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Embroidered Quilt - Scenes from American History
1945
Naomi Atkins Keast
USA: Florida, Ft. Lauderdale
cotton
overall: 77 1/8 in x 64 1/4 in
Gift of June Atkins Malloy, niece of Naomi Atkins Keast
2004.010

Embroidered and pieced quilt in blue and white. Twenty white blocks (9 inches square) embroidered in blue with scenes from American history including the Liberty Bell, Plymouth Rock, Paul Revere, cowboy, Gold Rush, Statue of Liberty, an airplane and others (see file for complete list). The quilt has blue sashing printed with a white star pattern. The sashing is 5 inches wide. One outer border in the same fabric as the sashing (5 1/2 inches wide). The quilt is backed with a single piece of off-white cotton. The binding is bias-applied cotton fabric in a red and white printed stripe pattern. The corners of the binding are mitred. The block at the lower right corner is signed and dated in blue embroidery, "Made by Naomi Atkins Keast 1945." The quilt is machine-pieced with hand embroidery and hand quilting. It has a thin batting. The quilt is quilted in parallel lines with five-point stars at the center of each embroidered block. The quilting is seven stitches to the inch.


Naomi Atkins was born in Somerville, MA, on June 12, 1902. She attended high school in Massachusetts and went on to receive an MS from the University of Miami in 1948. She married Jack Keast on August 15, 1944. She taught at the Brooks School in West Medford, MA, from 1921 to 1925 and then at the Ft. Lauderdale, FL, high school from 1928 to 1956. She was active in the DAR. The donor, her niece, used the quilt at her home in Ohio in the 1960s. Naomi Atkins Keast died in 1982.