Sister Apples, circa 1863!

First off, remember THIS POST about the antique signature album quilt with the apple border I was privileged to handle ((WITH WHITE GLOVES ON!)) when I was up in New Paltz, New York at Historic Huguenot Street?

I opened up my email inbox yesterday to find a post from Susan, the director of education at Huguenot Street to tell me a related Album Quilt with the same appliqued apple border has been found!

And I admit it – I skim-read right past most of her description to get to the next email that contained the PHOTOS!!

They DO look like the same apples ((How, ‘bout THEM apples, baby?! *wink wink*!!**)) and I went back to the email to read what she wrote:

Hi Bonnie

It is wonderful to follow you through your blog - Phew!- I get tired just reading about your escapades!!!!

After you left we started to look through our quilt collection again and discovered something amazing. Do you remember the Apple Quilt? Well there was another one, almost identical to it, but solid reds were used for the friendship blocks instead of patterned reds. (See photo)

It was donated to us about 50 years ago, much earlier than the one you saw = the man who donated this one was related to the woman who donated the one you saw (an uncle)- We checked the names written on the quilt and the majority are the same on both. I deduced that both quilts were made in the stone building that is now our town library.

There were five daughters in the family, and I am not sure which girls made the quilts. The family sold their business (a general store) and moved to NYC in 1866, so the girls may have made the quilts to remember their friends in New Paltz. One daughter got married in 1863, so she may have made one or her sisters could have made it for her. So, that may change the date on the quilt to 1863-1866.

I love to do the genealogy on the quilts. I am working with 60 fourth graders on Monday and am using the Apple Quilt to teach about material culture and how we can use quilts to learn about the past.

Oh - We have some women coming up this month for a special tour just to see the quilts. They heard about our collection from your BLOG!!! (thank you again)-

(I am going to post a very big article on Julia's blog about new fashion this week - hope you like it)

Sincerely

Susan

Oh gosh, isn’t that exciting?! I’ll have to flip back and forth between the posts to check closer – but the same people signed both? What a coincidence is that?

This one is all solid red – was that the maker’s preference? And I can’t tell if the embroidery details are the same or not ---

But just like the other quilts – THIS ONE ALSO used a different green to turn the corners! Did she run out of the original green?

And—look closely now – do you notice something else?

This stem and corner are NOT BIAS – they are straight grain…..I can’t tell if it’s just this section of stem/corner – but that is definitely straight grain fabric cut to shape, rather than a piece of bias turning a corner ---

Don’t you just love the things that old quilts can teach us, even without words?

The hard part is – they leave us with more questions that have no way of being answered!

Have you been following along with Julia’s Blog? Susan is actually transcribing Julia Hasbrouck’s diaries from the early 1800s. Painstaking work. There are actual shots of the journal pages on the blog with each entry by date. I find it fascinating! You can check out Julia’s words HERE – unfolding her life, page by page. Can’t wait to see those fashions!

And with that – I’m off to Ohio! I don’t know if any antique malls will be open up through West Virginia or Ohio on a Sunday. That might make my trip shorter, and my bank account a bit happier – but I’ll still be on the look-out!

Have a great day everyone!