Little Miss Muffet
Maker Unknown
Possibly made in Pennsylvania
ca. 1921-1923
76” x 72”
MSUM #2001:160.11
Deborah Harding Redwork Collection
Photo by Hossein Montazaran, all rights reserved Michigan State University Museum

The “Little Miss Muffet” quilt may have been made either by or for children. It features an array of motifs whose subjects would appeal to children, including animals and nursery rhyme characters. The term “kindergarten blocks” is used to describe this type of outline work—Redwork designs appealing to children that were stitched by children as young as six or seven.
Several of the blocks in this quilt are done in cross-stitch, one of the first styles of stitches a beginner learned. Several of the figures are small in scale indicating they could have been taken from patterns for children’s clothing and accessories. Six of the designs in this quilt appeared in the 1920 editorial, “Simple Designs That Little Miss Can Embroider or Paint.”

By Mary Worrall