Elias Howe, born on this day in 1819, patented the sewing machine in 1846.The many nimble fingers that stitched this beautiful quilt probably didn't have the luxury of Mr. Howe's invention.
Howe Knew How to Sew
Elias Howe, born on this day in 1819, patented the sewing machine in 1846.The many nimble fingers that stitched this beautiful quilt probably didn't have the luxury of Mr. Howe's invention.
This quilt features the fan, a common pattern among Victorian quilters and other designers. The textile is, literally, a collage of handpainted, appliquéd, and embroidered scraps much more formally arranged than the randomly shaped pieces that comprise crazy quilts.…
Bearing one hundred and ten embroidered names, this fan quilt is a decorative registry of the small, rural community of Paris, Kentucky, in 1893.
Source: Lynda Roscoe Hartigan. Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and London: For the National Museum of American Art by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990).
Pictured: Residents of Bourbon County, Kentucky, n.d., Fan Quilt, Mt. Carmel, 1893, cotton, wool, silk, velvet, lace, ribbon, silk thread, paint, chromolithographic paper decals, and canvas , 85 x 72 1/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr.