ca. 1790 FAMILY QUILT pictures found!
 

I couldn't wait until the morning to share with you the pictures I found of my family's heirloom ca. 1790 quilt!!
I had written about this quilt before, how I had donated it to the textile museum in Colonial Williamsburg, about 14 years ago. Well, they did some research on it -- some of which I do not quite understand (the family lineage-who it was passed down to) -- and they microscoped the fibers, fabrics and designs, information which I did not have "for sure" before donating it. All very exciting to me and which I will follow up on to determine how they arrived at some of the details they state on their web page! You might enjoy taking a peak at the site yourself: http://emuseum.history.org/view/obje...9-ab506d9122dd

The colors in the quilt are pretty accurate in the photos. The flat full view was taken in the work/research room at Colonial Williamsburg under their florescent lighting. The closeups were taken in the climate-controlled storage room while standing on a work ladder, leaning over the huge flat drawer on which they are each stored. The other large view was taken by the museum. Note the one flower with intense rose and aqua color -- I found this amazing after over 200 years! The applique was all done in Broderie Perse, what we now call buttonhole stitch. The batting is quite thin and was probably carded right on the plantation in Richmond, VA.

One detail I found in my own research of this quilt while I worked in their work/research room was that, counting from the bottom of the quilt, there are 10 borders until the medallion in the center, 10 different quilting designs, and 10 different fabrics in this quilt.

Jan in VA

Wow what an honor to be a part of this wonderful quilt. Hopefully we will go to Willamsburg and can view this in peson. Love you story.

Simply amazing! What a fascinating treasure. Thx so much for sharing here. ;-)

What an exciting quilt!! thank you for sharing it and the website.

Jan, I love your story about your family heirloom quilt. That is exciting and I am glad that you pursued the path of complete documentation. We lived in Virginia (suburbs of D.C.) for fifteen years. We spent quite a bit of time in Williamsburg. My husband had a conference in Williamsburg one year and the whole family went and really enjoyed the back study. I was a textile major in graduate school and was very enthralled with the textile study that goes on there. It is so important to document, study and preserve our textile history because it is so much a part of the lives of our historical family.

Great story and an amazing quilt! So glad it was preserved.

Beautiful quilt.

Wow!! It is almost 300 years old!! Amazing how well it was preserved! Congratulations!

Wow, to have this treasure and to share it is wonderful. No wonder you are so good. You have quilting in your genes and a history to prove it. Wonderful and thanks for sharing.

very very interesting

Wonderful quilt, wonderful story and thanks to your donation, future generations too can share!

What an exciting quilt. I could not imagine making this quilt top without a ruler, rotary cutter and a mat but all they had were scissors, thread and needles in those days.

Amazing, thank you for sharing.

That is so pretty! What a delightful story!! Thanks so much for sharing!

wow how nice!!!thanks for sharing maureen

Priceless. BrendaK

What an amazing family treasure, and now you've preserved it for everyone.

What amazes me is how some fabrics "age well" and others don't.
Your quilt is a treasure. How lucky you are to have family members that cared enough to keep the quilt.

Wow! So very cool! And exciting! What a treasure to have in your family and now to be available for everyone to see in a museum. Excellent!

what a wonderful piece of history. I hope my quilts are around for at least 100 yrs.

That is amazing! I love quilt history. Thank you for sharing with us.

So glad you donated that beautiful quilt. It will be taken care of, better than anyone can, for years to come. You would be very disappointed if it got into bad hands and used to catch oil under a car, or end up in a dog bed, in the future. Thank you.

Jan, that quilt is fantastic! You are to be proud that is came from your family and is now preserved where it can be taken care of professionally and studied in a museum.

What a treasure and so great of you to share! I have a picture of a newspaper clipping of my maternal grandmother and a quilt she made, have no idea where or what happened to the quilt, wish I did.

Thank you all for your comments. I forgot to mention that this quilt is not on display because it is in such fragile condition, sadly. They have stored it in the very top 'drawer', hard to get to, and intended pretty much for research only. It is one of only two very early Virginia quilts in the museum and is the only one with the old written provenance I was able to gift with it. They were slightly reluctant to even let me come re-photograph it 4 years ago until I insisted. (Those pictures turned out to be not what I was looking for, though, so the trip was rather wasted. :rolleyes: )

When I gifted it, they wanted me to create a pattern for it, full size, to sell in their gift shop at the Visitor's Center, and perhaps to write a book about it. I might still write the pattern, the book not so much. I have always wanted to recreate the quilt with reproduction fabrics (as close as I can find them) and with linen as the background fabric as the original tan was grown, spun, woven on the plantation. Every year that goes by it seems like a more and more overwhelming project, though!

Jan in VA

that is awesome! the quilt it just lovely at 200 years old. Imagine how beautiful it must have been when it was completed!

That is so great for you to have that piece of history!

Wow I've never seen a quilt that old.

You must be so excited! What a fantastic find.

Jan, you certainly have a treasured history there; I wasn't able to access the Museum link but loved your abridged version. Made me think of "Who do you think you Are" programme on tv which I've seen a few times recently; some excellent history lessons of the early US gold rush days etc. Thanks for sharing the story.

This is an amazing story. Absolutely beautiful quilt and such an individual pattern.
Thanks for sharing the link! And your photos.

Wow, Jan, that is a wonderful story and a beautiful quilt. I wish it could talk and tell it's stories!!

What a wonderful story and wonderful quilt! Thank you for sharing it!

Yours is truly an awe inspiring story of a family history with the quilt. I am envious. Most of us will never have anything close to this old to inspire us. Thanks so much for sharing.

Wow this is so interesting and such a beautiful quilt.

What a beautiful quilt:)!!! I think it's so great that you donated the quilt so more can enjoy it. Please make a pattern for it.....the quilt really does need to be reproduced and enjoyed for future generations. Just love the story. Thanks SO much for sharing.

Jan how amazing, such a wonderful link to your past. Have you seen the collection by Kaffe Facett? He took vintage quilts and redesigned them in modern fabrics and design. I went to see them when they were in the National Quilt Museum in York. I know he has produced a book. It might be an idea to make a 2016 version rather than a reproduction.

my daughter went to the the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, and we have toured Williamsburg and the textile museum several times both having an interest in quilting and textiles. What an honor for your quilt to be part of that prestigious collection.

What a wonderful heirloom to be able to claim. It's comforting to know it will be preserved by true professionals and that it's history is also preserved. Thanks for sharing this delight.

Thank you for sharing this, it's fascinating.