Saturday, May 27, 2017

Union Baskets

Basket with a Union Flag
This extraordinary block is from a quilt in the
collection of the Indiana State Museum
by Martha McFeely Fry


According to family records when the quilt was donated, Martha McFeely lived in Greencastle, Indiana. Sweetheart Benjamin Fry from Fountain County, Indiana, enlisted  in the 2nd New York Regiment, the Harris Light Cavalry.

Library of Congress

Martha and Benjamin's letters and diaries from the Civil War years are also in the collection of the Indiana Historical Society.

New York Historical Society

https://www.indianamuseum.org/

Martha's is Quilt A.

Union by: Kay Ross, 34” x 44”, 2014

Kay Ross's interpretation of that quilt made for the 2014 American Quilt Study Group exhibit.
Read more about her process here:



Julie Silber has shown an antique quilt with a similar flag in a basket. The flag is repeated in the border. The piece is said to have been slave made (Quilt B)

The two quilts (Martha Fry's on the right) have a lot in common: Same basket pattern although
the appliqued handles differ a bit. 

Different basket, similar idea.
This marvelous sampler is in the collection of
the Iowa State Historical Society.

This sampler was donated by a woman named
Eleanor Orth

And on the topic of baskets with words:

Block in a Masonic album sampler from Cumberland County, Maine
in the Museum of our National Heritage,
the Scottish Rite Museum.


Wish you had a pattern for a basket quilt with a flag? Wait till Wednesday.

4 comments:

  1. Beautiful workmanship on these quilts.

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  2. Great post! These blocks are beautiful.

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  3. Waiting patiently for Wednesday!

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  4. Beautifl, I really like them all. These designs look so pretty, going to show this to my wife, hope she will love it as well. Thanks for sharing it here

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