QUILT INDEX RECORD

25-21-340

Who documented this quilt?

Texas Sesquicentennial Quilt Association, Texas Quilt Search

Where are the records for this quilt housed?

Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin

Texas Quilt Search Number:

tqs_0008

Person filling out this form is:

Quilt owner; Relative of quiltmaker; Other

Source of the information on this quilt:

This quilt was identified and reviewed during the Texas Sesquicentennial Quilt Association's Texas Quilt Search, 1983-1985. Karey Bresenhan served as quilt historian.

When was the form filled out?

1983-1985

Choose the best description of the source to the quilt:

Quilt owner

If you are the quilt owner, how did you acquire this quilt?

Inherited

Describe the relationship to the quilt's maker:

The present owner of this quilt is the great granddaughter of its maker.

This is a:

Finished quilt

Owner's name for quilt:

Double Irish Chain

How wide is the quilt?

69 in.

How long is the quilt?

74 in.

Shape of edge:

Straight

Shape of corners:

Straight

What color is the quilt?

Blue or Navy; White

Antique colors:

Indigo Blue

Overall color scheme:

Two color

Quilt's condition:

Good/moderate use

Damage:

Quilting thread broken or ties missing; Stains; Wear to edge or binding

Describe the damage:

water or possibly medicine stains

Notes on condition, damage, or repairs:

Embroidery intact and applique in good condition. In 1985, as part of the preparations for the “Lone Stars: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1836-1936” exhibit in the Texas Capitol Rotunda, the Texas Sesquicentennial Quilt Association sponsored a Quilt Conservation Seminar. Part of the seminar was a two-day intensive hands-on laboratory attended by quilt experts who stabilized, backed, or otherwise prepared the quilts, including this one, for this exhibition.

Type of inscription:

Date; Message; Signature

What is inscribed on the quilt?

At top right corner: "Patience, Industry, Economy, Prudence, Ingenuity, Encouraged" At top left corner: Presented to William Porter Spicer / by his mother, Harriet S F Spicer / April 1st 1854.

What is the date inscribed on the quilt?

1854

Method used to make the inscription:

Embroidery

Describe the method used to inscribe the quilt:

Cross stitched in red

Location of inscription:

other

Describe where the inscription was found:

corner

Time period:

1850-1875

When was the quilt finished?

1854

Family/owner's date for quilt:

1854

Date estimated by an antique dealer, quilt historian or appraiser:

1854

Who estimated the quilt's date?

Karey Bresenhan

Describe the quilt's layout:

Block pattern

Subject of the quilt:

overall design of blocks and stars bordered on three sides

Number of different block patterns used in the quilt:

Within the frame of fence posts and trees is the framed area of Double Irish Chain blocks in white and indigo print. Eighteen hand-pieced indigo print eight-pointed stars are on white blocks.

What is the shape of the quilt blocks?

Squares

Number of borders:

1 design border on three sides

Describe the borders:

An intricate border of print indigo blue on white field consisting of hand-appliqued fence posts with embroidered pickets and what appear to be hand-pieced palm trees, or perhaps rose or oak trees. There is a stylized cartouche, reverse appliqued, in the two bottom corners.

Fiber types used to make the quilt top:

Cotton

Fabric styles used in the quilt top:

Print; Solid/plain

Piecing techniques used to make the quilt top:

Hand Piecing

Applique techniques used to make the quilt top:

Hand Applique; Reverse Applique

Embellishment techniques used to make the quilt top:

Embroidery

Can you feel or see paper on the quilt that was used as a construction aid?

no

Materials used to make the back:

Cotton

What color is the back of the quilt?

White

Describe the back:

Same fabric used throughout; Solid/plain

Materials used in the quilt binding:

Cotton

Describe the binding:

same print indigo as on quilt front

How is the binding made?

Hand sewn; Home cut; Straight grain

What is the width of the binding (measure on the top only)?

less than a half inch

How thick is the quilt?

Thin (Less than 3/16?)

How are the layers held together?

Hand quilting

Thread type used for the quilting:

cotton

Color of thread used in the quilting:

white

Quilting designs used, overall motifs:

Outline

Describe the quilting designs used:

outline quilting around trees, cartouches, blocks; not heavily quilted

Features or notes about the quilt's appearance, materials, or construction:

Karey Bresenhan notes that this quilt, both in design and colors, has the look of early indigo-and-white woven coverlets. She sites a coverlet of a similar design, with fence, fence posts, and trees framing a center pattern, called Medallion with Rose Tree and Picket Fence (New York, 1842) pictured in America's Quilts and Coverlets.

Quilt top made by:

Spicer, Harriet Sophia Fyler

Quilted by:

Spicer, Harriet Sophia Fyler

Where the quilt was made, city:

Amboy

Where the quilt was made, state:

New York (NY)

Where the quilt was made, country:

United States

How was this quilt acquired?

Inheritance

Tell the story of how the quilt was obtained:

This quilt has passed through the quiltmaker's family. The quiltmaker made it for her first child, William Porter Spicer, who never married. He homesteaded in South Dakota in the 1880s, taking the quilt with him, then in 1913 moved with his brother to San Benito, Texas, as part of the land development movement in Texas's Rio Grande Valley. William Spicer, whom everyone called "Uncle Port," died during a flu epidemic in 1914, whereupon the quilt passed to his brother, the grandfather of the present owner Jean Brady Fox.

Describe anything about the history of the quilt that wasn't already recorded in a previous field:

The quiltmaker Harriet Sophia Fyler Spicer was born in 1820 in Sullivan, New York. She married in 1848, but eventually separated from her husband; she supported herself and her three children by quilting, weaving, and spinning. She made this quilt as a presentation quilt for her first-born son, William Porter Spicer. She began the quilt before William's birth and finished it two years after he was born. The present owner, Jean Brady Fox, stated that her Great Aunt Flora, the quiltmaker's daughter, said her mother called the quilt "Pennsylvania Around the Square."

Why was the quilt made?

Gift or presentation

The quilt was made to be used for:

Bedding, special occasion

Quilt is presently used as:

Keepsake/memento

Where did the maker get their materials?

Unknown

Where did the maker find their pattern?

Traditional pattern variation

Exhibitions where this quilt was displayed:

One of 62 Texas quilts exhibited in “Lone Stars: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1836-1936,” Texas State Capitol Rotunda, Austin, Texas, April 19-21, 1986.

Related items such as diaries, obituaries, wills, household inventories, or pictures of the quiltmaker:

Texas Sesquicentennial Quilt Association’s Texas Quilt Search Archives

Publications (including web sites) where this quilt or maker was featured:

Bresenhan, Karoline Patterson and Nancy O'Bryant Puentes, Lone Stars: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, Vol. I, 1836-1936 (Austin: University of Texas Press: 1986), p. 38-39.

Ownership of this quilt is:

Private

Quilt owner's name:

Fox, Jean Brady

Quilt owner's state:

Texas (TX)

Quilt owner's country:

United States

Quiltmaker's maiden name:

Fyler, Harriet Sophia

Quiltmaker's gender:

Female

Quiltmaker's birth date:

16/17/1820

Quiltmaker's birthplace, state:

New York

Quiltmaker's birthplace, country:

United States

Quiltmaker's marriage date(s):

01/09/1848

Quiltmaker's date and place of death:

03/06/1879

In which kind of environment did the quiltmaker live?

Urban

Quiltmaker's spouse's/spouses' and /or partner's/partners' name(s):

Spicer, [unknown]

Number of children:

3

How many of the quiltmaker's children were girls?

2

How many of the quiltmaker's children were boys?

1

Why does the quiltmaker quilt?

Gifts; Income

Notes on how the quiltmaker learned, and how and why they quilt:

Supported herself and three children in part by quilting for others, after separating from her husband

Does/did the quiltmaker sell quilts?

yes

Who photographed this quilt?

Sharon Risedorph

Access and copyright information:

Restricted

Copyright holder:

Assistant Director Winedale

Details

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