Featured Researching an old quilt

I have an old quilt, 19th century I believe, but I know nothing about quilts and am trying too see if the experts might be able to help me out. I believe this is an Applique type quilt but that is where my knowledge ends. The size of the quilt is 77" x 74" and the materials appears to be cotton. Anything else you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

 

it's a bed spread......but I'm not sure I'd refer to that as a quilt..?

 

Yes it is a quilt. The stitching makes it so.

 

oh well, not the patchwork quilts I'm familiar with...

 

@Steve Shubinski, can you take some REALLY CLOSE, IN FOCUS images of the various stitching here and there on it, please?? Pretty sure others as well as myself will want to examine it up CLOSE!! Thanks!!

 

It looks like a center applique medallion with a really old patchwork pattern around the outside. The problem is those patterns are still in use, and quilts are still being hand-stitched. So whether it's old or made to look old, or just made the way the quilter wanted to make it...dunno. Someone who knows traditional patterns may come along and pin (*rimshot*) a name on it for you. I'm a jigsaw quilter and work in the reverse of traditional quilting - I start with random pieces and work backward.

 

Thanks for all the feedback! Attached are some closeups of the stitching. Hope I captured that OK.

 

Looks hand-stitched, and not Chinese-style hand-stitched either.

 

Will you share how you determine this? IMHO the stitching does not look at all accomplished.

 

https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/m...saw-tooth-diamond-square-quilt/id-f_32698032/

calico fabric......????

I thought quilts had 3 layers.....batting in between two separate layers....

I'm confused here..

 

Is this a machine stitched line? (not that I know much about quilts)

 

It had me wondering too. Still not 100% convinced, but the thread changes colors in that tan area. The Chinese-made factory quilts just use one color thread. If you find knots in the thread on the back, that would tell me it's hand done. It doesn't look like a pro did the topstitching.

 

I did not even think about taking photos of the back. Maybe these will help.

 

To ME, I'm thinking the most recent back images tend to look hand stitched, but the one that @say_it_slowly is questioning with the RED arrow, I THINK might be machine stitching where she's point to.....it just looks too close and even to be hand stitched.....but I'm not an expert.....I just have several antique hand stitched quilts, as I remember.....they're pretty buried though.......I sharpened what USER=50]@say_it_slowly[/USER] was showing though.......you can enlarge in on-screen.......

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I think the central pattern on your quilt may be a variation of a design called "princess feather". Here are a number of quilts that share characteristics with yours, many of which are dated to the mid 19th century:

https://www.pinterest.com/farthing/antique-princess-feather/

 

And the blocks are called "Churn Dash" or a variation of Maltese Cross. It's interesting how the princess feather princess plume pattern was turned into hearts.
https://search.brave.com/images?q=antique+quilt+pattern+churn+dash&source=web

 

It looks like a churn dash but doesn't quite get there.

 

Thank you all for this great information!