Circa 1850-1870
Possibly made in Morgantown, West Virginia
80.5 x 69 inches (204 x 175 centimeters)
Ardis and Robert James Collection
1997.007.0766

Floral designs appear in three different forms in this quilt:

• in the Love Apple appliqué design
• in the quilted pots of flowers
• and in tiny form in the calico fabric prints

Each one depicts flowers in different ways from simplified curved and colored shapes in the appliqué, to outlines of shapes and textures in the quilting, to a field of repeated flowers in the prints. We see the shapeshifting when we look at the evenly repeated floral designs in the prints and then recognize that the appliqué is also evenly repeated. A shift from small scale to large scale.

This quilt appears in the 2019-2020 exhibition "New Views: Shapeshifters."