I can hardly believe it’s time for our 8th block! The time is going by so quickly and I feel like I am so far behind but really enjoy seeing the pictures you post on Facebook and in the Yahoo Group. Have you started on your borders yet? How many of you are behind on those cute little corner rosebuds? It’s hard to keep up isn’t it?
Isn’t this just the cutest little flower? I love the fabrics in this block even if the black dye used to highlight the leaf in the print has deteriorated. Sadly, that leaves a hole in the fabric. The green print is one I’d like yards and yards of.
Block 8
I have a feeling all the little dips and curves in this block will take a while to sew. It’s a good thing we’re only doing one block a month so you have until Sept. 1st to get ready for the next one.
Monoquacy (Monocacy) Maryland
1848
Yesterday I realized I hadn’t finished working on the signature of this block. I wasn’t sure about the name of the town that had been penned on this block. No problem! I figured a quick 20 minutes at the computer and I’d have things ready. Well…………….10 hours, several texts and two lengthy phone calls later Brenda and I both gave up for the night. I actually worked for another hour but am paying for it with a headache this morning. Too many hours staring at the computer screen, too much brain strain or both! I now know quite a bit about early Maryland and the division of Frederick county.
We may have some misinformation in the Quilts of Indiana book we’re still working to determine and can tell you some of the ladies of the area were not the best spellers or perhaps spelled things phonetically. We have to consider the fact that English could have been their second language and they were more formal in it’s use than we are today. In researching the Wurzburg family history in Grand Rapids I found there are streets and small towns whose names have been changed or they simply faded into history, swallowed up by more populous areas. We may be dealing with the same type of thing with the Benjamin Biggs quilt in the Frederick County area.
Here’s what we know about our Sarah –
- Her full name is Sarah Naomi Groff.
- She was born 1838 which makes her 10 years old when the signature was added to this block.
- The 1850 census shows her living in District 5 of Frederick County under two households. She’s listed under her father Eli G. Groff and also with Richard Gilson whose two daughters aged 14 and 16 have blocks in the quilt too. We haven’t figured out the family relationship between the Gilson’s and Groff yet.
- Sarah’s mother is Amanda M. Biggs, Benjamin Bigg’s sister
I believe the town listed on the block is what we now call Monocacy, Md. It’s spelled in a couple of different variations on three of the blocks. You can see Sarah’s in her block and these are pictures of the other two. If anyone has an idea of this being another town please share it with us. We want to be as accurate as possible.
Now that we’ve started digging into all of this I’m working on a map we can mark with the locations of the blocks. I think it will be fun to see how close everyone lived together. I also wonder if Sarah’s block was one made by someone else, they had her sign her name on a fabric piece and added it to the block or if she actually made the block herself. Sadly, we’ll never know.
We hope you’ll enjoy today’s block.
Just Takes 2™ Benjamin Biggs Quilt Block 8 – Click here
