Designing Women (and Men) of the Early Twentieth Century

 The early twentieth century is a time when many quilt designers were active and a number of quilt related businesses operated.  The combination of the Arts and Craft movement and the Colonial Revival inspired a renewed interest in quilting.  The women’s section of newspapers began to feature a needlework column with designs by Ruby Short McKim, Eveline Foland, Florence La Ganke Harris (“Nancy Page Quilt Club”), Carlie Sexton and others.  Alice Brooks and Laura Wheeler were fictitious names used on other regular columns.  Ladies magazines like Good Housekeeping and Ladies Home Journal pictured quilts in their pages from designers like Marie Webster and Marion Cheever Whiteside Newton.  Jack and Clara Tillotson (Aunt Martha), Hubert Ver Mehren (Home Art Studio), Marie Webster, Mrs. Danner, William Pinch (Rainbow Quilt Block Company) and others ran small mail-order businesses supplying patterns.

The eleven quilts and two unfinished projects exhibited here from the New England Quilt Museum collection represent just a fraction of the designers from this period.

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