American Sampler Quilt

Made in 1986 with a pattern from the Herrschner’s Company, this quilt was inspired by the U.S.  Bicentennial in 1976. In the wake of that national enthusiasm, quilt kits were sold extolling the virtues of our colonial forebearers.  This particular quilt harkens back to the tradition of samplers.  Usually, samplers were meant to show the fine sewing skills of a young woman as evidence that she had the basic abilities needed to run a household. The earliest known American sampler was indeed made in the Plymouth colony in the 17th century.  Common themes were letters, verses, flowers, houses, churches, and animals, both wild and domestic.  This quilt, done in counted cross-stitch, uses many of those same motifs in a more elaborate fashion.

This quilt, with a cream-colored cotton background, employs navy and bright blue, dark and light green, and purple threads. A few inches from the edge of the quilt are a blue, cross-stitched linear border. Inside that line, a vegetal border with blue flowers and purple buds frames the entire quilt. Six petaled flowers and cupped tulips form part of the border.

The showpiece in the center of the quilt is a large log home flanked by two small side buildings. Above and below this stylized, two-story cabin are elaborate flowerpots, the one below resembling a cornucopia.  Confronting birds and stags flank the flowerpots, symmetrical flowers and trees stand beside them. The confronting stags are usually symbols of strength and Christian faith, whereas the birds connote happiness and good fortune.

Interestingly, the mail-order Herrschner Company was begun in 1899 by Frederick Herrschner who once was a street-vendor of thread and sewing notions. The company began in Chicago and moved to Stevens Point, Wisconsin in 1970.