Throughout the history of American patchwork, some quilters have hoped to astound the audience---or at the least the local newspaper editor looking
for a little filler.
27,656 pieces in 1828, Doyleston, PA
Eva Margaret Delaplain Rogers, Missouri,
30,672 pieces she says
Here's an excuse to show some patchwork feats
with 19th-century editorial comments.
I'm not counting these pieces. The quilts have nothing to do with
the newspaper clippings, except for an emphasis on numbers.
7,239 pieces in Charleston, SC, 1834
"An uncommon stock of patience and perseverance"
Bessie Ely, Collection of the Smithsonian Institutiuon
From the New York Project & the Quilt Index
Broken Dishes
Counting stitches in New York
Ocean Wave, Annie Hart Beall, Collection of the Ohio Historical Society.
14,572 pieces says the caption in the Ohio book, Quilts in Community.
58,104 in 1886 in Granada, MS
An octagonal block
Curiosity Quilt with 20,218 pieces in 1912 in Ware Shoals, SC
From Robert Shaw's book
American Quilts: The Democratic Art
45,966---Chatanooga, TN, 1888
"Mary Sewell, a sweet 16-year-old young lady who resides near Chattanooga...has pieced a quilt that has 45,966 scraps in it. It is fearful to think a mind may also go to pieces fastened so long to such useless work. The quilt when completed will be no better for use than the $2 quilt made of plain material."
Elnetta Josephine Gifford, Michigan Project & the Quilt Index.
From Florida Memory
Queen Udell. Her husband says she has the "Patience of Job."
"5810" it says in the center
By Sallie Jane Woodward,Iredell County, North Carolina.
North Carolina project & the Quilt Index.