Quilt (Medallion)

Description

This is a center medallion quilt of glazed and unglazed printed cottons. The center chintz fruit basket design features grapes, peaches, and a pineapple. The basket is surrounded by five frames. The frames include 90 appliqued stars, 164 squares of pieced quarter-square triangles, and 2 chintz borders. The dominant colors in the quilt are red, brown, white, and blue, with vibrant pops of yellow. All stitches are hand-sewn. This quilt is suspected to be from the Baltimore area. While the makers of the quilt are unknown, the design, fabrics, and thread used suggests an initial creation of the quilt around 1845 with a later quilter doing some repairs around 1890. This quilt is special because the medallion piece was added to the quilt as a whole. Most other quilts that have used the fruit basket print have cut up the pieces and spread them across the entire quilt. This provides textile historians with helpful information on what medallion pieces looked like when they were originally bought. The two seven-pointed applique stars framing the medallion are also unique, as eight-pointed stars were a more common design in Maryland. It is possible that these seven-pointed stars were merely a happy accident in an attempt to create eight-pointed stars like the others on the quilt.