The Tapestry Kit Collection

This wonderfully colourful design is based on flower motifs and patterns from various forms of American folk art. The central square is inspired by a panel from a quilt worked around 1846. The design on the left hand side of this comes from a bookplate of 1795 in the fraktur tradition. Fraktur was the style of hand-decorated manuscripts primarily worked by immigrant Pennsylvanian-German families in America. To the right is a tulip motif, the most popular flower depicted in 18th and 19th century folk art, from a fraktur birth & baptism certificate dating to around 1809. Just above is a vase of flowers based on a wool bed rug from Stowe, Vermont, 1819. To the left is a detail of a flower from a beautifully decorated birth & baptism certificate from 1784, Pennsylvania. The daisy in the top left hand corner is from a wooden ale bowl from 1828 made by Norwegian settlers. The little flower in the bottom right hand corner is taken from a bookmark by the Amish artist Barbara Ebersol dating to 1869. The panel next to this is another tulip design adapted from a painted candle box now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The bottom left hand corner shows a delicate floral design inspired by an embroidered show towel, which were popular between 1820 and 1850.