In the forty years following the invention of the sewing machine in the mid-nineteenth century, visible machine quilting typically appeared in linear patterns. The twentieth century brought enhancements such as zigzag and decorative stitches, but it was not until the 1980s that advances in machine technology popularized complex, free-motion techniques.

These days the vast majority of quilting is done using a machine. Some of the world’s most prestigious quilt competitions consistently award their top prizes to machine-quilted entries. Though technology has given quiltmakers some remarkable tools, it is their conscious use of skill and creative imagination that produce works of art.

The Electric Needle presents 47 extraordinary machine-quilted examples, including modern designs, art quilts and traditional quilts, as well as examples from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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