1860 - 1875 Machine Quilted Quilt
date: label: date made
content: 1860-1875
name: label: quilter
content: unknown
notes: label: Description
content: The crafting of this quilt was made possible by William Grover’s 1851 invention of the double-thread chain stitch. He and William Baker were issued U.S. Patent No. 7,931 for a machine that used this stitch. The Grover and Baker Sewing Machine Co. of Boston, Mass., began manufacturing the machines in 1851, and by 1856 were producing for the home market. “Quilting on a Grover & Baker’s sewing machine, is no trouble at all, and the rapidity with which it is accomplished, enables us to apply it to many things which would cost too much time and labor for hand sewing.” (<I> The Ladies’ Hand Book of Fancy Ornamental Work </I> Florence Hartley, Philadelphia, 1859.)
label: Description
content: The most elaborate quilting of the 19th century was done by hand. It is unusual that the unknown maker of this quilt used a machine to stitch the design of each square through two layers of cotton fabric. The design areas were then stuffed with cotton fibers. The squares were sewn together by hand to make the quilt top, and an overall lining was added. The three layers were quilted by hand along each side of the seams where the squares of the quilt top were joined.
label: Description
content: By 1870, the Grover and Baker double-thread, chain-stitch was being replaced by a lockstitch. The lockstitch machines used one-third the amount of thread and made less bulky seams. The lockstitch remains the standard stitch of home sewing machines to this day.
label: Description
content: The motifs on this all-white quilt top are similar to those found on many of the colorful appliqué quilts of the mid-19th century. Although more complex than most of the work for which the new machines were used, the quilt’s design and the use of the Grover and Baker stitch suggest that this is an early example of machine quilting.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
topic: label: Subject
content: Quilting
label: Subject
content: sewing machine
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
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content: Textiles
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content: Domestic Furnishings
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content: Quilts
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Schwartz
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T18240
label: catalog number
content: T18240
label: accession number
content: 1977.0101
objectType: label: Object Name
content: quilt
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: fabric, cotton (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: thread, cotton (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 76 in x 63 in; 193 cm x 159 cm