham, a Presbyterian minister in China at the time, sent them to the United States on the birth of his nephew, James Cunningham, in 1926. Twenty 7¾-inch square blocks of white and blue cottons are framed by a white border. The white squares have appliquéd figures depicting various childhood activities such as fishing, juggling, leaping, and ball play. The animated appliquéd figures are made of overlapping blue circles, and all wear hats.
Alexander Cunningham was born March 13, 1861, in Murrayville, Illinois. He graduated from Illinois State Normal University in 1887 and McCormick Theological Seminary in 1890. In that same year he married Mary E. Neely, and they left for China to become missionaries. Assigned to the Presbyterian North China Mission, they were active missionaries in China from 1890 to 1933, and after retirement continued to live in China until 1940. After fifty years as missionaries, they returned to California on the eve of World War II. Alexander Cunningham died in Los Angeles, California, on September 20, 1943. This appliquéd bedcovering with matching pillowcases may be the product of a mission where Rev. Alexander Cunningham served.
The center is composed of 10 1/2-inch strips of seven-inch blocks pieced in the “Nine-patch” pattern, alternating with 7-1/2-inch plain strips of printed cotton. Side and bottom borders (22-inches) are made a roller-printed furnishing print. The quilt has a cotton ivory lining, a cotton filling, and is quilted 8-9 stitches per inch. It is bound with a straight strip of roller-printed floral cotton seamed to front, sewn to lining with running stitch. The cutout corners, designed to accommodate bed posts, are typical of many mid-nineteenth century quilts.
This child’s quilt in the “Log Cabin” style was in the George Wike family, possibly belonging to “Great-Aunt Lettie,” but the donor was not certain. The Wike family moved from the Cumberland County area of Pennsylvania, to Pike County, Illinois, in the mid-19th century where they established a woolen mill.
Cotton and wool 3/8-inch strips were sewn on cotton foundation blocks. The quilt was lined, but has no filling. It is tied with wool in the center of each block and bound with a 7/8-inch wool twill tape.
This intricately designed prayer mat was produced in India and quilted in the first half of the 19th century. The top is a single piece of fabric; a central mihrab (prayer niche) with floral motifs that is framed by several printed borders of various widths. The cotton fabric used for the prayer mat is block-printed, hand-printed, resist-printed, and dyed. Black outlines of stems and leaves and red outlines of flowers are block-printed with a series of small blocks. Resist-painted details were added to flowers before red-dyeing. Blue color appears to be painted. Painted yellow appears in the mihrab and some other areas. The lining is a roller-printed cotton with a small overall floral pattern. It has a cotton filling. The quilting consists of parallel diagonal lines in a running stitch. It is bound with a silk/cotton bias strip. Printed cotton prayer mats were sold and used across the Islamic world.
This circular quilted potholder bears the inked inscription: “by an old woman aged 86 for Miss Sheldon from Ruth Croswell.” One side is pieced in a LeMoyne Star pattern the other side has an inked Biblical inscription: “The Lord will not cast off forever But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men but the Lord chastens us that we may be partakers of this holiness wherefore lift up the hands that hang down and turn again unto the Lord who will have mercy upon us. . .” It is bound with woven striped cotton tape and has a small brass ring hanger. No further information was provided with this donation of a charming use of quilting for a simple household item.
Katherine Haswell Noyes quilted this mid-19th century counterpane in Vermont. It has a large quilted circle at center outlined by curving, round-ended leaves. The same leaves are used for the quilted border. The entire background is quilted in a diagonal grid with widely-scattered leaves. It has a cotton lining and filling. All motifs are outlined in quilting; the background is filled with a 5/8-inch diagonal grid. It is quilted, 10 stitches per inch. The binding is a cotton tape, folded over edge, and sewn with a running stitch.
Eliza Jane Todd’s silk quilt top is pieced in the “Honeycomb” or “Mosaic” pattern, also referred to as “Grandmother’s Flower Garden.” One inch hexagons are seamed by overcasting into 6 ½-inch “flowers” each having a dark center hexagon. Many have outer rings of red silk hexagons. The “flowers” are separated by black hexagons. A 3 ½-inch border of red silk ribbon is outlined with bands of black silk. Included at the time of donation was a paper hexagon pattern cut from a letter dated Sept. 14, 1835, that had fallen off the quilt.
Eliza Jane Todd was born in Indiana in 1820, the daughter of Robert William Todd (1795?-1885) and Catherine McCully (1800-1860), granddaughter of Owen Todd (1762-1817) and Maria Jane Paxton (1771-1834). The family was related to Mary Todd Lincoln, and Thomas Paxton, who fought at Valley Forge. Eliza never married. She died in 1895 and is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Jacksonville, Florida.
Eliza Jane lived with her parents in Madison, Indiana, for most of her life. Later (about 1880) she stayed with her sister, Anna Maria Todd Smith, in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Florida. In the 1850s, The Western Horticultural Review (Volume III, 1853) noted “. . . that a female competitor has successfully entered the lists in the department of Pomology, and feel bound to allude in flattering terms to the fruits presented by Miss E.J. Todd, of Madison (Indiana)” Eliza Jane (E.J. Todd) was the recipient of several awards for her fruits (pears, grapes, quinces), preserves and floral arrangements.
Until the donation, the quilt had been in the donor’s family. After Eliza Jane’s death, the quilt was with Anna Maria Todd Smith who was the donor’s grandmother. In 1936, the donor, Anna Perkins Stewart, donated her great aunt's quilt to the Museum.