I've had a pretty lousy day today. Seemed like everything went wrong so I decided to pull out The 1857 Album Quilt and look over the January blocks again.
There are signatures like this one that simply reads "Eddy". I don't think I'll be able to find much information on it but I'll do my best.

Our central block tells a great deal of the quilts story. Made by the friends of Laura R. Ackerman.
Laura was born in Kings, New York (which is now Brooklyn) on October 3 1840. By the age of 10 she was living in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin and married Alfred (F or S) Griffiths on June 17 1858. She was just 17 years old. Because the quilt was made in 1857 I believe it was made for her wedding.
By 1880 she was back on the east coast living in New Barbadoes Township, Bergen, New Jersey which is now included in the city of Hackensack. Her husband was employed as a book publisher. She had five children, all boys - John (1859), William (1861), Harold (1865), George (1867) and Alfred (1871). Alfred died as an infant at 8 months of age in 1872 and Laura herself passed away at the age of 40 in 1880.

This block bears the signature John J Griffiths. I believe the block is from Laura's husband's family. Alfred has an uncle John J Griffiths who was born in 1807 and married at the time the blocks were made. They lived in Middletown, NY so maybe some of the blocks were sent back and forth by mail.

I'm not finding anything on S VanTassel but hopefully the name will come up as I continue to research others.

If you didn't see it in the newsletter, the winner of the prize for January is Janny from the Netherlands! Congratulations Janny!

That's it for today. I'm off to do a little stitching and pick out 4 blocks for The 1857 Quilt and a prize for the month of February. It's right around the corner! Be sure to stop by tomorrow to get another Tuesday Treasure.

1857 Album Quilt - Blocks 1 - 2 - 3