History:

A classic example of patchwork quilting, this textile is essentially utilitarian. Made from recycled clothing, the inconsistent block sizes and shapes and lack of pattern indicates that this quilt was created out of necessity. Aunt Arie Carpenter was a talented seamstress, but the only design she employed for this quilt was a fan, or shell, stitching pattern. This quilt stitching is one of the easiest and fastest to complete, and is commonly seen in more functional quilts. However, this quilt is invaluable as few utilitarian pieces such as this are preserved by families or organizations. This quilt gives insight into the hardships many mountain families faced and how they coped with environmental stressors such as low temperatures.

Listen to Mary Franklin explain fan quilting.

Daisy Justus on fan quilting:

“You stretch it in a frame, quiltin’ frame, as you go. See you fasten the linin’ and then you do all of it on top of it. And then you quilt it. You can either quilt it by fans; we’ve done a few by fans. You take a piece of chalk, like this would be where you’d start off at, and you do kinda a circle around. Then you’d go into that and do another one, all the way across. Or you could, we’ve not done any blocks since I’ve been down there, we just either done it by the pattern, quilted it around the pattern, or done the fan. But some people does blocks like that.”