- Piecework Autograph Cross Friendship Quilt
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Technical notes and description: Tabby-weave cotton face and back; cotton filling. This quilt is constructed of sixty onpoint squares, each composed of a central square surrounded by four rectangular arms with triangular fillers set within a lattice framework in a five- or six-by-eleven-row configuration. The blocks are assembled from thirty-seven unique printed fabrics and bear either ink or stamped signatures and /or emblems. The quilt was probably assembled over a two-and-a-half-year span (1843-44) by Elizabeth (E.C.) Loudenslager, wife of circuit-rider preacher Jacob Loudenslager. It probably commemorates the building of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Mauricetown, New Jersey, in 1842, and the death of the couple's first granddaughter, Ann Elizabeth Loudenslager, who died in infancy before her surviving, namesake sibling was born in 1845.
Reading from top to bottom, left to right, the blocks are inscribed with the names of the Loudenslager relatives, friends, and members of the congregation.
Related examples: Kiracofe and Johnson 1993, p. 82.
Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.
ProvenanceMiss Ima Hogg; Estate of Miss Ima Hogg, 1975; given to MFAH, 1976.
Exhibition History"American Traditions: Quilts and Coverlets 1760–1900," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 28, 2001–April 7, 2002.
"Miss Ima's Quilts," The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, Austin, October 28, 2006–January 7, 2007.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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