According to family tradition, the Sarah Ann Garges Applique Bedcover was made in celebration of the 1853 engagement of Sarah Ann Garges and Oliver Perry Shutt (1820–1907), who married on November 2, 1854. The Garges family owned a farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, where Sarah Ann's father, Abraham, was a blacksmith, farmer, school director, and member of the old Mennonite church. It is believed that Sarah Ann died on January 1, 1887, at the age of 53.

The unquilted spread is decorated with scenes of traditional farm life arranged within and around a central diamond. Along with the house, barn, farm implements, and animals are depictions of such activities as hunting, plowing, and chopping down a tree, all performed by men. Originally a fourth figure of a man was visible on this bedcover. Probably tending to the two white animals located to the right of the center triangle, he was completely covered with yellow fabric, shaped to blend with the rest of the motifs on the quilt top. As the yellow fabric is the same as that used on the rest of the bedcover, the "cover-up" was probably done shortly after the quilt was completed. It has yet to be determined who this figure represented or why he was obscured from view, although it is known that the oldest of Sarah Ann's three brothers, also a farmer, predeceased her.

Some of the motifs on this quilt top, including the tulips and birds, are consistent with the maker's Pennsylvania German heritage, as is the choice of colors. Other designs, such as the beehive, the squirrels in the tree, and the bugs, probably were created by Sarah Ann to record the specific details of her everyday life. She was also an ambitious seamstress, as some of the motifs have been rendered in reverse appliqué and some have been stuffed. Although never backed and quilted, this bedcover was finished and was probably meant to be used, either for show or as a lightweight spread.

Elizabeth V. Warren, "Sarah Ann Garges Applique Bedcover," in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 342.