Unfinished quilt top made in a variation of the Love Apple appliqué design. The quilter was Mary Jane Lewis Scruggs, born in Missouri in 1866 to former slaves. Scruggs' family were early settlers in Nicodemus, Kansas, a small town settled by a group of freed African Americans around 1877. In the years following the Civil War, many blacks fled the South to find better economic and social conditions in northern states, particularly Kansas. It is believed that Scruggs stitched the top while living in Nicodemus.
