A Union Quilt in Virginia

A pair of embroidered flags and the words

"The UNION"

Six-pointed Star Quilt, Albemarle County, Virginia

92" x 75"

Collection of Ash Lawn Highland, the Monroe House Museum

The embroidered vignette is along the right border here, second space up from the bottom right corner. There is also a Masonic embroidered image in the opposite edge.

The Virginia Consortium of Quilters set about documenting quilts in museum collections around the state, a rather daunting task in an area with so long a history. This one is pictured on page 126

They pictured this quilt which is pieced of cottons and wools and embroidered

but not much is known about it.

We can see from the closeups that the star clusters are pieced and then

appliqued to a background that looks to be wool. It's back with a pink

silk that sounds like it's one of the machine quilted fabrics sold as coat lining.

They thought the piece might date to 1810-1850 but the Union image inclines

one to guess more like 1850-1870.

We wish we knew more about the quilt and who in Albemarle County was such

a strong advocate of the Union in the mid-19th-century.