What a beautiful quilt! And so full of history (even if we haven't figured it out). And relevant to me. Last month I (re) found what appears to be a table runner with the initials A M W.... and I thought it had been made by my Grandmother Mary Christabel Wilcox Conner! I wrote a daughter (another Mary Christabel) who is into family history and a cousin and asked them who AMW might have been. Total blanks. I took it out to show some QB friends and, lo! The ornate A (a clear A with frilagree after) turned out to be a C with a lot of frilagree before it, and the M becomes W and the W becomes M. End of disappointment. It is linen based with silk embroidery. Since she had 4 children in the first 5 years of her marriage I'm presuming she made it while waiting to get married. Her father died when she was 18 or so and she taught until she was 30 to provide an income for her mother and 11 siblings!!! She told them from the get-go she would wait until 30 to marry, but then she would. My grandfather traveled around the world on tramp steamers during those years! I love these old historys!!!

Do you know the approximate place where made? If so, perhaps a check of the 1880 government census in that area could point to a last NcJ name. If it is the initial for the receiver, that may not point you in the right direction though.

ok i say Nancy Jane had two suitors and both their surnames started with Nc.............. she made the quilt to tease them and she was the belle of the ball in 1887

Could it be possible that the seamstress was illiterate and just miss-copied a pattern someone gave her?
That C also looks like & to me. Maybe the quilt was made for Nancy, Nathan and Julia.

It looks to me that the first photo is upside down, based on the date. I wondered if that symbol was an ampersand, or something like it, since it has a teeny curly-cue at the top and a small stitch that connects the underline.

Looks to me like it says "NN&J".

A tidbit I just picked up by browsing. Male monograms are all one height and in order. Female monograms have the last name in the middle, larger.

To me the lettering looks like FNN with a smale & between the F and N at least that is the way it looks to me. Beautiful piece of work what ever it says. Hope you find out.

My husband's grandmother lived with her son and DIL. She made tops all by hand and the DIL quilted them on a machine. This could have been the case here.

I see F N N.

The little "c" loooks like & to me when I zoom in

Thus we have a monogram F & N N husband and wife.............. :?:

what an AWESOME inheritance!