Several years ago, I acquired a funky leaf appliqué quilt from an online auction. I put in a single small bid, then forgot about the item. I was surprised to find that I was the new owner, but I was excited to see if my hunch about the quilt was correct from just a few little pictures. It appeared to be a mid-1800s quilt with signature stamps – my favorite type of quilt and my collecting specialty. The auction listing gave no information about the quilt, its origin, date, etc – not an uncommon occurrence given the dearth of information that is attached to most antique quilts. However, in this case, the quilt had a great story to tell if the auction house had given it even a cursory glance. This applique quilt is a signature album quilt complete with lots of names, some dates, and every block identified with the town where the quilt was made!

When I received the quilt, I started examining the blocks and saw the names, dates (1848), and the town of origin: Barnegat. A quick online search of a few names confirmed my guess of Barnegat, NJ, A.K.A. the Jersey Shore. So, I had what appeared to be an antique signature quilt from New Jersey that was 170 years old, but something was amiss. Some of the signature stamps looked like they had been outlined with modern ballpoint pens. The quilt was not quilted but instead tied with yarn all over the blocks in a garish treatment for such a great quilt. Not something that would have been done by the original makers and not a period quilt finishing practice. Speaking of finishing, the edge was done with a lovely knife edge, a difficult method not usually seen in the 1840s.

Then I examined the quilt backing: plain bleached muslin. Plain muslin backings were not unheard of but not usual for the era of the blocks. On closer inspection, I found the unmistakable sign of feed/food sacking (cloth product bags), which is the stitching line along the fabric edges. Cloth commodity bags had a chainstitch along the top edge, which left visible lines; a similar stitch is used now on large dogfood bags. This moved that fabric into the 1900s.

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