Churn Dash
Martha Marian Lovina Hoskins Spencer
Cambria, Michigan
1893
74" x 82"
Cotton
MSU Museum Accession 6654.1
Photo by KEVA, all rights reserved by the MSU Museum

The quilt is comprised of 42, 9" x 9" Blocks are made from mostly navy and white prints, with an occassional brown or tan print. The background fabrics are a variety of shirtings and conversational prints. The 2" wide sashings are of one shirting fabric. Outline quilting is done in the blocks and diagonal lines are quilted in the sashings. The simplicity of the pattern, layout, and quilting is typical of quilts of this era.

Martha Marian Lovina Hoskins was born December 5, 1869 in Cambria, Michigan to Charles Esmond Hoskins and Mary Emm Mitchell. She made this quilt in1893 the yearshe married Lewis Bazel Spencer on June 29. The names of friends and family are printed in ink in the center square of each block. Martha and Lewis began their family in Bankers, Michigan where Martha was a housewife, teacher, and storeowner. Lewis owned a furniture store and a grocery store and operated a taxi and bus station. They had three children: Marian Lucille, born December 6, 1903; Lynn who died as a child; and Helen, born August 9, 1896. After Martha's death on Christmas of 1929 in Hillsdale, Michigan, the quilt was passed on to her daughter, Marian Lucille Spencer Mills. When Marian passed away, the quilt went to her daughter Martha Mills Prescott and her niece, Nancy H.S. Globensky (another grand daughter). It was donated to the MSU Musuem by Martha Mills Prescott in August, 1987.

Martha Marian Lovina Hoskins Spencer in 1893
Photo courtesy of Martha Mills Prescott