Quilt Top, Pieced Paper Templates
Date1913-1914
MediumCotton backed with newspaper templates
DimensionsOverall: 68" x 76"
Credit LineGift of Carol E. Harrison
Object number2007.609.4
DescriptionThis is a rectangular unfinished quilt top pieced from printed cottons, woven checks, and stripes. Each piece is backed with paper templates from Fort Worth, Texas, newspapers, some with dates 1913 and 1914.Label TextAn unknown Texas quiltmaker cut up old Fort Worth newspapers to use as backings or templates for her pieced cotton quilt. She never completed or backed the quilt, which survives with most of the fragile papers still intact. The quiltmaker selected fragments of everyday ginghams, stripes, and prints for the quilt, which is based on a pattern of encroaching hexagons with diamonds at the centers. Despite the fact that an organized pattern can be detected, many of the blocks are in turn pieced up, creating an abstract overall effect that is not unlike a crazy quilt.
ProvenanceThe quilt was given to donor by her sister, who received it from a friend living in Virginia. No other history is known.
1st half of 19th century
ca. 1800
ca. 1880
ca. 1875
1829
1787-1795
Ca. 1810