Thursday, May 19, 2011

Susan Arrowood's Bible Quilt

Susan Arrowood made this "Sacret Bibel" applique quilt top in 1875-1895 possibly in West Chester, PA. It illustrates Bible stories and includes her hand-written descriptions. I've seen this quilt in books so it was exciting to see it recently "in person" at the American Folk Art Museum in NYC.




The block below shows Jesus and His twelve disciples wearing black suits.





The caption below says "The angel guarding the sleeping man." Note the broderie perse flowers and the netting used for the angel wings. Such a creative one-of-a-kind quilt!



10 comments:

Ida from Central PA said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Selvage Quilter said...

Sorry about that Ida. I have no idea why that happened, but I made a new post, adding an extra photo that I couldn't resist.
Karen

Staci said...

What a fascinating quilt, thank you for sharing it! And again, it is a reminder that our MODERN quilts aren't so modern!

Nifty Quilts said...

Wow, wow, wow!! I love that angel, especially.

susiloci said...

Que original!!! Es muy bonito!!!

WoolenSails said...

Love that quilt, really amazing how creative woman were in those days.

Debbie

Nedra said...

Wow, I've never seen a Bible quilt like this before. Very creative interpretations.

Jan said...

How amazing to see these detail photos! Makes me want to hop on a plane!

Barb said...

It was great to see this quilt on your blog today.
It is one of my favorite folk art quilts.
You are so right about seeing it "live" instead of a book, it really is something.

Janice D. Green said...

I would love to write (or have you write a guest post) on my blog about this quilt. My blog is www.biblequilts.com. Please contact me if you are interested.