Crazy Pinwheel Quilt
Edna Freshour
1860-1870
Hillsdale, Michigan
Cotton and silk
70” x 72”
MSUM 6616.1; Gift of William R. Freshour
Photo by Fumio Ichikawa, all rights reserved Michigan State University Museum

Only two facts about this quilt have been documented. Edna Freshour was a resident of Hillsdale County, Michigan, when she made this quilt, and she used scraps of silk lining material from a women’s high-button shoe factory to construct the 16 large blocks. The use of a variety of shapes and colors throughout the blocks gives the impression that the pinwheels are in motion. Quilters have long recycled used fabrics gleaned from old clothing, worn quilts and other textiles, or leftover scraps from other projects in the construction of new quilts. Other quilts including fabric scraps from projects in work settings outside the home were documented in the Michigan Quilt Project; these include ones made from salesman fabric sample books, casino employee uniforms, and shirtings from the men’s department in the Detroit-based Hudson department store.