Cat quilt

Unknown

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This quilt is a charming example of the outstanding creativity of some nineteenth-century American quilt makers. Following her own design aesthetic, the unknown maker created a unique quilt, featuring what we must assume were some of her favorite things—cats, plants, and love. Overall, it is a vibrant design, full of movement, from the inner spoked wheel that spins off vines in every direction, to the interplay and balance of the red and green designs. Bold and engaging pictorial quilts like this one are rare among mid-nineteenth century quilts, which are often follow more regimented patterns. Many of the motifs, such as the cats, hearts, trees, birds, and flowers were cut following paper templates, a technique that is commonly found in quilts made in New York State. For related, but far less fanciful New York quilts using the same paper template technique, see 1988.24.2 and 52.103.

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