by Quilt Alliance | Nov 21, 2013 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1934, aspiring dancer Ella Fitzgerald, intimidated by other competitors, changed her act to singing at the last minute and won the Amateur Night at Harlem’s Apollo Theater. Fitzgerald was only seventeen years old and a ward of New York State at the time, having been orphaned two years before. After a failed first attempt singing “The Object of My Affection”, the singer’s second try at the tune brought down the house. By the 1950’s, Fitzgerald had become a jazz legend for her innovative vocal skills. Michael Cummings of New York City machine appliqued this 96” x 68” quilt, titled “African Jazz Series #10,” in 1990. The quilt was included in the 1992 exhibition, “Louisville Celebrates the American Quilt: Always There – The African American Presence in American Quilts” in Louisville, Kentucky. It was documented as part of the Kentucky Quilt Project. See more of Cummings’ Jazz Series here. 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/ella-fitzgerald-wins-amateur-night-at-harlem39s-apollo-theater Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Nov 20, 2013 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1827, abolitionist and educator Emily Howland was born in Sherwood, New York. Howland taught the children of freed slaves in Washington, D.C. In 1857, she built a school in Sherwood and personally founded and financially supported fifty other schools for emancipated slaves. She taught in several of these schools and was also active in local to national suffrage movements. Myla Perkins machine pieced, hand appliqued and machine quilted this quilt, titled “Underground Railroad” (or Grandmother’s Fan variation), in 1984. Perkins made the quilt when she was a member of The Quilting Six group, a small quilting circle in Detroit, Michigan made up of former sorority sisters, college friendships and two sets of sisters. The quilt is owned by the Michigan State University Museum. 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.howlandstonestore.org/#history Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Nov 18, 2013 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1945, Wilma Pearl Mankiller, who would become the first female chief of he Cherokee Nation, was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. She was the sixth of eleven children; her father was full-blooded Cherokee and his mother was a Caucasian of Dutch and Irish descent. Mankiller received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998 for her work on the relationship between the Federal Government and the Cherokee Nation. This “Indian Boys and Girls Quilt” was made by the Senior Citizens Sewing Club in Cherokee, North Carolina in 1996. The piece was machine and hand pieced and hand quilted by the group who “meet each Wednesday to make quilts, share stories, discuss tribal politics, and speak the Cherokee language.” The quilt is now in the collection of the Michigan State University Museum. 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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilma_Mankiller Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Nov 15, 2013 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1864, Union General William T. Sherman began his march from Atlanta to the coast. Sherman’s army destroyed Atlanta and much of the rest of Georgia on their way to capture the Confederate seaport of Savannah. This brown and gray wool “General Sherman’s Quilt” was made in Nebraska. The record shows that the quilt, which included another red quilt as batting, was “bought in 1980 on a bus trip to Colorado with the Tamburitzans – National Festival… (the) owner was freezing on the buss and stopped at Buffalo Bill Restaurant store (for) $15 or $30 each.” The owner, Mini Bizic, of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, documented the quilt in 2010 as part of the Western Pennsylvania 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/the-march-to-the-sea-begins Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Nov 13, 2013 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1982, the Vietnam Memorial, designed by Yale University architecture student Maya Lin, was dedicated in Washington, D.C. The monument is a simple v-shaped black granite wall inscribed with the names of 57,939 Americans who died in the war, arranged in order of the date of their death versus their rank. This Double Irish Chain Crib Quilt was entirely handmade by an unknown quiltmaker in 1830 and was purchased for the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum from Kathi LaTourette of Evergreen, Colorado through memorial donations for Staff Seargant Joshua Ryan Hager, the son of a museum member who was killed while serving in Iraq in 2007. LaTourette lost her first husband in the Vietnam War and had a son who also served in Iraq. RMQM is so pleased to house this crib quilt as a symbol of a mother’s love for her child, and in keeping with that, as a symbol of new life that each child begins. Last, in tribute, that we may be reminded always, that mothers before, in the present, and mothers still to come, have and will lose their children to war. 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/vietnam-veterans-memorial-dedicated Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
