Current Exhibitions

Whether they brought quilts with them from back east or made them once they settled on the frontier, homesteading women of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries created beauty through their quilts. They were influenced by articles in women’s magazines and newspapers, manufacturers and retailers, and inventions such as the sewing machine. Their quilts reflect this wide variety of influences; they come in a range of patterns and colors, and display an assortment of techniques and materials.

The quilts displayed reveal the abundance of printed cottons that were available to consumers in this period. Some quilters created with new fabrics while others used pieces left over from other sewing projects; all used their quilts to warm their homes and decorate their lives.

Women who moved west with their families would have been inspired to make quilts like those they remembered from back home. While many of the quilts in this exhibition were probably not actually made on a homestead, they are all representatives of the era when homesteading was at its height. Quilts often served as a connection between former lives and the new lives homesteaders created on the American frontier.

The quilt shown at right is IQSC 2008.007.009E, Ocean Waves, Maker/locations unknown, Circa 1890-1910