Somehow, the former post I had here about a Crazy Quilt made in America in 1889 and sent to a relative in England was deleted. I was given permission to post the photos of the quilt and spent quite a bit of time doing photo edits. I had written about the commemorative ribbon on the surface of the quilt, which depicts President Grover Cleveland, about 8 years ago because it is exactly like a ribbon on a crazy quilt block that I own. The ribbon celebrates the World’s Cotton Centennial Exposition of 1884-1885 in New Orleans.
I will post two photos, an overall of the quilt and a close-up of the ribbon. Sorry if you missed the whole article. An article that was published in May 2002 of The Quilter magazine, pages 36-39, tells the rest of the story, as does a site file at our website called “Louisiana Crazy Quilt” block. Just key in those words and do a site search at Quilter’s Muse Publications to come up with the file.
The quilt has a pretty embroidered peacock, a fan with “Sister” embroidered on it and the date 1889, and a block embroidered with the caricature-like image of a Black child, which might be offensive to Americans today. It is almost like a “Golliwog” figure, a doll particularly favored by Australians and Brits, historically-speaking, who didn’t think twice about any prejudicial implications. See Dr. David Pilgrim’s site if you would like to better understand ethnic prejudice. He has spoken out often and broadly about the issue.
Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications
