by Quilt Alliance | Apr 1, 2013 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On This Day in History Quilt for April 1. On this day in 1976, Apple Computer, Inc. was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Their first product was the Apple I personal computer kit, hand-built by Wozniak, offered for sale at $666.66 (with inflation that would be $2,723 today). Apple, Inc. (“Computer” was dropped), was incorporated in early 1977 after Wayne sold his share of the company back to Jobs and Wozniak for $800. In 2012 the company’s value reached a world-record $624 billion dollars. Nettie J. Melrose hand pieced and hand quilted this Apple Core quilt in Colorado. Although no date is listed for the quilt, Nettie was born in 1893 in Eastern Kansas and graduated from high school in Paonia, Colorado in 1912. She passed away on March 9, 1984. “She began making quilts at an early age and continued to make them into the 1970s, treasuring those quilts made previously by her mother, aunt, and grandmother. It is possible that Nettie’s mother or grandmother pieced the Apple Core quilt.” Janice Yalch of Howard, Colorado, donated the quilt to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum. View this quilt on The Quilt Index to read more about it’s history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view. Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Mar 29, 2013 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On This Day in History Quilt for March 29: On this day in 1918, American actress and singer Pearl Mae Bailey was born in Southampton County, Virginia, and raised across the Chesapeake Bay in Newport News, Virginia. She made her performing debut at age 15, competing in and winning amateur contests at the Pearl Theater in Philadelphia and the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Bailey headlined an all-black cast of “Hello, Dolly!” with Cab Calloway in 1967. She was appointed a special ambassador to the United Nations in 1975, and earned a bachelor’s degree in theology from Georgetown University in 1985. President Reagan awarded Bailey the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988. Carrie Odgers Rinehart of Newport News, Virginia, hand embroidered, appliqued and quilted “Patchy Zoo.” This quilt includes original poems written by the quiltmaker, and she inscribed it: “Original design for James De Groodt from his great Aunt Carrie Rinehart, Seventy years old, February 14, 1942.” A relative documented the quilt during The Heritage Quilt Project of New Jersey, Inc. in 1991. View this quilt on The Quilt Index to read more about it’s history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view. Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Bailey Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Mar 28, 2013 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On This Day in History Quilt for March 28: On this day in 1979 a pressure value in the Unit-2 reactor failed at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant causing contaminated cooling water to drain from the open valve. Without a cooling source the core began to dangerously overheat. The plant was built on a sandbar on Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River, 10 miles downstream from the state capitol in Harrisburg. This is a detail of a quilt titled “The Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue,” a collaborative quilt made by Georgann Englinski and the Seamsters Union (Local #500) of Lawrence, Kansas. Each block shows different ways quilt icon Sunbonnet Sue met her death, and this block illustrates Sue’s demise at Three Mile Island. The quilt is part of the Michigan State University Museum Collection. View this quilt on The Quilt Index to read more about it’s history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view. Sources: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/reactor-overheats-at-three-mile-island Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Mar 27, 2013 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On This Day in History Quilt for March 27: On this day in 1912, First Lady Helen Taft and Japanese Viscountess Chinda planted two Yoshina cherry trees on the Potomac River bank in Washington, D.C. The trees (3,000 of them) were a gift to the U.S. government from the Japanese. The blossoming trees were so popular that in 1934, city commissioners sponsored a 3-day celebration during the late March blooming of the trees. The Cherry Blossom Festival is now celebrated annually. In 2012, more than 1.5 million visitors attended the Centennial Celebration of the Gift of the Trees. Levina Thomas Stone, of the Five Points Community near Lamesa, Texas, made this Cherry Quilt between 1929-1930. Stone hand pieced, appliqued and quilted this quilt, that includes 1,200 stuffed dimensional applique cherries, “each perfectly round.” From this quilt record: “The quilt maker’s granddaughter notes that her grandmother lived in a cotton-growing area during the Depression. She picked cotton to earn money for her family’s needs and made clothing for her family.” The quilt was documented during the Texas Quilt Search and included in the book “Lone Stars: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, Vol. 1, 1836-1936 (Bresenhan and Puentes, Austin: University of Texas Press). View this quilt on The Quilt Index to read more about it’s history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view. Sources: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/japanese-cherry-trees-planted-along-the-potomac http://www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/about/history/ Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Mar 26, 2013 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On This Day in History Quilt for March 26: On this day in 1930, Sandra Day O’Connor was born in El Paso. She was the first woman to be appointed to the United States Supreme Court. In 2009 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor. Her husband John Jay O’Connor suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for nearly 20 years until his death, and Justice O’Connor has devoted herself to raising awareness of the disease. Nancy Brenan Daniel of Prescott, Arizona made this quilt titled “Research Now…There’s Still Time.” This quilt was part of the special exhibit, “Alzheimer’s: Forgetting Piece by Piece,” that debuted at the American Quilter’s Society Quilt Exposition in Nashville, TN in August 2006. From Daniel’s artist statement: “This quilt is dedicated to research – and those who do the research. I hope that soon all daughters and sons, grandchildren and spouses will have their loved ones totally present until it is there time to leave this earth.” The quilt is now in the collection of the Michigan State University Museum. View this quilt on The Quilt Index to read more about it’s history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view. Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Day_O%27Connor Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
