Friday, January 22, 2016

1935 Friendship Quilt

This sailboat-patterned friendship quilt was found in a box in my mother-in-law, Ada Alldredge's home after her passing. There is a name embroidered in every block. It's in poor condition because of shrinking and how it was stored but is still a lovely quilt. We believe that it originally belonged to Ada's mother-in-law, Delila Alldredge.
Delila raised her family in the small town of Mt. Trumbull which is located on the Arizona Strip. She and her unmarried children moved 60 miles north to St. George, Utah during the time of the Great Depression as there was a drought on the Arizona Strip.


One of the blocks on the quilt has the date of Feb. 26, 1935 and we believe this quilt may have been made as a farewell gift to Delila when she moved into town. Many others left the area around this time.
There are no permanent residents living in Mt Trumbull at this time and although there have been books written on the area I am concentrating my research on the women who embroidered their names on the quilt. These were strong, interesting women who lived very different lives than we do today. I believe they have a story to tell. When they made the quilt it was the middle of the Great Depression and just before World War II. I know these women suffered heartaches and had good times. I hope to learn more about the town and time in which they lived as I research the names on this quilt.

For the next few months I will be adding posts about each of these women. Please let me know if you have any information about any of these stalwart women. The names from the quilt are listed at the side of the blog.