Not all American folk art was the product of canvas and brush. Some,
especially that of the mid-19th century, came from needle, thread, and scraps
of fabric. For example, during the same decade that Susan Torrey Merritt of
Weymouth, Mass, was creating her watercolor collage (JAMA cover, July 7,
1999), a group of New Jersey residents was fashioning a cotton-pieced and
appliquéd quilt for one Ella Maria Deacon of Mount Holly. Bedcover (cover) , completed in 1842,
is the result of their efforts.