Because of my interest in Quakers and quilters – both part of my heritage – I recently started listening to “The Last Runaway” by Tracy Chevalier. When I heard the words “Signature Quilt”, I remembered that I intended to write about a meeting in Summer 2012. Now I share.
The meeting…… Barbara, a friend from church, shares my interest in family history and she suggested a meeting with her friend Lynda Chenoweth, who is a quilter and a researcher. We met at Lynda’s home in Sonoma and poured over the history of Philena’s quilt as well as Lynda’s two published books, and her library of genealogical resources. Whoa! Who is Philena?
In 2001 Lynda and her husband attended the Annual Petaluma Antique Faire. It was nearing the end of the day when they entered a shop and spotted a Signature quilt in a hutch in the back of that shop. Upon closer examination she could see many names on the quilt and that it was stitched in 1853. The search (which took her back east a couple of times) was on! She became a genealogist of Philena’s family and friends as she learned whose names were on the quilt. It’s a fascinating story which Lynda chronicled in Philena’s Friendship Quilt Quaker Farewell, published in 2009. Lynda blogs about Quaker Quilts.
It was a beautifully sunny day …. we continued our conversation over lunch at Della Santina in Sonoma. The last two photos are of another Signature Quilt that Lynda is researching.
Skein Lane - IN THE LOOP 