Scrap quilt made by Elizabeth Salter Smith

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A quilted bedcover made with printed and woven scrap fabrics by Elizabeth Salter Smith. The individual scraps are a variety of geometric shapes including squares, rectangles, triangles, and parallelograms. All of the scraps are hand pieced together, including an apparent additional horizontal strip along the top edge of the bedcover. The fabrics represent common dress prints and shirtings available in the second half of the nineteenth century, including novelty shirtings depicting anchors and horses. The quilt contains cotton batting and is backed with a cream, black, and gold plaid cotton flannel. The backing is turned to the front and hand stitched to make binding. However, the top edge of the binding is a black printed abstract design that has been both hand and machine sewn from back to front. The bedcover is hand quilted with white cotton thread in a scallop or fan design.

Explore Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture ↗