by Quilt Alliance | Feb 21, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1948, the National Association for Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) was officially incorporated under the leadership of mechanic and auto-repair shop owner William Frances Jr. Jeanetta Holder of Indianapolis, Indiana, made this Indianapolis 500 Quilt as a gift for driver Bobby Uncer, who’s 1981 Indie 500 win was stripped a day after the race in favor of Mario Andretti. Holder had made a quilt for the winner of the race and after presenting the quilt to Andretti, she decided that she would make another one for Uncer (who was later reinstated as the winner after an lengthy appeal). The quilt is in the permanent collection of the Michigan State University Museum. The record includes the following story about Jeanetta: As a little girl growing up on a Kentucky farm, Jeanetta made her own small racecars out of tobacco sticks and lard cans which she “raced everywhere [she] went.” Jeanetta’s childhood creative streak soon extended to sewing. By the time she was 12, Jeanetta began sewing quilts, filling them with cotton batting from cotton she grew herself. View this quilt on The Quilt Index to find out! Read more about its history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view or click the “See full record” link to see a larger image and all the data entered about that quilt. Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/nascar-founded Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Feb 20, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1792, President George Washington signed legislation that would renew the 1775 act that made the United States Post Office a cabinet department led by the postmaster general (the first PG was Benjamin Franklin). This act ensured inexpensive delivery of all newspapers and stipulated the right to privacy, and it gave Congress the ability to expand postal services to new areas of the country. Dorcas Carlough of Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, hand pieced and hand quilted this Pine Tree with Postage Stamp-Sized Triangles around 1880. The historical society that now owns the quilt documented it in 1990 as part of The Heritage Quilt Project of New Jersey. The documenter’s notes about the quilt include: “Stencil designs. Also overlapping circles. Pencil lines still visible. The pine trees have been quilted in a geometric pattern while the background has been quilted in overlapping circles and four-petal “flowers”. View this quilt on The Quilt Index to find out! Read more about its history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view or click the “See full record” link to see a larger image and all the data entered about that quilt. Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/postal-service-act-regulates-united-states-post-office-department Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Feb 19, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1942, the Army Air Corps’ 100th Pursuit Squadron was activated at Tuskegee Institute. The “Tuskegee Airmen” were the first African Americans called to serve as airmen in the U. S. military. Before this date they were denied training and opportunities due their race. An unknown quiltmaker hand and machine pieced, hand appliqued and hand quilted this Airplane baby quilt in West Virginia in 1925. The owner documented the quilt during the West Virginia Heritage Quilt Search. View this quilt on The Quilt Index to find out! Read more about its history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view or click the “See full record” link to see a larger image and all the data entered about that quilt. Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/toni-morrisons-birthday http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/736076-beloved http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beloved_%28novel%29 Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Feb 18, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1931, Nobel prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford in Lorain, Ohio, the second of four children in a working-class African-American family. Her 1987 novel “Beloved” set in post-Civil War Ohio includes this vivid reference to quilts: “Kneeling in the keeping room where she usually went to talk-think it was clear why Baby Suggs was so starved for color. There wasn’t any except for two orange squares in a quilt that made the absence shout. The walls of the room were slate-colored, the floor earth-brown, the wooden dresser the color of itself, curtains white, and the dominating feature, the quilt over an iron cot, was made up of scraps of blue serge, black, brown and gray wool–the full range of the dark and the muted that thrift and modesty allowed. In that sober field, two patches of orange looked wild–like life in the raw.” This Nine Patch quilt was made by Catherine Miller Gingerich around 1880 in Iowa. The 68” x 79” quilt is hand and machine pieced and hand quilted and tufted. Old repairs are visible on the quilt with dark grey patches appliqued over worn areas of the top that have been quilted over in a teacup pattern. The quilt is part of the Illinois State Museum collection. View this quilt on The Quilt Index to find out! Read more about its history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view or click the “See full record” link to see a larger image and all the data entered about that quilt. Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/toni-morrisons-birthday http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/736076-beloved http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beloved_%28novel%29 Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Feb 17, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1904, Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly premiered at the La Scala theatre in Milan, Italy. Set in Nagasaki, Japan, Madame Butterfly told the story of an American sailor, B.F. Pinkerton, who marries and abandons a young Japanese geisha, Cio-Cio-San, or Madame Butterfly. Savanah Adkins, a Native American of the Chickahominy and Pamunskey trobes. hand pieced and embroidered this Butterfly quilt top between 1930-1949. Adkins daughter inherited the quilt and she documented it as part of the Arizona Quilt Documentation Project. View this quilt on The Quilt Index to find out! Read more about its history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view or click the “See full record” link to see a larger image and all the data entered about that quilt. Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/madame-butterfly-premieres Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
