Crazy Quilt with Hot Air Balloon

Lillian Hutter, artist

Crazy Quilt with Hot Air Balloon, circa 1880–1910

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: quilting; appliqué; silk; piecing; embroidering; paint

Credit line: Gift of Roger Keyes in memory of Keiko Mizushima Keyes

Accession number: 1989.0251

Not on display

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Collection Cards: STEM

The hot-air ballon stitched onto this quilt is one of America’s inventions from the 1800s. In 1876, America celebrated its 100th birthday and held the World’s Fair Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia, PA. Thirty-seven nations exhibited their new arts, technologies, and industrial products. During the 1800s, inventors and scientists were working on flying machines, from hot-air and hydrogen gas balloons to the earliest airplanes.

If the U.S. held a World’s Fair now, what recent inventions do you think would be included?
Describe a machine or vehicle that you have used for traveling. What kinds of machines do you use in your daily life?

Under Construction

The 1876 World’s Fair Centennial International Exhibition, held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, included a wide variety of Japanese and British needlework arts. Inspired by the style of these quilts that broke with traditional quilting patterns, Americans began designing “crazy quilts” composed of various materials stitched onto a pre-quilted cotton lining with brightly colored threads. This style was popular from 1880 to the 1920s, and quilters collected a diverse array of fabric (including state fair ribbons, printed cottons, and home-woven cloth) to make them. Today, these patchwork quilts show the cultural memories and adventurous spirit of that time.

This crazy quilt displays a hot-air balloon floating amidst the sun and a rainbow, and includes other details such as the American flag, native vegetation, and animals. The hot-air balloon was part of an American era when advancements in technology were celebrated as part of the new machine-based future. The quilts themselves were not designed for daily use but were constructed as true decorative art-forms.

Exhibition Label:
“Quilting Time and Space,” Jun-2010, Natalie Svacina
Crazy quilts are composed of different shaped,
varicolored, and patterned fabrics that are pieced together seemingly haphazardly. The central panel depicts a sun and a hot-air balloon. Modern technology, such as the hot-air balloon, was celebrated as a way to move on from the past to a new machine-based future. Inexpensive silks and renewed interest in embroidery allowed for the creation of purely decorative quilts. Like the embroidered images of owls on this quilt, creatures associated with the night often decorate crazy quilts. Some quilters preferred to paint on flowers and insects due to the fact they believed painting was not only quicker than embroidery but also more beautiful. This quilt includes both embroidered owls and flowers and painted insects and flowers.

This type of quilt, first known as “Japanese”
quilts, became popular in the United States after Americans had the opportunity to see a wide variety of Japanese arts and crafts at the
1876 Centennial International Exhibition, held in Philadelphia. An American flag perhaps is
included to commemorate the recent centennial
anniversary, which was viewed by many as a way to unite the nation after the Civil War.