On this day in 1929, Annelies “Anne” Marie Frank was born in Frankfurt am Main in Weimar Germany. Frank died from typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.  Her father, Otto Frank, the only surviving member of the family found Anne’s diary and worked to have it published in 1947.  Anne wrote in her diary, “When I write, I can shake off all my cares.”

Elrid Benson Johnson of Brookfield, Wisconsin, made this Diary Quilt in 1992. Johnson made the quilt to track the first year after her husband passed away, one block for every day. “An ugly fabric represented “bad” days. Each strip represents a month. The colors of the sashing between the strips go from white (for January) through greens and blues and back to white again for December. The quiltmaker has a journal she kept the year quilt was made.” Johnson documented her quilt as part of the Wisconsin Quilt History Project.

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/Anne_Frank

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