Like fashion in general, Amish fashion has not stood still. Bedspreads—including the widely favored white cotton chenille bedspreads—were popular in Amish homes as early as the 1920s, largely because they were more easily washable, especially compared to wool quilts. This quilt, in the commercially available Dahlia pattern, which has had particular popularity in Amish settlements for decades, is a hybrid between bedspreads and the Amish quilts of the early 1900s. Like other quilts from the Lancaster County settlement, it features exquisite quilting in motifs simliar to those on some of the dark quilts of earlier eras, but here executed in orchid thread that stands out on the white ground. Like other quilts from this settlement, it also reveals a fashion-forward fringe, perhaps removed from a chenille bedspread or purchased by the yard from a local dry goods store.

Pattern: 
Dahlia
Maker: 
Maker unknown
Circa
1940
1960
Probably made in
Lancaster County
Pennsylvania
United States
87
87
IQM, Gift of the Robert and Ardis James Foundation
2016.030.0003