Embroidered and stuffed whitework quilt

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This whitework bed cover is decorated with both quilting and surface embroidery. The central ground is quilted in a basket weave pattern, with a floral medallion in the middle and shell motifs at each corner. The wide border of floral and shell motifs is surrounded by quilted strapwork. The piece is embroidered in a variety of stitches, and in some areas the linen embroidery threads have been woven over and under each other to make lacelike designs over the surface of the quilt.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art