Perhaps made from a Laura Wheeler “Friendship Fan” syndicated newspaper pattern, this quilt features economical use of scraps, including feed sacks. Such a great mix of uncoordinated prints was common among quilts made during this era, encouraged by the renewed emphasis on thrift as well as the fashion for mixing and matching, exemplified by the popular Fiesta dishes made by the Homer Laughlin China Company. In this way, quilts could be, to quote quilt historian Barbara Brackman, both “frugal and fashionable.”

Pattern: 
Friendship Fan or Grandmother's Fan
Maker: 
Unidentified maker
Circa
1920
1940
Possibly made in
Midwest
United States
93
63.5
IQM, Ardis and Robert James Collection