Quilt, Pieced Log Cabin

Date1875-1890

Maker Amanda Caroline Guice Shaifer American, 1843 - 1930

OriginAmerica, Mississippi, Claiborne County

MediumCottons, wool batting (by microscope)

Dimensions75 inches X 76 inches

Credit LineGift of The Children of Elizabeth Shaifer Hollingsworth - Allison Shaifer Hollingsworth Moxey, Ann Davidson Hollingsworth Weeden and Christopher Alton Hollingsworth, and The Children of Sanfrid Davidson Shaifer - Mary Laura Shaifer Bell, Jodie Stovall Shaifer Huddleston and Sanfrid Davidson Shaifer, Jr.

Object number2025.609.6

DescriptionSquare quilt pieced in the Log Cabin pattern with the colors forming diagonal rows, a variation sometimes called "Straight Furrows." The quilt consists of 81 pieced squares, each centered with a square of pinkish-yellow solid basket weave cotton, surrounded by light and dark-ground printed cottons in purples, blues, browns, pinks, and creams. The patterns consist of small-scale printed florals, dots, and geometrics, along with woven stripes and checks. The colored blocks are arranged with the lights and darks grouped to form the secondary pattern of diagonal rows. Quilted in the seams of the piecing with 4 to 5 running stitches per inch through medium woolen batting and off-white cotton backing. The edges are finished with off-white bias binding on the backside only.

Some holes and staining, especially the backing.Label TextThis quilt is part of a large donation of quilts by the Shaifer family of Claiborne County, MS. These 46 quilts were made by women from four successive generations of the family, dating from the mid-1800s to the 1980s.

This Log Cabin quilt is attributed to Amanda Caroline Guice (1844-1930), second wife of Abram Keller Shaifer Jr. (1833-1921) and an avid quilter. Guice's extant quilts suggest she preferred piecework, and accounts from the period suggest she often quilted alongside friends and neighbors. Her great-grandson, Girault McArthur Jones, described her as "a strikingly handsome woman, taller than her husband, a strong face and a head of snow-white hair, and most memorable of all, a truly remarkable voice."Provenance1875-1890, quiltmaker Amanda Guice (Mrs. Abram) Shaifer [1843-1930] (Claiborne County, MS); dates unknown, descended in family to Elizabeth Shaifer (Mrs. Al) Hollingsworth [1933-2016] (Claiborne County, MS); 2025, gift of Shaifer children via Mr. Al Hollingsworth to Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA)