Crazy Embroidery 6: More Machine Embroidery

 

Photo from Algona, Iowa showing a man demonstrating machine

embroidery and possibly selling the examples of birds, butterflies

and florals on the wall.

We've discussed the large and productive Schiffli hand-guided embroidery machines

that could produce multiples of a design.

Stitching a monogram on a simple machine

1866 ad---family machines could embroider

At a far smaller scale sewing machine companies hired operators to

demonstrate how to do machine embroidery on your home machine.

The Iowa man has several of the popular images for

crazy quilts on his wall. Cat tails, lilies and golden rod

are often seen on crazy quilts.

Here a woman demonstrates similar embroidery on a White machine...

in a booth at a fair or trade show.

Perhaps they sold these "Art Work" examples to use in crazy quilts. Or the demonstrators showed you how to do it on your own machine. Surely some of the embroidered patches we see might be hand-guided embroidery done by the quiltmaker herself.

McMinn County Living History Museum Collection

How to tell machine embroidery done on a home machine from actual hand embroidery?

Again....????

Front & reverse of a pansy slip from ebay

Perhaps looking at the back of the floral would offer clues but we rarely see the back of the slips on these early crazy quilts as they are so often stitched to a foundation fabric.

Filson Historical Society, Kentucky

Attributed to Leviann Webb

Tomorrow: The Final Installment

Piece Embroidery

Kentucky Museum at Western Kentucky University

Attributed to Anna Maria Lively