Album Quilts

Album quilts are often collaborative quilts, with each block contributed by a different quilter. It was common for the final work to be presented as an honored gift, such as to a bride or an admired community figure. Popular during the 1840s through the 1860s, different styles of Album quilts include Friendship quilts, and Autograph quilts. Album quilts are historically relevant due to the tradition of a quilter inscribing their block with their signature and possibly a date. The extent of work that an individual completed differed from quilt to quilt; in some cases a quilter would line and back her own square, and in other cases one quilter would collect the blocks and complete the quilt. Uniformity of workmanship is often an indicator that one individual completed the quilt. In the case of an Autograph quilt, it is more common for an individual to have made all of the blocks for the Album top herself, needing only to collect the signatures of her friends.