Item 26-270

This is a delightful piece of American antique quilting history, dated around 1920

It is not a finished quilt block, but rather a signature or friendship quilt block. 

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women often made friendship quilts (also called signature quilts). Each participant made one block, embroidered her name, and contributed it to a quilt that commemorated:

• a wedding

• graduation

• church group

• quilting bee

• birthday

• farewell before moving away

 • fundraising event

The embroidered name “NORMA E.W.” was almost certainly the maker or the person being honoured

The blue print with tiny white dots and diamonds and the pink geometric print appear to be printed cottons, very typical of the 1920s and 1940s. They resemble the cheerful small-scale prints found in American feedsack fabrics—cotton sacks that once held flour, sugar and animal feed. During the Great Depression and World War II, resourceful homemakers transformed these printed sacks into clothing, quilts and household textiles.

It measures 25x25cm.