by Quilt Alliance | Mar 11, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1903, Lawrence Welk, musician, bandleader and host of his own “Champagne Music” variety television show, was born near Strasburg, North Dakota to immigrant parents from Alsace-Lorraine. Welk worked on the family farm until age 21, paying off the cost of a professional accordion. In his early career Welk led big bands in North and South Dakota and earned a degree in music from MacPhail School of Music in Minneapolis. At age 48 Welk settled in Los Angeles and started producing the Lawrence Welk Show for a local television station. The show was picked up by ABC in 1955 who ran it until 1971, and Welk arranged private syndication that took it through 1982. This 75” x 86” quilt, titled “Champagne Breakfast” was made by Ann Kowalski of Shepherd, Michigan around 1982. The artist wrote: “The bowtie is a traditional pattern, but the colors and arrangement are the invention of the maker. The colors are light in the middle to give the feeling of the lightness of champagne; darker, passionate colors on edge. The quilt was designed on my daughters 28th birthday. She sketched out the colors and design while awaiting a breakfast in which champagne was part of the menu.” The quilt was documented as part of the Michigan Quilt 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/lawrence-welk-is-born http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Welk Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Mar 10, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1926, the first Book-of-the-Month Club selection was published, “Lolly Willowes” (or “The Loving Huntsman”) written by English novelist Sylvia Townsend Warner. The mail-order book seller started with 4,000 subscribers and in less than twenty years, the Club had more than 550,000 members. Norma Mossburg pieced and appliqued this top, titled “Persian Pickle” and Marilyn Lange quilted it in the summer of 2004. Mossburg had read the novel “Persian Pickle Club” about the members of a women’s quilt group. The quilt came out of a Block-of-the-Month activity. The quilt was documented as part of the Michigan Quilt Project in 2012. 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/first-book-of-the-month-club-selection-is-published http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_the_Month_Club Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Mar 7, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for his newest invention—the telephone. Bell was born in Scotland and first worked in London with his father, who developed a system to teach speaking to deaf people. In the 1870’s the family moved to Boston, where Bell started working on a device that would combine the telegraph and a record player so people could speak to each other from a distance. With the help of Thomas A. Watson, a Boston machinist, Bell developed a prototype that carried its first message three days after the patent was filed (beating the submission of a similar patent application by only 2 hours). This wool embroidered telephone quilt was made in 1930 by unknown quiltmakers in Clay County, Nebraska. The record states, “Quilt maker did not quilt it. Quiltmakers were friends or neighbors. Quilt pieced by three or more persons…Made for special person, Friend/Neighbor.” It appears to be a signature quilt although the record does not confirm this. The quilt was documented as part of the Nebraska Quilt Project in 1988. 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/alexander-graham-bell-patents-the-telephone Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Mar 5, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1963, the Hula-Hoop was patented by Arthur “Spud” Melin, co-founder of the Wham-O company. Melin and friend Richard Knerr, launched the company selling slingshots (that made the sound “Wham-O” when fired) to feed falcons used for hunting. A wooden hoop used in Australian schools for exercise and the hip-gyrating Hawaiian Hula dance inspired the idea for the Hula-Hoop. Wham-O sold an estimated 25 million of the plastic toys in its first four months of production. This quilt, titled “Enigma 3,” was born in Australia as well. Quiltmaker Mariya Waters of Melbourne, Australia made this machine quilted wholecloth wall piece in 2003, and it received 3rd place in the Miniature Quilts category at the American Quilter’s Society Quilt Show in Paducah, Kentucky. It is now part of the “Oh, Wow! Miniature Quilt Collection” of the National Quilt Museum, a collection of small quilts made to scale. Another very similar miniature quilt with the same title, made by Waters, is also documented in The Quilt Index. 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/hula-hoop-patented http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hula_hoop Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Feb 28, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1964, American jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Sphere Monk was featured on the cover of Time magazine. Monk’s unorthodox approach to piano and unique improvisational style made him the second-most recorded jazz musician after Duke Ellington. Monk was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina in 1917, but moved with his family to New York City at the age of 5. This quilt was also born in Rocky Mount, NC. Annie Bryant made this scrappy Log Cabin in 1925. She hand pieced and hand quilted it with cotton, wool and linen and wrote the recipient, her granddaughter’s initials in ink. The quilt was documented by Bryant’s granddaughter in 1986 during the North Carolina Quilt Project, who said, “She just wanted to give us something.” 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/thelonious-monk-makes-the-cover-of-time-magazine Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
