Quilts of the Animas Museum
Friendship Quilts
Friendship Quilts
Quilts featuring the embroidered names of people, places, dates, or favorite sayings are known as friendship quilts. Usually made for bed coverings, friendship quilts may be done in any pattern. They became popular in the United States starting in the 1840s as people moved west leaving friends and family behind forever. Friendship quilts are one of the few sources which document the relationships between women.
Date: between 1935 and 1937
Material: cotton
Techniques: pieced by hand and machine, hand quilted, embroidered
Block pattern: Washington Sidewalk
Makers: various, made at the Florida Mesa Grange
Gift of Mary Spencer Wells
Catalog Number: 09.9.1
The “MOTHER” on this quilt is Avery Foster Brown. She lived with her husband Walter on Florida Mesa before moving to a farm where the Hillcrest Golf Course is today. For farmers and ranchers in slightly more remote areas around Durango, the Grange was the center of social life. It was also a place where women could meet to sew and visit. Various members of the Grange each made and signed a block for this quilt which was assembled by Mrs. Brown.