This quilt is among the earliest dated Amish quilts, resembling several other nineteenth-century midwestern repeat block quilts in muted earth tones. By this point in the nineteenth century, when Amish quiltmakers adapted the craft from their neighbors—whether they were other German speaking sectarian groups, Quakers, Scots-Irish, Welsh, or other English speakers—quilts like this in widely circulating patterns would have been popular.

Pattern: 
Bear's Paw
Maker: 
Clara Bontrager
Dated
1874
Probably made in
Holmes County
Ohio
United States
81
68
IQM, Ardis and Robert James Collection
1997.007.0340