Of the 42 panels of the unfinished 1903 Northern Dutchess signature quilt in my possession, 14 panels do not have embroidered names, only embroidered flowers. Some have the ghosts of names once written in ink now lost forever.
Below is a gallery of those panels, showing flowers that may have been worked by the same woman as they are all worked in outline stitch for the most part and show a consistent skill-level. The designs, however vary greatly from an elegant calla lily to an amorphous cluster of what could be called flowers. I like to think that they let a young girl draw some of them.
I’m not sure if the women who made this quilt would have had a book or magazine or something similar, or if they just used existing images from wallpaper or other sources as a reference for the designs.
This 1892 quilt from Ohio has similar designs to the 1903 unfinished quilt, but is entirely done in redwork. Part of me is glad to not find anything like the 1903 quilt online because it makes it special, but is also frustrating to not be able to better define it.