Crib Quilt, Mill Wheel pattern
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
This crib quilt from Pennsylvania is completely hand stitched of red calico and plain white cotton cloth in the difficult-to-piece Millwheel pattern. All such patterns that incorporate curved pieces are particularly challenging to the quilt maker because they require great precision and small, careful stitches to make a curved seam lie flat. This piece could only be the work of an experienced sewer. Crib quilts are extremely popular with collectors today. Their small size makes them easy to hang as graphic art, and the small-scale patterns are often very attractive. Even the rather worn and faded appearance of these often-washed quilts adds to their appeal; they have been preserved as precious objects, in remembrance of a time when a child was still small.
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.