Technical notes and description: Tabby-weave cotton face and back; tabby-weave linen face; wool filling; cotton yarn. This quilt is composed of thirteen concentric squares that radiate from a central up-ended panel embroidered with a floral motif in crewel yarns. The first frame consists of piece work triangles, which form the flying geese pattern. Next comes a border of more crewel embroidery on a cream ground. It is followed by a sawtooth piecework band, then whitework quilting. The predominantly brown, ground-block-printed cottons alternate with white quilting with elliptical leaf forms, then a band of whitework quilting cornered with blocks of crewelwork. The next row of piece-work is a chain of alternating blocks of stars and crosses followed by whitework. A link of bows, sawtooth triangles, and an exterior plain border are separated by more whitework quilting.

Related examples: Williamsburg (acc. nos. 78.23, G63.71);  Orlofsky and Orlofsky 1974. pl. 56.

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.