On this day in 1833, Margarethe Meyer Schurz was born in Hamburg, Germany. Schurtz studied education with Freidrich Froebel, the creator of the “kindergarten” concept, then moved to the U.S. and founded the country’s first kindergarten. The program, in Watertown, Wisconsin, lead young children in games, songs and group activities channeling their energy and preparing them for primary school.

Maude Ada Franks Combs made this String Quilt in the 1930’s in Wellington, Texas.  The quilt is foundation machine pieced and hand quilted and was one of many that Combs made for her family, teaching her daughter (who now owns the quilt) the “necessary homemaking arts” in the process. Combs’ daughter wrote: “I do not recall at what age she taught me to mark, cut, and string tiny pieces for intricate blocks, but when I was enrolled in kindergarten, I had scissor marks on my right hand and my thimble finger was already bent and I was not even five years old.”

The quilt was documented during the Texas Quilt Search Project and is included in the book Lone Stars: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, Vol. II, 1936-1986, by Karoline Patterson Bresenhan and Nancy O’Bryant Puentes (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990. It was included in an exhibition by the same name at the 1990 International Quilt Festival, Houston, Texas.

View this quilt on The Quilt Index to read more about its history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margarethe_Schurz

Posted by Amy E. Milne
Executive Director, Quilt Alliance
amy.milne@quiltalliance.org