Images(16)

Quilt Top, Pieced Printed Cottons with Motto at Center

Date1830-1840, with earlier textiles

Maker Elizabeth Champion

OriginGreat Britain

MediumPrinted and plain cottons; printed linens; silk embroidery threads; cotton sewing threads (fiber identification by microscope)

DimensionsOH 90" X OW 88"

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Cora Ginsburg

Object number1991-518

DescriptionThis is a quilt top made of geometric triangular pieced printed cottons arranged around a motto embroidered in blue at the center. The pieced quilt top is bordered on all four sides by two different unpieced red and white floral printed linens measuring about 9" to 10 3/4" wide. The outer edges are finished with a narrow hem.

The center motto rectangle measures 16 3/4 inches high by 17 3/8 inches wide and is worked with blue silk cross stitches in all capital letters, surrounded by appliqued circles filling in voids, some textiles of which are also repeated in the piecing. The verse, which comes from the book Divine Breathings, reads:
I HAVE NOT FAR TO MY HOME THEREFORE
I NEED NOT MAKE MUCH PROVISION FOR MY
WAY FOOD AND RAIMENT WILL BE SUFFICIENT
FOR MY IOURNEY SUPERLFUITY WILL BUT PROVE A
BURDEN WHILE IACOB HAD ONLY HIS STAFF HE WENT
ON FREELY IN HIS WAY BUT WHEN HE HAD HIS FLOCKS
AND HERDS HE DRIVES BUT SLOWLY WE SEE IT DAILY
THAT RICH MEN EITHER LOOSE THEIR PATHS OR RIDE
BUT LITTLE GROUND WHILE POOR MEN RUN THE WAYS
OF GODS COMMANDMENTS I AM WELL ENOUGH IF I HAVE
BUT ENOUGH TO CARRY ME WELL TO HEAVEN I WILL
THEREFORE DESIRE NO MORE THAN WHAT WILL MEND
MY PACE AND SERVE ME IN MY JOURNEY
ELIZABETH CHAMPION
MARCH THE 24
1802

The piecing is done by butting folded edges together and overcasting them, suggestive of paper template piecing, though no papers survive.

Label TextThis quilt top is made of hundreds of geometric triangular pieced printed cottons arranged around a motto embroidered in blue at the center. The verse comes from the book DIVINE BREATHINGS. The center block is inscribed with the name Elizabeth Champion and the date March 24, 1802, which likely commemorates the time when the block was created. Later printed cottons in the borders suggest that the quilt top was created over a period of 30 years or more.
InscribedI HAVE NOT FAR TO MY HOME THEREFORE
I NEED NOT MAKE MUCH PROVISION FOR MY
WAY FOOD AND RAIMENT WILL BE SUFFICIENT
FOR MY IOURNEY SUPERLFUITY WILL BUT PROVE A
BURDEN WHILE IACOB HAD ONLY HIS STAFF HE WENT
ON FREELY IN HIS WAY BUT WHEN HE HAD HIS FLOCKS
AND HERDS HE DRIVES BUT SLOWLY WE SEE IT DAILY
THAT RICH MEN EITHER LOOSE THEIR PATHS OR RIDE
BUT LITTLE GROUND WHILE POOR MEN RUN THE WAYS
OF GODS COMMANDMENTS I AM WELL ENOUGH IF I HAVE
BUT ENOUGH TO CARRY ME WELL TO HEAVEN I WILL
THEREFORE DESIRE NO MORE THAN WHAT WILL MEND
MY PACE AND SERVE ME IN MY JOURNEY
ELIZABETH CHAMPION
MARCH THE 24
1802
ProvenanceEx. Coll. Cora Ginsburg.