another good sign

The other day I received a note from Ronda McAllen, a genealogist who is researching Achsah Goodwin Wilkins and presenting a talk about Wilkins next month in Colonial Williamsburg. She asked if I had noticed something specific about the irises, which she'd seen on the other examples she had studied. Ronda asked me to check and see if they were made of two pieces.

At first, I didn't think the irises were made of two pieces. I quickly took a photo of one of the flowers for Ronda, and was about to send it with a note saying it was one piece, but then I noticed it really was two pieces. It was split down the middle and stitched together. I went back to look at the quilt again, and noticed there were three other irises. All of them were made of two pieces, stitched together. I made a composite photo of all four, and checked it against the image Ronda had sent. It was a match.

There have been several unusual traits pointed out to me, all said to be common characteristics in her quilts. So far, all of these traits have been identified in my quilt, too. As I've said about other quilts in the past, "all signs seem to be pointing in the right direction!" It's certainly another good sign to see the split irises.