All-cotton quilt, hand-pieced Baskets pattern with appliqued flowers on off-white ground. Thirty-six 9.5" squares in 6x6 arrangement have baskets of red and green prints set on point with an off-white and green appliqued tulip bud in each. Triple borders are mitered; inner border is 4" off-white, middle is 3.25" red and green zig-zag and outer border is again 3.5" off-white.
Batting is thin cotton and separating. Backing is solid off-white cotton. Binding is back brought forward, 1/4" wide.
Precisely hand-pieced and densely hand-quilted. In each block, quilting follows applique, parallel lines in basket fill, feather cable conforms to basket handle. Feather cable quilting on both off-white borders. On red and green zig-zag is a simple grid.
Made in Latimore or Reading Twp., Adams County, PA by Catherine E. Stoke Wilt (15 October 1843 - 8 August 1910).
Provenance
Made by great-grandmother of donor, Catherine Stoke Wilt, who married James Alfred Wilt and lived in York Springs area. James was a miller at Trostle's Mill in Huntington Twp., Adams Co. Later in life he was a farmer near Hampton in Reading Twp They had a family of 14 children of whom the eighth was Mary who married Charles Spangler (donor's grandparents). Quilt descended to son George, donor's uncle, who presented the quilt to donor as a college graduation gift.
Front has some staining and yellowing. Colors faded. Batting is deteriorating/separating.
Object ID
G.09.03.04
Notes
Note: This quilt is nearly identical to one pictured on the cover of "The Hands That Made Them...Quilts of Adams County, Pennsylvania" by Adams Co. Quilt Documentation Project (see file). Made circa 1875 by members of the Leer family on their farm near York Springs.
James & Catherine Wilt's oldest daughter Sarah Elizabeth (born c. mid-1860s) had a daughter Nora Elizabeth who married Calvin Leer. In any case, this appears to provide an example of pattern sharing based on close proximity and intermarriage.
Appraiser Dawn Heefner notes that this 19th c. quilt pattern of the tulip or rose bud in a basket, may be a design unique to the York Springs area of Adams County. It was not referenced in the principal quilt pattern encyclopedias.
Quilt documented by the York County Quilt Documentation Project, #W-3-2.
Place of Origin
Adams County, Pennsylvania
Adams County, PA
Role
Quiltmaker
Credit
Gift of Betsy Keefer in memory of the Spangler family quilters, Heritage Center Collection
