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Quilt, Pieced and Stuff-Worked Irish Chain
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Quilt, Pieced and Stuff-Worked Irish Chain

Dateca. 1840
Artist/Maker Sally Ann Fulkerson Ewing (b.1805 - d.1892)
OriginAmerica, Virginia, Lee County; owned in Missouri, St. Joseph
MediumPlain and and printed cottons
DimensionsOH: 89 x OW: 75 (226.1cm x 190.5cm)
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Milton J. Franklin
Object number1972.609.2
DescriptionThe design of this handsome blue and white quilt is more complicated than it appears. White blocks with pairs of intersecting lines of small blue squares are alternated with heavily padded white blocks quilted in two different floral motifs. A continuous chain of single blue squares borders the broad band of intricate stuffed quilting forming the outside edge. Blue squares have small clovers printed on them and they are pieced into the quilt. The border is quilted in a plume or feather design, and the center of the squares has two different floral motifs. The appliqued blue squares do not extend all the way on two corners. Most of the quilt has the tiny squares arranged in diagonal lines with larger squares marking their crossings. The quilt is backed in plain-woven white cotton and bound in a white cotton tape. It is quilted in 9-10 running stitches per inch.
Label TextQuilts pieced in variations of the Irish Chain pattern abound, but this example’s elaborate quilting and stuffed-work designs make it exceptional. Two sizes of small blue-and-white printed blocks have been pieced with larger white rectangles and squares forming a version of the Irish Chain pattern. The large number of missing blue-and-white printed blocks in the top corners suggests that the quilt maker simply ran out of fabric before completing her work. It is likely that these areas were barely visible at the top of the bed over or under the pillows. The smaller, printed blocks are quilted in simple diagonal lines whereas the all-white blocks are stuffed and quilted in two different complex flower and feather, or plume, designs. Similarly elaborate stuffed and quilted designs fill the outermost border, except for clamshell quilting in the two upper corners.

The bedcover is attributed to Sarah Ann Fulkerson Ewing on the basis of oral family tradition and provenance.
InscribedNo inscriptions.
MarkingsNo marks.
ProvenanceMade by Sally Ann Fulkerson (1805-1892);
By descent to her son, Joshua Porter Ewing (1832-1885);
By descent to his son, William Joshua Ewing (1862-1944);
By descent to his daughter, Bettie Boone Ewing (Mrs. Milton J. Franklin), d. 1988;
Given to CWF, 1972.