I had the opportunity to attend the Prairie Star Quilt Guild Meeting on Monday evening. Their guest speaker was Froncie Quinn from New London, New Hampshire. Froncie is a quilt historian and creates patterns of antique quilts for several museums and publishes them through her company
Hoopla Quilts. Now I was not familiar with Froncie but I love quilt history so how could I go wrong. I'm so glad I went. She was fabulous and so interesting. I learned a lot and got to see some very stunning reproduction quilts too. Warning: This blog post has lots of pictures.
Froncie showed a poster of the original quilt in the museum and then she showed a quilt made from the blocks in that quilt. All of the reproduction quilts contained at least one block that was original in size to the original quilt.
This is the "Sarah Johnson Quilt" completed in 1826 by 14 year old Sarah Johnson.
The center Medallion was recreated. The curly ques in the top right hand block, middle block and lower left hand block are also referred to as "Filphas" I am sure I have misspelled this but I was unable to come up with the correct spelling.
The "S.S. Larkin Quilt" There are no sashing and it is "T" shaped to fit over the bed posts. T-shaped quilts originated in New England.
There are 54 sunburst blocks in this quilt.
1835 "Pin Cushion Quilt" This is not a cathedral window quilt. It is curved piecing. The outer border is made from a chintz print.
Chintz eventually fell out of favor and women were known to say "I'm not going to make another "chintzy quilt". Thus the origination of the term "chintzy".
1837 "Clarissa Moore Quilt". Clarissa was only 17 when she created this. Notice the stenciled background fabrics.
Notice the 8 point star. It was named after a family by the last name of LeMoyne and their family crest was the 8 point star, thus the name LeMoyne Star.
The "Mary Benedict Baker Quilt" featuring the Mariner's Compass block named from the wind rows on the ships. They are usually 2 color quilts.
She softened the points with the vine quilting in the sashing.
It's a Vermont quilt.
"Sarah Fitch Quilt" made in 1850. Trends are toward 2 color quilts.
The "Bias Pomegranate Quilt" was likely a bridal quilt. Pomegranate is known as the "love apple" and the quilting indicates a bridal quilt as well with lots of hearts.
The 1860 "Elizabeth Green Quilt" is made from silks, brocades, and taffetas. It is a signature quilt and features a scalloped border with a gold button hole stitch.
The "Peony Quilt" made in 1863. It is a bold approach with the tan setting triangles.
The original quilt made by Catherine Graves Brockway Bolster. The Bolster family also had at least 8 other quilts with the same tan in them.
I missed the poster picture of this next quilt in progress. You can see the original photo of the quilt
here of the "Emily Munroe Quilt".
A quilt like this was likely a "guest" quilt and was likely "saved" by burying the quilts during the Civil War along with the silver so they wouldn't be taken away from them.
The "Sunflower Quilt" appliqued in 1865.
"Pieced Silk Tie Quilt" made entirely of silk and satins from the Victorian Era. There is no quilting. It is a tied quilt and tied to the back instead of the front. There is no binding, it's a knife edge and the backing is moire satin.
The "Scenes of Childhood Quilt"
The "Clarissa White Alford Quilt" was made when she was 80 years old. She died 4 years later and it is said the quilt "killed her" with it's 6048 pieces.
The "Flowerpot Quilt" made by Florence Peto
"Florrie's Garden Extraordinaire Quilt"
The "Calico Garden Quilt" another one by Florence Peto.
I hope my notes and my memory serve me correctly. I apologize if I messed something up. Hopefully I'm pretty close on names and dates and facts. I also purchased a book "Enduring Grace" featuring quilts from the Shelburne Museum collection. I think I got a good find on the book. It is no longer in print and Froncie only had 12 copies left.
The best part of the whole evening though was meeting up with an "online friend" Mary at I Piece 2 Mary. We have never met, only corresponded via the Internet and have participated in numerous blog hops together. We had dinner and then went to the Guild meeting.
