Mosaic Quilts
The technique called paper template piecing was popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Each individual hexagon is formed by folding fabric over a paper template. The larger units are then created by whip-stitching each hexagon together. After the top is assembled the papers are removed and the quilt finished with a backing. Sometimes batting was added and the three layers quilted together.
Mosaic patchwork quilts are the ultimate form of fabric recycling, utilizing the smallest offcuts and garment remnants to form the patterned flower arrangements seen here.
A multigenerational story is told in the papers on the back side of this unfinished quilt. The older portions, pieced by Susan and Hasell, contain bits of correspondence and shipping records beautifully handwritten. Pieces added in the 1930s, most likely by Franklin, contain pages from magazines, flyers, printed meeting records, sheet music, and twentieth-century stationery.
Susan Day and Katy Williams-O'Donnell