Design Wall Monday

I am working on quilting this quilt that my Great-Great Grandmother made.  Mattie Kellums was born in Illinois, but homesteaded in western South Dakota in the 1880's.  She lost her mother very young, and was married to another Homesteader in the late 1890's in South Dakota on Christmas Day.  His name was John Houston Kellums, also from Illinois.  They as a couple, then homesteaded in what is now the North Platte River Valley in the Panhandle of Nebraska.  I date this quilt top from about 1900 to 1910, because I feel that it is a Mourning Quilt.  One of her sons was killed from a horse fall about that time, and I believe this quilt top was made then, and put away.  Mattie lived and continued quilt until her 90's, passing away in 1961.  In 1960, when a grandson was born, she made him two baby quilts, which are still in the family.

 Mattie is the motherly looking person with white hair.  The lady to the left is my great-aunt Ena, who was a great quilter, and the other woman on the right is my great-grandmother Maude.